My First Job

My first job: Census worker in New York

dream hampton Aug 20, 2013
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My First Job

My first job: Census worker in New York

dream hampton Aug 20, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

We’ve been collecting stories of first jobs this week — the unusual and the everyday. On Monday we heard from “The Simpsons” writer Michael Price about working in a mall; yesterday truck driver Don Holzschuh recalled working at an amusement park in Minnesota.

Today’s story takes us to New York, with writer and filmmaker dream hampton. Her first paid job was as a census taker in New York, making $10 an hour.

“Being a census taker, I thought I was doing a great service. Coming from the east side of Detroit, I knew what it meant to have funds diverted away from your community because you had not been counted,” she said. “Now that I think of it, I learned a lot. That was good training because I never went to journalism school. So I think that taking the census as an 18-year-old was an excellent way to hone some pretty good interview skills and to get stories out of people who were absolutely unwilling to tell them.”

What was your first job? What did you learn? Comment below, on our Facebook page or tweet us @MarketplaceAPM with #MyFirstJob.

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