About My Career

 

When I think back on my 47-year career, it is a wonder I survived at all.  I held numerous part-time positions, but my first full-time job was in 1969, and I retired in 2015.  However, for five more years, I was an adjunct professor teaching 3-night course each semester.  So, it might be closer to 50 years taking into consideration all my part-time work.

During those 45-50 year of employment, I was laid off, downsized, and/or terminated ten times...  that averages out to once every five years.  Being laid off and downsized is one thing but being terminated is solely because I REFUSED TO KISS MY BOSS'S ASS and no boss wants to work with people that they cannot control or manipulate.

Because I changed jobs so often, I never stayed in one place long enough to qualify for a retirement program nor to contribute to a 401K except for the last three years of my employment.

In 2015, I convinced my wife to retire with me even though it would be early retirement for her and she had yet to reach the age to qualify for Medicare.  I used the money from the 401K that I had for 3 years to pay the premiums on healthcare until my wife turned 65.

Except for 7/8 years where I managed an ARTS COUNCIL, my career was focused on after high school education, either at a community college, a technical institute, a small four-year college, a university, or as a educational consultant designing and teaching training programs for industry.

I did a lot of traveling during my career and during the 8/9 years that I worked at three community college, I earned enough money in monthly mileage reimbursements to make my car payments.  So, while the travel was tedious, time consuming, and stressful, I did manage to make it work for me.

When I retired in 2015, I had over 300,000 frequent flyer points of three different airlines, Delta, American, and United.  I donated the miles on American and United to sick children and kept the mileage on Delta since it was the least.  My wife and I used that mileage to fly to Vegas and to Cancun, Mexico.

I had no idea where my career was headed when I first graduated from college, nor did I have any clues when I earned my MBA, although I knew it would open more doors for me.  My focus was always on what I wanted to do not on what other wanted me to do.  I had to enjoy my work, otherwise I did not want to work there, and didn't if that happened which it did a time or too.

Careers are not just to earn money and buy things, careers must be rewarding.  Most of my career was spent teaching others; I got back just as much as I gave, making it very satisfying.