Most Unusual/Fun J*b

I love picking up promotion jobs. I got paid $15 an hour, a free shirt, and all the yogurt cases Boyfriend and I could carry home last year to give out free yogurt to students and tailgaters all day :)
 
Late 70s, I was in college back in Taiwan. Many overseas students from Indo-China no longer had homes to go back to, nor could receive any money from home. Taiwanese government came up with a lot of summer projects for them to earn some money.

One summer, I was lucky to get in one even though I was a local student, not from IndoChina. There were 200 of us who were shipped to a small village near a mountain. We camped in a small local school. We had a lot of entertainment programs set up for the nights and weekends.

During the day, we were told to clear a hill, and dig a lot of holes, 2 meters by 1 meter. It was not until almost the end of summer, we realized we were digging a grave-yard for a military burial site.

Many of my classmates are now back to Indochina. Many are successful in their fields. I miss all of them.
 
I was hired to work inside one of those large "Playplace" jungle gyms at a McDonalds in high school. They gave us these loud clown pants to wear. Two weeks later I asked to be transferred to work in the grill. Let's just say I'm childfree for a reason. :)

SIS
 
No hesitation to answer this one...

I was an automotive general rack mechanic for Sears in Orlando FL in the summer of 1979. I was 19 years old, w*rking my way through college, left-handed, female, and a Yankee to boot. ;)
I had more fun with those good ol' boys than should be allowed. For every smart*ss remark they threw my way, I returned the serve right back over the net.
I had to, it was expected of a Noo Yawker. These guys ate that up! :LOL:
We all had a great time. I learned a lot, pulled my own weight, and listened to non-stop flirting every day.
And made enough money to pay for my room and board and books for senior year.

Best summer j*b I ever had. :D
 
Gas station attendant-pumped gas, washed windows, checked oil and tires....does that qualify as unusual now? It didn't then...

For the last 30 years I've worked as a geologist in alternative energy exploration. So I've hiked and camped and traveled through the jungled volcanoes of Central America, the Philippines, and Indonesia, the forests of North America, the altiplano and Andes of South America, the Aleutians, the East African rift, New Zealand, and the mountains and valleys of eastern Turkey. I know this is not the place to admit this, but sometimes while travelling like this my colleagues and I would look at each other and ask if we could believe we were getting paid to do this stuff!
 
In the early 80's my college summer job was as a canoe guide at a BSA High Adventure base in northern Maine. Leading groups on whitewater river trips for a week at a time. It still amazes me that they paid me.
 
I was the person at the mall who wrote names with white glue and glitter on Christmas stockings. Try fitting the name Stephanicalica on a 2X4" piece of felt.
 
I grew up on a farm so we always had chores and work to do but my first "paying" job was working for a neighbor hauling hay with a team of horses. I was 10 or 12 YO. Made $1.00 a day and felt I was living large.
 
I had a job in a hospital where I had many duties including

I gave patients soapsuds enemas til clear before barium enemas in the radiology department.

I did pre-op shaving for urological surgery.

I cleaned up the fresh-dead patients before presentation to next of kin and transport to the morgue or funeral home.
 
Worked as a herring fisherman off the Kitsap Penninsula one summer during college. God money, back-breaking work, beautiful scenery and I've never spent a colder summer anywhere in my life. Pretty interesting for an east coast city boy - and I must admit, my grades went significantly up the following semesters.

Other interesting job was in Grad school, when I was hired to "measure sections" in and near Monument Valley, Utah. Job consisted of climbing up steep cliffs (including "dead Horse Point" -aptly named - took a scary fall there), measuring and describing the rocks. Got to climb and camp out in some of the most fascinating areas, and go into Moab to party at night. Life was good.
 
It wasn't a paying job, but I was a radio DJ on my college radio station for 5 years (my last 2 years at school then another 3 years, alumni were eligible to stay or the air and they asked me to). Since the station played a variety of music I got to play several different music genres, and there were "freestyle" slots" where you could play anything so I had fun coming up with playlists that had a "theme" across different musical styles to see if folks could figure out the connection.

However, this did lead to paying jobs as a party DJ, so that was a fun way to pick up a few extra dollars. DW, who was my girlfriend at time, would sometimes get annoyed because a surprising number of women at these parties liked to hang around the DJ and make provocative offers for the simplest favors. However, I behaved myself as best as possible and stuck to the "look but don't touch" approach - as much as I could. :D
 
Started caddying at age 12. When I was 15, the course I was caddying at hosted the 1992 PGA Championship. Was one of four local caddies picked for any tour players that needed one. Wound up getting assigned Sandy Lyle, which was quite an experience walking down the other side of the ropes on the golf course, with a guy that could absolutely crush the ball when he connected just right.

Unfortunately, he didn't quite play as well as he should have, and didn't make the cut....but just an amazing memory to add to the list. Oh, and he was one hell of a tipper! :)
 
This is an entertaining thread... NONE of my jobs were(was)? fun until my career/whatever job...school librarian/media specialist...high school, then later elementary.

