What Jobs Have We Done?


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Cadet Nurse, Student Nurse, Staff Nurse, 3 children in 3 and a half years ..... (No time to think about paid work in-between each child) voluntary work teaching English to illiterate adults in Leicester, then back to paid work when the youngest child was 8 - this time not nursing, but working in a secondary school with hearing impaired students. I was based in a special unit there but also used to accompany students to mainstream lessons. I stayed in this job for nearly 30 years, working with over 60 students during my time there. I was also the main carer for my elderly Mum, who lived with us for several years before she died. Then I retired............ but am still working - my life is very full with church work, 2 toddler groups and looking after grandchildren. I love it and wouldn't have it any other way really, although I do get more tired these days....

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Dunno if this has been done before.... I seem to have been spectacularly bad at choosing for a long time. Then when I finally got it right, Govt. decided I as wrong. When I left school with 6 'O' l

I feel as though I have been here before with this topic - excuses if I have. As I was about to leave school, dad asked me what I wanted to do. 'Don't go in the paint trade' (like him), he told me, g

Left FFGS after six fruitless years with no qualifications other than my 11 plus, my cycling proficiency certificate, and a card saying I swam a length at Noel St Baths. Waiter, caravan site operativ

Brain Surgeon, Airline Pilot........ I'd do it if given the chance. Some say I've wasted my life, but I've nearly always enjoyed it and always had money to throw away.

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I'm sure there are lots of people you have worked with who remember you with affection, FLY. Who knows.... you might have had a life-changing effect on some of their lives. NO-ONE's life is ever a waste. I'm pleased you've enjoyed most of your jobs - that's worth a lot.

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Me, have a life changing effect on some people's lives. I certainly have. LOL

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Some interesting life stories here. The mention of pilots set me thinking. I mentioned being an electrician because my dad was. Secondary moderns did not encourage us to think much outside the box. Later in life I met the husband of one of my wife's friends. He was in the RAF at the time. He left as a pilot officer, got right into BA. Or BOAC as it was then. He moved up the ladder from 707s and retired as captain of a 747. I don't know if I would have been smart enough to qualify as an aerial bus driver. It would, however have been nice to have been presented with other options.

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I have been told by a very well respected member of this forum who has over the years read all my posts, and reckons I could have done much more with my working life with the knowledge and education I have had.

I'll mention no names, but you don't realise how much those kind words mean to me. Thank you so much.

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Well gentlemen you've certainly had a variety of jobs and on the whole enjoyed yourselves and done well. My job seems to very tame and unadventurous. I left school at 15 and went into hairdressing. One day a week at clarendon college. Had to study hygiene, science and English. I hated science at school so of course I failed my city and guilds. I was good at the other two. Worked for 11 yrs for the same salon then left to be manageress at a salon at canning circus. The girls that ran it before me were very close friends and one ofthem had to go before I arrived . The remaining one made my life very miserable for a few weeks then she decided to leave. The apprentice was put under my wing and 45 years later we are still very close friends in fact they are coming down soon to visit. I was actually sacked atthis salon because the boss had insisted that he was going to get a cleaning lady . A promise repeated manytimes. He asked the apprentice to wash the floor...I told the apprentice it wasn't her job. The Following day " a private word" then my notice. I wasnt bothered for me but I was worried about the other girls having to do these jobs. I was getting married a few months after. When I had had my children I helped my husband at our first restaurant. Waitress, head waitress, wine waitress, dessert maker And chef or whatever needed doing at the time. A job that still happens now and again.

Being english I often help school children with their english homework especially when an exam is coming.

A bit boring to some but I enjoyed it.

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Its funny but in the USA there are very little limits on what jobs you can get so long as you have the funding to pay for it

I took a computer course at 60 years old & passed with a 4.0 grade point average which is tops. Microsoft was hiring but I hated sitting at a computer all day so didn't do anything with it.

Not to bad for a guy that didn't pass the 11+.

