First Seven Jobs

Because who doesn't love being part of a trending topic? Here we go...

My first job was paper carrier for the Wednesday Journal of Oak Park and River Forest. My route covered the four blocks of East Avenue between Roosevelt Road and the Eisenhower Expressway. I walked my route every Wednesday for many years and received lots of nice tips every Christmas.

My second employer was the Park District of Oak Park, and I had three different positions over five summers. My first summer, 2006, I was a bike attendant for the pools, an entry-level position that was new that summer. The next year I was a pool maintenance technician, and the following three summers I was a facility operations coordinator, the shift supervisor for all the maintenance staff.

In between those summers, when I was a student at Wheaton College, I had two different jobs. I was a stage manager for the Conservatory of Music (to which I credit my eventual arrival in the arts management profession) for seven of my eight semesters of undergrad and an office assistant to Dr. Tim Yontz, the director of bands and music education and my major adviser, for four semester.

My first "career" job (and I am not counting freelance trombone performance gigs and a handful of private lessons) was Assistant Band Director at Hadley Junior High School in Glen Ellyn, a year with all the challenges of being a first-year teacher but one I overall enjoyed and am grateful for.

And those were my first seven jobs. If you've read my biography, and have now done the math, you will know that I am already at double-digits for number of jobs held. In addition to the three I have now (with two employers), I also worked for a few months in 2014 for Quinlan & Fabish Music Company. If the hashtag had been #firstelevenjobs, I would have just made it.

So there you have it, a narrative form of my resume!