What jobs did you hold before you got into software?

Comments

[Ben Halpern]

For me:

• Maintenance/janitorial
• Dish washer
• Grocery store worker
• Painter
• Grounds crew
• Nightclub security
• Callcenter agent
• Misc entrepreneurship
• Marketing director at a startup 👈 This was that first "career" job where I knew I needed the change 😄

[HS]

Nightclub security... Oh boy what out :D.

[Ben Halpern]

I’m from Canada and the worst clientele in that industry are NHL stars who think they’re above the bar rules 😭

[Justin Hunter]

Inventory for car dealership
Taco Bell
Satellite tv store clerk
Ice cream scooper
Grocery clerk
Call center agent
Call center supervisor
Business analyst

[Shannon Crabill]

Painting, like houses? Or an artist?

[Ben Halpern]

I would have loved to sell art, but it was houses. Ladders and windy days! 😬

[David Wickes]

Marketing director at a startup

Yeah, marketing will do that... 🤣

[Mohammed Samgan Khan]

You have done things Man....

[Burdette Lamar]

Before:

• Paper boy.
• Bag boy, stockman.
• Infantryman.
• English instructor.
• Mathematics instructor.

After:

• Documentor.
• Applications developer.
• Libraries developer.
• Tester.
• Test automation developer.

[Scott Yeatts]

+1 for another Infantryman turned coder 😀

[Molly Struve (she/her)]

• Hay Baler
• Horse Groom
• Horse Instructor
• College Course TA
• College Course Grader
• Dorm Front Desk Worker
• Proprietary Options Trader
• Aviation Law Consultant

[Ben Halpern]

Here's an old pic of me in my jump crew days 😄 (In my above list I just lumped it in as grounds crew)

[Molly Struve (she/her)]

OMG yes!!!! Damn you were good at carrying poles. I remember feeling like a turtle putting the standards on my back to move them all over the ring. 😂

[Ben Halpern]

Do you go to shows with "horseless horse shows"?

(These are my long-hair-don't-care days)

[Molly Struve (she/her)]

That hair!!!!

You bet, the horseless horse shows are always WAY more entertaining than the real thing. As a kid I could jump 4+ft, as an adult I can hardly throw myself over a 3 ft jump. Lost some of my spring/everything kinda tightens up LOL

[Tori Crawford]

• Gym Security
• Cashier
• Server
• Graduate Assistant Athletic Trainer
• Receptionist @ Gym
• Head Athletic Trainer in ECHL
• High School Athletic Trainer
• Junior Recruiter

looking for first software engineering role now

[Felippe Regazio]

• microsoft office "teacher"
• service desk support

then i started to backpacking thru all the south america, and had a lot of crazy jobs, and some cool jobs as:

• truck cleaner
• computer support (hardware, formating, virus removals, etc)
• truck charge unloader (i dont have sure how to write it sorry)
• truck recovering (i worked with some guys who were recovering broken trucks)

then i came back to home, started to study development really hard (i was always studing software development, since i was 12 i think, but was always for fun), so I got the courage and started doing some freelancings, then everything has change.

now, some years later, im working as front end developer in a place which i really enjoy :)

[Yechiel Kalmenson]

• Rabbi
• Elementary School Teacher
• Tech Support

[bvmcode]

In order

• corn picker (during HS)
• dish washer (during HS)
• grocery clerk (during and after HS)
• Storm chaser/NSSL research assistant (during college)
• Research/teaching assistant in Oceanography (during college - MS)
• Collections (after college, it SUCKED!!)
• Logistics Analyst (still with this company)
• Operations Manager
• Business Analyst
• Developer! (10 years later)

[Cécile Lebleu]

1. Startup misc assistant (video and audio editing, customer service, even some super basic coding here and there)
2. Baker & Barista
3. Designer, still going! Type and brand design are my favorite areas. My plan is to join both design and development together.

[Shannon Crabill]

If tech does me wrong, baker/barista would be my go-to skill.

[Shannon Crabill]

I had a fair amount of odd, non-tech/non-software jobs.

High-School

• Babysitter
• Receptionist. This was at an optometrist office where I did some insurance billing

College

• Digital Printing Technician
• Designer at the Department of Student Affairs
• Student Ambassador (volunteer)
• Visitor Services Operative. I worked at the International Spy Museum for a season.

Post-College

• Mystery Shopper
• Production Assistant. I did behind the scenes work for a Nickelodeon event for a day!
• Graphic Designer. Mostly one-off contract work, backfilling for someone's maternity leave, etc
• Retail Associate. Funny, I was almost 30 before I had my first retail job. A friend had a pop-up shop last holiday season and I worked Black Friday while she was out of town.

[Karl N. Redman]

Mystery Shopper has got to be kind of the programming mindset! my guess. All of these things you list seem to have been preparation for development (working with people, understanding production systems [production assistant], and the creative aspects overall.
cool!

[KhoPhi]

Reading through the comments, and oh dear, some seem to have held all possible jobs before getting into software. I'm jealous of the experience gained throughout those jobs. Priceless.

I, on the other hand, started with software, and transitioning into photography/videography

[Alexey Voinov]

Oh thanks. I thought I'm the only one here, who started with software. :)