Rats! I thought Suzanne's question would give me a chance to spout off on a not-recently-tapped well of obscure knowledge, but John has beaten me to the punch.

My first summer job in my college years involved three months of analyzing linear congruential pseudo-random number generators on PDP-11 computers for quantitative ecologists at Battelle Northwest. The stint netted me my first and only technical paper, and a business junket to San Francisco.