What were your first seven jobs? A simple question, but it dominated Twitter over the weekend. Turns out people love talking about themselves, cracking jokes, and discussing the current state of labor under capitalism. Who knew?
The #First7Jobs meme started with this earnest tweet from singer Marian Call:
What were your first 7 jobs?
— Marian Call (@mariancall) August 5, 2016
Babysitting, janitorial, slinging coffee, yard work, writing radio news, voice-overs, data entry/secretarial
And quickly picked up enough momentum to turn into a full-fledged hashtag game. As you might expect, jokers had a field day with it:
https://twitter.com/nictate/status/762189584507613184
1. Orphan
— Andrew Tumilty (@AndrewTumilty) August 7, 2016
2. Student
3. Secret
4. Secret
5. Secret
6. CEO Wayne Enterprises
7. Batman, wait, dammit
#first7jobs
https://twitter.com/Christian_Zamo/status/762112239507767296
#first7jobs
— Ryan North 🦖 🪄 🐶 💪 4️⃣ (@ryanqnorth) August 7, 2016
Paperboy
Greeter
Cashier
Clerk
Renegade apprentice
Renegade journeyman
Renegade master, back once again with the ill behaviour
https://twitter.com/don_macdonald/status/762090916836364288
https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/762136711560302593
https://twitter.com/bubblyphil/status/761876895013015552
https://twitter.com/Ben_O_723/status/762125906597076992
Coxswain
— Moltz (@Moltz) August 7, 2016
Coxswain
Coxswain
Coxswain
Coxswain
Coxswain
Coxswain second class#First7Jobs
https://twitter.com/ftrain/status/762244722039611392
https://twitter.com/bafeldman/status/762449105440215042
https://twitter.com/jimray/status/762362044423114752
Most people answered seriously, though, and the results were revealing on a couple of levels.
Successful people’s answers reminded us that every once in a while, someone goes from washing dishes to being an astronaut. Or that a kid running a slushee machine can one day be Lin-Manuel Miranda.
#firstsevenjobs
— Dr. Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) August 7, 2016
Dish washer
Camp counselor
Fighter pilot
Astronaut
Commandant
Speaker
Author
Now Global Space Statesman!
#first7jobs
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) August 7, 2016
Slushee machine at my aunt’s store
Intern for WNET
McD’s…register
Data entry
Drawing 1 model
Community paper writer
Teacher
But that’s a rare career trajectory, especially for younger people.
The other revealing thing about #First7Jobs is that very few people—even those relatively new to the workforce—reported having fewer than seven. Getting and keeping a job for life, then collecting a pension and retiring, is a thing of the past. If young people want pay increases, they have to change jobs.
So #First7Jobs turned out to be more than just another chain-letter survey —the kind that used to get passed around LiveJournal, but now get passed around Facebook. It’s simultaneously a reminder that success is still (kind of) possible (in rare cases), a commentary on the economic struggle most people are going through, and a new joke format to play with.
