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neurodiverse @hexbear.net
dustbunnies [she/her, comrade/them] @hexbear.net

how many jobs have you had?

you don't have to describe them in detail with dates, not trying to get you to doxx yourself

but it's kind of A Thing with neurodivergent folks to have tried a lot of different jobs, and I'm curious about everybody's count

I think I'm up to 21 that I've filed taxes for, which doesn't seem that extreme for 42, except when you consider that I've been unemployed most of my son's 17 years of life because I couldn't handle parenting and that level of outside obligations, so most of those happened before I was 25 – so 20ish jobs between 15-25

how bout you, how many things have you tried?

70 comments
  • This is all over a span of 25 years and a lot of gaps in between. I've worked in 3 different states. So unless I forgot some, 24 jobs in 25 years. I'm very autistic.

    • pizza cook
    • fragrance blending facility (3 different jobs)
    • Modular home industry - Appliances
    • Modular home industry - ship lose set up kits
    • random job sanding messed up metal doors down to fix
    • random job in interior door manufacturing - stacked doors for orders
    • random job tearing down these hydrolic things that were made wrong
    • Modular home industry - FEMA trailers for Katrina relief
    • Modular home industry, cabinet doors and drawers installation
    • kitchen cook/barhop
    • distribution center - order packing
    • cabinet assembly kit routing - ran boards through big routers to make grooves
    • gas station cashier
    • asst manager at Taco Bell
    • Computer repair
    • Computer repair - self employed
    • Web dev intern
    • USDA intern working on a Python based project
    • retirement funds claim processing
    • diliver driver for Door Dash
    • diliver driver for Walmart
    • IT tech for a school
    • Software developer
    • failed freelance web dev - current
    • this is a really interesting group of industries! dying to know more about the fragrance job, that sounds like it could be heaven or absolute hell

      • I did 3 different jobs the time I was there. The first was doing picking and packing, then I learned how to make blends. Blending is basically taking all kinds of different smelly oils and powders and mixing like a recipe to make something that smells like apple pie or flowers or musk or whatever. The other thing I did there was "pouring" which involved putting large batches of blends or oils into smaller containers for shipping.

        The oils and blends are used for making candles or potpourri, and I even used to make knockoff perfumes and colognes with sum.

  • A lot, and I didn't realize it was a neurodivergent thing. I've worked in construction, logistics, nonprofits, landscaping, R&D, finance... My wife calls me a jack of all trades but the truth is I just get bored with a career after about a decade.

    • made up bullshit techbro job
    • made up bullshit techbro job 2
    • made up bullshit techbro job 3
    • made up bullshit techbro job 4

    10 years and I've produced nothing of notable value. Usually i barely scrape past a year at any job but the one i have now is alright cos my team is very ND so I don't feel like I'm decaying every day. Also technically I've moved position inside this company multiple times so dnow if that counts

  • genres of things I've done:

    • childcare
    • secretarial/administrative, including a library, which was The Best – I peaked way too early
    • medical office/transcription
    • indirect sex work (modeling, stripping, chat, cam, etc)
    • sales
    • canvassing/"community organizer"
    • food service
    • delivery driver
    • copywriting
    • video production & editing

    every time I try to make a list, I feel like I'm leaving something out, and inevitably, days later, I remember the thing(s) I left out, but it's always more every time. I started a Note on my phone for them, and the list keeps growing.

  • At least 20 if I'm counting all the odd jobs and side hustles, but I know there's a bunch I've forgotten. But since starting my career job I've gone through 4 in 6 years, but I'm pretty happily settled in. It's realy common to jump around in my field though.

    Going over it in my head, I've had a fuck ton of different experiences... My life is actually pretty interesting now that I think of it.

    • before I made the list, I would have said I have lived a very boring life, but making the list also made me realize that I have had some fun adventures and done weird shit nobody would believe now

      I bet if I told my neighbors that I used to sell Kirby vacuums door-to-door and read tarot for Miss Cleo they would Lose Their Shit 😂

  • Ten jobs plus one like 6-week temp gig over the course of 25 years or so. That includes two sales associate jobs at different Radio Shacks, the teenage grocery bagging gig that I got fired from after dismembering and trying to melt plastic army men in the breakroom, and an extremely shady electronics salvage/reclamation job that I am pretty sure was a front for a coke smuggler, but said front looked legit enough that the Department of Defense contracted us as a vendor for some workstation PCs at one point.

