What Have I Done?

 Note: This entry was inspired by my friend Butch Armstrong-you can read his post here  https://marshallbutcharmstrong.com/2021/02/23/what-have-i-done-a-walk-through-of-my-employment-history/

It's kind of fun to look back on our working lives, isn't it? Butch made me remember all of the parents who entrusted their kids to me when I babysat all through high school. In college, I typed papers for $$. Summers during college I worked at Unicard, a credit card company, where I looked through printouts of people's credit when they charged something. Back in the "old days" when you used your credit card, the merchant would call the company and they (me!) would check to make sure that you had enough credit to cover the purchase. That job convinced me that I never wanted to do that for a living!

Student teaching during my senior year of college convinced me that I wasn't meant to be a high school math teacher. After graduating from college I applied to VISTA-remember VISTA? Volunteers in Service To America? I was accepted and was going to be teaching in an inner-city school, I think in Philly. 

I traveled to Europe for three months, tagging along with friends who had planned the trip way before I thought to join them. This was back when you could do this on $5 a day. We left in September and returned just before Christmas. I remember that by then my clothes were so worn out and I had tossed so many of them that my suitcase was barely one-quarter full!

When we came back from that trip I was thinking I would just hang out until February when I was supposed to go into VISTA training, but my father was having none of it. If I was living under his roof I was going to pay room and board. So it was get a job, sha-na-na.

A walk through the want ads (this is 1969, no Internet, no Monster.com or Indeed.com) landed me a job as an actuarial trainee for The Home Insurance Company in downtown Manhattan. I became a commuter (something that I quickly learned to hate).

While I was there I worked on a time-sharing program using the BASIC language-I was the only trainee who had any programming experience. The FORTRAN course I took in college counted for something. I liked that so much, and I had such a hard time passing actuarial exams (passed the first, failed the second) that I became a tech rep for a time-sharing company. That lasted a couple of years and then I went to work for one of my clients, The Equitable Life Assurance Society. I worked in the management science group there-think math with a purpose. In the meantime, I went back to school at night and picked up an MBA from Fordham University's Graduate School of Business.

I was at The Equitable for about five years when I was "outplaced" along with I think a couple of hundred others. I was lucky--I was all of about 35, I had just become a qualified Fellow in the Life Management Institute (which basically meant I had passed a series of exams in things like contract law and life insurance business contracts) and The Equitable worked out a very nice severance arrangement.

I was outplaced in the Fall and found a job at The New York Times by the winter if my memory serves me. I was there for five years or so when my boss was suddenly fired under what seemed to me to be odd circumstances. I was all set to jump ship but was asked to stay on, which I did. And then I was outplaced from there!!!

In retrospect this was a good thing because it led to 1) setting up a consulting practice where I learned that I didn't like being a solo consultant, 2) taking an adjunct teaching job to help pay the bills where I learned that I loved teaching adults, and 3) finding an Instructor level position at Pace University where I was lucky enough to spend the next 32 years (after getting a Ph.D., which is another story), retiring at 69 ¾ in August of 2017.

So, Butch, your walk down memory lane inspired me to take a similar walk. Thanks!!