Places Where I Have Worked
Here is a list of ALL of the places that I have worked (I think). This is intended just to be a comprehensive listing NOT a resume.
Pretty much all the places that I have worked are in Illinois so even though I tried to include where the companies are located I skipped the state since they are all the same. The first 2 companies are my own since I was self-employed the last 14 years.
Some of these places were not on my resume because I may not have been at certain places very long and/or the experience probably was not that relevant anyway. Also, if I was using this as a resume it would be almost impossible to validate this information because most of these companies don't exist anymore!
| Company, Business | Description | Dates |
| RC Websites, Websites2C, LLC, Palatine |
This is my affiliate website business. Started in 2003 and still generating a profit (although very small now). | 2003 to now... |
| RC Consulting, Palatine Customer: Danzas, DHL, Chicago Ohare |
I was a self-employed contract programmer for DHL GLobal Forwarding - Import brokerage | 8/2003 to 5/2017 |
| PSC Consulting, Schaumburg | I did one more short contract with Caremark for Jerry Hirshels company. | 2002 |
| Analysts International Corporation - AIC, Schaumburg | Customers: US Foods (previously Rycoff Sexton), Caremark (CTS) and Danzas (morphed into DHL GLobal Forwarding (DGF)) Plus 3 monrhs at Danzas/DHL (Oct-Dec 2002) |
5/1998 to 8/2001 |
| Coram, Bannockburn | This was another Caremark spin-off company. I didn't stay here long. | 1998 |
| Household Finance | The big finance company. I didn't stay here long either. | Late 1997 - Early 1998 |
| HMI, Buffalo Grove |
This is another Caremark spin-off (Specializing in transplant drugs) but I really liked working there. Really nice people there. | 1996 - 1997 |
| ComCoTek, Lisle | This was a software house for the medical industry. I had a tyrant boss and this was another short term job-hop job. | 1996 |
| Caremark | I worked directly for Caremark as an employee for a short time right after DEC. This was the start of my job-hop phase. | 1996 |
| Digital Equipment Corporation - DEC, Elk Grove Village | Good old DEC. My favorite company (aside from my own) and the place that I stayed at the longest. Second largest computer company in the world at that time! Then, POOF! Gone :-( | 12/1983 to 5/1996 |
| Moore Business Center, Wheeling | This company sold paper and office supplies. A nice place to work... and I met my wife there! | 12/1982 to 12/1983 |
| LIOCS Corporation, Oak brook | DEC Software Company | 3/1981 to 9/1982 |
| J, Baker and Associates | DEC Software Company - My first computer programming job! | 2/1980 to 3/1981 |
| Sure Brothers, Arlington Heights | I drove a forklift for this company but more importantly they paid for the computer programming classes that changed my life. | 1978-1980 |
| C Bruno & Sons, Wheeling | This was the musical instrument warehouse where I met Tom Shelley (Donna Ferguson and Sue Cummings) | A year more or less lost in the 70s |
| Wicks Furniture, Wheeling | This was my first office job. I think I was a mail clerk. Terrible pay. | a few weeks |
| North Shore Distributors, Wheeling | This was a magazine and paperback book distributor. Interesting work. All the smut you wanted and free paperback books for the more serious moments. | A year more or less lost in the 70s |
| Able Freight Lines, Wheeling | This was my dad's trucking business where I worked on and off for a few years until business dropped off in the 70s | On and off in the 70s |
| Dupli-color Paint, Elk Grove | Touch-up car paint factory and warehouse where I worked a few summers while in college. | 1972, 1973 |
| Hackneys Restaurant, Wheeling | I was a busboy here in high school. We got free meals at the end of the night and I still love Hackney burgers and their onion loafs! | |
| Newspaper boy, Wheeling | Probably my first job when I was in grade school. |
These Misc. odd jobs just get an honorable mention:
Fire extinguisher sales job in Grinnell, Iowa (to get gas money for get back home).
Quill Office supplies - 1 day - assembly line packing - couldn't handle the assembly line.
Newspaper subscription sales (1 or 2 days).
Part Time Professional Musician - OK, well I played a lot of acoustic guitar shows at the Village Squire restaurants and I did get paid. Probably made enough to pay for the guitar strings and gas to get there and back.
I think this works out to about 22 jobs (depending on how you count the duplicate places, etc. and not counting the misc. odd jobs above).
Remember when some people could work for 1 company their entire life!
If you average the number of jobs that I've had with the number of years that I have worked I think it is close to 1 job every 2 years. Hmmm...
Self Employment Summary
Since I was fully self-employed with 2 different businesses between 2003 and 2017 (14 years), below is a little summary of my time at DHL (contract programming) and my time working on my websites (affiliate marketing).
| MAIN DHL Time Summary | From |
Thru |
Months |
Years |
| DHL (5+ years) | 10/27/2003 | 2/28/2009 | 64.14 | 5.35 |
| DHL 2.4 months No DHL 12.6 months | 3/1/2009 | 6/10/2010 | 14.00 | 1.17 |
| DHL (1 year) | 6/11/2010 | 6/17/2011 | 12.20 | 1.02 |
| Websites - No DHL (3 years) | 6/18/2011 | 6/18/2014 | 36.03 | 3.00 |
| DHL (3 years) | 6/19/2014 | 5/31/2017 | 35.40 | 2.95 |
| Total Time | 13.49 |
Affiliate Website Summary
Although I have made profits on my affiliate websites since 2003, I had the best profits from the years that I worked on the websites full time and especially after I focused much more on fitness equipment.
The best years for my Website profits were 2011, 2012 and 2013. As you can see from the listing above, these were the 3 years that I was not at DHL and when I devoted a good amount of my time to the websites.
July 2011 - June 2012 were my best 12 months (so far). Normally I do not like to mention profits but since so many people tend to think that the affiliate websites are more of a hobby or just generate a little pocket change, I must mention that I made over $100k in this 12 month period. Not bad for a silly hobby, right?!?
Then in October 2012 - Google made major changes to their search algorithm and my traffic (and subsequently profits) dropped to about half of what it was before that time. :-) The profits continued to drop while I was at DHL the last 3 years but go up when I work on the sites again.
I am hoping to revive the websites again, at least to a moderate profit level, but I admit that I have not put much time or effort into them lately so not much progress (yet).
5/26/2021 - Working Years Update:
I just added this part from the latest update on the main page and the spreadsheet that I just did today
My last day as a contractor at DHL was 5/31/2017 so I officially retired from the Rat Race on 6/1/2017! OK it's a little early to celebrate but why not start now!
So I mostly worked (on and off) for over 40 years and now I have almost reached 4 years of retirement so I guess when you look at it that way I got about a 10% ROI on working so far. (more on this below)
OK, here's a PDF version of my Work Years Spreadsheet that I just put together for this.
5/30/2022 - ROI Update
I have now almost reached 5 years of retirement so now I have about a 12.5% ROI on working so far.