ODD JOBS YOU'VE HAD

[NA4BH]

When I was 13, a friend and I started a car wash business. We would come to your home and wash and wax your car in the driveway. Made good money. We pulled our supplies behind our bikes in a Radio Flyer wagon. I progressed on to work at a pool hall, my hours were 6pm to 6am. My interview consisted answering the following question. "If somebody comes in here and puts a gun to your head and demands money, what would you do"? My answer was the stupid heroic one, "I'd jump over the counter and kick their ass". The owner gave me a life lesson that day. "You don't die over my money". Made excellent sense. He went on to tell me that if they wanted a pool table I should not only dismantle the thing, but help them load it. Great job, great boss. After a couple of years I ended up at a 7-11. This lasted for about 3 months, I quit. Funny thing, they got robbed about 3 weeks after I left. Then came the non-odd jobs and here I am. Somewhere scattered in there was a grocery store and a veterinarian. Oh yeah, I was a Fuller Brush salesman for one night. Told them to go fsck themselves.

So what are some of the odd ball jobs you had?

[NQ6U]

Almost all the jobs I've ever had were oddball but let me pick out a few of the weirder ones:

Harvesting pumpkins. Picking apples. Pulling green chain at a plywood mill (lasted one day). STV (Subscription Television) installer/service tech. As a school bus driver, I drove "The Special Bus" (AKA "The Short Bus").

There are probably others but I've purged a lot of them from my memory banks.

[W7XF]

As a school bus driver, I drove "The Special Bus" (AKA "The Short Bus").

As a school student, Da Pope RODE in da short bus. :neener:

[n6hcm]

IT Director at an adult film studio.

overnight guy at a convenience store ... so yes, i made the donuts

summer bank teller at chase manhattan (as it was called at the time). we got held up four times in five weeks that first summer.

night guard in the university dorms

[N7YA]

I can no longer hide the oddball job i currently have...you got pics AND video!


Outside of that, here are a couple of odd jobs i've had over the years....

Phone sales (otherwise known as "Asshole who rips off little old ladies").

Political guerrilla marketing pollster (worked for Steve Wynn in an unmarked office calling bible belt voters, pretending to be a political pollster, asking questions that were crafted for the desired answer...get casinos in there!)

Door to door sales (i had to wear a tie and carry the product...childrens toys...in 110 degree heat and was instructed to hit Every. Single. Door! One was a leatherman/bears only gay bar...i made no sale there. One guy just smiled and said "I dont have any children")

Theater janitor, Basic stuff...but i often came home with a silo worth of stale, greasy popcorn.

I spent 9 - 10 hours a day screwing floorboards to joists with this thing that looked like a belt fed machine gun. I actually kind of enjoyed it, i was left alone all day.

Razorback clam digger in rural Alaska. It was hard work. Cold, wet, dirty and definately considered 'roughing it'...but left a lasting impression. Im glad i did that one.

Iditarod checkpoint. I did a couple of years doing that at various checkpoints. It wasnt a pay gig, but again, im glad i did it.

I took calls for my dad's short lived aircraft heating service in Alaska. The old man was never really good at sticking with anything that wasn't the military or labeled Coors, Dewars or porn.

Vacuumed out cars at a car wash.

...also washed lots of dishes, prepped lots of food, worked as a line cook, waited tables, supervisor, trainer...all the restaurant shit. Prepped new homes for sale, repaired old homes and framed houses. Lots of cabinetry and finish carpentry. Drove a tractor. Drove an intertstate delivery truck. Worked in quite a few warehouses and loaded a lot of trucks. All sorts of other boring shit.


basically, the only job i stuck with was musician. :lol:

[KG4CGC]

As a child (no child labor laws in the 70s in SC) I was a door to door seed and fruit cake saleskid.

[NQ6U]

I forgot about the time I was paid to guard a hole for three days.

[KG4NEL]

IT Director at an adult film studio.

One of the largest manufacturers of sex toys is ironically next to the county building where we have our ham meetings :D

I've sent them a few resumes, but nothing...

[KG4NEL]

The job wasn't odd, but the oddest product I've ever worked with was when I was the international shipping guy for these guys:

http://www.buckcreekvet.com/sites/site-4218/images/PoppyThundershirt1.jpg

They paid me to go to the Netherlands to open their Euro warehouse, so there's that...

[W7XF]

I can't talk about my teenage years odd jobs.....

[N7YA]

One of the largest manufacturers of sex toys is ironically next to the county building where we have our ham meetings :D

I've sent them a few resumes, but nothing...

You should have put your call on the application, you would be VP by now.

[n2ize]

Working in a insurance company laboratory, opening peoples urine samples and measuring it into cuvettes so it could be run through an autoanalyzer and analyzed for illegal drugs. I did it for three weeks and then I left. Handling biological samples never set well with me.

