Strangest Way You Ever Got A Good Job?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I once got one of the highest paid ESL teaching jobs in Europe, because of a “porn” class.

I was working at a private language school in Berlin and one of my ex-students came back, after a trip to the US, and told me he had a great time, but was somewhat embarrassed because during a business lunch, a couple of guys told a dirty joke he didn’t understand and they had to explain it to him.

I decided that was fair game to learn, and incorporated it into my lesson plan; on the last day of (optional) class, for adults, I gave my “porn lesson” - all of the vulgar words and phrases. You name it, it was on my list.

Needless to say, my last day of classes quickly became legendary; students heard about it and wanted to learn the “dirty words”. None of the other teachers wanted to go there, so quite often I was invited to teach their class on the last day of their studies and do my “porn” lesson.

One of these classes from another teacher was for a group of businessmen from a large German corporation. I had never met them before, but entered the room, introduced myself, handed out my porn worksheet and went over the vocabulary. They seemed to like the class.

About three weeks later I get a call from Frankfurt, Germany and a guy said, “Are you the teacher who taught our businessmen the porn lesson?”
Somewhat nervous that I was busted, and would be reported and probably fired from the school - but realizing it was too late to deny it, I said, “Yes.”
There was a pause and the guy said, “Well, anyone who has the balls to teach that is someone we would like to interview to teach for us.”

To make this long story shorter, they paid for my flight to Frankfurt, I interviewed, they liked me and hired me on the spot. As I mentioned above, it paid more than any other teacher was earning at the time, I was flown to hotels around Germany and taught executives and businessmen and women who needed to fly around the world and meet with executives from other corporations.

That porn class turned into a small goldmine for me.

So, has anyone else had a strange way to get a good job?

2

I got the newspaper job in university that led to my current (excellent) publishing job by picking a fight with the editor in the bar.

Well, sort of. I told him that the copyediting on his paper was terrible, and that I played a game with my roommate where we went over the printed edition with a red pen and compared to see who caught the most mistakes. He laughed and asked who usually won, and I said I did. He said he was aware of the problem and asked if I’d like to come in for a trial issue. I ended up working on that paper for three years (and the editor became one of my best drinking buddies).

3

I took a class in college that involved programming Datapoint computers, which at that time were actually good little machines. I got my A, didn’t think much about it.

In the years after graduation, I wound up getting two contracts programming Datapoint systems. I probably earned my college tuition 10x over from those two jobs.

4

As part of a broad-based job search strategy I posted my resume to Monster.com - and got a good job the following week!

It was for a massive Indian company who was working on a contract in my city. Everyone else on the project had come directly from India, and they needed to hire someone local and didn’t know anybody.

I am happily a bureaucrat now, but I could have easily used that job to launch a good career in project management.

5

In 2001, my current employer was looking to get rid of a couple of dozen of us “placeholders” on a contract, so as to put their own long-term employees in as they rotated out of another contract that was nearing completion.

So September 11th, 2001, was a golden opportunity for them, as the governement put a freeze on the transfer of all funds (nevermind that my employer had already been paid for the quarter, and was not hurt in the least financially by 9/11).

I (and about half of the “field team” I was on on) received my “pink slip” via fax 8:00 AM CST 9/12/01. They even had the balls to contest Unemployment Claims, but neither New Jersey (Corp. HQ located there) nor Texas (my state of residence)was buying what they were selling, and I received about 3 months of backdue Unemployment right before XMas.

So around mid-March, I’m struggling to find work, and Unemployment is about to run out. I’m dropping an application and resume at Wal-Mart Optical in Dallas as a Lab Tech, one of about half-a-dozen I’ve filled out that week.

The HR guy comes out and tells e point-blank they aren’t going to hire me as a lab tech. But would I mind sticking around a bit to talk to the Facility Manager?

And that’s how I got on at Wal-Mart Optical’s Maintenence Dept. as a Facility Tech. Great job, best boss I ever worked for, good benefits, low-stress. My slightly OCD personality pretty much insured that I was the “Calibration Tech,” and my familiarity with computers also got me some great training on robotics.

Basically, for someone willing to put some effort into the job, to secure some applicable education, there was excellent opportunity for advancement. I was pretty much told that if I continued with my education, I would be the Facility Manager w/in 10 years.

I still miss that job (why I’m no longer there is another story, but I left Wal-Mart on very good terms).

6

The small company I had been working for was going out of business. They got us all together on a Friday morning to tell us the bad news . . . effective immediately. Anticipating having to go on interviews, I stopped by a department store on my way home, to pick up a couple of dress shirts and ties. While shopping, I heard someone call my name. It was a former coworker whom I hadn’t seen in a few years. He said, “Hey, I was just thinking of calling you. Do you want a job?” The company he was working for had an opening for someone with my exact skills. I went back with him to his office, and got the job immediately, with more than a 50% increase over my previous job. And I didn’t even have to buy new shirts and ties.

7

I went out on a job interview for a desktop publishing job. I had sent in a resume showing my computer expertise.

It turned out that this was in the marketing department. About halfway through the interview they said:

“We like your computing background, but since this is marketing, we also need someone with good writing skills. What’s your background in that area?”

I tried hard not to grin. I said, “I have a Master’s degree in writing and am a published author. Oh, and by the way . . . here’s my novel.” I pulled it out of my portfolio and showed it to them.

Game, set, match.

