Monday, July 8, 2013

I'm Done! 10 Things About My Temporary Job

Today was the last day of my temporary job with the World Series of Poker.  I can't believe six weeks flew by so fast!  So I celebrated with a Green Tea Frapuccino, compliments of my sister in law, and thought about the past month and a half.  Here's some things about the job:

  1. It's a great way to make some extra money (I made almost $4,000--after taxes--during the six weeks). 
  2. It was a fast-paced job with a bunch of extra bonuses (a paid hour lunch, a free buffet any time we were hungry--some people ate three meals a day there!, super nice co-workers).
  3. My "uniform" cost a grand total of $15.  They provided the polo shirts with the WSOP logo, we provided black pants (which I bought at the Goodwill for $2.50) and black shoes (which I bought at Payless for $9.95).  If I would have been walking eight hours a day I would have bought a better quality shoe but for just standing in front of my cashier window all day these shoes worked perfectly.
  4. People spend a ridiculous amount of money on poker.  I personally took in about $1.8 million during the six weeks.  That is A LOT of money to count!  But in every tournament only 10% of the people will win something and the other 90% lose.  Even with good skill, luck still plays a big part and I couldn't imagine tossing away so much money on what is basically a game of chance.  
  5. 99.9% of the customers were really nice.  There were a small percent of people who were jerks but nearly everyone that I waited on was nice.  There were a massive amount of Canadians there (really friendly people!) and lots of French people (really cute!) as well as lots of Brazilians (many who didn't speak English so I made due with my so-so Spanish).  I liked it when people from the UK came to my window because they always said "cheers" when they left which sounded cute.  A lot of people came from Australia (that's a LONG plane ride), a few came from South Africa (ditto), and one came from Senegal.  Overall, a very international crowd.
  6. Working for an hourly wage--even if it was an OK wage of $18 an hour--still made me think that I need to have my own business again.  I want to make my own hours, make my own goals, set my own rules, and make an income that can be as high as I want it to be based on the work I do.
  7. Working 40 (super busy!) hours a week reminded me that I need to be less lazy.  The job showed me that I could get a massive amount of work done if I work really hard for eight hours a day instead of getting distracted (with Reddit usually) and doing other things besides working.
  8. I was also happy with how much I learned on the job.  If you remember a while back, like the first week of the job, I was overwhelmed and ready to quit but I stuck it out and now I feel like an old pro.  I got used to the computer systems used, developed my own "flow" which made me work quickly and accurately, and gained a lot of confidence in an area that I knew nothing about just a couple short months ago.
  9. I got to knock "work at the WSOP" off of my annual goal list.
  10. I will definitely consider working there again next summer.

7 comments:

  1. Wow sounds great! And that's some good money.

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  2. That's a nice chunk of change for 6 weeks of work and $18 an hour is nothing to sneeze at. I'm having a hard time finding a job that pays $10 and hour or even $8. I'm glad you stuck it out. It sounds like it was a great experience.

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  3. Sounds like it was a great experience! I'm glad you made some good money and had fun.

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  4. Sounds like a great way to make some cash every year for all your financial goals - now you are a pro and know the exact job you like to do. Enjoy a little peace now!

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  5. You had a productive and profitable 6 weeks, and the people-watching must have been fun!

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  6. Thanks for all of the nice comments--all of your support is amazing!

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  7. Did the Brazilians understand your Spanish? They speak Portugese in Brazil.

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