I admit I've had a rough time in my pseudo-professional life, a.k.a finding a job. Even since reaching the legal age to work, I've tried as hard as I could to remain unemployed.

It worked well enough, until college life began draining my funds dramatically. I finally decided to join the working class at age 19. My only criteria was not doing sales or retail.

I tried out multiple jobs: babysitter, math tutor Avon representative, tanning salon attendant and out of desperation (ugh) sales.

In the long run, the only one that I'm still active in is my job in sales. Despite my initial judgment, I've become quite the retail fanatic.

The store I work at, which will remain anonymous, is the biggest one in the whole company. That information and the fact that I have about a million co-workers has kept me fairly entertained during my 3-8 hour shifts.

My usual shift includes the norms of retailing. We get placed at different stations of the store to help customers buy our goods, get them fitting rooms, fold/hang clothing and replenish sizes.

There isn't anything too difficult about the job. The hardest part is probably cashiering and getting dressed for the job.

Working the register is pretty simple, aside from the more complicated transactions — the returns, copying gift certificates and activating credit cards. I've only been a cashier once before, so maybe it's not really that big of a deal.

As for getting dressed for work, I guess it's a trivial issue. I never shopped there much, and it's required to wear clothes that look like they came from the store. I did spend a good amount of time trying to make my regular clothes look like they came directly from "the store."

There are many perks for working in retail that I did overlook. Since our store is one of the bigger ones, we occasionally have concerts on our second floor. We get free passes to events sponsored by the company ... Not to mention the more than generous discount given to employees.

The said "discount" has evolved to become a pretty problematic factor. Since I never shopped there, I never saw it as a problem, bu now, I'm basically balancing out my money earned with my money spent there.

My job in retail has also made me aware of some people's weird shopping quirks. Many people "forget" articles of clothing in the dressing room, ranging from their pants to their undergarments, causing a few arguments on who has to return the article to the customer.

I've had people tell me they don't like certain clothes because they smell funny. And then there are the people who walk in acting like they're too good for the store and refuse help/conversation with any of the employees.

All in all, it's not a bad profession, at least in this stage of my life. I make more than minimum wage, I get to pick my own hours of availability, my colleagues are all amazing and there's always something to be done within the store.

It is located in downtown Seattle, so there's always more than a handful people shopping at a time. The customers are pretty diverse, ranging from business people to students to tourists who don't speak a word of English.

I recommend anyone looking for a job to consider trying out the retail sector. One suggestion I would make would be to pick a company that you have shopped in before. That way you can spend less time dressing yourself, and more time dressing others. g