DnvrFox

What are some of the more interesting/unique jobs you have had over your lifetime?

I can state:

Forest Fire Lookout
Forest Firefighter and Ranger
Veterinary Assistant
Camp Counselor at a Family Camp
USAF Squadron Commander
College Prof and Administrator
among others.

How about you?

I bet there are a lot more interesting jobs out there than what I have listed.

Artkansas 

Lets see,

Ceramic lamp sander
Guided missile technician
Selling connections to the Internet from a cart in the mall
Driver for an exotic car auction
Virtual world builder

Digital Gee

Unique jobs?

Well, I was a dead petunia picker, an empty 55 gallon paint drum stacker, and a department store Santa Claus, among other things. All these and other odd jobs got me through college.

BengeBoy 

Most interesting job: Moving pianos (part time, college). Always an adventure getting pianos into / out of living spaces; when we couldn't manage the job on our own we'd wander into a bar and offer a big guy $20 to help us for 10 minutes.

maddmaxx 

The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) is an imaging infrared Fourier-transform spectrometer in polar Sun-synchronous orbit aboard the Earth Observing System's Aura satellite, launched on July 15, 2004.


Some bits and pieces in the heart of the beast.

Red Baron

Digital Gee wins so far -

nail Puller - Used lumber. For my G'pa who tore down old houses $0.25/hr.
chicken plucker - local butcher - used a torch to remove the fine hairs.
Hog Killer and Bleeder, same butcher collected blood for blood pudding.
Cow Teat Cleaner prior to milking - used warm water - cows appreciated it.
Corn huster and sheller for a farmer.
Apple sorter, college job part time.
Assembled prefab fireworks stands - college job. Had to work 36 hrs straight.
Fireworks guard for same during evening hrs.
Build containers for plants for a garden center, and srayed white wash on top of greenhouses to prevent over heating.

Cook in a in a drive in - ala happy days TV show.

US military -
SH** Burner - worst job of all EXCEPT when I cleaned out Choppers after bringing in casualities, damn- that was tough.


and finally hardest job of all - raising 2 kids to be fine examples of manhood. I can truly say i did a good job on this one.

HAMMER MAN

in college
construction
real estate clean-up for houses on the market
fork lift/loading and unloading products from train box-cars
Enlisted USMC,Grunt/then Supply and Logistics
Sales
Real estate investor
Sales manager
Own busness
National Accounts Manager
Own business
Sales
Own business
Q.A. Manager
Raising three children and now fun with my 5 grandchildren and cycling

cyclezealot

My jobs have mostly been related to utilities and public health. But, my first job. Naive kid out of high school. My first job, I worked in a drug store. My problem back then, so many condom brand names. Couple times I got a request for condoms mixed up with cigars.

donheff

Back in my college days I was a school janitor, coal boiler fireman, and a park district laborer in Chicago. the interesting thing about all of these jobs was the effort and creativity my fellow workers devoted to avoiding work. College slackers couldn't hold a candle to these guys.

Tom Stormcrowe

Most interesting job:

I was an equipment hauler for DeBeers SA, pulling mining equipment from Capetown, South Africa to Liberia, Zaire (Now the Democratic Congo Republic), Rhodesia, and Burundi. I was in Central Africa during the Hutu/Tutsi rebellion.

DnvrFox

When I worked in Chicago during the first Daly's years, I liked to watch the trash trucks with 5 guys emptying the trash for each truck. It was amazing to me how these guys could spread the little work out to occupy 5 guys time. Our trash trucks around here have either 1 or 2 guys per truck. I also liked to watch the guys who polished the traffic light lenses and covers. I have never seen that done anywhere else but Chicago - shining traffic lights.

oilman_15106

Interesting hardly but some that I have done:

Christmas Tree Trimmer - first "real" job at $0.50 per hour
Ditch Digger/Laborer for local gas utility
Dispatcher for College Security Force
Quality Control Supervisor - manufacturing company
Machinist for plastics company
Refinery Operator
Janitor for US Steel
Chemical Plant Operator Polyester Resins
Chemical Plant Supervisor
Supervisor of Production Planning
Supervisor of Production Planning and Distribution for major chemical company
Vice President of Oil Company
President of small Oil Company

Trsnrtr

I was a projectionist in the 60s and got to see every movie for free... maybe 6-7x.

I was only 16-17 years old and had to be paid in cash due to some state regulations about minors operating dangerous* equipment or something.