    Edit: At the aforementioned electronics salvage place, I did score a pair of early 1970's Fender tube amps for like $20 out of the warehouse where we were storing all of the old monochrome CRT terminal monitors awaiting teardown. A Princeton Reverb and a Bassman combo; both silverface-era, and both with varying degrees of bird shit on them. The Bassman never did work right, so I wound up selling it to a friend in college. I just finally did a full refurb and a couple of mods on the Princeton about 12 years ago. (I replaced the ground select switch with a standby toggle, and I replaced the AC plug on the chassis with a pair of bias test points, along with adding a trim pot in the power amp bias circuit itself so that I don't have to dick around with resoldering resistors every time I swap out those 6V6 power tubes.)

  • I started working at 15 and I've had 7 jobs

    1. Grocery store cart boy (15-17)
    2. Chipotle-style job (17-19)
    3. Golf course maintenance (19-22)
    4. Pizza delivery (19-22)
    5. Entry level job in my field (22-23)
    6. Internship in my field (23-26)
    7. My field (26-30)
  • Sorted mail
    Stocked groceries
    Year long National service
    Admin office job
    Data entry/management office job

  • Within 11 years, depending on how you want to define it 6 (unique companies), 8 (work experiences), or 10 (including promotions with clear shifts in responsibilities). Very happy where I am now, took me a while to find a place where, I feel like I matter (both internally and externally,) compensates me fairly, and has a good work/life balance. I still have felt the strain of burnout, but this place actually has real ladders to climb, not just a step stool, and I am climbing it, plus I get to truly help people, some of whom are in a panic or in medical distress.

  • I worked as a dishwasher in high school and college. My first job was as a bus boy, and the restaurant owner said, after the first two days, that these days had been an unpaid training period, something she had not mentioned until then. She stole my pay from those days, and then I quit. This was an excellent introduction to capitalism, although it took me another fifteen years to figure out that this system was actually the problem. I think the difference between me and a lot of westerners is that although I'm a slow learner, I do actually learn. Westerners don't seem to learn anything at all, except how to wag their tails when their bourgeois masters toss them a bone from the capitalist banquet of stolen labor.

    Anyway

    I worked overseas in East Asia as an English teacher and university instructor for years. Started a family and we made the huge mistake of moving back to the USA (I was still a lib). My spouse is a nurse and ended up getting a good job after we were both unemployed and living on our savings and family assistance for a year. I was already a Berner by then but it was definitely radicalizing to go from having excellent universal health care in East Asia to having no fucking health care at all in America (with two small kids) while hearing constantly from white liberal boomers on Facebook that universal health care is wrong and terrible and evil and impossible. My whole family had been using it for years by then!

    I got involved in local democratic politics, another huge mistake I've discussed here multiple times. It only became a problem when I started winning elections. I voted to defund the police and the sheriff himself screamed in my face, three feet away from me. I started thinking that my family was in danger and that no one would stand up for us or protect us here. The police would run me off the road one late night, there would be an article in the paper about it, and that would have been the end of me. What would I have achieved, except making my kids fatherless? So I quit.

    I was unemployed and publishing novels that made no money for years, trying to get a teaching job based on my extensive experience even though I don't have the qualifications the state requires, and anytime an employer googles me they see that I hate the police thanks to a few articles written by a couple of shitheads in our wonderful local family neighborhood newspapers. I worked as a substitute teacher before the pandemic and really enjoyed it. The kids were actually great, only some teachers were weird (the principals are often unbearable in countless ways). Last January I ended up taking an oil burner technician class, among the hardest experiences of my life. It was free and paid for with covid money. I made it through the class and got a job, and have been doing this shit for seven months now. I'm days from getting my journeyman's license, and have hundreds of pages in a book I'm writing about going from white collar to blue collar work. It's still a bullshit job, just a different kind of bullshit. All of these fucking oil boilers and furnaces should be dismantled; instead, my job is maintaining them. My coworkers refuse to unionize even though all the oil companies around here are desperate for workers, so that's cool. Once I have my journeyman's license, I can do everything except installations (which I don't want to do anyway since they are so amazingly unethical), but this also makes me nervous because a lot of the work is really advanced for me. My employer has been honest and fair so far (as much as capitalists can be) but my pay is still pathetic (I'm supposed to get a raise to $24/hr in a few days) and I really, really don't want to do on-call work, so I might end up changing employers soon. I would rather just work for myself, since that's where the big bucks are, but I still need help from people who know so much more than me, and my license also requires a master to sign off on it. The feudal guilds live on!

