Interesting Jobs You've Had

When I was desperate for a job, I signed up to work at McDonald's.

But when I found I'd have to shave off my beard to comply with their dress code, I walked out.

I ended up working on a department store loading dock.

I got that job by lying about my qualifications, that is, I didn't disclose all my education.

 

Unusual jobs, yes. Interesting, maybe.

I sold roses at major intersections, before I was legally old enough to work. The guys who ran the rose operation also tried a door-to-door con selling leaf bags supposedly to support a boy's club, which of course was non-existant.

I worked for a moving company. At the time so many folks were moving to Houston you would get hired if you could walk and produce a SS card (even a lousy fake was acceptable).
My advice to anyone dealing with a moving company is this:
Do NOT under any circumstances trust a moving company with anything of $$ or sentimental value.
Do NOT be fooled by the clean-cut sales rep, some of the grunts doing the actual work are complete lowlifes.

I was phone solicitor for a siding company at the time when a huge news story broke about the serious fraud in the siding business. That job seriously sucked, but I hung on for about two weeks. The university had applied my short-term loan to the fall semester, skipping the second summer session in which I was enrolled; I was desperate for tuition money.

I also worked for a company dealt with certain financial documents, VERY hush hush. The potential for insider trading was huge, and some folks took advantage.

 

my first real job was at a grocery store bagging groceries. i worked there for about a year then when i turned 17 i went to work for a ford dealer changing oil, and moved up from there. i have been known to run hot shot runs for a local delivery company on the weekends cause i have a cdl. the money is ok. when i was in college (a trade school in nashville tn) i worked at a ford dealer part time and delivered newspapers in the morning on the way to work. you see some interesting things some times doint that
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if i didnt have a job, mcdonalds would work for me, beggers cant be choosy.

 

I used to sling pills in a big chain pharmacy. It was interesting to see all the drugs and people on them and how much they cost and how insurance works (and doesn't).

Watching old people pay half a month's rent on medication for a few weeks to stay alive is depressing.

...

I once worked for a company that invaded a foreign country looking for weapons of mass destruction, but all we found was poverty and desperation.

I guess you could say we found that for which we were looking.

 

im sure it can be

 

I was a barker in a carnie for a season in the knock-over joint.
That's the one where you use the softballs to knock over the three milkbottles.
The softballs are lumpy and fly off kilter.
The bottom two bottles are weighted but not evenly.
In my spiel I always told people they were weighted (just not how much).

I worked building log cabins for a summer, mostly stripping trees and notching.
Before I started working in restaurants I worked the night shift in a 7/11 type convenience store called Quick Stop.
Had a lot of very strange customers.

 

My aunt worked as the entertainment director for the local theme park when I was a teenager, and I reaped a few benefits of that...

Area stores could hire theme park characters for things like Grand Openings, and I got to be the person inside the costume a few times. I did Fred Flinstone and George Jetson a couple of times each, and I had a blast. It gets so hot in the costumes, though... I was only allowed to be in costume (inside, for the most part) for 20-30 minutes at a time, and take lots of breaks (and drink a lot of water during those breaks.) I had so much fun-- acting goofy, dancing around, taking pictures with kids. It was awesome.


I also worked the Halloween festival one year. I got paid $9 an hour to scare people. I also learned that "tough guys" really, really hate it when you actually scare them... one guy in particular, I don't know if he was actually AIMING for me, but he missed kicking me in the face by less than an inch. That part wasn't so fun. But I got to hang out with "theatre kids" for a couple months, and it was almost too fun to call it a job. Our costumes were ridiculous, and the makeup was rad...I got pulled over on the way home one night, and the cop was visibly worried until I told him where I was coming from


I worked at the Ohio Renaissance Festival one year, and unfortunately, it sucked. The atmosphere of the festival itself was amazing, but I was in a food booth, which was not so much fun...especially since my boss was loud and irritating, and I suspect, trying to prove that she deserved to be in charge of a booth. I got along much better with the actors, and traded quips with them every time one walked by (in a silly British accent, of course.) The guy selling handmade horns would let me borrow a pair in the morning, wear them all day, and return them when the festival closed. I ended up only staying for three or four weekends before getting fed up with my boss & the booth in general. If I decide to do something like that again, I'll definitely audition for an acting part instead of doing the food service side of it.

