Most Unusual/Fun J*b

[martyb]

I worked as a lifeguard several summers during my teenage years.

Best job there is for a teenage boy. Working was all downhill from there.

Me too!

Totally agree with your assessment, as well. The pay sucked, but I got free sodas, and would have "worked" for free!

 

[RockyMtn]

in High School I poured plaster statues. Plaques, birds, dolls, venus de milo's etc.

 

[ERhoosier]

Many yrs ago I worked as a baseball umpire in metro Detroit. Evenback then some parents were totally out of control.
Had to call the police more than once

 

[imoldernu]

Liked most jobs.
fun....
YMCA Counselor '49-'53
Lifeguard '54-57
Swam HS & College...'51-'58 ... College Scholarship
(2-4 hrs/day - year round, 8 years)
"Y" Waterfront Director '58
Cubmaster/Scoutmaster/Committeeman '72-'85

Most fun... Special Projects Mgr to develop new Retail Auto Service Concept... 56 stores ..TX, IL, WI, CO, CA, OR, '81-'85. Creative, imaginative, think tank-type... free rein to innovate!

 

[knucklehead 61]

Bra fitter for a Victoria's Secrets store. Pay wasn't great but the tips were nice.

my dream job! i would pay them to work there!

 

[cj]

This really is a fun thread! Oh, the times we've had... When I was 16-17 I worked at a restaurant called "Alaskaland". There was a player-piano/jukebox kind of thing, and we served up all kinds of food and mostly ice cream. Some of the ice cream dishes were served up with announcements, drums, horns - lots of noise. Then there was the polar bear who greeted customers. One day the polar bear guy was sick, and I got to put on the costume and be the bear. It was stinkin' hot, but a fun time.

And then, I was a 411 operator for a few years when I got my first job with "the phone company" back in the early 1970's. We looked up phone numbers from large binders full of phone books... before computers, of course. Those were the days.

 

[brewer12345]

my dream job! i would pay them to work there!

Your next customer is waiting:

 

[Mill]

I worked as a student assistant for the athletic department at a major university, all funded by FAFSA.

The best part of the job was that I could sign up and work basically anytime I felt like it (needed the money). It was mostly based on seniority/work history, so during my junior/senior year, I got all the sweet gigs.

-University football games where I got paid to put up and take down University flags, and watch the game in-between.
-Basketball games where I could disappear and hang-out in the student section during the game.
-Womens volleyball games where the arena was filled with sororities and beautiful college girls.

And all the free consession stand food I could eat. Unfortunately I am so sick of Papa Johns that I havent eaten their pizza since, and its been almost 10 years!

 

[Walt34]

Gas station attendant-pumped gas, washed windows, checked oil and tires....does that qualify as unusual now? It didn't then...

I did that too in HS and the first year of college. It was my first time dealing with the general public in large quantities. The thing that astonished me the most was how many stupid people there are in the world.

The things people do to their cars and then expect them to run!

Some fun times too: a carload of girls in bikinis came in for gas and we explained that it is necessary to change the air in the tires. Kept 'em there for almost an hour.

 

[clifp]

There were two years while working at Intel 88,89, that I would have gladly done the job for no money. Unfortunately they spoiled me for the rest of the my career.

Essentially I was one of 1/2 dozen folks plus a remarkable boss that was told to go figure how to transform Intel from a company only known by computer manufactures and computer geeks into a household name.

We were given a lot money, very few strings, and lots of encouragement from the boss to try new things. My official job was to fly around North America giving talks to PC User groups about the future of computing,and educating them why the should buy the fastest Intel microprocessors. One of the trips involved going to the Soviet Union for the 1st USSR computer user conference where I schmoozed with some of Silicon Valley's elite and met the inventor of Tetris. I had guided tour of the Kremlin, with John Warnock, Adobe's founder and his family, by some mucky muck KGB guy was pretty surreal.

But the real fun was the special projects. I helped design exhibits for the Boston Computer Museum, New York's Museum of Modern Art, and the Oregon Science Museum. Brainstormed Disney imagineers on making an Epcot exhibit.

I was the executive producer of interactive movie demonstrating early video on a PC, staring comedian Kevin Pollack. I even got to be a in scene with the guy. I also helped out a bit with my colleague who was making an IMAX movie.

The most impressive week was Monday schmoozing with Fortune 100 IT Managers at Windows of the World restaurant, Tuesday attending at party at Penthouse found Bob Guccione gorgeous Central park apartment, sadly only one Penthouse Pet was around . Thursday back in the office, I had Marlon Brandon call me and we spent and hour discussing how computers could be used to make digital extra for western he was looking at making. Friday, I went to an early rave in San Francisco, with Timothy Leary. WE demonstrated Virtual Reality to an already high crowd. Leary said the if VR had been around he wouldn't have tried LSD. As an aside Timothy Leary look awful and was not at all surprised when we died several years later.

All pretty heady stuff for a guy who wasn't 30.

 

[scrinch]

Friday, I went to an early rave in San Francisco, with Timothy Leary. WE demonstrated Virtual Reality to an already high crowd. Leary said the if VR had been around he wouldn't have tried LSD. As an aside Timothy Leary look awful and was not also surprised when we died several years later.

As an aside, I attended UC Santa Cruz during its early experimentation days, and lived in an on-campus apartment my first year. One day I came home from class to find several of my roommates out on our front porch smoking some aromatic substances with none other than Timothy Leary. He was attending a scholarly conference at UCSC called "LSD: Ten Years Later."

 

[Sarah in SC]

This IS a fun thread! Y'all have had some great jobs!

In the unique dept, I ran the summer processing factory for the only tea farm in America. We took the green tea leaves from the field, withered them overnight, macerated using very antiquated but functional machines, then oxidized and dried them, a 24 hour process all together.

Hot, dirty, and our hands were always tea-colored. But it was the best summer job because we always managed to have a lot of fun even in a 90% humidity warehouse with a 220 degree gas dryer running!

 

[NC 57]

Ran marketing for the company that launched the Wonderbra in 1994. My team put together one of the great marketing campaigns of all time. We had a lot of fun and i was blessed to have some brilliant and creative people working for me. One of the highlights was being in the front row of the Letterman show audience while our Wonderbra model was being interviewed.

 

[ikubak]

Worked at the busiest beer and wine store in town during college. I was invited to almost every party on campus. It was a very good gig.

 

[John Galt III]

Cab driver in small town, for one year. Felt very alive and free, independent, real. Sounds corny, but is true.