My Job History
I’ve worked at a lot of places. Here’s a list of most of them.
December 1988 – January 1991: Eastgate Cinema – East Alton, IL My first job. I was at Roxana seeing the movie Big with a friend and after the movie I was waiting for him in the lobby so I filled out an application. I lasted just slightly over 2 years at this place and got to see it get transformed from a twin cinema into a 6-plex. Look at the Eastgate History page for photos of the construction.
January 1991 – February 1991: Shop N Save – Wood River, IL I really really didn’t like this job too much at all. My duties were to get carts (in the snow), stock shelves, fill coolers, etc. It was boring. I remember a lot of times I would go outside like I was going to get carts and I would get in my car and just sit there listening to music. In fact, I think I spent much of my work day doing this if I didn’t think I’d be missed. I finally quit showing up to work when I got the job at Cottonwood Cinema.
February 1991: Cottonwood Cinema – Glen Carbon, IL
Alton Cine – Alton, IL I think my primary reason for getting this job was because it was a closer drive than Cottonwood Cinema. About 30 minutes closer.
??? 1991 – September 1991: Union Station Cine – St. Louis, MO My plan was to move out of my parent’s house to downtown St. Louis. So I decided the first order of business should be to get a job in St. Louis. The only place I applied at was this theater and I got the job almost immediately. Before and after work, I would go apartment hunting. I worked at this job while still working at Alton Cine.
I worked there for a couple of months before telling my parents. They thought I was going to work at Alton Cine every day, not knowing that I was actually driving 45 minutes away each day. I finally told them about the job when someone from their church recognized me and was surprised to see me working there. I didn’t want them to find out from someone else. I quit this job when I decided to move to Texas.
House Painter – Galveston, TX
Long John Silvers – Galveston, TX
Circle K – League City, TX
Jamestown Cinema – Florissant, MO
Union Station Cine – St. Louis, MO
Briarcliff Cinema – Myrtle Beach, SC
Diamond Shamrock – Galveston, TX
Wendy’s – Galveston, TX I was here for just a week. Four of my days were spent watching training videos. Then I had a day or two of actually working. Then I quit. I bet they hated me for that.
November 1992: Midwest Publishing – Normal, IL This is a my first telemarketing job and I turn out to be pretty good at it. I think we were taking donations for the Fraternal Order of Police. But after awhile I get really sick of it and I quit.
October 1992: Steak N Shake – Bloomington, IL I only worked at Steak N Shake for one day because during my first day of working there, I pass out on the floor while working in the kitchen. I think it was because I hadn’t been sleeping well lately and hadn’t had money to eat very much. So that was a little embarrassing. After it happens, the manager takes me into the employee room and gives me a free meal and cigarettes. Then she puts me to work for another hour before letting me go home. I never return until 2 weeks later to get my paycheck.
December 1992: Apartment Cleaner – Hollywood, CA I’m talking to the landlord of the place I’m staying at and I mention how it’s impossible to find a job in Los Angeles. So he decides to help me out by paying me to clean vacant apartments. I vaccuum, dust, pick up trash, etc. and he pays me $4.00 per hour in cash.
March 1993 – April 1993: 7-Eleven – East Alton and Wood River, IL This job doesn’t last too long because me and a girlfriend decide to loot about $5,000 worth of money and merchandise from the store and leave town. The details of that event are here. Overall it’s a fun job, though. They had a policy where you had to be 21 to work there so I modified a photocopy of my driver’s license to make myself 2 years older. I worked at both store locations, mostly on the night shift from 2am to 10am.
June 1993: Some factory place – Highland, IL I only worked at this place for one day. It was hard work and I got way too dirty. Screw that, I’ll work at McDonald’s instead.
June 1993: McDonald’s – Highland, IL I really hated this job and only lasted a week at it. I would have lasted just a few days at it, but when I tried to stay home they sent some employees to my apartment to come and get me. I did the normal McDonald-type things here – I made lots of burgers and fries.
August 1993: Alton Telegraph – Alton, IL At some point I get a job doing telemarketing for the newspaper in Alton. I only last a week at it, then I stop showing up because I leave the state. I don’t even think I ever got a paycheck from this job.
