Alumni Share the Wacky Jobs They Worked as Students

From textbooks to beer money, college costs have a way of adding up. The Alcalde surveyed alumni to learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly jobs that UT students have worked over the years to keep the bills paid. (For example, this editor scooped ice cream at the Guadalupe outpost of Amy’s Ice Cream.) The responses—more than 200 of them, and counting—form an unexpectedly delightful portrait of our ever-changing campus and city. 

Illustrations by Alex Eben Meyer

“I worked in the Athletic Ticket Office. That meant selling tickets, working the student ticket draws, and helping set up the stadium on gamedays. We did run into bats in the store room in the west side upper deck. I realized how hard student athletes worked, not only on their sport, but also in the classroom! I have a lot of respect for those athletes.”
—Robert Conklin, BA, BBA ’85, MBA ’88, Life Member

“I worked at the Magic Time Machine during college. All of my coworkers were also students. We were so very close and had a blast. I worked there from 1979–83. I’m still in touch with many friends, but unfortunately the Magic Time Machine is no longer in Austin.”
—Cory Sureck, BA ’82

“At the Frank Erwin Center ticket office one caller threatened to have the dean expel me from school if I didn’t hack the computers to allow them to buy more tickets at one time than the computers allowed.”
—Sherri Forrest, BBA ’83

“I worked in the Kinsolving cafeteria and started out taking the trays down when the girls put them through and washing dishes. It was lovely. From there, I moved up to the serving line, where I was always excited to give two scoops of ice cream to the girls’ swim team, including a couple of Olympians.  

From there, I moved up to being a tag checker. In the old days, we were shown a tag, and we would cross off the number from a list that we had so we knew the student had already eaten. That was the best job to have, but I didn’t like it so much because it was hard to keep up.  

The best part of the job was that I lived on the first floor. Nothing like working where you live.”
—Pamela Graves, BS ’81

“Getting paid to hang out with fellow students at RecSports and also watch hot guys work out, and I could still study for my physics final? Yes, please!”
—Laura Elam Ewing

“I was paid to pack up all the animal specimens in the Experimental Science Building before it was torn down.”
—Lauren Golden Streich, BA, BA ’08, Life Member  

“I worked with Professor Robert Foshko making industrial and training films in town. Mr. Foshko also got everyone in his production class jobs with the networks when they came to town for the 2000 election. I was supposed to work for MSNBC for four days, but when the networks took Florida back from Gore one by one, we knew we’d be there the rest of the week. I worked from 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. the day of the election, was back at 11 a.m. Wednesday, and had to call my professors to tell them I’d be out the rest of the week. Professor Newcomb was great and said, ‘Why would you be worried about missing my History of Television class when you’re working it right now?’”
—Maria Veltze Hodges

“Years after I worked at Nations Bank, my supervisor was in the Austin American-Statesman for embezzling, which was probably happening while I was there, but I didn’t know.”
—Angela Kudrick, BA ’94, Life Member

“During my sophomore year at UT back in 1988, I started an internship at B93 FM in Austin, answering the request lines for the Mike Butts’ morning show. My internship turned into a part-time job and then full-time when I graduated in May of 1991. For two-and-a-half of my four years at UT, I was reporting to work at the radio station by 6 a.m. for the morning show. They put me on the air as a character, ‘Heavy Metal Holly.’ I finally got my own shift one night a week as ‘The Debster’ in 1991. I loved every minute and went on to enjoy a career in radio as ‘Debbie Wylde’ at various radio stations until 2006.”
—Deborah “The Debster” Wolantejus-Bridgeman, BS ’91

“As an incoming freshman, I was hired to be a waiter at the historical Scottish Rite Dormitory (SRD) for girls. It was so great that I worked there all four years, and it proved to be life-changing for me in many ways.  

The most immediate impact it had was on my diet. The job did not pay any money but provided three meals per day. As a freshman, I lived at Moore-Hill Hall, and my parents had just bought my first semester meal plan. This meant I was going to have the option to eat at Jester or at SRD as my schedule allowed. Freshman 15, here I come!  

This job also impacted my personal life in a predictable way. My high school sweetheart went to UT and lived in nearby Jester, which meant we were going to be able to keep our relationship intact. The only problem was SRD is an all-girls dorm, and the girls love their waiters. This led to a breakup, as free food wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye.  

The food was fantastic, as the ladies in the kitchen had been there for many years and knew how to feed the masses. They made everything from fried chicken to meatloaf, to spaghetti and meatballs and all kinds of comfort food ... I met so many great guys that worked at SRD, and we bonded like a fraternity. We formed our own intramural teams and played lots of softball, flag football, and racquetball. There were also many athletic residents who joined our co-ed teams! The year we had a girl playing quarterback was especially great.  

Many of my coworkers were part of the Campus Crusades for Christ ministry. These friendships changed my life in a huge way, as I began to more deeply explore my own faith. As a Catholic, we never really did a lot of Bible study as much as my new Protestant friends did. I learned a lot and ended up in many interesting conversations about God, faith, and religion that have shaped my beliefs to this day.  

One day after serving lunch, I went to the common area TV room to kill some time watching soap operas with some of the girls before my next afternoon class. The TV was left behind by Farrah Fawcett after living at SRD and, ironically, there were several framed pictures of the Space Shuttle on the wall above it. I will never forget where I was while watching the space shuttle Challenger explode on live TV. 

