Share Our Lives - Jobs I've Had

I'm still finishing up my Prime Purchases post but I saw this over at Slices of Life and it looked like a lot of fun!

I'm Pamela, wife, mother, and diehard Anglophile.  My Mum was British and I grew up in England and that would be home sweet home for me if I wasn't following my Navy husband, Vic, around the country.  We're empty nesters but our daughter, Sophia, only lives a few hours away.  I love scrapbooking our family memories, England of course, and anything to do with Christmas!  I've been blogging since about 2007, off and on, and really looking forward to blogging more regularly now that I am not working.

I started working when I was in college in England.  I worked as a supermarket cashier - I can't remember my schedule but I think it was Thursday evening, Friday evening, and all day Saturday.  I loved my job!  I always tried to be friendly and polite and there were times when someone would wait in line for my register rather than going to another one just to say hello to me.  It was lovely.  After the store closed, we worked on stocking shelves and I remember that there were a few instances when the box cutter ran a little too deep across the top of a box and we ended up with a handful of nuts or pretzels.  Naughty!  I also remember that we were paid in cash, in a little glassine envelope, no idea how much it was but I'm sure not a lot.  This was 1970's England, after all.  I worked at the supermarket until I switched colleges and started a full-time course of study.  I miss the fun we used to have and the friends.

In 1978, we moved from England to California.  I left my boyfriend in England and I had to get a job to get the fiancé visa process started.  I found my first job in an extraordinary way.  My Dad was also searching for a job - he'd been in the clerical field in the Army for 26 years and applied for a position at the local cable company.  It didn't take long during his conversation with the Office Manager to determine that he was way over qualified for the position open so he asked if she would talk to me.  In I came, after about half an hour in the 100+ heat in the car, in casual clothes, and what do you know?  She hired me.  I worked for the cable company for 12 years, first as a customer service representative, then as the dispatcher, the accounting clerk, then a promotion to the General Manager's secretary, then Office Manager, and finally Marketing Manager.  I left there to go back to school but when that didn't pan out, I took a job with Guam Cable TV and jetted off with my four suitcases to a new adventure.

1979 - It was a big day when we added Showtime, our first premium service.  Prior to that, your biggest decision was whether you wanted one cable outlet or two!

1986 - celebrating my birthday at the office - wardrobe upgrade from T-shirts with slogans to silk dresses!

I worked for Guam Cable TV for a few months and then they transferred me to Saipan Cable TV (half an hour plane ride north) to run the office up there.  I was there four years during which time I met and married Vic, Sophia was born, Vic joined the Navy, and we all ended up in Florida to begin our Navy adventure.

I worked off and on as a Navy spouse - I worked at the VA Medical Center in Illinois as a Patient Services Clerk and then took a job as the secretary to the Chief of Staff.  In Virginia, I worked for a short period for a financial planning company and then in a volunteer position as the Ombudsman for Vic's ship.  After my Ombudsman term was over, I started homeschooling Sophia.

Then it was off to Rhode Island to continue homeschooling during the middle school years.  Our next assignment was back in Virginia where I spent my time volunteering with the officers' spouses' association.  We had a gift shop and I held a variety of positions, secretary and volunteer coordinator for the shop, and secretary and charity chairperson for the association.

Washington came next where I applied under the Military Spouse Priority Placement Program for a position at the naval shipyard, starting as an administrative assistant on the waterfront and then moving up to be the Executive Assistant to the Executive Director.  We headed back to Virginia after Vic's tour in Washington was over so I returned to my volunteer positions as there was a federal hiring freeze and no chance of a new job.

The waterfront was an industrial area and we had to wear a hard hat when walking from one place to another.

When Vic got orders to Okinawa, I reached out to my network at the shipyard and they found me a new job, Department Secretary for the Engineering and Planning Department and I stayed there until I retired last year.

My jobs have always been in the office management field.  I never had the desire to be a manager, I much preferred being the one to make sure that a manager had everything that he/she needed.  It spoke to my organizational skills and I really enjoyed keeping things running.

Join us next month for another Share Our Lives.