August 1993 – Paradis Gift Shops – Indianapolis, IN My first job in Indianapolis is at the airport gift shops. It’s a fun, easygoing job and I last for a couple of weeks at it, mostly selling t-shirts to all the hicks that are in town for the Brickyard 500. But I end up quitting when I get hired at the movie theater and realize that there’s no way I’ll be able to work both jobs.
August 1993 – January 1994: Lafayette Square Cinema – Indianapolis, IN: I found out that the manager of this theater hired me because he was impressed with my previous work history – which I completely made up since I was working under a fake name. I’d written that I had previously worked at Mann’s Chineese Theater in Hollywood, CA and that I had managed a telemarketing company in Illinois. Too bad he didn’t think to check my references until after he hired me. On my last day of work, the manager confronted me about my application. He said that he checked all my references and absolutely nothing checked out. Not the previous employers, not the personal references and not my education. He wasn’t mad about it at all, he was mostly amused since he liked me. I hinted that maybe my references were real but my name wasn’t.
I really loved working at that place and had a lot of fun there. The reason I left was because I was afraid that with the year being over, my fake tax information would be sent to the IRS and they would see that the social security number was fake and they would come after me. I don’t know if I needed to worry about that or not, but better safe than sorry. A few months after I left, Ameritech Corporate Security guy Jim Bayless came to the theater looking for me. The manager there gave Jim a copy of my tax forms. Which didn’t do Jim a lot of good since all my information was completely made up.
October 1993 – January 1994: Amoco Gas Station – Indianapolis, IN: I took this job as a 2nd job while I still worked at the cinema. The assistant manager of this place hired me and for some reason the owner took an immediate disliking to me. He was constantly yelling at me for everything even though I did everything I was supposed to. I had big plans for this place, including looting the entire store of everything valuable and leaving town with one of the customers’ cars that was in the service station. In the end I decided against it because I liked everyone at the theater and I wanted to be able to come back and visit without worrying about getting arrested when I was in town.
January 1994 – March 1994: Fraternal Order of Police – Celina, OH I was still living under my pretend name of Glen Carbon while working at this place which felt a little bizzare, working so closely with the police. We called up people all over the county asking them for donations for the FOP. The bizarre thing about this job was that during the 2 previous years where they called up people, some scam artists were also calling up people and pretending to be the FOP to get the donations. So halfway during my employment here, it starts happening again. Only this year the scam artists get really bold and they actually break into our building and use our phones to make the calls. They also get all the employees information and pretend to be us. They steal all kinds of records from the building and they steal the FOP car window stickers and literature that we gave to people for donating.
The manager actually told me that one of the guys was using my name. So the FBI gets called about it and I’m told that they will questioning all of us and taking our fingerprints. This is a little worrisome for me, knowing that the FBI will be taking a close look at me and maybe even running my prints through their crime database. Even though the FBI is involved, I never get to meet any of them and they never end up asking for my fingerprints. I end up giving 2 weeks notice and quitting my job there because I don’t want to be a suspect. I get a job lined up at the local Wendy’s but I never end up going into work because I leave town for other reasons.
May 1994 – June 1994: WazWans – Portland, OR Even though I usually don’t enjoy working fast food jobs, I kind of enjoy working here. In was in the Lloyd Center mall. I quit when I get hired by AM/PM which has better hours, better pay and it just a couple of blocks from where I’m living.
June 1994 – October 1994: AM/PM – Portland, OR I can’t remember why I quit this job because I know I really liked working there. I probably just got tired of working on the midnight shift all the time. My manager, Steve, quickly became accustomed to my weird phone obsession and nonstop prank calls from my friend Zak.
October 1994: Arby’s – Portland, OR I got hired here because I needed a job, I quit because I hate fast food and I found something else.
Ocbotber 1994: Toys R Us – Portland, OR Technically I never worked at Toys R Us – but I got a nametag from them so I’m listing it. I was hired and was sitting in employee orientation listing to the district guy talk to us. It was a new store opening so we were all new employees. I decided that it sounded lame so I got up and left. I blacked out the name on this tag because I don’t want anyone to know what name I lived under during the BP incident.
November 1994: BP – Portland, OR I got this job for just one reason – so I could take all the money from them to fund my trip to a hacker convention in Texas. It goes okay, I think I end up with maybe $700 or $800 from it. I would have gotten more if I were a regular cashier there, but I was just the gas attendent where I pumped gas all day. I worked there for about a week, then one night I kept all my money in my pockets instead of dropping it into the safe like I was supposed to. Near the end of my shift, I said I was going to the bathroom and would be right back. I ran to the back, then around the block and went and sat in some bushes across the street from them so I could see if the police arrive. After waiting for an hour, the police don’t show up so I get bored and leave.
