My best job was also my first “real” job. (“Real” meaning, of course, you got a paycheck with an attached statement saying how much you got robbed by assorted government agencies. ;))
When I was in high school some friends and I were recruited to work the concession stands for the basketball and football games. This was the perfect high school job because you only had to work Friday and Saturdays pretty much. Our work day began a few hours before game time when we’d meet up in the back room with the giant popcorn popper with the bin the size of a pickup truck bed, lol. We’d fold and fill hundreds of boxes of popcorn while we pretty much hung around,listened to the radio and gossiped. We’d then distribute the corn to the stands and start filling the hot dog machines, nacho chip warmer, and the cheese and chili dispensers. (And coffee and hot chocolate tureens for the football games!) We’d serve the trickle of before game people, like the ticket takers and other faculty and then kick into gear to serve everyone before the game started. At game time we’d restock, clean, serve the handful of people who weren’t actually watching the game an pretty much goof off again until halftime when we’d do it all again.
Obviously we weren’t the coolest kids in school; we didn’t get to PLAY in any games, or be cheerleaders (sometimes we’d be asked to prepare a tray of sodas for the cheerleaders and we’d fill the cups extra full so they’d spill half of it on themselves carrying it back to the gym, heh heh)…hell, we weren’t even in the pep band! But it was sorta like having your own little gang to be part of. We’d goof around and have heated debates about what was going on at each of the 3 area schools, all the while crooning along to the syndicated “SuperGold” on the radio and eating our own weight in chilidogs and nachos, the unsold leftovers going home with us on Saturday nights.
I sometimes think I’d give anything to still have that job! I eventually moved on to similar positions in movie theaters, and quit going to college (the second time ;)) to go into management. Whenever kids would quit I’d tell them straight: “You’re making a mistake; this will be easiest and the most fun job you’ve ever had. It’s all downhill from here.” I wonder what they’re doing now and I wonder how right I was.
The best job I ever had was working at the Four Seasons Snack Shop at Old Faithful Lodge in the summer of 1981 between my sophomore and junior years in college. I worked with great people, I skinnydipped in a hot spring(my first skinnydipping experience ever!). The legal drinking age
was 19, so we partied hard and often.
On days off, the employee cafeteria would make pack lunches to take hiking, so I cruised all over the backcountry every time I had a free day. I was young and experiencing a new world for the first time.
Looking back, my favorite job may have been working in a cigar store in the Chicago Loop many years back.
It had a pretty laid back atmosphere, I had an apartm,ent within a five minute walk of the place, and one of the perks was I got to stand around puffing on good stogies all day long while getting paid for it.
Wouldn’t take the job now though. Pay was pretty low and no benefits.
I worked at the Marina at Lake Catherine State Park for five summers straight beginning the summer after I graduated from high school.
Worked noon til 7 pm, plenty of time to raise hell at night and sleep it off in the morning.
Rented mostly Pedal (NOT Paddle) boats and canoes. Sold minnows and crickets and worms (oh my) and gas.
Saw some pretty insane stuff. Saw one guy blow all the seats out of his boat and have to gather them all up out of the lake. Fortunately I had shoved his boat away from the dock and he had drifted about 50 ft away and the fireball didn’t get close to the gas pump.
That job got me more pussy than you can imagine, but I’ll save those stories for some other time.
I was living at home so I didn’t have many expenses. Saved all the money for spending money at school the next year.
I think Flounder put it best: “Boy is this Great!”
Well, from a “perspective” point of view, the best job I ever had was working in Summer Programs at my college. I’d just graduated, not sure what I wanted to do with my life after going through several rounds of corporate banking interviews and realizing I’d rather kill myself than wear a suit every day. So instead I did logistics and hostessing of various groups who came in during the summer to use our dorms, etc. This was just a temp job until I felt ready to leap back into a serious job search again.
The best part of the summer was hosting the Elderhostel group. Elderhostel is a program that brings retirees back to campus for programs of interest. I was 21, immature, and panicky because I thought I had to have the future figured out already. Spending a week with 30 wonderful, laid back, intelligent people in their 60s and 70s who were still out there learning and trying knew things…that was EXACTLY what I needed. I wish they knew what an impact they had on me.
I was a lifeguard at a wave pool water park. Best job of my life! Stand around and get paid a (seeming) fortune, get beautifully tanned, talk to gorgeous women, and haul the occasional sputtering kid out of the drink. Best summer ever!!!
I’ll have to say being a dancer.
It was what I had wanted to do since I’d been 10 years old(don’t ask why).
Working 16 hours a week and bringing home roughly $200 is a good thing.
Admittedly, sometimes it didn’t pay as well, and some customers were difficult to put up with, but it was my first job which let me know I could support myself quite well without anyone else’s help.
But I am happily retired.
Without a doubt, the best job I ever had was as a sushi chef. I had that gig while I was in college, working inside an oval sushi bar that had a moat with boats going around and around. Most of the sushi plates went on the boats, and the customers would pull the plates off them as they floated by. The biggest drawback, tho, was that the hours sucked. I got tired of getting off work at midnight or later.
If I ever hit the Lotto, I’m opening up a lunch-only sushi place.
The first was working as an editor for a national monthly magazine devoted to computer games. I got to play all of the latest games, then (using my vast facility with the language provided by my English degree) tell people what I thought of them (the games, not the people). And, no, I never used the --quote–unquote-- word, “kewl” to describe a game.
