For 30 some years I was an engineer. I designed the worlds best (at the time anyway) streaming tape drive for Kennedy Co, the first programmable ISDN monitor/simulator and (as far as I know) the only pure software Bit Error Rate tester and the first ISDN simulator capable of running 64 logical links for Tekelec.
Before I retired from Sempra Energy, I developed a fully automated system that monitored the state of some 3 dozen communication systems and restarted them if needed. If the link to one was down, it would automatically page the person on duty. When the old com system was replaced, I developed a new one that monitored ping time to the new com systems.
Now, I'm retired from all that and I sell tools at Lowes.
In the far past, I mowed lawn and pulled weeds for movie money. When I was 11, I sorted eggs during summer vacation.
At 12, I became a berry picker.
At 13, I also drove a Ford 9N tractor pulling an incredibly dangerous hay bailer. Someone once tossed in a pitchfork of hay at the wrong time and the bailer tossed the fork halfway across the field.
I worked in a TV shop after school, then an auto shop.
In the army, I was a truck mechanic.
The summer after I got out, I drove a log truck.
I went through several short term jobs at small companies that would work a single contract, then chuck everyone until they got another contract. I did sheet metal work, machine work and a few other things.
Went to work at an adding machine company adjusting and repairing machines, then transfered to the machine shop inspecting parts and helping setup punch presses.