1995: Circle K – Corpus Christi, TX I got this job several days after applying and interviewing. I did the basic Circle K type stuff. I think it was a 7-Eleven that was bought out by Circle K just as I started working there. Anyway, the most memorable event at this job was the gunfight that broke out in the parking lot. It happened in the late evening and I hear a popping sound outside. After a few seconds, I realize that it’s people on opposite ends of the parking lot firing guns at each other.
So grab the phone and duck behind the counter as I dial 911. The customers in the store all rush into the cooler and hide out there, which I don’t notice until a few hours later when I man comes into the store and asks if he can go into the cooler and get his wallet. I ask what his wallet is doing in the cooler and he says him and a few other customers hid out there during the gunfire. In addition to the gunfight, I had a beer run that night. (You know, some kid comes in and runs out the door with a case of beer.) When the manager showed up in the morning I yelled at her that I quit. But I lasted a few more months there before being fired.
1995: Telemarketing for a picture studio – Corpus Christi, TX I only worked at this job for a couple of weeks, but I accomplished some cool things while I was there – there were about 10 phones for the employees to make their calls with. I worked at a different phone each day, ANI’ed the line and then called Southwestern Bell when I got off work and ordered call forwarding for that line. The next day I would call forward the number to something. Some of them I call forwarded to the Defcon voice bridge, others were to 900 numbers and 800-CALL-ATT so I could make free calls that would be traced back to the studio. By the time I quit, I had all the lines forwarded. The forwarding didn’t last as long as I’d hoped, probably because of all the 900 number calls we made.
1995: Che Bello – Corpus Christi, TX I lasted several months at this job and really liked working there. It was a coffee, sandwich, ice cream shop. We did deliveries so sometimes I would get to take the managers car around town, taking food to people. I think I ended up quitting when we decided to move out of state.
1996/1997: Target – Albany, OR I can’t remember exactly how long I lasted at this job, but I remember the Halloween chaos and then a month later the Christmas chaos. I think I stayed a few months after that until I quit to work full-time at the movie theater. I worked mostly in the toy department, stocking shelves, helping customers and occasionally cashiering.
This one supervisor, named Bob Jones, seemed to hate me. He would come in my department and nitpick everything. He told me that I was wasting the company’s time by not doing everything properly, even though my actual supervisor in that department had no problems with me. When I decided to quit to work at the theater, I put in my 2 weeks notice and listed Bob as the reason for quitting. I filled out the form that Target provided to resign, and under the “reason for leaving” section I wrote, “Because Bob Jones says I’m a waste of the company’s time.” Later that day, I was called into Bob’s office to be lectured by him. He was extremely nice about it, though, and asked me to fill out another form. He clarified for me that he said I was wasting the company’s time, not that I’m a waste of company time. He threw away my resignation form.
I filled out a new one, this time writing, “Because Bob Jones says I’m wasting the company’s time by being here. This is the second time I’ve filled out this form. Bob threw away the first one.” This time the form made it through. But a week later, Bob fires me. One of my work days conflicted with my day at the theater, so I worked it out with another employee to work in my place that day. This was something that was done regularly there – I’d worked for other employees when they couldn’t make it in too. But Bob used this as an excuse to call me into his office and fire me. He said I couldn’t just switch days like that. I was happy to go – I’d only put in the 2 weeks notice to be nice.
Soon after being fired, I called up Target’s headquarters and made a formal complaint about Bob. I think I may have sent them a letter too. Soon after that, the manager of Target called me at home and asked me to come in and talk to him. We talked about Bob for a bit and he offered me my job back, which I politely refused. Within a month, Bob was no longer working at Target. I don’t know if I had anything to do with it, but I’d like to think I did.
Taco Time – Albany, OR
Albany Cinema – Albany, OR
Domino’s Pizza – Celina, OH
Telemarketing for a hearing aid company – Celina, OH
Gerlach Machine & Tool – Celina, OH
Roofer – Celina, OH
Some other machine place – Celina, OH
ach so! du hatte vielen arbeite….
holy shit that was interesting
try working at a hotel
Where do you work now?