INFORMS Open Forum

  • 1.  Fun Post - First Job?

    Posted 03-30-2023 09:07

    What was your first job? Did it end up affecting your career choice? Besides babysitting, my first job was waitressing. And I learned pretty quickly that it wasn't for me. Balancing multiple tall glasses on a tray is not a skill that I have. Look forward to hearing about our members' first jobs!



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    Jill Capello
    Membership Associate
    INFORMS
    Catonsville MD
    jcapello@informs.org
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  • 2.  RE: Fun Post - First Job?

    Posted 03-30-2023 12:42

    I had a newspaper route. I don't believe it affected my career choice, although maybe I should reconsider given that I solved the TSP to create my routes :)



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    Laura Albert
    INFORMS President
    Professor and David H. Gustafson Chair
    University of Wisconsin-Madison
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  • 3.  RE: Fun Post - First Job?

    Posted 03-30-2023 13:11

    My first job was as a "slipper" at the Charleston, WV newspapers. I was on an assembly line in the basement where bundles of 25 papers would come off the press and down a chute. My job was to take a bundle of papers from the assembly line, slip advertisements from Sears, Radio Shack and other stores into each paper, and push the bundle back on the line where it would be loaded onto a truck.

    I was talking with Ralph Keeney at an INFORMS conference and found out he also was a slipper. Neither of us had meet another slipper since moving on to other careers.

    Dave



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    David Hunt
    Vice President
    Oliver Wyman
    Princeton NJ
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  • 4.  RE: Fun Post - First Job?

    Posted 03-30-2023 15:01

    I worked in a framing store! I worked for the nicest woman who was so patient with me even though I was TERRIBLE at it. What I remember most about this job is my entire first paycheck went to pay for my first parking ticket I received for parking in the wrong spot at work ...

    What affected my career choice most was working on the newspaper in college as well as volunteering as a writing tutor. That set me on the right path!



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    Ashley Kilgore
    Manager, Communications
    INFORMS
    Catonsville MD
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