    • I got involved in local democratic politics, another huge mistake I've discussed here multiple times. It only became a problem when I started winning elections. I voted to defund the police and the sheriff himself screamed in my face, three feet away from me. I started thinking that my family was in danger and that no one would stand up for us or protect us here. The police would run me off the road one late night, there would be an article in the paper about it, and that would have been the end of me. What would I have achieved, except making my kids fatherless? So I quit.

      this is the reason I haven't personally gotten involved in local politics, even though I live in a deeply blue part of Ohio. that shit is scary, I grew up around those people, they fucking terrify me and I am not popular enough to feel safe in this small town culture

      any suggestions for posts of yours to read to learn about how this all went down for you?

      and have hundreds of pages in a book I'm writing about going from white collar to blue collar work. It's still a bullshit job, just a different kind of bullshit.

      I think this book would be very popular; I know my spouse would love to read it.

      I would rather just work for myself, since that's where the big bucks are

      one of the things I hate most about this alleged individualistic, bootstraps society is how fucking hard they make it for a person to go it alone – the obscure administrative requirements are a huge hurdle for most people.

      your journey sounds relatable af, I really hope you write that book. ❤️

  • 12? Mostly food service or food processing. I did some travelling landscaping work for a few months and worked myself till the point of delirium. Travelling and landscaping are both exacting labor, but traveling across states for it was too much.

    • had no idea that traveling landscaping work was a thing! were you working for a famous landscape architect or something?

      • Nothing that fancy. I had to do clearcutting and spraying roundup on infrastructure like cell towers. It could get exhausting, especially since I struggled to know how much/little to do. They counted you by the minute on those tasks as well.

  • If I count temp jobs as one job, and likewise with the various campus jobs I had during college, I've got 15. I'm probably forgetting a few. IIRC I once filed 4 W2s in one year, and the longest I've worked at one place was a little over 9 years.

  • I've had two (2) and I'm fucking done.

    I'm now on provincial disability, which pays like shit but it means I don't have to work.

    I've considered that it would help me to try to get a part-time job sometime anyway. But there's very few choices available to me for work, and I have an 8 year gap in my resume to explain.

  • I've had a couple, but unfortunately I never had a real-deal "adult" job.

    Employers are just so absurdly picky and what few jobs are out there, I don't qualify for. Since when did I need to be some superhuman genius that's a famous world champion in my field just to get any job at all?

  • Technically 5, functionally 4

    Pizza chain, customer service rep

    Same pizza chain but different location as a driver

    Corn breeding lab tech

    Neuroscience lab tech

    Neuroscience lab tech in the lab next door which was run by my original PI’s wife

    Currently unemployed and looking for another lab tech or low level scientist job, ideally at the NIH. Gotta be right in the “turn into a shadow on the pavement” range when DC gets nuked

    Oh I also did paid acting gigs for a while, it was never enough to like, pay rent though.

    • your career path sounds like a Sims career path in the best way – like, you pick a track, and it seems a little unlikely, but it works out and suddenly you're a neuroscientist 🤯 I love it

      also love that you have been a professional actor!! if you got paid for it, it was your profession, even if only part-time. cool as fuck!! neuroscientist-actor-comrade 🤩

  • Just 1 ever, and its the one I am working right now. I struggled a lot in my late teens and early 20's with school and other things, so work was just not possible for me. When I finally was a bit better I searched for almost 3 years, until I got the job I have now. Was really frustrating searching for so long but at least the work right now has been going smoothly

  • I think 5 or 6, I've been at my current job for 17 years because I learned I don't really find any form of work any better than another so something simple and tedious is better than difficult but fulfilling and I cannot handle responsibility I run in terror when it is given to me.

    Grocery store - cashier then got promoted to front end supervisor and they wanted to fast track me into management when I was twenty, but I quit because I abhor responsibilities.

    Different grocery store, I quit after a day because there was no real guidance on what to do that first day.

    Future shop (Canadian best buy before best buy bought and killed it) - I was in computer department, and selling shit to people because I would get a better commission felt really scummy. My boss was a dick who kept trying to get me to flirt with girls despite seeing me being uncomfortable, and a manager scolded me thoroughly my first shift being left without supervision because I went for lunch without checking in something I was not told I had to do. So I quit after like 3 weeks.

    A different grocery store that had an electronics department, where I've been for the past 17 years - my department has shifted from having a sizeable portion of the store with tvs, video games, and cameras, movies, music. To eventually being just games, to eventually the department was closed and I got transferred into seasonal, which eventually got folded into housewares and seasonal and toys and whatever electronics we still happen to carry (mostly batteries and whatever games Nintendo ships us). It's okay mostly, but harder on the body as I approach 40. I feel like I'm going to break at some point and just be unable to work anymore. It is unionized though so hopefully I could get an accommodation. I have served as a union shop steward and sit on the health and safety committee. But I basically got volunteered for both and was too afraid to say I don't want to do this. After ten years of steward thing I resigned from it, incredibly stressful role often having to see employees get fired for things they didn't realize was technically theft. No warnings ever given once they caught you and often times I would need to spend 4 or 5 hours writing paperwork and statements to union about meetings and it basically wiped me out for a week or two if I had one. I still sit of health and safety though.

