Best & Worst J*b You Ever Had (Have)

[Westernskies]

Best job? Sales Engineer, comissioned sales, traveling worldwide selling specialized industrial equipment for a well-respected company with a 80+% market share. Made a lot of money, traveled all over the world, no management responsibilities.
Worst job? Graveyard shift in a mattress factory making box spring frames. (summer job paying my way through college in the late 1970's) $3.65/hr plus piecework bonus, I was maxed out at $6.00/hr within 3 days. I quit after a week and went to work on a marine construction project as a laborer at $5.00/hr because I hated it so much.
What i wanted to do? Civil/Industrial Construction Management, Geological Engineering or Towel Boy at the Playboy Mansion.
What i ended up doing VP of Sales

 

[freebird5825]

ty for getting us back on track, westernskies. we were heading way south.

on that note, i will see you all next week. I've got a weekend trip to take and will enjoy reading the best and worst of j*bs when i return.

 

[jIMOh]

Best job- the last one I leave on my own terms
worst job- I interned in a factory in western NY and owner was a little eccentric for my taste. Between shoveling the driveway, filing various machine parts by hand and similar, I only lasted around 4 weeks.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Just for the record, the whole whirling nut thing was lost on me. I might possibly be the most naive person on the planet, but can someone PM me and explain it if it is something dirty? I do so hate missing the punchline on any sort of dirty joke through my cluelessness!

 

[Khan]

Just for the record, the whole whirling nut thing was lost on me. I might possibly be the most naive person on the planet, but can someone PM me and explain it if it is something dirty? I do so hate missing the punchline on any sort of dirty joke through my cluelessness!

Pass it on to me (also clueless).

 

[freebird5825]

ok, ladies, it's education time....
THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT [Marquette is cleared of any wrongdoing]
1st, cybrmike misread the title line. see his post #10.
then marquette got led astray...and of course i jumped right in on that with the whirling nut.
all this was further instigated by bbami. (sorry, I needed a new scapegoat)
read our posts again and put your mind in the gutter alongside ours.

pay special attention to my post #48.

class dismissed...

 

[Marquette]

Oh no Freebird, I won't be your fall mod in this caper. Post #10!

 

[freebird5825]

Oh no Freebird, I won't be your fall mod in this caper. Post #10!

sorry about that. i fixed my post.

 

[bentley]

J*B's

Best Job - What I'm doing now.

Worst Job - during college, worked on an assembly line in a turkey processing plant. <gag>

What I wanted to do - Civil/Mechanical engineering

What I do - Project Manager, engineering & construction - pipeline industry.

What I'm about to do, starting jan,09 - Have been made an offer I couldn't refuse - combination of business development/project manager for different construction co.

now that towel boy at the playboy mansion does sound fascinating.

 

[bbbamI]

Hmm, well let's see...a picture was posted of a whirling nut. I asked the activities of said whirling nut. A definition was given to me and I came to my own conclusion.

Simply a hypothesis on my part.

 

[Goonie]

1. what was your best j*b ever?
Lab Manager/Plant Foreman for municipal gov't

2. what was your worst j*b ever?
Shoveling $#!+ (literally) 25-30 feet below-ground in enclosed holding tanks and sewers for municipal gov't.

3. what did you really want to do for a living?
Work for the municipal gov't.....for the decent pay & benefits (including a DB, COLA'd pension, and lifetime health & dental insurance).....and a chance to ER.

4. what did you end up doing for a living?
Worked 30+ years for the municipal gov't.....for the decent pay & benefits.....and then ER'd last year at 50 years old and started collecting the DB, COLA'd pension, along with lifetime health & dental insurance.

5. What am I doing now?
Any darn thing I want to....including absolutely nothing at all....whenever I want to.....wherever I want to.....for as long as I want to.....for the rest of my life!!!

 

[FreeAtLast]

Worse job: Evening janitor in machine shop cleaning up all the metal shavings around the machines. Lasted a couple of weeks.

Best Job: Owner of computer consulting company

 

[TargaDave]

1. what is (was) your best j*b ever?
My startup biz before I sold it
2. what is (was) your worst j*b ever?
Working for the new owners after I sold it (1 very painful year)
3. what did you really want to do for a living?
Hmmmm? Anything that involved being around tropical waters
4. what did you end up doing for a living?
Too long to answer: Jack of several trades, master of none

One story of many: the day after the acquisition was closed the Founder-CEO I agreed to do the deal with resigned and the new Salesman-CEO (whom I didn't know at all) wanted me to give a pep talk to people at their corp headquarters, a mere 20+ hrs of flying time away. I politely told him I didn't have the time and had my sales guy do it. All downhill from there. Just wasn't willing to play the 20-meeting-per-week corp game but no regrets since the modest payout still vested.

