Forget about salary and benefits for a moment. Out of all the jobs you’ve had, which would you consider the most enjoyable?
For me, it would be the time I spent working at a nursery when I was in college. My job consisted of stocking shelves, watering plants, and helping customers carry their purchases to their vehicles. It was very laid-back. No stress. No worries. And I got to breathe fresh air, bask in the sunlight, and be amongst green things all day long. Too bad it only paid $6.50 an hour.
I once got hired to destroy a house. Literally. I was paid to tear down the walls and do some other damage on this piece of property. The home was owned by a woman who bought up crappy old property, improved it, and rented or resold it. The woman was nuts. I was hired because of my hair and astrological sign as much as anything else, but she was a good boss.
One summer I worked as a “Library Extension Services File Catalog Clerk.” Finding old books and getting rid of them, ordering new ones, filing, putting the books back on the shelves, working with the public. Potentially it could have been the most boring job in the world, but I was with a great crew. Truly, every single person was intelligent, funny, and legitimately nice. So we had fun. And I somehow ended up helping all kinds of people with all kinds of weird and unusual research projects. And I got to keep books for as long as I liked (it’s decades now). And best of all, I got paid an amazing four dollars and seventy cents an hour!!!
The military gave me some of the very best and very worst jobs I ever had. I’ve been paid to blow shit up–you can hardly beat that. They’ve also paid me to help people, and you really can’t beat that.
I’ve had a couple cool factory jobs. Most of them have pretty much sucked, though.
I loved getting paid to run around, drive all sorts of different cars, and study/read in the downtime. So far, it’s also been the best paying: minimum wage plus tips, which could be up to $200 on a Saturday night if I really hustled and charmed --and got a lot of guys with trucks, for some reason, almost every lifted truck was five-spot tipper…something about a lil girl in a bow tie must have spoken to something inside them.
Not only was working in the fragrance of baking bread and cookies ecstasy, the customers were mostly polite and grateful, no doubt soothed by the mouth-watering aroma. My job consisted of chopping up fruits and nuts for the bread, cleaning the mixers/paddles, and closing up shop. Pretty easy for a high-school student. I also got to eat whatever I wanted and take bread, scones, muffins, and cookies home. I really loved that job.
Surf shop back home…boss was super nice, always buying me dinner and drinks, I had a flexible schedule, and I was trusted enough to have the keys for the shop. Also, I dunno for some reason, even if the boss was a lady, we had more girls than guys…and trust me, some of them were purdy!! I always scheduled my time to work with one of them…drool…flirting with tourists as well as locals…dammit, I wish I still worked there
I made pretty good money too (as compared to the minimum wage in my island) and was the highest paid employee before I left and still get discounts on stuff when I go home…ahh…memories:rolleyes:
The one I have now–I’m the pastry chef of a nice, small restaurant near the beach. I work evenings (I’m a night owl) and have Sundays off. I like everyone I work with, and I get to make sweets all evening long.
I used to work beach patrol at South Padre Island. All I had to do all day was drive around the beach with a jeep they gave me and sell parking permits to those who didn’t have them.
And if I saw anybody cuasing trouble I just radioed in on my C.B. that had a direct link to the police!
My very first job was working for a Haunted House. My job was to sit up in the loft and stare at a strobe light for FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT. Below me was a jail room set up with a man in an electric chair. My job was to hold a string and wait for the drunken masses to come up and act all macho and grab the bars and scream at the dead guy./ Then, I let go of my string and send a dismembered corpse from the ceiling to slam into the bars, thus scaring the shit out of their girlfriends forcing them to push their boyfriends forward as fast as they can…right into the wall. Then I’d flick on a light after a bit, hang out over the wall, scream, bang on shit, and let them go. Good times.
That’s tied with my internship in Louisiana with Logan Marketing. My second advertising internship and the best so far. I just got a lot of hands on activity and it really made me feel great and love advertising. Too bad they’re going out of business
My volunteer job at a veterinary clinic. I learned about animal, surgery, nutrition, etc. My boss and the rest of the people that worked there were nice and treated me well. I still go there when I visit home.
I worked in a homeless shelter. We did the night in shifts. Two nights out of four I would sleep for four hours out of the twelve I worked. The other two nights I would sleep for eight. Man, that job rocked. Best pay I’ve ever been on, too - danger money.
I get to use my usual approach (Find problem, examine problem, terminate problem, move on…), while working with lots of people, while getting lots of freedom to pursue solutions my way, and while being trusted to work without close supervision.
