- Grocery Assistant @ Coles Supermarket: April 2004 - April 2007
- Store Refit team member @ Coles Supermarket: Oct - Dec 2006
- Call Centre Assistant for Challenger TAFE: June/July 2007
- Admin Assistant (filing - much to my distaste) @ Education and Training International: one whole week in August 2007
- Receptionist / Admin Assistant @ Hazelwood Resources/McAuliffe Legal: Aug-Dec 2007
- Checkout Operator @ Kmart: Jan 2008 - Present
- Supervising Assistant for wristbanders @ West Coast Blues and Roots Festival 2008: volunteer for one day
It's funny to look back on these jobs and recall why exactly I did them, which tells a whole new story about the person behind each of these jobs.
Obviously we've all been in the retail business before (or at least I think the fair share of people have) - and they're usually jobs that you keep to get you through your school years. Coles supplied me with pocket money wasted on alcohol, clothing and outings while I was in Years 11 and 12 at school, and then while I was at TAFE the following year. The full-time position I served while trying to completely re-shelve the store paid for my first car and some better Christmas presents for the family.
My short-lived job at the TAFE's Call Centre lasted as long as the enrolment period allowed. It was the crusiest job as there were times that hardly anybody even called up, yet you sat there surfing the net and got paid a fair government wage for doing just that (as well as occassionally processing an enrolment online).
The filing job landed in my lap thanks to the lady in charge of the Call Centre, which I took up out of desperation for fulltime work. It was based in the city in some hectic office where nobody was calm and it seemed as though everything went wrong. I was originally told that I would be doing database work, which I was fine with when trained. It was only when I started asking questions in order to get my head around it clearly that they thought maybe I was actually incompetent and made me do filing all day every day instead, where you were treated rudely if you ever stopped rushing around off your feet. I felt elated the day that I quit!
My job in reception was purely "for experience". Actually, all of this office work was just to have some full-time work away from customers, gain some skills (particularly in my communications), and look good if I ever choose to go and work in the UK! However I was underpaid and surrounded by bitchy and cruel women that I haven't quite had the time to think about forgiving just yet....
Volunteer work at Blues and Roots was my ticket to see Gotye that evening...
and my job at Kmart gives me pennies to survive my years at uni!
I reflect back on this and see that it was only working at a festival (the volunteer job) that was done purely for, what I thought would be, enjoyment's sake.
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