Show & Tell: My First Job

Not sure what I was thinking when I picked this topic because I don't seem to have any photos to illustrate my first job, or any jobs I've had for that matter*. Well, I have some photos from my first REAL job, but I'm not going to write just about that (the hostess can cheat, can't she?).

But let's start with my first real job then! With real I mean the first permanent job after finished studies and relevant to my background and skills, etc.

My first job was at a small consultancy called Spintrack (the company has since gone bankrupt - I guess they couldn't operate without me - and been restarted by one of the founders), which specialised in "public finance". This means public funding of different kinds (from the Swedish state, local or regional government, the EU, etc.) of private or public projects, mainly within research and innovation or business development. We helped companies, usually small ones, and public organisations such as universities, government agencies or municipalities / municipal companies identify funding opportunities - grants, loans, credits - and then apply for it, administer any won grants and report concluded projects. Usually organisations don't have the skills or resources to do this themselves. We mostly worked on research money from the EU - and here's where my EU degree came in handy.

S, H and P in our offices in Drottninggatan late 2003 or early 2004

We also did other things, non-funding related, and my political science background helped here too; such as a study of conditions for SMEs (small and medium-sized companies) in different OECD countries. For a while I also expanded my skills area and worked together with one of our associated consultants on IT governance projects, which - in very few words - means making the necessary changes within an organisation to allow IT become an integral part of the management structure. IT moving from some guys in a basement room to the board room so-to-speak.

Christmas buffet and show at Hamburgerbörs, 2003

Towards the end of my time at Spintrack I also helped companies write tenders for public contracts and started a Microsoft-run project called European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) together with a colleague. I stayed at Spintrack for two years and three months before moving to my current job where I've been for four years now. Time for a change me thinks!

But this is all very boring CV stuff! So let's go to the more exciting jobs I've had!

My life as a child labourer, or how I learnt responsibility and money's worth
* Helped out my uncle with marketing: filling envelopes with advertising material and sealing them = my very first paid job
* Distributed advertising material but not for long; the preparation work was too time-consuming, especially in relation to the pay, and I think my parents ended up doing quite a lot of it
* Sold jultidningar, i.e. went around the neighbourhood to take up orders for books and magazine subscriptions, including Christmas magazine specials, to be delivered in time for Christmas

Summer jobs or how I tried to get work experience and earn some own money
* Worked in the mail room and distributed the internal mail at Scania; I covered the head office building and not the factory floor, hence felt very "important" (one summer)
* Distributed mornings newspapers around my neighbourhood; I only lasted two-three weeks because working between the hours of 3-7AM when all your friends have regular summer job hours and want to hang out in the evenings don't really work
* Learnt a lot about supply control and logistical systems at Scania Parts Logistics (their spare parts supply chain) (several summers and Decembers) = my first proper summer job

And let's not forget my aupair year in the US in between upper secondary school and university!

These kids are now 22 and 20! And Deacon has gone to dog heaven

Pay my way through school-jobs (well, in addition to Swedish study grants and loans)
* Worked up to 20 hours a week at Fred Perry in Covent Garden in London during my last year of the Bachelor up until March when I had to concentrate on finals = my first and last (?) job in a shop (which reminds me of the fact that I have never worked as a waitress, which otherwise seems like a classic summer or extra job)
* Covered for the librarian at the Middle East Centre during two-thirds of my two years in Oxford

My short-but-could-return political career
* Treasurer of the local SSU (Social Democrat youth organisation) club in Södertälje at age 16 or 17
* Held a political post on a small local council (for Disability issues) at age 18-21
* Attempted to convince Swedes to vote yes to the euro in 2003. Failed (we still have the krona) but it was a fun summer! This was not an elected post as I worked for and was paid by Sverige i Europa but it was political campaigning so... (anecdote: I actually voted no to EU membership in 1994 but pretty soon after changed my mind and became a strong EU - and eventually euro - supporter)

Work on the euro campaign trail was rather varying; I spent one week travelling around camp sites in a caravan with these colleagues

There are a few other jobs I haven't mentioned but that's it from me today!

* Okay, I found some in the end