Reply #58: Yes, but the US system allowed me to work as a Waitress for 3 years [View All]

while I was reorganizing my life after my first major career failure.

I was a product of the first Bush Recession - lost my job in 1991 when the company that hired me out of college had to make job cutbacks. I was young and expendible. After 3 years of Selling Cars, Weight Loss Programs, Dating Services and a variety of other dead end jobs I had no choice but to collect unemployment. And in the US, setting up Unemployment can be one of the most humiliating experiences out there.

A week later I took a job at a local Houlihans restaurant where I spent 3 years waiting tables and taking classes and figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. I wasn't getting anywhere in sales and I was miserable in general with my life.

I would have not survived waiting tables if I had to make $6-7/hour and hope that people tip me if they so inclined to do so. That's a salary of around $15k/year and I knew I needed twice so that I could pay for school, all my bills (I live on my own) and be able to enjoy doing stuff from time to time.

Working at Houlihans I averaged close to $30k per year. The measily $2/hour covered the crappy health benefits you could get (which believe me was better than nothing!) and I hustled my ass off to earn that 20% tip, because waiting tables you rarely get to keep all of those tips; not after you tip out the bartenders, food runners and buskids.

I hope to god I never have to wait a table ever again, but I have no regrets for those 3 years I was at Houlihans. After 2.5 years, I felt my life was adjusted enough and the market was doing well enough that I could maybe get an entry level job in a new field. Seven years later I'm still working in the same field with a great position (and crossing my fingers that this Bush recession won't get the best of me)