The second is the one I’m doing now–working freelance, from home, writing, with some web design and music production thrown in for bonuses. I live a half-mile from the beach, and hang out with my dog, who knows me best.
So–who needs to win the state lottery? I’m good with me on my own terms…
First job after college, working as the afternoon/evening reference librarian at the university I had just graduated from. Lived with my best friend, who was working in a different library on campus. We didn’t have to be to work 'til noon, so we stayed out 'til last call every night. Most of our friends were still in town because they were on the 5-year plan. Right around the corner from our apartment was a bar. Next to the bar was a laundromat. We played pool and ran next door to change loads.
On Wednesday nights another bar had this thing they called “Soul Kitchen.” $2 cover, disco music, and free beer 'til 10 pm or the keg ran out, whichever came first. It was bad beer, but free bad beer, so we didn’t care.
We ate dinner at happy hour most nights. Free buffet at the Gazebo Room. Real food, too, not just chips and salsa.
That was the Summer of Our Bionic Livers.
This wouldn’t have been summer 1996, by any chance?
Oh man. I felt no pain that summer. My roommate and I spent every evening kicking back on the front porch of the condo drinking beer or whiskey or whatever we had available, and hitting on our neighbors.
Happened to be the summer of the best job I’ve had so far as well. I had the morning shift at the phone-in helpdesk at college(Texas A&M). Nobody called until about 9:30 or so, so me and my coworker would take turns sleeping until about 9:30(or playing video games), and then at about 9:30, when people called in with problems, we’d answer questions and jack around until noon.
The best thing about that job was that it’s the only one where I’ve actually worked with people my own age. I’ve always been the youngster at my jobs before & since college. There’s nothing quite as irritating as being called “kid” or “young feller” when you’re 27!
It’s a toss-up…in terms of working with fun people and having a great time goofing off on the job, I’d have to go with my three years as a Kum & Go convenience store clerk.
In terms of a great job in more adult terms, the one I have now is pretty good, medical secretary at the Mayo Clinic. I enjoy it a great deal, I work with wonderful people, and the pay is pretty good, and it’s even better now that I have a permanent position rather than a float position. Finally, I have a desk of my own, where I can put up little knick-knacks and photographs…weee! Of course, I’d quit in a heartbeat if the opportunity to be a rock star happens to knock…anyone need a singer?
Toward the end of college, I needed an extra quarter or two to finish, so I found myself in December needing money and wondering who might be hiring. I got a job in a toy store during the Christmas season. Spent some time unloading trucks when they came in, and must’ve put together about a million bicycles, but when things got busy up front, they made me go out there and deal with the buying public (I know, I thought it was a little scary too).
It was great to show these people how all the new toys worked … couldn’t believe I was being paid for it!
Best job I had was in the last year of my Army contract, I was a Mail Clerk and Armourer for a Brigade HQ company. As a corporal I was senior enough to have my own room and I was immune to all the little shit jobs that the other barrack’s rats had to deal with.
As an armourer I had some wierd hours at times, like when the Colonel wanted his side-arm at 0-dark thirty or would return it at midnight, but days in garrison where lax. PT was the only formation I had to report to and I could hide either in my mail room or arms room, telling people I had paperwork or maintenace to do and no one would bother me.
Best were the mid-morning naps in the mail room after a particularly fun prior evening. And the fact that I got to play with all the usuall assortment of small arms.
I’ve only had three jobs, so there is not a lot to choose from, but…
The job I have now is awesome. It’s at IKEA, a Swedish furniture store for those not in the know. It’s HUGE, so I have lots of freedom. In the morning I open and display shipments, during the day I help customers and goof off, and at night I leave after putting a cutting board back in the kitchen section. Sometimes I have to lift heavy stuff.
Other reasons I love working there:
*I make tons of money ($1000 a month is pretty good for a 19 year old).
*I don’t have to attack customers "HI CAN I HELP YOU WERE YOU LOOKING AT THAT WHAT SIZE DO YOU WEAR HI CAN I HELP YOU? like I did at my old job. Ech.
*I work with really cool people.
*I have a great schedule most of the time.
*I can sit on my ass and it’s ok.
*IKEA has awesome furniture and whatnots (toys, sheets, bath stuff, plants, etc.) that I can buy at discount.
Overall, I like it sooo much. I haven’t been working there long so it might get old, but right now it’s perfect.
My best was also my worst. Had to get a second job about a year ago (military doesn’t pay for shit, if you hadn’t noticed). Starting slinging burgers at our newly-opened local Sonic. For those not in the know, this is a chain of 50’s style carhop-type fast food joints. Servers on skates and all.
Lotta ‘kewl’ kids working there, unfortunately I was 29 at the time. Still, you’re only as old as you feel, eh? and I fit in pretty well. Laughed my ASS off with this one guy, we could run the whole kitchen together we were in such perfect sync. Lotsa free food, plenty of eye candy rolling around (not that I could touch 'em), jammin tunes on the radio, it was a real good time. Unfortunately, I got real tired of burning the crap out of myself (I work with live steam pipes for a living and my worst burn scar is from the bun toaster at Sonic) and leaving there with fried-food stench soaking into me. So, like all good things, it had to end.
