Work experience

@torunn said
That's a touching story, Trev. You were only a child. Heartbreaking. 😍

@trev33 said
It was fun, we weren't a rich family but not poor either, was getting pocket money but saw a way to make some extra money and went for it. Kids nowadays wouldn't be allowed near a saw and hatchet, cotton wool generation.

I worked for years for large corporations until, after about 30 year I found my calling, entrepreneurship.

I was a chicken carrier at age 14...smelliest job I’ve ever done...carted three chickens upside down in each hand from growing cages to a truck each trip (for 2 hours or so)..then reversed it and carried them from the truck to the brooding cages for another two hours...I was also a car-hop for a burger joint at the same age. First car I served, I dumped a chocolate shake in the lap of a man in a very expensive suit inside a very expensive car. I got put on window washing duty in the restaurant until I mastered the art of putting the trays on the outside of the car windows.

I raised a family and worked as an accounting clerk for 18 years...

I went back to school in my late 40’s and got my social work degree...now I’m a crisis clinician and first responder for youth experiencing suicide or homicidal ideation and carry a few long term cases...it’s hard and heartbreaking work and I wouldn’t wish to be anywhere else.

@trev33 said
Well you see I grew up in an area the TV license people would be too scared to visit and while not really a job, my first way of making money was from taking old planks of wood from a block of flats the council was renovating, chopping them into fire sticks and going around the doors selling them, I was 8/9 years old. 50p a bag, cheaper than in the shops and straight at your d ...[text shortened]... eople have oil or gas so would be a waste of time. Wood burners are getting very fashionable though.

@trev33 said
Well you see I grew up in an area the TV license people would be too scared to visit and while not really a job, my first way of making money was from taking old planks of wood from a block of flats the council was renovating, chopping them into fire sticks and going around the doors selling them, I was 8/9 years old. 50p a bag, cheaper than in the shops and straight at your d ...[text shortened]... eople have oil or gas so would be a waste of time. Wood burners are getting very fashionable though.

@relentless-red said
I remember going on building sites and just playing war with the materials. Particularly if there were foundation trenches dug. You were an entrepreneur!

@drewnogal said
That experience would have done you a load of good and I imagine you’ve never found it that difficult to find employment? That’s how you’ve managed to travel and live in so many different countries? My nephew does the same thing, his father encouraged him to do it in fact and yes, he delivers sticks, no sorry kindling, to people with wood-burners on his bike 🙂

If I could add one piece of hard-won wisdom from the working world: don't take a good job in dump town. However, an initial dump job in a good town may yet lead to a better job in the good town.

@trev33 said
I think so, a lot of different factors I believe in how we turn out in life, I've always had issues being at the same place for long periods though, might not be hard to find employment but my longest at a company was only 2 1/2 years. Same with relationships but that's a another story.