What Odd or Interesting Jobs have you had in your life?

[chicago]

Emphasis on interesting. No one cares about your teen days in fast food, department stores or supermarkets lol

I might be turning into a bit of a jack-of-all-trades myself. In the past, I have been :

-a writer
-a chef
-unofficial parking garage attendant
-a comedian
-an editor
-QC tech

Plenty of not so interesting jobs as well, but those were some of the cool / fun ones.

What about you guys?

 

[Bugman]

My most interesting job by far was pest control. I had customers across the economic spectrum from very wealthy to very poor and met people from around the world. The most frustrating things were dealing with unrealistic expectations and people who tried to tell me how to do my job.

Never had any jobs I'd consider odd, but there were a few that were mind numbing.

 

[Hemmen]

nmm

 

[Gothika]

baby sitter

took care of dogs at at farm

cooked and did dishes

stocked shelves and bagged

worked at a library putting back books and cleaning

worked at my old school during the summer..did janitorial work

worked in the av department at school

 

[Bohemianne]

My first paying job at age 9 is tweezing a few gray hairs from my Aunt. It's sort of play but I get paid in cents.

 

[Nedstacey2]

Egg inspector. Was just a boy, my first job in my tiny country town, at an egg-processing plant long out of business. I was tasked with watching eggs as they rolled past on a conveyor belt underlit by some kind of light that illuminated their murky interior contents, and I was supposed to be looking for something. To this day I don't remember what, but I guess it was if the yolks had already turned into little embryos, in which case they needed to be grabbed off the line.

I didn't last long there, the first of many firings and layoffs in my life. Maybe this one was because I didn't have the heart to just toss the eggs with the burgeoning chickies inside. With the result that probably some customers had quite the surprise when they cracked open one of the company's eggs; a good thing it was the far less litigious 1970s.

 

[chicago]

nmm

What?

 

[Wolf]

Aside from the military/law enforcement stuff-

-Massage Therapist
-Airbrush Spray Tan "tech"
-Schwann's Guy

 

[teamtickleguy]

Becoming a bit of a jack-of-all-trades myself I have been

-a comedian

What about you guys?

A comedian? That's interesting and something that I could never do - being funny is easy when you're not expected to be and I'm ok at that...but a whole different kettle of fish when it's a job I bet! Was it stand-up live comedy/radio stuff etc?

The egg inspecting mentioned by another poster is also very interesting!

As a student I had the following jobs:

- Very brief (one day) stint in a flour packing factory - I was completely the opposite to all the muscular, 'men-of-few-words' types that I was working with and for some reason I choose to wear all back, so not only was I covered in flour I was also sweaty and exhausted and generally found the whole experience horrendous!
- Pizza delivery - much more fun driving around in the car listening to the radio and picking mushrooms off other people's pizzas. The boss would never have gotten away with his 'touchy-feely' approach to the male workers in the current climate..
- Hotel pianist and waiter
- local radio 'guest' tennis correspondent during Wimbledon fortnight

My most interesting job in terms of variety, was working as a Duty Manager in an Art gallery - this encompassed all sorts of dramas such as:

- dealing with kids taking legal highs
- driving a vintage double decker bus
- walking on the roof
- plenty of sewage related recovery missions
- turning giraffe sculptures around on an exhibition carousel for the 'big reveal' moment at a charity auction
- tuning in live satellite feeds in order to screen live operas in our intimate auditorium - terrifying ordeal because half the stuff in the building didn't work properly
- volunteering as Father Christmas for a private kids Christmas party - another frightening ordeal (the only positive outcome of which was that I got to tickle Santa's Little Elf during the process...)
- trying to repair an ancient Roman mosaic after the Christmas tree fell on it and leaked water all over it...

 

[IrvingKrebb]

I've had many more jobs than this but I have done some weird shit for money:

Janitor - best job ever and I'd do it again if the pay wasn't so terrible
Librarian - for a Law Library
Tickle Video Producer - had to throw it in here...
Window Salesman - and I was damn good at it
Manservant - technically, I was a caregiver, but I like Manservant better - for an old rich guy in Rhode Island
Office Coordinator - not a weird or interesting title but I worked for a Unitarian/Universalist Church

 

[kurchatovium]

Pinball Machine Repair 🙂

 

[Mitchell]

Insurance Agent. (My current profession)

Marketing /Sales Rep/Product Sales/Distributor. (Those titles were all for the same company, so they count as one "job" I guess. )

Jewelry Salesman.

Antiques Dealer.

Messenger/Errand Boy for an office, when I was in my teens.

Also.

I dont know if this counts a "job" because it was in summer camp. It was a "job", I guess, because I did get a token salary, and did it most of the time.

Waiter.