Working in a pilot plant that made latex products for the medical industry. I spent most of my time there making condoms. After about 2 months the pilot plant closed down.

[n6hcm]

One of the largest manufacturers of sex toys is ironically next to the county building where we have our ham meetings :D

I've sent them a few resumes, but nothing...

they almost certainly really want people who are already in the industry. there's only so much tittering and giggling you can put up with in a day ... not saying you'd do this, but ...

[N2NH]

I was a "Number One Maker" when I worked for Mobil for a couple of months. Seems that they made a typo in a report to stockholders and was missing a '1'.

Worked for "Her Majesty's Travel Service" from an ad in the Village Voice. Right outside our 40th Floor windows, we could see construction workers riveting steel beams. The noise was maddening and after two weeks I left. The migrane headache took another week to go.

I worked in a temp job with an out of work Broadway actor who was laid off when '1776' closed up. He had played Ben Franklin and a dozen or so smaller parts. He claimed he was making enough for a Park Ave. duplex penthouse with 24/7 parties. Now minimum. We had to move and catalog 180K files for an insurance company based on 9 names they were known by. Lasted a month until the Old School Cuban boss decided all temps were excrement. After a little lesson in Spanish obscenities done in my best 3rd year Spanish, I moved on.

Lastly, there was the store on 22nd and 6th. Old school sales in a junk store. I got lost inside the aisles of ancient junk stacked to the ceiling a couple of times and the old guy just seemed to want a kid to scream at. I lasted 2 weeks. I got enough of that kind of stuff at home to want to avoid it anywhere else. I honestly think that most of the crap they dished out back then was to make us want to enlist and ship out to Vietnam.

[KK4AMI]

I spent two summers before college working at a Country Club and Allegheny Ludlum Steel. I think my job title was "Hey you!" Hey you, give me my two iron, Hey you get me a drink, or at the Steel Mill it was Hey you sweep up that up, Hey you wipe down those rollers, etc.

[KG4CGC]

I was also the lead Spackler on a house refurbish team.

[NQ6U]

I was also the lead Spackler on a house refurbish team.

"Lead Spackler" sounds like something they'd have on the set of a pr0n movie.

[KG4CGC]

"Lead Spackler" sounds like something they'd have on the set of a pr0n movie.

I haven't spackled butt cracks before but I'm willing to learn. Of course, I expect compensation.
Ladies 50 cents.
Mens 50 dollars.

[KG4NEL]

they almost certainly really want people who are already in the industry. there's only so much tittering and giggling you can put up with in a day ... not saying you'd do this, but ...

Meh, I don't really care if it's dildos or bales of hay in my Excel files. :yes:

[kb2vxa]

Every job I ever had was an odd job in one way or another. I never met the Korean guy with the razor edge bowler hat, but hanging out in the lounge with the Ray Charles Band goofing on Jack Nicholson's drunk off his ass coronet player twin was fun.

[N8YX]

Service manager of a home appliance shop.

Small engine/motorcycle mechanic at an area motor sales concern.

Packager at a local chemical compounder. Carper cleaner, windshield washer fluid and sidewalk de-icer were just a few of their many products.

When I finally did get a foot in the doors of businesses where my skills in the electronics tech/electrical engineering and IT fields could be fully utilized, the rest became history.

As soon as I finish equipping an electronics R&D lab, acquiring all Park Tools bicycle-related service equipment offerings, finding a frame jig and sourcing a capable TIG welder I could give a side business or two a go. But probably not until retirement - there's no way either of those will pay anywhere near what my current line of work does. For now I'll tinker with these things because I like doing them, and I enjoy helping others with their projects.

[suddenseer]

I can't talk about my teenage years odd jobs.....Yes you can, I am sure the statute of limitations, sans murder has run out. Tell us more, come on, R YA CHICKEN????? (nope you're a bear)

[W7XF]

You can probably guess, Tim.... 40 miles from SF, Mom and I barely making it, and I was chicken at that age...least to say...a profitable business. :yes:

[WØTKX]

Mosquito counts, for the good of Minnesota.

[suddenseer]

You can probably guess, Tim.... 40 miles from SF, Mom and I barely making it, and I was chicken at that age...least to say...a profitable business. :yes:I have never sent out for chicken, but I have delivered it a few times back in the day ;)

[KG4CGC]

Door to door used dildo salesman was a pretty neat job.
There was a guy following me around with a camera.

[wa6mhz]

My oddest JOB was my first job! I was a SHOE Salesman in a little shoe store in my hometown of LISLE, IL. But I quickly got fired cuz I was too anxious to help the ladies try on shoes when they were wearing dresses!!