 

When I was a student, worse two jobs I ever had:

1, Butlins (a holiday resort, dont think you have an equivalent to this sort of thing in the US, basically its a shithole that in the old days was were working class people went on holiday, but since air travel became so cheap now hardly anyone goes...), worked in the fast food place. I was given an official warning for rolling my sleeves up while working. I demanded a transfer after day 1 and went to work in the bar serving drinks (I claimed that I wasnt prepared to handle the food cos it wasnt kosher... which is a bullshit reason really since I dont keep kosher myself, but I just hated it). I quit after day 5. The worst thing was that out of 8 people working in the burger bar 4 had attempted (or claimed to have attempted) suicide in the last year, and they all talked about who was the most fucked up and had come closest to dying all night. To be fair I also called the supervisor of the fast food place a cunt to his face and possibly threatened him with violence. They had terrible problems keeping hold of staff and by the time I left over half the people who joined with me had left too - otherwise I think I would have just been sacked on day 1.

2, A dog food factory. I walked out after three hours. It was pretty much what you'd think. It wasn't the meat I had a problem with, but the people I was working with. I quit at lunchtime and went to another agency and had a shift that night in a picking and packing place instead.

I wouldnt say I was lazy, I have never not had a job of some kind since I was 13 or 14 (dont remember which, but when I started my paper round), but I probably do have some issues with authority and when I was younger I found controlling my temper hard sometimes.

 

I started working as a grocery store cashier when I was 16.
I was good at counting the money accurately and being courteous to the customers.
Next thing you know, the bookkeeper asks me to be her office assistant. I worked after school and on weekends.
There was another high school kid named George who worked the same job.
On weekends George and I were on together; the full time staff had the weekend off.
Back then most people paid for their groceries with cash. We would collect the cash and checks from the registers, do some basic bookkeeping with it and then "deposit" it in the drop safe.

I remember one weekend just before Christmas. That was always the craziest time of year.
Between George and I we had about $20,000 in cash lined up on the counter in front of us before making a deposit. I remember thinking how nuts it was! Two high school kids!
But in all the time we were there there was never a penny missing.

 

I volunteered at a Bingo hall on Saturday nights the summer before my first year at University. It wasn't actually as bad as I thought it would be; I was able to get most of the ones that the staff called 'cranky old people' to laugh and make jokes with/at me by the end of the summer. I actually really enjoyed it there. Plus, $20 and free popcorn/soda for 3 hours work wasn't so bad to 17 year old me.

Currently one of my two jobs is working as a student custodian for one of the residence halls on campus. I've seen some shit.

 

Sr year in high school and first year college - lifeguard at neighborhood swim club....lots of Jewish American Princesses in bikinis.

Summer of soph year in college - could have had the swim club job again, but chose not to move back home for the summer and, instead, worked in a sweat shop...Knob Hill bed factory...wrapping mattresses and box springs in plastic at the end of the line.

First job out of college - US Senate...basically a gopher, but I was in awe.

Second job out of college - National Crime Prevention Council. I got to wear the McGruff crime dog suit once.

 

Yes, we have such "resorts." As a kid I went on many vacations with my working-class/lower middle class to such places.
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I also worked at Buger King, lied about my age. That job sucked, and was fun. One night me and a friend were "rolling" a 55 gallon drum of grease to the dumpster area, and it tipped over. The manager didn't freak out at all. We used the heavy-duty/industrial hose and scalding hot water to clean it up the best we could, the resulting stain on the parking lot and the street was there for many years. We smoked pot with the manager while we took turns with very hot hose.

