Employment and Endeavour In which the reader learns that Jason has only had two permanent jobs and yet seems in every other way to be a respectable member of society, and not in the least a despicable slacker;

The way that I currently spend my life is to administer over 50 UNIX Machines for a really cool company in Medford, Massachusetts, called Thomson Financial Services, Technical Operations. This is one of those companies that you never hear of directly, but it turns out they're the ones running the whole and entire show from behind the scenes since forever and a day. It's also owned and operated by the Thomson Corporation, which is a big multi-national media conglomerate. This translates to near-nil chances of the company drying up and blowing away anytime soon, which is a big concern to us twentysomethings.

I love the job, love the people I'm working with, and love the real happy glow it's casting upon all other aspects of my life. In other words... I'm doin' juuuuuust fine.

Now, let's step away from this current realm of happiness and wonder to look back upon my history in the employment field. As you can see, it used to rule as well, but rose from a near-deathlike state before that.

Jason Scott, UNIX Sysadmin.

Jason Scott, Mr. Art Guy. I spent the purest, fullest year and a half working for Focus Studios, a computer game company startup in Cambridge, Massachsetts. Essentially, I spent day after day drawing great stuff, making fun art, and getting first crack at a ton of hardware and software that wasn't yet on the general market. All this, and getting paid too! Can you dig it?

Focus Studios was and is run by a Mr. Mark Tsai, who may in fact be one of the coolest, most engaging individuals to walk the earth. You wouldn't know it to first meet him, and I'll bet he doesn't even think this of himself, but he has that self-assured awareness of the world around him that makes you want to do just about anything for the man.

My official title at Focus Studios was "Mr. Art Guy", that is, I provided artwork, drawings, computer-generated scenes, and what-have-you for whatever the project of the day is. This translated to a lot of creation in a lot of media, and the opportunity to express myself artistically in a billion different ways. Needless to say, I loved every second of it, but a guy's gotta eat, and Mark was way too nice to a bucket of bastards.


Focus Studios was the first job where I was a salaried employee. Previous to this, I was what is generally called a "temp". For about 7 years, I was assigned by different "agencies" a mind-numbing variety of jobs that ranged from the truly heavenly to the sick and bizzare. In all cases, I worked at a rate generally lower than my co-workers, while my agency took a cut of the total cost of hiring me that actually put my price above that of my co-workers. This sort of dealing is common in the temp industry; if you wonder why your assignee is treating you like you're making $18.00 an hour when you're getting paid $9, there is a good chance that's what they're actually paying for you. Temp Jobs I've Had

Here, then, is a short listing of some of the high and low-lights from my temp experience. This should not be considered some sort of vitae or resume'. It is simply presented to the reader as a source of entertainment, showing how one relatively-motivated individual can find himself scattered among many branches of the tree of Industry; and effect little or no change from therein.

To really stress that this is not a resume', I am including my patented Suck-O-Meter®, measured on a 1 to 10 Disgruntled Jason Head Scale. 1 means the job was only slightly unpleasant, as all jobs tend to be, and 10 means that it is more than likely I resigned. (I only resigned three times out of over 120 job assignments, so this is saying something.)


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This WWW Site is © 1997 by Jason Scott, but he's just so used to plagarists kicking him in the creative groin, what's one more gonna do?