Employment - 52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Week #30

Week 30: Employment. Describe your first job. What did you do? Were you saving for something in particular, or just trying to make a living? Did that first job provide skills and make an impact on your life today? 

My first job was as a clerk-typist for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center. I worked for a secretary in the Contract Administration group in the late 70's. This was before the days of a computer on every desk, so all of the forms were manually typed and copied. At least we had electric typewriters!

I was going to be home for the summer after my first year of college, so wanted to make some money for the next school year. I had taken typing in high school and passed the required typing test for the NASA job. I more than doubled my words per minute that summer! The typing skills I learned have been very useful, but the most important skills were learning how to work on a team and just seeing office politics in action. I spent my second summer in school, but returned to NASA in my third summer as an Aerospace Technician. That summer, I programmed in Basic on a very early version of a desktop computer that used tapes for storage. Technology sure has come a long way since then!

This is a weekly challenge from GeneaBloggers called 52 weeks of personal genealogy history.