    Worked on a startup games website and podcast through some online mutuals; that revealed I don't want to do that, but I was also working at the grocery store so it probably impacted it, if it was paid and I could have only worked on the games stuff it might have been better, but turning a leisure outlet into work production is brutal and it felt like I could never turn off and enjoy life anymore. Also the mutuals who were running the site slowly revealed to be more chud like than I thought so I have slowly melted away from them.

    Teaching English as a Second language for high school immigrants (mostly from mexico and japan and Korea). I got my certificate to this right before covid started so had to wait until 2023 before they started practicums. They hired me once I finished that for summer school classes and immediately found myself overwhelmed and shockingly underpaid despite making over 40 bucks an hour. Mostly because I had like 3 - 4 hours of prep time for a class, which I didn't get paid so I was making about the same as my grocery store job, with a significantly longer commute, more stress. So after subbing for the winter semester I declined to take a larger role with that job.

    Nothing I do has ever felt good, or let me feel comfortable, but I continue to need to work. And during 2014 until 2021 I had a mortgage that I was often paying off by myself because my ex would get tired of their job and quit or work so badly until they fired them (so they wouldn't have to bother quitting which is funny but kind of rude to me), so during those 7 years I think I had maybe 3 weeks of vacation.

    • and I cannot handle responsibility I run in terror when it is given to me.

      wish I had your good sense!! 😂 I accept it and then wither under the weight. truly wish I had your self-knowledge and foresight to just not

      Different grocery store, I quit after a day because there was no real guidance on what to do that first day.

      👑

      incredible. iconic. role model.

      I have served as a union shop steward and sit on the health and safety committee.

      👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑👑

      INCREDIBLE. ICONIC. ROLE MODEL.

      After ten years of steward thing I resigned from it, incredibly stressful role often having to see employees get fired for things they didn't realize was technically theft.

      💔 that must have been really hard.

      but turning a leisure outlet into work production is brutal and it felt like I could never turn off and enjoy life anymore.

      fucking real talk about the commoditization of hobbies, it fucking sucks

      I had a mortgage that I was often paying off by myself because my ex would get tired of their job and quit or work so badly until they fired them (so they wouldn't have to bother quitting which is funny but kind of rude to me), so during those 7 years I think I had maybe 3 weeks of vacation.

      was your ex also neurodivergent or disabled? that also sounds really fucking hard, and reminds me of how much I lean on my partner for support and how tiring it must be for him.

      • Thank you for the kind words. I always feel imposter syndrome and rarely feel like anyone except my partner ever says they value me so it's real hard to get up and get to work day after day.

        My ex had something going on, I tried to respect them as much as possible and was always supportive to help them get jobs or even just the effort of applying for jobs. Possibly ADHD, anxiety issues as well, they switched meds a few times when were together. We also ended up having completely opposite sex drives which soured things pretty badly, they also were really against masturbation which was very stressful for me. Although possibly I just wasn't paying enough attention to their needs and desires, I feel like I could have tried harder but work and everything and well maybe I could have been better?

        I know they spent days sitting in bed feeling bad about not helping out, but eventually it becomes hard to feel sorry when I'm completely burned out from work. I once heard that we all have batteries and eventually they drain and yea at a certain point I did find it very hard not to be bitter at them being at home so much and able to play games watch streams and movies and tv shows.

        We split up when they were in a decent place, they had been working consistently for about a year by that point and they had initiated talks that they no longer cared for me and thought of me more as a roommate or friend. And then I tried to make it work, tried to get a better job (that was what caused me to try looking into teaching English before covid put that whole thing on the backburner for 2 years). I hope they're doing well. They had a good job the last time we spoke.

        Hey thanks for reading through my post. Appreciated it.

  • 11, I think, across 4 different sectors: college/work-study jobs, agriculture, food service, small business logistics. Some of those were short-term gigs though. At least 4 gaps of longer than a month where I wasn't employed or in school.

    Been fully unemployed and living off savings for the better part of a year, but looking to boost the number, build savings back, and get some businesses going. With any luck, if the businesses take off enough, I'll be able to employ others in a cooperative model, and never have to worry about having to work on the extremely unfavorable terms of someone else again.

    I thought it was just part of these times for jobs to only last a year or two. The longest that I've been on any one company's payroll is 4 years and some change.

    • With any luck, if the businesses take off enough, I'll be able to employ others in a cooperative model, and never have to worry about having to work on the extremely unfavorable terms of someone else again.

      🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

70 comments