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How many jobs have you had?

59 replies

notsuperbug · 22/12/2025 18:06

I was filling out an application form which demanded I list all jobs and gaps since leaving school. It took me a while and I wonder if I have had more jobs than most people?

I counted up - 19 including a couple of career breaks and vacation work at uni- and for clarity I am 50. Is this a lot? or fairly typical nowadays?

OP posts:
hopefulcandidate · 22/12/2025 18:29

8, including 2 part time/ summer jobs while at university. I am about to start a new job in January and I will be 48 then.

EBearhug · 22/12/2025 18:31

Including Saturday/holiday jobs, at 53, I'm on about 15 - one of which was 19 years.

Moonstone20 · 22/12/2025 18:33

I’m mid 50s. I’ve had 9 jobs since age of 30. Since leaving school though it’s probably about 90 jobs as I took so many short term and temping jobs in my 20s. There is no way I could fill in form like you are doing OP.

spanieleyes · 22/12/2025 18:35

Three since I left university, civil service and then teaching in 2 different schools. Two before I went to university, part time pocket money jobs.
That’s it, nothing else!

Nourishinghandcream · 22/12/2025 18:41

Two full-time.
One 3yrs and the other 38yrs.

One part-time.
Did it weekends & evenings when working at my first FT job.

BrownFlower2 · 22/12/2025 18:47

I've had 7, some were holiday jobs/very short term. Worked one job for a decade. I'm early forties.

MrTwisterHasABlister · 22/12/2025 18:48

Way over 100 since leaving school - but I’ve been freelance for 25 years so that’s gonna bump it up!

Sunnyside4 · 22/12/2025 19:07

I'm 59 - I've had seven - two of which were for the same employer.

DramaAlpaca · 22/12/2025 19:09

I'm 61 and since I graduated 40 years ago (eek!) I've had seven different jobs plus a nine year career break as a SAHM. I started my current, hopefully last, job two years ago.

gamerchick · 22/12/2025 19:11

These applications always weird me out. Why do they want to know if you had a load of summer jobs as a teen?!

greengreengrass3 · 22/12/2025 19:12

I’ve had 3 jobs, the first I was 15 to 16, the second I moved up the chain so a few roles for the same business from 16 to 39 and the last one I’ve been in now for almost 5 years.

OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 22/12/2025 19:15

13 I think. Counting various casual and shitty part time jobs.

I'm in my 40s and some of those jobs were very casual whole travelling as a teenager.

Mumsntfan1 · 22/12/2025 19:16

5th proper job after uni. I'm 49. I did various part time/temporary jobs before.

TokyoSushi · 22/12/2025 19:16

‘Proper adult jobs’ - 4, I’m 45, I don’t really move!

spanieleyes · 22/12/2025 19:17

spanieleyes · 22/12/2025 18:35

Three since I left university, civil service and then teaching in 2 different schools. Two before I went to university, part time pocket money jobs.
That’s it, nothing else!

Oh, and Ive just retired, so no more to come!

PodMom · 22/12/2025 19:17

16 jobs if i include jobs as a teenager. I’m 50.

since leaving uni I’ve had 9. 4 for the same company, but very different departments/roles.

MissAmbrosia · 22/12/2025 19:24

I have 4 on my CV (roles relevant) which takes me back to 1993. I had 3 more short term FT jobs before that and various PT ones...

TulipTuesday · 22/12/2025 19:24

I’m 45 and had 9 if I include a Saturday job I had as a teen and a cleaning job I did while I was at college.

TappyGilmore · 22/12/2025 19:26

Four jobs while at uni, although one which I remained at after graduating until I found a proper job.

I travelled overseas and did temp work while I travelled, and could probably remember every place I temped at if I thought hard about it, but not the dates I was there and not the agency that I worked for, so it would make it quite hard to provide an employment history. Maybe 8 companies in total because I was lucky to get repeat or long-term bookings, otherwise would have been more.

Then seven what I would call proper jobs. Been in the current one for almost 10 years and am in my mid-40s.

So OP I would have thought your number is probably fairly typical if counting literally everything like student jobs.

hulahoopbbq · 22/12/2025 19:26

14 and 16 if I include 2 I quit after a day

JDM625 · 22/12/2025 19:26

Late 40's and 7 jobs starting at the age of 14 with a Saturday job. I've worked in 2 countries if relevant.

HoneychurchLucy · 22/12/2025 19:33

I think it depends largely on the industry you work in, age and circumstances. When I was younger I worked in hospitality and moved around the Country, in lots of different roles and venues. In my mid thirties I went to uni and then worked in children’s residential care and was at the same children’s home for 15 years. I had a break from this when nursing my mum with dementia then a year after her passing I became a learning disabilities support worker, where I’ll be staying as I love my job.

ErrolTheDragon · 22/12/2025 19:36

2 - before finishing my PhD the only paid employment I’d had was lab ‘demonstrating’ so not a job as such. Then I got a job which I left after about 9 months for a similar one nearer my fiancée. And now - nearly 40 years after that, today is my last day of work, I’m retiring!

The funny thing is that at the outset it was a tiny startup company and I’d no idea how long the job would last - my now-DH had the apparently rock solid ‘job for life’ …with ICI. Younger folk probably wont even have heard of it.

RescueMeFromThisSilliness · 22/12/2025 19:40

Eight. Unless you count my time working for a bank as more than one as I worked in several branches, in which case it is 11.

One of the 8 is my time as a freelancer, and I suppose if you count that, we are then up to about 20.

Early 60's, retiring in the spring.

bibbadee · 22/12/2025 19:44

since leaving Uni 20 years ago… I’ve had 8 jobs.

since leaving school at 16… I’ve had 21 jobs including summer jobs and part time work throughout college & uni.

My best friend had 1 retail job at uni, and has since worked for the same employer since graduation over 20 years ago. Her answer would be 1 employer! But she’s had 8 different jobs within that same employer.