In fact, for some of you, a volunteer position had the most impact on your life.

Whether a lifelong career, a summer job, or a volunteer position – I think it’s important to share stories about some of the fulfilling, or maybe even difficult, jobs you had and how that work shaped your life.

Telling Stories About Your Jobs

The story of your work or career is one of what I consider to be 5 starter topics to write for your family story collection. If you haven’t read anything by me yet, I want you to know that my mission is to help as many families as possible curate their family stories. 

My focus is always on trying to remove any obstacles and hindrances that are holding you back. I know it’s hard to start and sometimes you just need a nudge.To help with this, I’m giving potential family story collectors 5 important stories to write for future generations. 

I’m giving you what I call the Big 5 – Personal Faith, Love Stories, Births, Career and – last but not least – Pets. [Read more about the Big 5.]

So far, I’ve given you my advice on writing about your personal faith, the great love stories from your life, and stories about births in your family.

Let’s take a look at how to write and curate stories about your work.

Important Stories to Collect

Do you remember being asked when you were a child “What do you want to be when you grow up?” by family and friends? I’ll admit that I grew up in a time when young girls weren’t asked that as much as boys. It was mostly assumed that as little girls our career aspirations leaned much more towards getting married and raising a family. And, yes, that was one of my goals, too.

But, even if you weren’t asked about our future career goals when you were a kid, I know that you had dreams. I was blessed to not only get married and raise a family, but also to have had a series of interesting jobs ranging from teaching kids to play the flute to working for an airline.

And oh my, do I have some stories to tell! And I’m sure you do, too.

Writing Your Stories

How we spend our time at work says a lot about us. It speaks to our family life, our choices, the opportunities available to us, and our interests. And even though it might not seem important to you right now, somewhere in the future there will be a little boy or girl who will be fascinated that you once worked as a carhop at Sonic or had a summer job helping a farmer bale hay. 

So write stories about one or more of the jobs you or a family member have had in the past – or maybe even still have. Did you (or they) love it, hate it or just gut it out until a better one could be found? What lessons were learned? What crazy stories can be recalled? Have fun with this one!

As you write about jobs, it’s okay to be philosophical and teach a lesson if it applies. We learn something from everything we do and maybe what was taken away from one of your jobs will have an impact on someone in the future.

Now it’s time to sit down with your laptop, pen and paper, or maybe your phone’s voice memo app opened up. Start reminiscing about all those jobs you’ve had include those you may still be working at. Give your descendants stories to share with their own children about how you spent your time working or serving as a volunteer.

Here are the articles for all of the Big 5 topics plus the Introduction:

Big 5 Introduction |Personal Faith | Love Stories | Births | Career | Pets