One of my volunteer jobs (late teens) was being an usher and "security guard" at concerts. I worked as an usher at a Chuck Mangione concert, back when he was very popular (Children of Sanchez, IIRC). I had recently went with a clean-cut look, unlike my appearance is high school, and helped my former HS principal & his wife(?) find their seats. We didn't get to speak much, but the look on his face was priceless. I "guarded" the backstage area at a Heart concert. You would not believe some of the groupies that hung around backstage; this was when spandex was popular. In case you're wondering, no, I didn't get any "side benefits" such as sex and/or drugs, although some of the experienced crew members had some pretty wild stories. Apparantly in some cases simply implying that you could provide access to the band would get you a BJ.

 

i left college when my best friend's band got signed by dreamworks records. i spent the next 6 years going through their half million dollar recording budget as their studio assistant and office manager, and then went on the road as their tour manager. our keyboard player's dad was in the Doors. he'd written his second book in pen and had me come over and transcribe it into his computer during one summer.

after the band thing went south i ended up a driver for a guy who owned a roofing co. but lost his license to a DUI for 2 years.

now i run a repair shop for small propeller airplanes. it's nice because it's an office job but i get fresh air from being in a hangar and get to drive around the special access roads of the airport. also i get to go on errands a lot for parts and such, and i love getting paid to drive around w/ the radio on once in a while.

 

I've laid concrete, moved furniture, and done roofing. I'm not cut out for manual labor.

My first assignment with IBM was as a field tech. They put machines in some pretty interesting places. Going into women's prisons or next to the execution chamber at Statesville (IL) was a good time. Crossing a picket line to repair equipment at Caterpillar may have been preferable to the Billy Graham library, where they wanted to convert me. The best was probably the Chicago Police Dept, where they asked me not to stand near the window, because it kept getting shot out. (but you're the f'ing police) .

 

The oddest job I had was the first. Shortly after the IRA bombed the Grand Hotel in Brighton (to try and kill Margaret Thatcher), a family friend got the contract to remove, clean, and re-furbish the chandeliers that had survived the explosion.

I was a young teenager, and worked for the princely sum of £1/hr helping to strip the crystals off the frames so that the explosive residues, soot, and brick dust could be cleaned off.

About 30 years later, I had my wedding there, under some of the same chandeliers.

I worked in retail too, greengrocer's shop, lasted a week and was sacked for some imaginary slight to the manager. When I complained to the Job Centre that placed me there (a government agency), they told me that I was far from the first that had the same problem at that shop - but they kept sending school kids there. as it happens, that evening my parents had a friend who was a lawyer around for dinner, and he suggested that I wrote and explained that I had consulted a lawyer - true, as I had spoken to him - but not to mention the part where he said it was unwinable! I got a cheque for my wages by return mail!

I later worked in a supermarket, in the greengrocery section (I may have exaggerated my previous experience) and was made supervisor - weekends and a couple of evenings a week - to support the manager who had a health problem. It was unhealthy for him to stop drinking...

I worked in a food cash and carry warehouse too - at the same time as I ran the "tuck shop" in my sixth form college. Bought at staff discount rates (10% below wholesale) and sold at RSP - split the proffit with the sixth form entertainments budget (which as head of the revue committee I got to spend). That, plus the wages from the job kept my car on the road for a year.

At uni I got a job in a rechargable battery factory - we made the powerpacks for police radios and so on. I did that for a couple of days before I was mindnumbingly bored - when the kitchen asked for a volonteer to help out I jumped. Spent the rest of that summer going out to the local shops on my bicycle to pick up whatever supplies the cook needed after the morning orders were in. That was a good job. I actually did LESS work that the guys on the shop floor, and got an extra percentage for having to be in the kitchen. I got free food too.

I've spoken about working in the condom and sexual health business elsewhere, but yes, that job was a laugh a minute, almost literally at times. If the pay hadn't stalled for a few years I'd still be there.