Before they were SD'ers

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had some pretty crappy jobs in my career. Here is the short list:

Picking up trash at the drive-in: The closest I ever got to show business.
Busboy at Pizza Hut: I had to wear a hairnet, I was in my “rockstar” phase.
Marble-Caster: Carrying hundred-pound bags of sand from one end of the plant to the other end.

How low did you go?

As I revealed in the “two truths and a lie” thread:

I once worked as a door-to-door salesman, selling vinyl siding and window frames. I believe my typical spiel was:

“Hi, there! How’d you like to spend $20,000 in this wonderful recession on a product that will involve massive amounts of construction upon your house and will take thirty years to repay the initial investement? Best of all, I’m a complete stranger who has no incentive not to completely screw you over by taking your money and running!”

Yes sir, those were the days.

Though it’d be nice to once more work for a company where I got promoted simply by being the only person who A) had a car and B) didn’t come into work reeking of marijuana.


JMCJ

Winner of the Mr. & Mrs. Polycarp Award for Literalizing Cliches for knowing an actual atheist in a foxhole.

Oh man, this is can of worms.
I have done everyting!
Well almost. Check this out.
Lexicon has (in no particular order):

Been a waiter at TGI Fridays. and a mom n’ pop Mexican restaurant.

Washed dishes in same mom ‘n’ pop dive. That sucked.

Roofing. Nuff said.

Construction, both onsite and off, building trusses.

Video store clerk @ Blockbuster. The epitomy of the job that you don’t give two shits about and eventually get fired from.

Bouncer. At a “gentelmen’s club”. That’s the PC way to say “sleazy titty bar” right? And at the college bar across the street. That was fun, for so many reasons.

Security at a waterpark. What a joke. I actually picked up innertubes and ogled the clientele.

Personal defense instructor. While nowhere near the echalon that folks like Glitch have reached, I was asked to assist in PE 206 my second year of college, it was personal defense. That was fun.

Sales shmuck. Selling anything for commision is a drag. I hated it, but needed a job.

Assistant crack whore. Hey, I was lonely.
Not really, it’s just that dating this one girl was a full time job of bailing out and wringing out and such. What was I thinking.

Wildland fire-fighter. This was awesome. Like getting paid to hike and camp and do other guy stuff like cut trees down. I miss my polasky and my mccloud more and more the closer it gets to summer.

Manager @ Structure. Some of you may have heard of this store. It’s (probably)in your local mall. I spent most of my time in front of hot dog on stick, drinking enough lemonade so they would run out and have to make more. This job was the biggest no brainer. I know, it was made for me. Heh.

Grease monkey. Changing oil in like 4,000 cars for a rental car company is a real drag. And it’s dirty. And greasy. That sucked too.

And my current job!
Tech support! It’s pretty cool, and no, it’s not for AOL. I hate AOL as much as the next guy, and I work for someone else. I can’t tell you who tho. Bummer.

I think that 'bout sums it up. You?


how did it start? well i don’t know i just feel the craving. i see the flesh and it smells fresh and it’s just there for the taking…
VvvV

My first job was in the dining room at a nursing home. Working in the dish room was the most disguesting thing I have ever done, you would not believe some of the things that would come back on the trays from the wings! ::gag::

Accountant.

Now there’s yer exciting career track.


Have you voted for your favorite, huggable Mullinator today?

Cleaning hotel rooms was one of the worst…I always leave a tip now knowing what these people have see and clean…some people loose all sense of cleanliness when they are on vacation. I shudder to think of some of the things people do…thank God that only lasted a week and a half.

At fifteen I was a waitress in a small burger joint (I just LOVE that word! It sounds SO sleazy!!) for a $1.10, I remember when it was raised to $1.15, I celebrated!!

I was stringing lawnchair webbing for six of the longest months of my life at 19.

Became a slave at a drugstore that had no lunch break, I became an expert at not chewing a hamburger that was under the counter!

Helped W.T. Grant department store go out of business, though I’m not sure how.

Cashier at another department store till I was in my mid twenties.