As for my passion for racing I found out quickly that its not always the fastest driver in the car its the most funded

I won 11 races of the 13 race California SCCA Pro series. Champion In 2 classes did I get any offers NO! they didn't like a brit beating them.

I had the officials come to me and ask me to slow down a bit as I was ruining the class.

Got half way through my pilots licence (again) and decided flying bored me to tears.

Had a part time unpaid job hooking the static lines to the Para jumpers at the local airport till my mate the instructor got killed. One of the students pulled the instructors ripcord whilst in the plane & It tangled around the tail so he cut himself loose after being dragged out of the aircraft.

Quit racing in 2008 after finishing 4th in the Stars of Tomorrow LOL. 60 yrs old

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2nd dose of curriculum of crap:

Signed on at Davids lane on Y cycle for those 'in the know',£45.90 was my dole,went for a job as kitchen porter at The Camelot Club and loved it..hearing George Benson sing "give me your tights" every night was grand,the staff were lovely and worked with a great cross section,the Chef was in a pool team league and asked me did I want to learn to cook good cuisine from Scratch? Soon i was making soups from scratch, sauces...bechemal and demiglas, I was happy and on big bucks..my scampi provençal was Dave Bartrams fave!! Hit London once a week for records,shoes and clothes,stayed at Strand Palace or Penta,ate Greek on Queensway and drank at the worlds end..went to States twice,then hit the wall! Sadat and Lennon had gone..and my interest too!! Pissed off to Ilfracombe and was a breakfast cook in the Longwood Hotel..6till10am and scrumpy from noon til....? Came home to "every breath you take" and worked at a vegetarian rst on Heathcote st...horrible..got the bullet for abbreviating ratatouille as 'rat' on the menu board.Rang Spider and he got me on a cooked up steeplejack course..then went painting pylons for 3 years...I was shitting money and availing of Horne's tailor service..everything was French stitched,over buttoned and vented..only Norfolk jacket down 'maddos'.contract ran out..Grindon again!! Went to Gerrards in the Wendy house..worked with strippers and Mancunians..saved like hell on that nightshift..had a run of pretty girls..went blonde and drank in Basford.. Walked out and held two day parties for fun..made use of my records and lived for the night..did the odd night at the Asylum..Ravenshead..private road was a gas...had a breakdown.. Dad got me a job at D21 in Boots Beeston making weedkiller..all the " geezer/birds" I worked with were minted as there previous work made them all a 36B and got huge compo!! George Tat..drove me nuts so did a stint feeding the Chinese at Wilton Sporting Club..constant rounds of butterfly parcels and prawn toast..sent me mad and walked!! Started selling music tapes to premises in town,bumped into personnel boss at Boots one lunchtime.. the small Town Arms opposite the alms houses near Sammy Wards.I went back to Island st.and blossomed! Brewed our own booze on the job,I cooked a breakfast in work time everyday and filled out a p46 and did agency work at Thomas Corks etc.. whilst 'sick'.After 7 years of being a union rep( thankless hell!!) they gave me the bullet.On the Monday I started on the buildings for Standens at Ashwood and Chartwell Heights.. Silly money and " foreigners" a go-go!! By this time I live on Oakdale rd. with herself from Tipperary.. 27 years in Nottm..and we're 'tinking' poll tax,drab,bills," let's go!!" So I worked my bilateral educated nuts off and did venting for a Hucknall bloke..all nights in shops and airports.. 20 hour shifts and £12 a foot.,I think?? I left for Fishguard one warm night with the car loaded too Exile on MainSt.to keep me company. PART 3 if you want it..later

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Thought I'd explain a little bit about proper Careers Advice and Guidance.