I served.. three meals a day, to two sections of the camp.


The summer that I was a waiter, I got my very first kiss with a girl, who was a waitress, behind the camp dining hall.

(Hope I worded that right lol. I think people understand what I'm trying to say. .

 

[rdhd]

Waxing the roofs of school busses.

 

[mariowuitomari]

I had an extracurricular activities bussiness in primary schools. I spent two years until it failed

 

[Tenebrae]

I got a very strange summer job once.

During a whole month I was asked to sit in a room all night looking at water pressure gauges on a monitor. And that was it. I would sit there alone with my newly acquired laptop full of porn, games, movies and TV series (no wifi though) and all I was required to do was not to fall asleep. If any of the gauges ever reached a "red" level or if my display froze, I had to turn a valve and call it in on a special line. Nothing else. And during the 21 nights I spent there, neither situation ever arose. I would arrive home at 8am when the morning shift kicked in, and sleep until 2-3pm, eat something, see a few friends at the pub and repeat. I can't say it was "fun" but it was easy and kinda unique. I got paid a whole month worth of wages for that, plus a little bonus. By far, the most unique job experience I have ever had.

 

[IrvingKrebb]

I once auditioned to be the voice of a phone system, menu-option thing. You know, like - Press 1 for English, etc. The guy said I talk too fast and I didn't get it, but every time I call in a 'script, or pay a bill, I think that could have been me!

 

[Tenebrae]

I once auditioned to be the voice of a phone system, menu-option thing. You know, like - Press 1 for English, etc. The guy said I talk too fast and I didn't get it, but every time I call in a 'script, or pay a bill, I think that could have been me!

I did that in China for a GPS company 😀 I always wondered if someone, somewhere has had my voice on their device...

 

[chicago]

A comedian? That's interesting and something that I could never do - being funny is easy when you're not expected to be and I'm ok at that...but a whole different kettle of fish when it's a job I bet! Was it stand-up live comedy/radio stuff etc?

Live improv

 

[TMF Jeff]

I got a very strange summer job once.

During a whole month I was asked to sit in a room all night looking at water pressure gauges on a monitor. And that was it. I would sit there alone with my newly acquired laptop full of porn, games, movies and TV series (no wifi though) and all I was required to do was not to fall asleep. If any of the gauges ever reached a "red" level or if my display froze, I had to turn a valve and call it in on a special line. Nothing else. And during the 21 nights I spent there, neither situation ever arose. I would arrive home at 8am when the morning shift kicked in, and sleep until 2-3pm, eat something, see a few friends at the pub and repeat. I can't say it was "fun" but it was easy and kinda unique. I got paid a whole month worth of wages for that, plus a little bonus. By far, the most unique job experience I have ever had.

You'd think that could have been automated.

 

[Sodahead]

I'm a freelance artist (and work doing live production for sporting events) so I've had to work quite a few odd jobs to make ends meet. Here's some of the more interesting ones

-When I was 18 I was a photographer's assistant
-In college I helped a neighbor build Greenhouses at people's homes
-I spent a few months working in a machine shop cleaning all the machines. The whole point of my job was essentially to take this big air hose and blow all of the metal/silver/copper chips from parts into conveyor belts and put the chips into barrels so the company could sale them. Apparently it was a lucrative way for them to make some side income.
-Once to make extra cash, I drove an engineer all over the state of North Carolina so he could audit construction sites. He had a DUI and couldn't drive himself
-Each year I help plan and operate a music festival

I think that's it. I guess in some ways I'm a jack of all trades sort, but I'm actually doing kind of well for myself, so I can't complain (though sometimes I still do.)

 

[Tenebrae]

You'd think that could have been automated.

You got that right. I don't know if it was because the State did not want to invest in the modernization of that very old plant or if it was a Union thing (a previous agreement with Workers' Unions which would have made that old job to be preserved; happens a lot in France). Either way, it resulted in me working the oddest of assignments.

 

[Strider]

Pizza delivery guy (first job when I was 18)

Assistant manager at a sporting goods store

 

[paracarl44]

Delivered newspapers all across town on a bicycle with lots of snow on the ground.

 

[dkc]

A few for sure. Worked in pro-wrestling in the UK for several years. That was different. Fun too. Possibly stranger was working with teens with personality disorders for a non-profit. Just because of some of the scenarios! None I will disclose out of respect for the clients, but definitely broadened my understanding of the human condition.

DKC

 

[Tenebrae]

A few for sure. Worked in pro-wrestling in the UK for several years. That was different. Fun too. Possibly stranger was working with teens with personality disorders for a non-profit. Just because of some of the scenarios! None I will disclose out of respect for the clients, but definitely broadened my understanding of the human condition.

DKC

Both of these sound so interesting!