Sanders was a tireless political activist and campaigner who worked in various trades after graduating from the University of Chicago.
His jobs included stints in New York as an aide at a psychiatric hospital, teaching preschoolers for Head Start, researching property taxation for the Vermont Department of Taxes, registering people for food stamps for a nonprofit — and carpentry.
"He was a s**** carpenter," one friend told Politico in 2015.
"His carpentry," said another, "was not going to support him, and didn't."
His experience of poverty and job instability as a young man helped strengthen the socialist values which have inspired his political career.
His first steady job was reportedly when in a shock victory in 1981 he was elected mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
Source: Politico