How long did you work?

[rk911]

I was curious ... how long do people work full time before they retire?

For me, I plan to retire this year. It will 41 years of full time employment.
I do not count any years doing odd jobs or part time.

What's normal? what's average?

i started earning money at 13 pushing a 3-wheeled bike around my hometown selling ice cream bars. had a paper route for years and worked at a local Burger King for a year or two. worked close to full time at a local radio station during my freshman year in college.

married my high school sweetheart the next year (still together). worked three PT jobs while going to school FT. dumped those after 2-yrs for a FT gig working at local prison (Stateville outside Joliet, IL). stayed 3-years, most of that working as a shift clerk and in prisoner transport. transfered to a juvenile facility where i ran security communications. stayed there 3-years. next up was a local PD as a dispatcher. left after a year and went to a regional 9-1-1 communucations center as a dispatcher, promoted to shift supervisor after 7-mos., senior supervisor after 3-years and Deputy Director 7-years later. total time there...just shy of 28-years.
retired at 55+1 day. volunteered at the local history museum for a few years. worked as a school crossing guard (paid) for ~10-yrs and as a judge of election (paid) for ~8-yrs. at present I am pleasantly, completely unemployed.

counting everything i worked 52-yrs, as an adult 47-yrs and in terms of a pension 33-yrs.

 

[38Chevy454]

29 years after college graduation. But additional 9 years mixed full and part time from 15 to 24 years age. Worked full time at 15 and every summer through high school and college. Plus part time in school. Add in extra full time co-op during college.

 

[samm]

34 years full time.
Enough!

 

[albireo13]

OP here.
My story is I graduated in 1979 with a degree in Electrical Engineering, starting my full time job right away. I worked for a few companies, including a crazy startup, over 6 years.
After that I joined MegaCorp and I have been there ever since ... 35 years now.

 

[mbooth]

Left school at 14, peddled a bicycle round for twelve months as a telegram boy [remember those?]

Joined the Royal Australian Navy as a trades apprentice before I was 16, after 20 years I decided it wasn't for me and relocated half way across the country/continent to return to our hometown [I was married and father of two by then].

Six months looking for suitable work, finally fluked a position of Buildings & Grounds Maintenance Manager at a local university. Managed a staff of up to 50, plus umpty-hundred contractors and a several million $ annual budget.

At age 56 the BS bucket was full and I called it quits in 2011........never looked back

Total employment time, 42 years.

Cheers - Mick

 

[scrabbler1]

I worked part-time at various jobs from age 16 through age 22 when I finished college. Those jobs included working at my local public library, at my college library (both as a page, shelving books), ushering at a Broadway show, some tutoring at my dorm, and being the game room and study room attendant during the graveyard shift. My highlight there was getting paid for 3 jobs the same day: I got paid for tutoring, game room duty, and doing some ushering that night.


Once I finished college, I worked full-time for 16 years before switching to part-time for 7 more years, starting at age 38. Those 7 part-time years included about 2 years mostly working from home, then 3 1/2 part-time 3 days a week without the WFH, then the last 1 1/2 years working 2 days a week. Still burnt out working (and commuting) even 2 days a week, I called it quits in 2008 at the age of 45, nearly 12 years ago.

 

[boog]

36 years full-time with one megacorp post college. Before that, 12 years part-time starting at age 11. Now retired 4 years and loving it.

 

[RE2Boys]

29 years full time as an engineer. Left full time work at age of 50 when they offered early retirement eligibility for pension. Next 17 years as a seasonal part time job with CPA firm.

 

[JustVisitingThisPlanet]

About 30 years with F500 companies and at small software shop through most of college (as a UNIX admin).

 

[Alan]

Joined my first meg corp at age 18, worked for 3 other mega corps before retiring 37 years later at age 55.

 

[foxfirev5]

38 years. The last 36 with the same company. In addition a few side ventures in RE and building.

 

[braumeister]

21 in the military, then 12 in the software industry for a total of 33.

 

[EastWest Gal]

35 years from beginning to end, with the last 5 years being about 3/4 time except for a year I had completely off from mid 2016-17. Retired completely May 2, 2019.

 

[boilerman]

35.5 years as a software engineer turned management for a single megacorp that still had a pension

 

[Livefree]

42 Years Full Time

 

[brokrken]

If you don't count high school and college jobs, it'll be 25 for me if all goes as planned. 20 years in, as we speak

 

[martyp]

30 years with the University of California Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. 30.9 years for my pension benefits when you add my 9 months of accrued sick leave.

 

[YVRRocketSurgery]

Targeting for 25 years at one megacorp if it goes to plan. (Less than 2 years to go though.)
But part time and summer full time jobs during high school, university, and a few years post university.

 

[Retire2013]

26 years full time.

 

[geeky_grrl]

22 years full time after college. 6 or so years of part time/summers during high school and college.

 

[friar1610]

28 years USN + 6 years CIVLANT = 34

 

[ABQ2015]

32 years as an engineer but getting into that profession took me some time. Spent 4 years working as a lab tech after finishing a science degree and the pay was low. As a female, I was not confident of my math skills but bit the bullet and went back to college in my late 20's to finish the 60 or so credit hours needed for an engineering degree, made decent grades, and it paid off. Also worked part time in high school and college. Bought my first car, a used VW Bug, just before my senior year in high school with waitress job savings. By age 62, I had been working since age 16 and was so happy to retire!

 

[Dawg52]

Thirty one years full time after college. Worked a little part time while in school.

 

[Dreamer]

Worked 32 years plus 8 months at my career job and took an early retirement at 53. I started working at 15 years old and worked part-time and full-time jobs before I started working for the Fed Gov at age 20. I worked about 5 years part-time 24 hours per week after I retired to finish getting my social security credits. I have not worked anywhere since 5/15 and I don't ever plan to again. Enjoying retirement.

 

[Doribe]

35 years