I got married and got a new job at a hospital in their library doing medical research (READING,it should hardly be called a job, I loved it)

Then I had two boys, and that’s been my main job since, and it is better than the research job, 'cause I get hugs now!


“Consider it a challenge…”

mmm…
one of the better jobs I had was in college. I worked for the Vet School at UGA in the Education Resources Dept. Photographic Technician. Cool boss. Changed my hours from quarter to quarter. Kept this job for three years while in college.

Worked for the Dept. of Agriculture while in H.S. Boll Weevil Eradication. Don’t ask.

When moved to N.M., worked for a rental car company. Sucked.

While in London, worked in the Admissions Dept. of a University. Job wasn’t great, but the people were.

Pulled pints in a pub (also when in London). Took this job to live upstairs for free.

I’ve been a massage therapist for almost 5 years now. It’s only a part-time thing now, but it’s rewarding and I enjoy it.

Current job, computer technician. Not AOL. I work with Lexicon. It’s not too bad, but not the end either.

I am large,
I contradict myself,
I contain multitudes.
~Walt Whitman

Probably the worst of the jobs in my very checkered past was when I worked the graveyard shift for a “motorcycle lawyer” for a few months.

This lawyer got his jobs by handing out thousands of business cards advertising a “hotline” (that was me) at motorcycle gatherings in the hopes of getting the first shot at the spoils when the bikers inevitably bashed themselves up. So I got to sit alone in the office from 11pm to 7am, reading biker magazines, calling asshole lawyers when cases came in and trying to do a bit of office work on ancient, useless equipment. A nice side benefit was fielding obscene phone calls from bored and drunken bikers who dialed the 800 number on a whim. A truly miserable job.

Catrandom

I was manager of the french fries at a fast food joint when I was a teenager… model for a nude figure drawing class in college…and my worst job of all with the least amount of pay…being a mom… I had to wait 20 years before I got any respect.


I really try to be good but it just isn’t in my nature!

I worked on the farm (tobacco) until I was 15 when I went to work at a snack bar at a discount department store. Did factory work while I was in college. After college I was the admin assistant for the buyer of a major convenience store chain in the south. Then the job I have now as a technical aide. Of course the farm was the worse.

Hmm. I worked in the high school student store after school.

My dad was a toolmaker, had his own shop. I used to earn a lot of extra money doing odd jobs there – assembling parts, stuff like that.

Summers at college I did theater tech work (for the magnificent sum of $350 for eight weeks!). I worked in a department store, both on the floor and in the credit office. I was a research assistant to a PhD type (now a USC professor) doing polygraph research. In those days before personal computers, I typed term papers for other students (75 cents a page, and I’d edit for obvious spelling and grammar errors). I worked as a counselor in a “juvenile detention facility” for about six months.

I took a year off between college and law school and was a secretary/receptionist for a Culligan water softening and industrial water purification firm. Dated my boss, who was the guy who owned the place, who was abou 16 years older than me and had an AWESOME home in the Hollywood Hills. (My secretaries have always loved that I was once a secretary – it gives me an appreciation of what they do for me :).)

Once I got to law school, and since then, all my for-pay jobs have been law-related, first as a clerk, then as an attorney.

-Melin


Siamese attack puppet – California

Still neglecting and overprotecting my children

The job I had in HS(and actually the only job I’ve ever had, since i still work there when i go home for the holidays) was at a small deli-type place. The company was basically a set of stands at various Farmer’s markets in the area, so I got to travel around to a whole bunch of them-some better than others. As far as part time jobs go, it really wasn’t that bad at all honestly. Getting up at 3:00 AM in order to start at 4:00 AM kind of sucked, but a 14 hour day is nothing to scoff at as far as money is concerned. Plus it was a really fun place, so all in all I’d have to say that my overall work experience has been a positive one.
Of course I don’t necessarily expect this to be a continuing pattern.