[NM5TF]

spent 3 months between real jobs as a gravedigger......mostly mowing grass using Toro gang-reel mowers like you see
on golf courses....also learned to use backhoe digging graves....

worst part was cremating bodies....they came in cardboard coffins to be incinerated...will never forget the smell of a DB
for as long as I live....once we put them in the furnace, after 5 minutes we had to look in the viewing port to be certain
they were burning correctly.....as the body burns, the cartilage contracts & the body does a little "death dance".....

fucking freaky !!!!!

[HUGH]

Weekend job at a small electrical shop included repairing small appliances. The oddest one was a device from the local vet for electrocuting cats and dogs. How on earth do you test that one?

[N8YX]

Weekend job at a small electrical shop included repairing small appliances. The oddest one was a device from the local vet for electrocuting cats and dogs. How on earth do you test that one?
Your avatar might provide something of a clue ... :whistle:

[XE1/N5AL]

During my university days, I wrote computer programs to analyze feline breathing and brain activity, for a medical school professor doing sleep apnea and SIDS research. One night, a few years after I had graduated and moved away, a group of animal protection activists broke into the lab, completely trashed the equipment, spray-painted graffiti and stole all of his cats.

[kb2vxa]

Professor Schrödinger's cats were never there to begin with.

[n2ize]

During my university days, I wrote computer programs to analyze feline breathing and brain activity, for a medical school professor doing sleep apnea and SIDS research. One night, a few years after I had graduated and moved away, a group of animal protection activists broke into the lab, completely trashed the equipment, spray-painted graffiti and stole all of his cats.

A\Sounds like the work of either the PETA nuts or the ALF nuts, the latter is even worst than PETA as the ALF condones (and allegedly promotes) vandalism, arson, and violence.

[N2CHX]

I had a paper route for a couple of years, mowed lawns, worked as a dishawasher for a short time. One of the best gigs ever was after my parents moved to another town when I was 17, and I quickly became the repair person for the local fire company's radios. Retuned lots of Plectrons and rescued water damaged handhelds. I charged $25 for a Plectron and $50 for a handheld, plus parts. Best money i ever made :p

[KC2UGV]

My oddest JOB was my first job! I was a SHOE Salesman in a little shoe store in my hometown of LISLE, IL. But I quickly got fired cuz I was too anxious to help the ladies try on shoes when they were wearing dresses!!

And, you wonder why nobody ever answers your calls on air...

[kb2vxa]

"I was a SHOE Salesman in a little shoe store in my hometown..."
Yeah, we saw you on TV.

"A\Sounds like the work of either the PETA nuts or the ALF nuts, the latter is even worst than PETA as the ALF condones (and allegedly promotes) vandalism, arson, and violence."
ALF is worse but not for those reasons, he EATS cats and coordinates activities with other ALF radio pirates.

"Best money i ever made :p"
Best money the FD ever saved, but the techs at the radio shops lack that je ne sais quoi... Kelli charm.

[WØTKX]

There's been a few doozies... many of these were part time.

"Hullabaloo Chef" serving gourmet sausages to plastered "uptown" worker bees. Part time, outrageous tips.

Sound and lights for the same kind of local bands that practiced on your street.

Various agricultural/entomology field tests, statistics (counts) for SCIENCE!

I drove taxi cab for a lot of years, first full time, then part time.

Al Bundy impersonator, selling women's shoes. On commission.

Ski instructor, which some would find weird. I still miss it.

[N8GAV]

My Jr. and Sr. year in high school, during the summer I worked in a clay mine. It was damp, dirty, but cool in there on hot days. Back when the min. wage was less then $2 an hour I made $5.00 so not bad. The clay was made into fire brick that the steel mills and power plants used to line smoke stacks with. Drove by there this past summer, the plant and mine are still there but been closed for some time now, mine entrance is sealed up and plant is boarded up.

[n2ize]

Other "odd jobs" I have had, well not really odd but things most people never come into contact with. I worked in a lab in which I had to handle mercury, cadmium, cyanide compounds, xrays and radioactive materials... Not an odd job per se but a combination of materials most people find terrifying and try to avoid.

Also worked in an R & D lab that made lithographic plate coatings. Had to work with highly flammable and highly volatile compounds such as acetone, methyl-ethyl ketones, cellulose nitrate, photosensitive chemicals and other nice stuff that can make you stoned if you breath it in or can blow up in your face if an ignition source is nearby. One day I was mixing up a coating. Had a nice blender full of MEK, Acetone, and cellulose dinitrate. My brilliant supervisor walks in carrying a lighted cigarette. He gets within 10 feet from me, realizes what I am doing and does a 180 degree turn and runs out into the hallway. Had the worst happened I would have been turned into ashes that afternoon. Along with the entire lab.

Scariest job was working as a graduate teaching assistant. I never stood in front of a classroom before trying to explain stuff and it was scary as hell for the first few times.