 

[check6]

1. what is (was) your best j*b ever?
Sailing instructor

2. what is (was) your worst j*b ever?
Working for a woman delivering products to stores

3. what did you really want to do for a living?
Fly airplanes

4. what did you end up doing for a living?
Fly airplanes

 

[ls99]

The J*bs in random order:

Best : All Research related work, see below-

Worst : Run 5 assembly lines making record players, 95% women on the assembly lines, especially "that time of the month" when they were all in sync. Yikes!

What you really ended up doing for a living:

GI Joe: 67 to 70

Most fun yet toughest: Earthquake sensors, recorders instrumentation/telemetry in the Aleutians, Hiking up on volcanoes etc. With some helicopter and boat support thrown in. Usually sucky weather, but when clear: spectacular.

Electronics Tech on a research ship: oceanography.

Electronics Tech: Submarine detecting and identifying systems.

Electronics Tech: Nuclear power generating plant.

Last place before RE: Run maintenance shop keeping 30+ Light rail vehicles in good repair. My life size train set.

Edit add: What did you really want to do? I still haven't a clue. Don't know what i want to be when i grow up.

 

[mickeyd]

1. what is (was) your best j*b ever?

US Army infantry platoon leader in Vietnam. Easily my toughest job, but at age 22, I learned enough about myself and how to treat others that the experience has shaped my life every day over the last 40 years or so.

2. what is (was) your worst j*b ever?

A Telemarketer who invaded homes at a blistering pace trying to sell credit cards, life insurance, and other junk that no one needed or wanted. I dreaded every day of that sorry J*b. It was a "gap job" when I needed $ to support my family.

3. what did you really want to do for a living?

I always thought that the best job would be that of a naturalist or park ranger at Yellowstone or Grand Canyon or Big Bend NP. I was never qualified, nor did I really know much about the duties, it just has always appealed to me as a totally enjoyable way to earn a living.

4. what did you end up doing for a living?

I ended up working is the employment benefits arena (insurance, funds etc) which paid me pretty well and exposed me to enough education that I was able to convert to my own use and benefit that enabled me to ER.

 

[MichaelB]

1. what is (was) your best j*b ever?
Best = fondest memories. Kitchen work - washing dishes during college, followed by banquet help (waiter) during college. Always ate well, co-workers were the best ever.

2. what is (was) your worst j*b ever?
Tied. Physically, there was backbreaking work like picking green beans (a week) and laying sod (a summer). Emotionally, my last job - which was mostly trying to stay out of the line of fire, take credit for the work of others, blaming others for my mistakes, avoid getting fired while earning immoral sums of money and unreal amounts of stock options while basically making the profit plan by laying off large numbers of worthy employees. I think it was my worst because I wasn’t very good at it. A clear real life example of the peter principle.

3. what did you really want to do for a living?
play the drums, get high, get laid. In no particular order.

4. what did you end up doing for a living?
Large global corporation. Did just about everything – started as a trainee, worked in sales, marketing, finance, finished as a business unit exec. Then quit.

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Best.

Bailing hay as a teenager. Great workout..the sun,animals, looking back that job was the most free and fun I ever had.


Worst.

No comment.

 

[ScooterGuy]

First Job:
Cleaning boat bottoms while they were in the water, using a wooden brush, with a SCUBA tank, mask and wetsuit, to earn compressed air and school payments.

Horrible Interim Job:
Pumping out septic tanks, while in chest-waders, down in the muck, with the hose, while the otherwise-Hispanic crew above talked & laughed about my probable ancestry, personal habits and lack of male equipment, in the Spanish I wasn't supposed to know.

Best job:
Research scientist in an obscure field (now long evaporated), working in a medical environment (teaching hospital), solving impossible problems with virtually zero budget, teaching medical residents, lecturing and being blissfully ignorant of all the hospital administration and political games. I did GOOD work! Too bad the grant ran out.

Worst job:
Speech therapist, working as the lone heterosexual older male, teaching swallowing, in contract-temp mode, in medicare-paid nursing homes with demented patients; demented relatives; demented supervisors; demented feminist-gay-lesbian co-workers; demented nurses; demented administrators and demented medicare/state inspectors. My last job before ER.

Current status:
ER'd 5 years ago ... maintaining a no-drama zone at home with DW ... riding a motorbike (named the Demon Duck of Doom) when its warm ... doing household repairs and projects ... reading my Kindle ... learning to play slide on a lap steel guitar.