Might be worth going back to origins though, but I'll keep it brief: :)

Until the final repeal of the last of the Poor Laws in 1905 or 6 (Mr Churchill I believe), it was the common sentiment and the official Government position, that unemployment was purely the result of 'fecklessness'. There was no other cause. If you were poor through lack of work it was your own fault. No other influences or mechanisms existed. ( There are some, notably Mr Idiot Duncan -Smith.. who still like to have us believe this)

In reality, there were a few organisations in the 19th C which were a little more enlightened. Various 'Apprenticeship Committees', and a very early Labour Exchange called the Egham Free Registry for example.

But in 1905, government finally officially recognised that unemployment could also be caused by other factors. Put simply, there could be a desperate need for labour in one place and a desperate need for employment elsewhere, so that what was needed was a system to bring the two together. The 1905 Unemployed Workmen's Act was very flawed, but it was a start.

http://www.exodus2013.co.uk/the-unemployed-workmens-act-of-1905-and-its-emigrant-register/

A national systen of Labour Exchanges soon followed, in 1909 I think.

Fairly soon afterwards, it was decided that 'Labour Exchanges' were not suitable places for young school leavers and job seekers to attend and provision was made for staff from the Labour Exchange to visit schools to assist young people in making the transition from school to work. This was definitely not Careers Guidance, but again, a step in the right direction.

WW1 saw large numbers of young people in (relatively) well paid work while the men were off being slaughtered abroad. After the war many of these young people were thrown out of work and a very early form of Youth Training Scheme was introduced.

Crucially, these arrangements were placed under the remit of Local Education Authorities, but didn't last.

Things bobbled along.. seeing the 'Juvenile Employment Service', which became the 'Youth Employment Service' post WW2, gradually developing more real Career Guidance.

By the late 1960s, Local Authorities were granted 'permissive powers', to provide a system of Careers Guidance to school leavers and young job seekers. Where Local Authorities didn't bother .. (as in Nottm IIRC), the system was still delivered by the Employment Dept.

Finally, in 1972, all Local Education Authorities were required to provide free, impartial Careers Information, Advice and Guidance to all those in, or leaving education.

If you think about it, it makes no sense to spend something like the current £90 Billion per year on education, without spending something on ensuring that all those leaving education are equipped with the advice, knowledge and skills to make best use of their education in the big wide world. But that's pretty much where we are now, since Gove effectively did away with Careers Guidance.

Tired again but I'll come back with more about what a proper Careers Service does.

Col

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1967: NCB apprentice electrician

1969: RAF ground electrician (JT qualified Cpl)

1973: J.jones electrical rewinds

1973: Plessey Telecomms, circuit tester

1980: C&G Refrigeration training full-time

1981: Miller Bros electrical retail, warehouse manager

1984: Addis Ababa English compound electrician

1986: Ollerton college technician

1986: Falkland Islands hospital project labourer

1986: Falkland Islands Agricultural Research Centre field assistant

1988: Cremator of human remains, Bolton

1989: Refrigeration Service engineer, Bolton

1991: Orkney Islands Council insulation installer on outer isles

1991: North Isles Shellfish Refrigeration engineer

1994: HNC tourism course, Thurso college

1996: Environmental & Heritage degree, RGU Aberdeen (BSc)

2000: EU Northern peripheral countries (Scot., Nor., Swe., Den., Fin., Ice. and Greenland) waste management project team member

2001: Scottish agricultural college disease surveillance centre post mortem assistant

2013: Early retirement

2015: 65!

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British Rail...........................6 months....1960..........................Van Lad

Marsdens........................... 9 years.......1960--69...................Retail + Security

A.B.Gibsons.......................10 years.......1969--79..................Grocerys + Security

Own Business....................15 years........1979--94................. Retail + Security

Coop..................................9 years..........1994--2003..............Security

Own Business.................. 10 years.........2003--2013...............Security

Freelance...........................2 years..........2013--present..........Security

ps,.............loved it all.

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1963....Press Room Daybrook Laundry for a few months. Robert Windsor Soap Factory at Colwick for a few months

1963/4-1966 ...various Factories...can't remember which order. Raywarp Alfred St North

Martin Emprex

Raywarp again

Spray and Burgess Colwick

City Uniform Woolpack Lane

1967 to 1970 bringing up babies.