8

It wasn’t a good job, but it indirectly launched my current career: I got a part-time job designing and transcribing an alumni database because I had bad handwriting. My supervisor thought that the person who handwrote the original alumni register at our college during the 19th century had “the second-worst handwriting I’ve ever seen.” She calmly stated that “because you have the worst handwriting I’ve ever seen,” I might be able to succeed in transcribing it where others had failed.

Everybody who’s known either Dr Heal or me who’s heard this story has said one of two things:

  1. Yes, that sounds like something Dr Heal would say.
  2. Yes, you do have the worst handwriting I’ve ever seen.
9

Sitting in the park, I got a call about a job, but they were looking for someone called Sarah Lowe. I admitted that wasn’t me, but they chatted to me anyway, and offered me the job. I started the next morning (after a 12 hour train ride to Scotland) and was there for two years.

We never did work out how they got my number.

The strangest thing is that Sarah Lowe was a pseudonym I used to use many years before that, but never in a way that was connected to my phone number or my job applications.

10

During the economic downturn that marked the Carter Presidency, I was a laid off carpenter working as the tongue saw operator at a slaughter house. I heard a rumor that the plant was going to shut down, and took the first job I could find to avoid being out of work in those hard times. I got out three days before the plant closed, and I have been at that “temporary” job ever since. In six weeks or so it will be thirty years.

I started out recharging fire extinguishers, and I am now the senior fire alarm technician. It has been a pretty good job all these years

11

I was working as a substitute teacher for the high school here. I had just graduated, cash was tight, and there weren’t many jobs to go around. We were getting by on Unsquare Dude’s income, but we weren’t comfortable.

One day, I got a call from the secretary at the school saying they had openings for teacher’s aides that they hadn’t posted online, and would I like to interview for them. Turns out, one of them was for the reading department, which is overseen by English, and… Gee, you have an English degree. Here’s a job!

It wasn’t… strange, I guess. But it was like the job just fell into my lap with little effort from me. I’ve never gotten a job like that. I lucked into it.

12

For some unknown reason, my father hates making phone calls. One day Mom wasn’t around and he asked me to call the local appliance store and get the dimensions of a washer or dryer he had ordered the day before, he was going to build some shelves or something near it. The appliance store manager happened to answer the phone, liked my ‘phone voice’ and offered me a job answering phones and filing. At 16 I knew nothing about appliances, but since ninety percent of calls got transferred anyway, it worked out just fine.

13

It was February 1983, and I was set to graduate in May with a BS in Math with a minor in computer science. I was going to get either magna or summa cum laude (missed summa just by a teeny bit – rats!), so I figured I’d be able to get a job. But I wasn’t getting any responses to most of my letters seeking employment. One interview with McDonnell-Douglas, but no follow-up, out of about 100 letters sent.

My elderly cousin, retired from Southwestern Bell, decided to help me out. She had been a first-level manager (ie, one step above clerk), and had met and befriended lots of women all over the company, as female managers were unusual in her time. As she explained it to me, she called the office of the VP, since his secretary was one of her friends. But her friend was out of the office, and Himself answered the phone. When she heard his voice, she just blurted out, “Ohhh, I’ve made a terrible mistake!”. He laughed and asked her what she was calling about, so she told him the truth. She didn’t know this, but I’d met the man once before I went to college while I was working in outside plant construction, and he remembered me. She told him I had straight A’s* but couldn’t even get an interview.

When I got to work that afternoon at the university computer center, a programmer told me to return a call to Mr. B at this number. The programmer gave me an odd look, then told me her husband was an installer for Southwestern, she knew who Mr. B was, and what the hell was the VP calling me for? I had no idea, but called him back; got instructions to send him my resume and transcript. I ended up in systems support. (Oh, and McDonnell-Douglas finally did try to call me back after Southwestern hired me. Too slow.) My cousin was almost 100 when she passed away last year; I’m retired now; 25 years with the company from an accidental conversation.

*Not entirely true; I had 2 B’s

14

The company I worked for made bad investments and closed.

I went to apply for unemployment and was disgusted by how long it took to process my claim.

I asked for the Manager and complained politely, then told him they needed to hire more people.

He had just received word that because of the unemployment figures, he could hire some temp and provisional employees.

I got the job and was there for a little over 2 years (until the unemployment figures dropped).

15

Ok, this qualifies as a story to be told under Very Odd Coincidences!
Dmark great story. Porn=$! Who knew!
3acresand a Truck What a really nice thing for your cousin to do.

16

I know you have told this story before and I always grin goofily at the " Oh, and here is my novel." bit.

17

When I was applying for a fellowship/assistantship, I wrote in my letter to the Chair that if they gave me the assignment I would go to his house and clean his toilet, plus the rest of his house.

I was actually serious. Kind of short on what was appropriate in a letter like that, but I got the job (some teaching and mostly research). Actually they told me that that’s why I got the job but I think they were kidding, especially because the Chair never actually took me up on the house cleaning offer.

18

My old company had gone bankrupt, the new one that had picked me up as one of the pieces was laying off doctors and paring salaries down. I could read the writing on the wall. But my queries locally weren’t producing much.

Then I responded to a mass-mailing appeal, asking “do you want to practice medicine in prison?”

That was over 7 years ago now.

19

I got a fun job in college just by walking into a bridal store to look at some jewelry for my sister’s upcoming wedding. The store manager looked at me and asked what size I wore, and if I would be interested in modeling for their bridal shows. I said sure, and got paid $50 cash per show a few weekends a year, sometimes 2-3 shows in an afternoon. (not bad for a college student.) That led to doing shows for a few other places as well. Really fun, and all because I could wear sample sizes!

20

Did you also get a mailing asking if you like gladiator movies?