 

[Koolau]

Best j*b - Helped major prof. (in my M.S. degree) design college level course in my (then) megacorp area of expertise (i.e., teach the kiddies what I was doing for a living). Then design the companion lab course for said college course. Teach said courses to the kiddies (undergrads). Now here's the best part. Take both college courses for graduate credit while teaching same and award myself the grade I deserved - without taking any tests! (guess what grade I gave myself?) Oh, yes. The course(s) are still offered, nearly unchanged, 25 years later.

Worst - mowing lawns during college for $1.25/hr - old reel type push (non-power) mower.

Wanted - "teacher" of some type

Actual - "scientist" at megacorp - many different assignments - some great, many not so great.

 

[socca]

Best job Company rented me a villa on the French Riviera for 2 years while I worked as an engineering consultant near Nice. Life doesn't get any better than that!

Worst job The war-profiteering I did for the gov't was uniformly miserable, although the pay was good. I have since decided that doing passably well by doing good is better than doing very well by doing evil.

 

[FurBall]

1. what is (was) your best j*b ever?
I've been so lucky. All my jobs were the best and each was very different from the other but all in the computer technology field. From programming to management to consulting. It's all been a blast.

2. what is (was) your worst j*b ever?
Soldering little parts into other little parts in high school/college. Made minimum wage. One woman cut off her finger on a machine. As friends ran out with her and the finger, management yelled out to be sure everyone clocked out. She was fired for carelessness. When attempts were made to unionize, mgmt said anyone who took their brochures would be fired. Of course, we college kids took them and were not fired. Still the older women were all terrified. No union to this day. ALL workers make minimum wage. Raises given only when minimum wage is increased.

3. what did you really want to do for a living?
As a child in the 50s I wanted to be the first woman on the moon. Then I saw a rocket and thought I would have to climb to the top. Fear of heights killed that career. I've always been a jack of all trades and master of none, so I never knew what I wanted to do until I fell into it.

4. what did you end up doing for a living?
Computer programming and later computer security. Took the first job because it was the only interview where I wasn't asked, "How many words a minute, hon." Fell in love with it almost immediately and canned all plans for grad school in abstract algebra.

 

[Sue J]

Best job - Staff Accountant at a multi-state product distributor home office. I had a teaching degree and banking experience but they needed a Store Accounting Supervisor and I had some supervision experience. Got promoted to Staff Accountant when someone else had a baby. I learned every aspect of accounting and loved it. The pay was good for the time and I learned it all by doing it. It was that job that helped me realize what my niche was. This was in the late 70's and early 80's and I was part of the company's transition from manual accounting to computerized accounting.

Worst job - I was in the Promotions Dept for a major drug store chain at their headquarters. I thought it was the job I wanted. The job entailed setting up "Grand Openings" for new stores or re-openings for stores that needed revitalizing. I spent all day on the phone trying to set up promotional events and arranging for the cheapest refreshments we could find. I hated calling people and trying to get them to do something they didn't want to do. My boss drove me nuts. I didn't realize how miserable I was until I broke out in hives and got nauseous in the shower one morning before work.

What I really wanted to do - I wanted to be a full time/SAH/non-working mom.

What I ended up doing - I got to be a full time/SAH/non-working mom.

Another job I like has a "worst" job aspect to it. I'm an usher for a lovely summer concert venue. We have orchestra concerts that are upscale and elegant and we also have rock and country concerts. The pay is awful but the people are great and it's a fun place to work. There is a covered pavilion with reserved seats and then there is a large lawn with general admission. The "worst" part is after a rock or country concert the ushers have to pick up the trash that the patrons have left on the lawn. We wear 2 or 3 layers of rubber gloves and just go out there and pick up everyone's trash. It's a group of about 30 ushers, ages 25 to 65, most with college degress and valuable work experiences. We work there for the concerts and the little bit of extra cash. And we are picking up food and food containers, beer bottles and cans, cups, T-shirts, pizza boxes, tarps, towels, blankets, bags, smoking paraphernalia, shoes, sunglasses, etc. We all just do it and try to laugh about it but occasionally you hear someone let out a, "These people are f-ing PIGS" and then mutter and move on. When we're done we look back at the nice empty lawn and know it looks ready for the next event.

 

[mathjak107]

you know how on the box of anal thermometers it says each one individually tested??

 

[deserat]

Best job - in order, political-military analyst in Europe; clinical engineer; electrical engineering intern for DOE working on power lines; squadron commander

Worst job - biomechanics research (academic research environment not for me); squadron commander (sprung on me unexpectedly and had many personnel hurdles to jump and "part-time")

Always wanted - depends on time in my life - early on, archaeologist or mechanical engineer; later, biomedical engineer

Ended up doing - lots! own my own consulting company; biomedical engineering; military acquisition; political-military analysis; logistics; space operations (launch support, ground systems support, satellite telecom support)