How to Obtain 33 Jobs in 17 years

How many jobs have you held in your life? I have had a total of 33 jobs in 17 years. This does not include all of the musicals, operas, and television and film projects either. I am a professional singer and actor. Did I plan on having 33 jobs in 17 years? Of course not, but life has been a crazy wild ride. There were no drugs, very little alcohol, but my drug of choice has been WORK!

Most of my adult life I have worked at least 3 jobs or more simultaneously in addition to performing. So I will be doing a series on my 33 Jobs. Each week I will discuss one of my jobs and reflect on what I learned. Maybe you can apply for one of these jobs. Let’s start with my first job!

https://www.ghstv.org/

https://www.ppp.org/

My First Job

My first job was working for GHS-TV and Poplar Pike Playhouse as an intern for the summer of 2007. It was actually a full-time position that paid minimum wage which was $6.50 an hour at the time. In high school, I was enrolled in a class called “Production”. We were known as the “production students” by faculty and classmates.

Production Class

Most students thought we were insane and had no life outside of the theatre or televison studio. Well, they were not wrong. We basically worked full-time as students at GHS-TV and Poplar Pike Playhouse during the school year. The actual Production Class was during fourth period. We all had different positions in the class for both GHS-TV and Poplar Pike Playhouse.

Production Jobs

For the Poplar Pike Playhouse, I was an assistant box office manager my junior year and then box office manager my senior year. I was also a producer for Wake Up, Germantown and student reporter for GHS-TV. Our fourth period Production Class was a daily meeting between the fine arts faculty and all of the production students. After the meeting, we would get to work on whatever projects that we needed to do for either GHS-TV or Poplar Pike Playhouse.

A Small Misunderstanding

This job was a great first job. I just continued doing the work that I had been doing during the school year. But this time I got a paycheck, which was amazing. However, once the summer was over, the fine arts chairperson told be that I was expected to take Production Class for both fourth and fifth period during my senior year.

If I had know that I was expected to do fourth and fifth period for Production Class, I would not have done the summer internship. 4th Period Production Class and Chamber Choir were my only electives that year. All of my other classes were required in order to graduate. I could not have another elective and I did not want to drop choir.

The department chairperson was not happy, but there was nothing that he could do. I am so glad that I stayed in choir because I made the All-West Tennessee Honor Choir that year, which was a cool experience. Lastly, I became a music major in college. I may not have been accepted into the music department at Murray State if I had not remained in choir during my senior year.

Conclusion

Compared to most people’s first jobs, this was a cool first job. During the internship, I got to work with my classmates and prepare for my Production Class jobs for the following school year. Production Class responsibilities were extremely difficult to balance during the school year. The summer internship was a relief because I had no homework or classes in the summer.

During the school year, I stayed after-school quite late almost daily for Production related projects. Sometimes, I would get up at 3am just to complete my homework. The paid summer internship was probably one of the calmest times in my life. Furthermore, at the end of my senior, I won two regional Emmys for my news reports at GHS-TV and won best reporter in my production class. Internships are a nice way to expose yourself to the workforce. So if you are in high school or college, I would encourage you to apply to internships as soon as possible.

Dominique Duarte

https://www.bydominiqueduarte.com/how-to-live-life-one-day-at-a-time/