Your Worst Job and What You Learned From It

by: Adam Beasley

While I’ve had numerous jobs in my life up until this point, there is definitely one job that sticks out in mind when I think about my worst job experience. During high school I was looking for a way to make some easy, extra cash and a friend of mine kept telling me about a market research place in town. The pay was good and I was told that all I would have to do is sit in a chair for a few hours. Sounds like a deal, right? At first, it seemed like it. We would sit at ancient computer screens and call people on their telephones to ask for their opinions about shopping and merchandise. I thought I had found my dream job.

About two weeks on the job and it was already starting to get to me. The hours slowly droned by, seemingly never-ending, as I had to call answering machine after answering machine. Most times when I would finally get a hold of someone on the phone, their response would either be yelling at me and accusing me of ruining their supper or asking me, and I quote, “when I lost my soul?” I even had one woman very loudly mock my “southern accent” as she was knee-slapping it with her daughter. I’ll admit I had a bit of a Southern Indiana accent from my parents, but I’m from Bloomington for goodness sake. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that it was definitely not a confidence builder. The only times I was saved was when I was able to get a hold of a little old ladies who had nothing better to do than talk about the “optimization” of shopping malls. I never thought I would squeal with joy at the thought of a 40-minute conversation with someone’s grandma.

As much as I hated that job, from the boring hours to the co-worker who was always trying to tell me about his weekly television shows, I did learn a few things. You have to keep yourself busy when you’re working and I’m not talking about seeing how straight you can get a paper clip (which I have done), but I am talking about doing actual work. It will make the time fly by so much faster. You also have to learn how to talk to many different types of people because it will help you so much in the world of employment. It will help you get a job or that promotion over the person sitting at the desk next to you. And lastly, appreciate it when you have a great job. If you have a great job and you like what you are doing, then just realize that it could be so much worse.