1970 back to work part time. Domestic in W-ton Womens Hospital and part time shop assistant

1973 to 1982...Got my licence and ran a Beer Off

1982...Assistant manageress in Bamba's Dress shop

198? Butchers shop counter assistant. The business closed down so i was unemployed for a while.

1996 Domestic again in a Hospice, stayed until I retired at 61yrs in 2009.

The job I enjoyed most was at the Hospice and I would have stayed after retirement age, but I had started to get ill and suffered a stroke, making it impossible to carry on. Very sad to leave.

PS A bit of Bob Dylan comes to mind. Like A Rollin' Stone. Ha.

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#43 1963 Daybrook Laundry, was it only a few months. We had some laughs didn't we.

I remember siting on the wall outside swinging our legs eating our lunch and watching the lads go by. :cool:

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Yts scheme in horticulture.at Wollaton and brackenhurst college.

Gained my city and guilds level 1 , level 2 ,,level2 year2.

Then did care assistant work.for 3 years.

Was a temp gardening .

Temp care assistant for few months.

gardening again full time job been there about 18 years so far..

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Bulwell to Ballykisteen:

Time to wrap up this nonsense, hit Eire with feet running, tackled roof,windows and garden,two nippers a worried wife and no work!! Bought mower,chainsaw, strimmer and hedgecutters.. hadn't had 'em a day..some old dear got me down a Boreen doing her gaff!!..word spread,never stopped since..first paid employment.. Spieghts timber making pencil posts,strainers and pressure treating Brazilian post office poles for Eircom etc..wages were brutal and got wet,still it got me a stamp and £7 extra for operating the manitou!!!! C'ching time came for Murrays,a Dublin crowd..removing telephone poles trackside from Cork to Dundalk.. subbed out by CIE,£784.00 a week with lodge and a VW transporter.. I was on the pigs back!! And of course every farmer up to the border gave us a score for every pole we knocked...this two year contract dried up and I qualified for a local village Govt.scheme,sweeping etc.. keeping Cullen gleaming..graveyard, the whole village,fair cash but got free healthcare and great holidays..got to know all the back roads and people..lovely people..one thing about this place they are never scared to make you a mug of scold!!After 3 years your time is up,Wrote to Tarmac Walls and started in Douglas on the Jack Lynch Tunnel..first as a concrete finisher, then lifting and setting the crane rails for the tower crane..for an extra £150 a week I spent my lunch hour in a Zeotar tractor and fuel bowser topping up gennys and other yokes..don't forget this was punts.steak every night.."two became one" sang the spices and I was then on a shuttering gang..uber rate..one Sunday I collapsed..appendix burst..bad way ..week in Victoria barracks hospital..4 weeks back on building flotation tanks. This was the biggest civil I've seen..worked up..then went laying esat cable with a mole train all over Ireland..£900+the lodge..Hannah was on de way and did extra work mending cattle crossings that we had purposely damaged!! Serious cash had arrived..as did 8lb 'squeeze'..contact over..went making emmental cheese for a year..hopscotched onto another scheme..looking after a school in a village..love country kids!! 3 years up..a workhouse in town was gonna be converted into a hostel..I applied and started on this heritage project.. fell doing a suspended ceiling.. game nearly up!! my fault..foreigner again..still on site great cash,near home but it was getting "milked"from above..we all got stung..we made the front page 10 million had gone west..dole for the first time since Davids fecking lane!! Kept on maintenance for 4 rich families.. But the body was screwed.. Voltarol suppositories for four years!! not good, passed Unfit for work..I pleaded..took me site passes and put me out to graze!! That my friends is it :Started at the bottom and worked me way down!!A nugget from an old overseer"I taught you everything I know,and you still know bugger all!"

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The Raleigh press shop from August 1954 to December 1954. Rolls-Royce from January 1955 to June 1994. That's it.

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