Jobs in my life

Everyone has a dream in their childhood of what they will want to work on when they grow up. I have to say honestly that I don’t remember what kind of job I dreamed of as a kid. Most people want to be veterinarians, police officers, firefighters, doctors. But I think very few achieve what they dream of as a child. But I may be wrong.

When I was a teenager, I took a job during the summer holidays. Actually, I didn’t really choose between job opportunities, I applied for almost every job posting. It didn’t matter if I had to work a lot or a little, it didn’t matter if it was a cool job or not. I wanted to try many different jobs and I was proud of every cent I earned.

I liked the feeling that my work was worth something, that I entered the world of adults. I liked that if I wanted to buy something for myself then I didn’t have to ask my mom to buy it or to give me money. Although it didn't work that way in our family anyway. Mom raised me and my sister alone, we got everything we needed. But we couldn’t get all the clothes, toys just because it was just fashionable.

Anyway, at that time, student workers were making very little money. But I knew I was working for that money and I was very proud of it. There were jobs I liked better and there were some less, but I learned something through each one. I handed out flyers on the street, sold Zepter products in a fluffy office, helped customers in a phone shop. One year I worked in cornfield. I think that was the hardest job physically.

I think perhaps the best place to work was a 4-star hotel in Siófok, (Hungary). Siófok is said to be the capital in summer, but it is also called the capital of Lake Balaton. It’s actually a small town, and a not-too-exciting place for the rest of the year. But life is buzzing in the summer, people from all over the country go there for holidays and parties. There are also many foreign tourists. The hotel where I worked also gave us accommodation so I spent the whole summer there.

We worked with some girls in the hotel lobby. Guests of the hotel could try small electric huts with their small children. We gave them these cars and walked with them in the hotel garden while the little kid was driving the car in front of us. And we asked them if they knew they could vacation at the hotel every year as a club member at a discounted rate. If they were interested in the opportunity, we agreed on a time when they could take the time to listen to the full information. That was our job. At the agreed time, they met with sales colleagues. Holiday rights were sold. The amount of our salary depends on how many people we can arouse interest in and how many people we discuss an appointment with.

My last job as a student was a Charles Vögele boutique. I loved that job too, but unfortunately in the middle of the summer all the student workers were fired, me too. They hired new staff, so they no longer needed students. Usually student workers were employed by companies all summer, so if someone was left without a job they didn’t really have a chance to find a job in the middle of the summer.

There was a pizzeria in our area that I went to many times, next to it was a pub. Once one of my neighbors invited me to the pub when I was just going to the pizzeria. We talked about the job and I said "I'd love to work here." The owner of the pub was right there and heard what I said, offered to work there. This is how my bartender career started. At first I didn't even know which drink was what. But they were very patient with me. I was 17 then. When the summer was over I was offered to continue working there after school in the afternoons and on the weekends. So I stayed. But the boss and her husband drank a lot and I didn’t like it when they were drunk. They treated each other, the other guests and me badly. Sometimes there was a fight as well. One day I couldn’t take it any longer and I told the drunken boss not to treat me the way she did. But she didn't stop. I simply walked out the door in the middle of the shift.

I then got a job at a larger pub in an iconic place in the city at the time. The work was good, the pay was good, but when the state banned the use of slot machines in the pubs, the huge revenue was lost and the pub closed permanently.

I then worked in several pubs, sometimes I had several jobs at the same time. I never had to look for a job, the owners approached me. Both the guests and the bosses loved me, I did a good job. I was still working on the last day before I gave birth. I loved that life, the job. It's a feeling of life! I spent more than 10 years behind the counter.

But bartending isn’t really family-friendly. So I feel like a teenager again when it comes to looking for a job. I don’t really know what I want to work on and other aspects are already important. But I send my resume to many different types of companies and I think I will be lucky and I will find a job again that I will enjoy.