Shoveled snow
Sold Christmas wreaths door-to-door for Boy Scouts
Delivered papers
Stoop-and-squat weed-picker on a truck farm (worst job)
Golf course greenskeep assistant
Shop rat (unskilled laborer) in a tool shop
Shop rat (unskilled laborer) in a foundry
Merchant seaman
Landscape laborer
Phone receptionist
Retail management (only job aside from weed-picker where I dreaded going to work each day)
Business programmer
Dad (most frustrating; yeah, sure they’ll grow up some day–but only if I let 'em)

Tom~

I’m only 22, and seem to have several different jobs under my ever widening belt…

My first real job was as a corn detassler for a seed corn distributor. My first stint as a row-walker lasted four whole days. I was ‘let go’ on the last day for not doing good enough of a job. I did that again with another company for the next two or three summers.

(finally get my divers’ license so i can get a ‘real’ job!)

Worked at a locally owned pet store…a GREAT job when I wasn’t cleaning up poop.

Moonlighted at McDonalds during that summer (HATED that job!)

Entered my stint at Kroger as a packing technician, moved up to monetary control, then finally to store-product distribution.

Went to college

First summer I was a security guard at a state park, my FAVORITE job I’ve had

Second summer, worked in a factory packing cheese! Woo hoo!!

got an RA job at school. Did damage assessment in the housing units for the Dept of Residence Life at school.

Got a job part time working at a miniature golf place!

That’s it.


“If we submit everything to reason, our religion will have no mysterious or supernatural element. If we offend the principles of reason, our religion will be absurd and ridiculous.” Blaise Pascal

I’ve…

Worked as a busboy during banquets at my dad’s restaurant. My back hurts just thinking about it.

I worked a few semesters as a referee for various intramural sports. Too much bitching from people playing the sports.

Current job(when I’m not at school): Working as a nurses assistant in the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (Recovery Room) of a hospital. Very cool job.

lexicon definitely has the best list…

my worst was at a library . it was really boring, other than that it was ok. i fell asleep a few times

best: computer lab assistant. i got to be on the computer for long periods of time. youd be amazed how many people in med school dont know how to do basic stuff on computers!


Chief’s Domain - http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~ravi

Assistant Crack Whore (Ret.)

The worst job I ever had was working at McDonald’s the summer I graduated from high school.

I’ve shared Lexicon’s experience of working at Blockbusters for a month. There’s nothing like a job where the main benefit is free movie rentals.

I’ve worked as a buyer for a petrochemical pipe company.

I put in four and a half years in retail.

My current job is a computer auditor for a major PC company. It’s one step above being a line monkey, but it’s great resume work, and the benefits rock.


You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.

I’ve had a few fast food jobs (Roy Rogers Roast Beef Sandwich - bleh! And I worked several times over a few year for a now defunct regional chain called Hamburgers by Gourmet).

Yardman - hard physical work, but the money was actually OK!

I lived off of selling Space City News on a street corner for a few months.

Floral delivery truck driver - another one of those occupations that, as with fast food, followed me around for a few years and through a few employers - hey! I was the only person I knew who’d been to every funeral home in the city. Weird day with that: One Monday AM my first delivery was a casket spray to put on a friend of mine whom I’d seen Saturday evening and didn’t know he was dead.

Make up guy in the shipping room of a Hickory Farms franchise (you know, gift baskets with summer sausage and cheese and little candies, etc.) - worked with my roommates and we shipped ourselves a couple.

Drummer in various bar bands (only one of which worked enough to anticipate income from it).

Day construction labor - another bleh!

Helper and then reactor operator in a chemical plant. The pay was great but the environment was from Dante. I got burned in a tank and the month I spent in the hospital afterwards allowed me the time to think my way through things and decide to go to college.

Taxi driver for a few years while in college. I’m glad I did it, I’m glad I don’t anymore.

Night clerk (home stretch of college, after I sold the cab), and the only staff on duty, at a desperately trying to avoid sinking into the sleaze old hotel in downtown Austin. The wife (Bosswitch) of the English couple who owned it thought I was some kind of whiz kid for coming up with hourly rates.

I’m sure I forgot something. I’ve been an exploration geophysicist for 19 going on 20 years now. Who knows what I’ll be when I grow up?