Last week I got to spend a few days with family in Chicago. As our activities and itinerary took shape, the trip somehow turned into a tour of workplaces. One sister has a new role at her university, along with a fancy new office. I got to meet some of her coworkers, and take a brief tour of her building. She's the boss for now, in an interim role. She's advanced a bit from some of her past jobs—the restaurant prep role where she burned her arm, the underpaid letter-opening job at Newsweek, and the camp counselor swimming instructor. My own early jobs were similar: teaching kids how to canoe, washing lettuce in a restaurant, selling handbags and cosmetics, and filing in an un-air-conditioned Florida office.