I don’t do much Systems and Networking any more, but the solution methodology is still the same: Find a problem, hunt it down, and kill it. It’s fun, it’s challenging, I’m good at it, and I get a lot of trust and autonomy while making a material difference, all the while helping people who are grateful for the assistance. That is intoxicating.
I spent nine months working for an internet development company. Easily the best job I ever had – completely casual attitude, challenging and educational work, cutting-edge technology, great co-workers, minutes from the pier, relatively close to my home, and keg parties every Friday afternoon.
Sure, I had to work a few weekends when the deadline monster was looming on the horizon, but between all the pluses (and a kickass salary), I didn’t mind at all.
I’d still be estatically working there if our supply of clients hadn’t dried up from the Bush II recession…
For six years, I worked as a morris dancer at the Carolina Renaissance Faire. Our troop did six shows a day and entertained patrons between shows. I love dancing; I love costumes; I love entertaining people; and Rennies are terrifically fun to hang out with. I have a couple of friends who actually are on circuit with the Faire right now. I love my current job and my life here, but sometimes I envy them.
For six years, I worked as a morris dancer at the Carolina Renaissance Faire. Our troop did six shows a day and entertained patrons between shows. I love dancing; I love costumes; I love entertaining people; and Rennies are terrifically fun to hang out with. I have a couple of friends who actually are on circuit with the Faire right now. I love my current job and my life here, but sometimes I envy them.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… waitressing.
Well, waitressing at one place in particular–a little pseudo-Caribbean joint in Atlanta. Wasn’t so much the job itself as it was the fact that I absolutely adored most of my coworkers (and vice versa). We were all (for the most part) really good friends, so going to work wasn’t… well… like going to work. It was more like getting to hang out with people you really dug for a few hours–oh, and occasionally some people you might not know would come around and ask you to bring them food. But they’d give you a coupla bucks for it.
Then when that was over, you could go out and drink with your friends.
Unfortunately, I’ve lost touch with most of those people, and only have a few candid photos as evidence of our exquisite debauchery…
But let me tell you, forget high school and college… I’d much rather attend a reunion of my fellow servers at that place…
My current job of 1.5 years to date is the best of the four jobs I have had in my fourteen years of employment so far. My work is doing tests for printers. I make nearly twice as much as I made at my previous job, I can wear my street clothes, I get weekends off, my coworkers and my bosses are all cool, I can listen to MP3s while working, can get away with a little net surfing while running my tests, and, unlike my previous jobs, I don’t have to listen to any more rude, stupid and whiny customers. Also, I only live about four miles away from where I work now, and my hours are such that I beat the morning rush going in and the evening rush going home.
When I was a student, I worked as a bouncer in a nightclub.
There was very little trouble, and the pay was excellent. I got to meet (and bodyguard for) some famous people, including some big-name bands. I actually got paid to watch some of my favourite bands!
Most of the rest of the bouncers were also students, and all of the guys were reliable and trustworthy, as well as being a great laugh. I remember entire nights spent laughing as we stood outside in the cold! None of us were thugs, so we were popular with the police who often popped in for a coffee.
And let’s not forget being able to chat to all the attractive women that came in…
I still have contact with people that I met whilst working on the door. (I almost married one!)
Working in a wrecking yard. The owner didn’t care much about making money and I could have all the parts I needed for my race cars for free. I was just getting the yard where it was making some good money when the owner let me go. What I saw as more profit he saw as more taxes.
Probably the current one. I work for an exploration company that hired me away from my own company. We couldn’t match their offer. They approached me, and I had a hard time relinquishing my baby to the tides. The clincher was when my partner told me I’d be nuts not to do it.
My previous slightly over a decade of running a small, capital starved oil & gas services corporation probably colors my appreciation of this gig.
Besides the groovy compensation, I work on their (to my mind) rather relaxed schedule. I’m still known as the hardest workin’ guy in my district, but it seems to me that the demands are not too terribly great. I’m expected to spend 55-60% of my time doin’ my magic on properties already in the mill, a little bit of time on minimal administrative stuff, and the rest of the time jammin’ with the data to see if I can see something nobody else has.
Did that today - came up with a new drilling prospect. Good day.
I think what I really like is that my ideas are accepted (often after campaigning a bit) and are acted upon. Besides the enjoyment of being free from the mountain of administrative garbage that I encountered before, I can now affect the bottom line much more.
I guess you’ve got to like working…
I’ve done other things that were somehow enjoyable. Playing drums in dance bands had its upside, and I actually enjoyed some of working as a chemical plant reactor operator (that was my first job that required some analytical thinking).