*carbon arcs and open gear trains

Allegheny Jet

I was an athlete at a Division II school with very few scholarships to give out. I was lucky to have one of those good "work study jobs" handed out to athletes. My job, for two years, was to make sure the field house was still there when I reported to workouts everyday at 6:30 AM. I was a decathlete and trained 5 hours a day year round in addition to traveling to meets and attending classes. If I worked at a McDonalds, for 5 hours a day, I would have made more money than what the work study job paid so I don't feel bad about not really working.

The Weak Link

I was once a clap doctor for two military brigades

BluesDawg

First job was truck washer for a transport company. I got to drive the big Kenworth, Mack etc, trucks (without trailers) around the parking lot. Some of the drivers would give decent tips for a little extra attention to detail.

My first job out of High School was as an Attendant at one of the world's largest mental hospitals. I saw many strange sights there, but maybe the most bizarre was that I, an 18 y/o long-haired hippie freak was placed in charge of the key to the medicine cabinet full of all kinds of powerful drugs. Crazy days indeed.

Terrierman

I have:

delivered papers (starting in the sixth grade)
changed tires and fixed flats on 18 wheelers (damned hard work)
short order cook
waiter in fancy dining room at girl's college (near perfect job for a high school senior)
(all of the above were in high school)
carried a rifle, a radio and a mortar base plate for the United States Marine Corps.
worked on the front of the furnace that melted the rock before being spun into rock wool - had to wear the shiny asbestos clothes and a helmet and face shield for that one - mighty hot, that job
and then started my life's work, making clean water out of dirty water, both before and after being used.

It's been an interesting life.

TromboneAl

I worked on clam boats. They'd trawl a big steel cage through the mud on the bottom of the bay, then haul it up and dump the contents on a large steel table. We'd pick out the clams. Only bright spot was the occasional lobster that get caught in the cage.

Kind of like this:

snavebob

I was a weather forecaster at McMurdo Station, Antarctica while in the Navy.

CACycling

First real job was bookkeeper at the age of 14 then got into theater a year later.

Between the ages of 15 to 17, summer jobs included: sound tech on a singing group's Europeon tour; sound tech at banquets for '76 Republican National Convention; sound tech at several county fairs (working acts from Three Dog Night to "Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show"); recording studio work.

At 17 I went to work for our local civic auditorium. For 5 years, my duties included: sound tech; follow spot operator (carbon-arc spot); stage hand; projectionist; fly operator; master electrician; rigger; dresser (my duty on one show was to dress Jaime Lee Curtis!); and stage manager.

At 23, I got into facilities maintenance, in time became an electrician, then foreman, then into front office doing.....bookkeeping (among other things).

SKYLAB

Oh geez....I sold popcorn and peanuts at Astros games starting the year they moved into the Dome. I also worked Soccer games, bullfights and the rodeo. I drove a truck one summer in high school for my old man - hotshotting oil field supplies around Texas. I worked over a year in the oil patch doing mud logging - testing fliudity, gas composition ans such things of the mud as it came off the bottom. I worked summers in college for the phone company - SWBT - pre-wiring houses and apartments and removing telephones with disconnect orders. Some of which of course people did not wish to have removed. One address I went to, the house had bruned down and I brought back a very melted Dali-esque phone to the garage.
I started with IBM in 1977, but took a hiatus for a few years in the early 90's and made a, very poor, living as a candle maker, selling to shops around the country and doing the fair circuit. Got some great stories out of that gig.

speedlever

High school
-----------
Pruned apple trees
Bag boy at a grocery store

College
-------
short stint as 3rd shift stocker in grocery store (quit 'cause I couldn't stay awake in class)
commercial painter (summers)
construction worker (summers)
college grounds maintenance

Post college
-------------
bush pilot in Africa (Zaire) (2.5 years) - came home and...
worked for an electronics company supervising CNC equipment and inside sales (9 years), tired of that and..
began sales company for medical management systems (2 years) - didn't work out too well, so I...
went back to flying - charter and freight (5 years), then became an...
airline pilot - (furloughed after 6.5 years... a month before 9/11), so I went back to...
flying corporate and charter in private jets.

Still trying to figure out what I want to do in life... (besides ride my bike)

Not too many dull moments in life. Well except for the flying part... hours of sheer boredom interspersed with moments of stark terror... or something like that.

zoste

In high school and college I had the usual - paper boy, dishwasher, bus boy, retail sales clerk type jobs.

Most unusual: for several years I earned extra money as an umpire for little league baseball, high school baseball and ASA softball games...best ones to work were the company sponsored softball "beer leagues". Those guys always invited the umpires to stick around after the games as they tapped the kegs and fired up hibachi's.

yakmurph

Motorcycle test rider.

Old School

"Today's weather forecast calls for sub-freezing temps, blowing snow, and wind gusts to 60 miles per hour... all in all another fine day here at the South Pole."