19 Things I’ve Done

Ned Dwyer
2 min readSep 3, 2017
“Can I call you back?” — me, circa 1987

Since I was a little kid I’ve always looked for ways to make a buck.

In primary school I remember selling lollypops for 50 cents each from a bag of 50 that cost me a few bucks.

The day I could legally take a job delivering newspapers at 12 I had my application in with the local rag. I fudged my birthday “accidentally” to get my first hourly wage job so I could start pushing shopping trolleys a couple of months before I turned 14…

I was hungry.

The number and breadth of jobs I’ve had is a source of amusement for friends, when I invariably bring up the time that I had some job that they’ve never heard of before — adding to a long list of surprise employment in their minds.

Their source of amusement and my source of pride.

Many of these jobs I held concurrently. At one point I was working from 6am to 4pm at a bagel shop, 5pm to 11pm waiting tables at a restaurant, then driving medical samples across the suburbs for the rest of the weekend.

So here’s the list.

  1. Free newspaper delivery, Geelong Independent Newspapers
  2. Newspaper hawker, The West Australian
  3. Shopping trolley assistant & general hand, Supa Valu Supermarkets
  4. Kitchenhand, Chicken Treat
  5. Night cleaner, Coles butchery department
  6. Dishwasher (and later waiter), Thai restaurant
  7. Barista, bagel shop
  8. Waiter, the Witches Cauldron
  9. Medical courier, Mayne Health
  10. Motorcycle delivery driver (and later sales/marketing/logistics), Vmoto motorcycles
  11. Telesales, contract
  12. Photo booth sales, independent*
  13. Nightclub promoter, Cassette*
  14. Ad sales, Mr Chop*
  15. Marketing manager, 360 Desktop
  16. Managing director, Native Digital*
  17. CEO, Elto*
  18. Product Manager, GoDaddy
  19. Consultant, independent*

Those with an asterisk* were working for myself. I’ve omitted all of the ones that never went anywhere, had little to no revenues, or that lasted less than 6 months.

Right now I’m on sabbatical, taking time out to figure what I’m going to do next and where I can make the most impact.

I’m looking forward to adding #21 to the list.

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Ned Dwyer

Australian in SF. Product manager & entrepreneur. Running & reading.