My #firstsevenjobs

Job 1: Babysitting, lots and lots of babysitting

Now, I could say that my first 7 jobs were babysitting. I babysat from 8th grade on. Regularly. It paid well and I was good at it. I babysat at least 2 nights a week from 10th grade on.

The first memorable babysitting job was the first night of Carnivàle in Rio. A friend of my dad’s and his wife were going out with my folks and I got to watch their kids. I got there mid-evening. Kids went to bed at 8:30ish. I spent the rest of the night watching the Carnivàle parades on TV. Got a bonus for staying up too.

The next memorable babysitting job happened my senior year. I had early release 2nd semester, so one of the families I regularly sat for hired me to watch the kids 3 afternoons a week. 2 good kids. Most days we weren’t even in the house, since they loved playing outdoors. Homework got done right away and then out we would go.

Summer after that, I watched a different set of kids 3 days a week. That lasted 2 months — pocket money for college.

From practically the beginning of my time at Wartburg College, I babysat the kids of the two main computer science profs. By the time I graduated, I was part of the crew of 5 that watched the kids at one or the other of the two houses almost every night of the week and at least one day/night most weekends. We figured out during my senior year that the kids saw us more than their folks during certain parts of the school year. (2 families. Wonderful friends. Sorry we lost track of them.) The girls were our flower girls; one of the boys was our ring bearer.

Job 2: Computer operator and tutor at Wartburg College (Sophomore and Junior years of college)

Up until the end of my Junior year, Wartburg used a remote connection to an IBM 370 system in Iowa City. Most of the work for the computer classes was done on punch cards. We students wrote our assignments on paper, used key punch machines to generate the punch cards, then handed off the decks of cards to the operator on staff. The operator would gather up the decks of cards, run them into the terminal via modem, and sort the resulting printouts into the right spot in the file. When students came back to the room, they would check the drawer for the results.

If that had been all we did, it would have kept us plenty busy. But we had several other chores to do during our shifts as well. Whenever a key punch machine got stuck, we would get out the card saws and clean out the gunk. If cards got stuck in the machines, we had to open them up and clear the jams as well. The printer we used was old and wearing out. Regularly, we would need to clear paper jams. Every once in a while, the print bar would come loose and fly out of its place. Not a big problem when the printer lid was closed — just put the bar back in place, clear the jammed pages, and continue. The big fun was when the print bar flew out when the lid was open. Let’s just say that you quickly learned NEVER to walk on that side of the printer when the lid was open.

As computer students and operators, we were also responsible for the school’s Apple II lab. That meant cleaning it up and making sure no one was hogging the machines in busy times.

The other big piece of the job was to be a tutor. This was the part I loved the most. Students would ask whomever was on duty to help them figure out what was wrong with the program they had submitted to be run. Our job was to make sure the error wasn’t something hardware related and then help them figure out what was wrong with their programs. Never gave a straight answer doing this, but generally got people where they needed to go. Because of this part of the job, even when we weren’t getting paid most of the operators helped others out as needed just about any time we were nearby.

Another piece of this job was writing a program on the Apple II computers for the Learning Resource Center to help people learn vocabulary, spelling, and grammar.

Job 3: Nature and Arts and Crafts staff at Camp McCormick in Northern IL

A perk of being one of the few Girl Scouts in the area who actually did CIT (Counselor in Training) at that time, I was a known quantity as camp staff. I couldn’t be a counselor, because my knee surgeon denied to clear me. But Nature Staff and Arts and Crafts Staff didn’t require as much kneeling — so that he approved. Friends who knew me then will understand the hilarity of me training younger girls Arts and Crafts. Nature, no problem. But Arts and Crafts? I knew the technical how-to’s, but had no skill at doing the crafts.

Job 4: Games leader and trainer at Waverly Park and Rec

The less said about this, the better. Done the semester before my first knee surgery, this was… ummm… an interesting choice of positions.

Job 5: Data Entry Clerk for Westinghouse at the Byron Nuclear Plant

Summer after my Junior year, there was a contingent of engineers and data entry people whose jobs were to make sure the changes to the technical drawings were entered into the computer system correctly. (System was a DEC mainframe accessed via terminals.) My older sister was already on staff doing this. Her boss let her know he was looking for a summer intern. I applied, interviewed, and was hired in the space of about a day. (My dad being the site manager and my older sister working on the team probably helped me get the job. But once I had it, I kept it on my own skills and initiative.)

This job, like the babysitting in college, had an impact on my wedding. My older sister didn’t plan to come to the wedding. She didn’t have time off built up (variety of reasons). When her boss heard she wasn’t planning to go, he pretty much ordered her to go and take his congratulations. Glad he did it, but to this day I wish the family had let me know! Just about had a heart attack when she showed up with my folks and my other sister!

Job 6: VAX 11/782 trainer and operator at Wartburg College

At the end of my Junior year, Wartburg upgraded the computer system to a VAX 11/782. All of the computer operators got access to the machine before the other students. We learned to use it. We learned the new compilers. We learned how to help people with the new printers. Senior year, we were the ones who were the experts. Even the profs came to us for help. (I passed COBOL that year in part because I knew what I was doing and the prof didn’t. Taught him to use the interactive compiler so he could teach us.)

Job 7: Breakfast Cook at Lutheran Outdoor Ministry Center in Oregon IL

Yeah, the girl who couldn’t cook learned to cook breakfast for 35 on weekends and 250 during the week. It was the only job I could find that would let me have two weeks off in the middle of the summer. I learned to bake eggs, make pancakes, make muffins, fry large amounts of breakfast ham and bacon, and make huge vats of oatmeal. Not really useful in later life, but worth having done.

Those two weeks off? They were to volunteer as a counselor at Wartburg’s inaugural Computer Camp. Most fun I had at a job. I was part of the team that introduced two sessions of high school students to the VAX and programming. The Comp Sci profs did most of the training, we students were the student’s advisors, chaperones, and cat wranglers

There they are: My first seven jobs.

By the time I started Job 2, I knew that computer science was my future and my love. Helping other students understand programming and finding bugs in their code had a good bit to do with my becoming a tester. Getting to know the other computer operators gave me friends for life… and a husband I still love and am still attached to today.