That 30yr+ job was 95% fun. The sundry and numerous jobs leading up to that were pretty much always mundane -nothing like what previous posters experienced.

If I was/were not so old, i'd be envious. :(
 
Not a fun job, but no longer exist:

Sold Sunday newspaper outside Supermarket. Sometime we would supplement our income by inserting 75 cents in the machine and take out 20 copies with our 75 cents and sell the rest.

Also did door to door trying to sell newspaper subscription. That lasted one day. The dude driving us 9 to 13 years old looked like a pedophile and I got scared.
 
Idnar7 said:
"Owned and operated an escort service in my mid 20's.

Oh the stories....."

Oh my! And that led to nursing?
Click to expand...

Known a co-worker that was a option trader on the floor and when the market crashed in 2002, he went into the escort service by hooking up rich men with Porn stars. $200 each minimum for each "referral"

$10k "referral fee" if he could hook up a Porn star with a rich oil dude for a week.
 
Was a test subject for pharmacological studies in college. Typically check-in on a Friday night and get out Saturday or Sunday. Spent the time watching TV, reading, napping and having blood samples taken. Paid very well! ...probably explains a lot....
 
MooreBonds said:
Started caddying at age 12. When I was 15, the course I was caddying at hosted the 1992 PGA Championship. Was one of four local caddies picked for any tour players that needed one. Wound up getting assigned Sandy Lyle, which was quite an experience walking down the other side of the ropes on the golf course, with a guy that could absolutely crush the ball when he connected just right.
Click to expand...

I'm working our local PGA Championship area in Jacksonville this year, but not with any golfers, unfortunately, and not with a tip job! It's a 4 day promo job working in some of the sponsor tents, which should be tons of fun :D
 
Arifriekinel said:
I'm working our local PGA Championship area in Jacksonville this year, but not with any golfers, unfortunately, and not with a tip job! It's a 4 day promo job working in some of the sponsor tents, which should be tons of fun :D
Click to expand...

I never made it to the sponsor tents...but I heard they can be quite the place! :) Wouldn't be a bad place to possibly network (hey, you never know...and a lot of the people in those tents aren't the peons down low on the totem pole)

The week before the tournament started, I was offered a job at one of the merchandise tents (the club golf pro was overseeing the operation, and made me the offer). Our register did pretty well with the person I was paired with, and made some sweet cash those 2 weeks ($450 from the merchandise tent work, and $600 from Sandy Lyle for three 9-hole practice rounds, and two 18 hole rounds during the tournament)
 
MooreBonds said:
I never made it to the sponsor tents...but I heard they can be quite the place! :) Wouldn't be a bad place to possibly network (hey, you never know...and a lot of the people in those tents aren't the peons down low on the totem pole)

The week before the tournament started, I was offered a job at one of the merchandise tents (the club golf pro was overseeing the operation, and made me the offer). Our register did pretty well with the person I was paired with, and made some sweet cash those 2 weeks ($450 from the merchandise tent work, and $600 from Sandy Lyle for three 9-hole practice rounds, and two 18 hole rounds during the tournament)
Click to expand...

Just think if he had won it, you might have received up to 10% of the winnings if he was generous and you read the winning putt! Have ever played Bellerive? I wanted to go to the Senior PGA Championship up there next month, but I am already booked with GF that weekend.
 
It would have to be my four years in the Navy.. I worked on the bridge keeping track of where we were. I learned how to navigate with the stars, moon and sun, kept the ship's nautical charts up to date and kept the ship's clocks. I got to travel around Europe, Africa and South America... met my wife of 32 years..... I may not have appreciated it as much at the time but I have lots of good memories.
 
queeneev said:
YCC summer of 1979. We camped in a tent, and woke up each day to build trails, thin the trees, and build grouse houses. Dirty, sweaty, hungry, ate ramen and canned pudding, I loved every minute of the 4 week gig.
Click to expand...

Interesting. In the summers of 77 and 78 (during college) I was an environmental education instructor working at a Forest Service residential YCC camp. We had about 65 students (who were there for 6 weeks, I think), divided into work crews of 8 (4 guys, 4 girls), and my job was to drive out to the work sites every day where each crew was working and educate them on some aspect of natural resources in that area (soils, water, wildlife, botany, forestry, etc).

Everyone lived in cabins (site of a former CCC camp) in the middle of the National Forest (including the Camp Director). The food was good, the people were great, the setting was beautiful.........I loved that job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

C
Do any of you cut it really close in easy retirement?
2 3 4
Replies
87
Views
8K
Koolau
Koolau
T
Retired 10 years today!
Replies
18
Views
1K
Koolau
Koolau
B
Early-30s couple just beginning our FIRE journey...looking for basic advice!
Replies
5
Views
728
beef_stroganoff
B
Katsmeow
Moving to Delaware?
3 4 5
Replies
105
Views
10K
target2019
target2019
ExFlyBoy5
Eight Years Retired
Replies
19
Views
2K
Koolau
Koolau

Latest posts

Back
Top Bottom