Despite this strange connection between Farrah, the Challenger, and the dorm, my time at SRD was an absolutely great experience and taught me many things that helped shape me into the man I am today. Even with all the great girls I met while working there, I eventually reconciled with my high school sweetheart, and we have been married for 37 years with two kids and two grandkids. While I’ve had many great and rewarding jobs in the 37 years since graduation and am now only three weeks away from retiring, I still think back very fondly on the best job I ever had.”
—Mike Williams, BS ’86  

“My crew name at Steve’s Ice Cream was ’Murf which was short for Smurf because  
I was short and always wore blue clothes!”
—Vanessa Meier, BS ’98  

“Although I was damp a lot of the time in class, Tom’s Swim and Dive was a fun gig.”
—Haley Izquierdo, BS ’18, Life Member

“When I attended UT, one of my jobs was a lifeguard at the Jamail Swim Center ... One evening, I arrived for my shift, and the UT swim team had just vacated the pool. As I walked onto the main pool deck, I passed a man wearing a black jacket and thought he seemed out of place. I noticed a tall man swimming laps at the end of the pool away from the open swim lanes I was going to guard. I marched myself over to say something to him, but a weird feeling came over me that stopped me in my tracks. I remembered the official-looking guy in the jacket.

I look to my left, and the same guy turns his head enough that I spot an earpiece and immediately think it must be security detail for someone. I decided to ignore whomever this was as they likely had permission to be there and went to my guard post. A short time later, this man finishes his work out, pushes himself out of the pool, takes off his goggles, and it’s none other than a soaking wet Rick Perry in a Speedo swimsuit. I chuckled to myself and love to tell the story about that one time as a UT lifeguard I almost kicked the Texas governor out of the pool.”
—Lauren Jaramillo, BBA ’06, Life Member  

“I paid for college by working in restaurants. I started at Fuddrucker’s on Anderson Lane with two of my girlfriends in January of ’88, and we worked there together through our last semester of high school at Westwood. They moved on to out-of-state colleges, but I stayed on through my first semester at UT.  

The biggest thing that always comes to mind from that place was being half-a-mile down the street from [I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt, the location of the unsolved 1991 quadruple femicide]. It could have easily been my girlfriends and me. It still sends chills down my spine. I remember having a female manager named Kathy who was always very particular about safety, keeping an eye out, and locking doors as closing time approached. To this day, I am still deeply grateful to her for her practices.  

My next job was at Trudy’s North Star at Burnet and 183, where I worked from April of ’89 until October of ’91. I have lots of stories from that place—the crowds, its background, the Hispanic cooks protecting their migas recipe, the sweet lady named Julia who made their tortillas on site and bussed tables, my favorite manager, some cool bartenders, parties, their stint hosting live music, a break-in, a shooting in the parking lot, the food, many late nights turned into early mornings, covering shifts at their other restaurants near campus, doing food swaps with other restaurants, after-hours runs to Jim’s or Pearl’s Oyster Bar. Trudy’s signature drink, the Mexican Martini, was introduced while I worked there. I turned 21 while I worked there. Lots of good times and a few crazy things, too.  

I did learn quite a bit about customer service, psychology, cleaning up messes, running restaurants, and life in general at those places. I’m not sure I’d trade those experiences for anything.”
—Amber Duty, BS ’93, Life Member

“I worked at Fricano’s Deli while taking summer classes between sophomore and junior years. Those summer classes led to me earning three majors and a certificate, but Fricano’s helped pay my rent.  

I was an ADPi and dating a Pike—I had recently become a Pike sweetheart! Interestingly, the summer I worked at the best sandwich shop in West Campus, my frat boy and I decided to not eat carbs. So, instead of a sandwich per shift, I took home hoards of deli meat, homemade tapenade, or pesto, and just any other non-bread item I could find.  

I loved working there because the owner was a Jewish man from Chicago (I’m a Polish woman from central Illinois) who paid attention to the details. He sold the black and white cookies from Seinfeld and made sure we knew that they were from Seinfeld. Anyway, Fricano’s specialized in Reubens, so I had to touch sauerkraut numerous times a day. [Growing up in a Polish family and] dreading any encounter with cabbage (stuffed cabbage, Golabki, I can still feel how awful it smells), working at Fricano’s was worth the risk.  

The people were even better. Armando and Jeff were head cooks, and the rest of us tried to impress them. I got free sandwiches for years after I stopped working there, and I learned to give out free sandwiches to former employees. Great community, great sandwiches, great memories. Sad to hear it closed—the world needs Fricano’s!”
—Lexi Voudrie, BA ’17

“I basically sustained myself by eating at lobbyist receptions while working at the Texas State Capitol.”
—Anthony Scoma, BA ’95

“I spent two summers working at Sound Exchange, with the ‘Hi, How Are You?’ frog on the outside wall. Every walk of life came through those doors to buy everything from bluegrass to legit punk and everything in between. The insulation wasn’t great though. We turned off the AC at night, so it would take until at least noon to become bearable in there.”
—Sam Shurley, ’92

“I worked at the Motorola MOS 11 chip fabrication plant from midnight to 7 a.m. then tried to attend engineering classes all day and sleep in the afternoons.”
—Jim Read, BS ’01

The stories have been edited and condensed.