Whats the most wacky or crazy job you have held?

[RandomPJ]

My first job: telemarketing furnaces in August. In the Midwest! Got fired after I called my boss and said I wouldn't be in because it was my uncle's birthday party, lol. I learned that bosses really do expect you to show up every day, even if the customers give you a hard time, or you miss a party.



Current job: Movie extra. I discovered I dislike bureaucracies and thrive in a creative job where they really appreciate it if you do your job well.

[kingkarmann]

Craziest job??

I have had many, especially in my younger raising a family days.

Probably the craziest was a sales agent for “General Development Corporation”. I answered an ad and interviewed with the sales manager. The next day I was in a training class learning how to sell, I s#%t you not, residential semi-improved builder lots for homes in various communities in Florida. I was employed with them in the early 80’s. I was trained in how to obtain a foreign real estate license. I lived in Ohio at the time and ironically had never been to Florida. During one of our “classes” our instructor (kind of reminded me of Tony Montana from Scarface) asked us to create a list of sales leads that would be interested in purchasing Florida home building lots.
So I first pitch my parents. They wanted to eventually retire to Florida. “Great!”, says my sales mgr. I let him loose on my poor mom and dad. So, for those uneducated in the way a pyramid scheme works ( I didn’t at the time)
You sell a building lot in a future planned community. All the infrastructure is mostly in place. When the customer buys the lot he will keep it for a number of years to let his land build equity. That equity is cashed in perhaps 15-20 years later to use to finance a home to build on that lot. I’ll never forget the look on my dads face. He knew exactly what was happening and told us both to get the hell out of the house!
Dad me later asking how I got involved in this scam! I explained what a great company GDC was and soon I would get to meet our regional sales manager.
After a couple of weeks of tormenting everyone I could with no success I finally got to go to the big bosses home and office.
Sal Ippolito lived in a beautiful home in Firestone Park (Akron) Ohio.
We went down to his den, office to talk business. Sal engaged in a bit af small talk the got right to the point. “Kid, when are you gonna buy a lot?” Holy hell! I barely had a pot to pee in plus I was being paid a draw against commission. “You gotta own time be able to sell” says Sol.
I then realized I was probably working for someone highly connected to the Mob. My dad always said I was a little slow. I quit the next day and am thankful that I’m alive to able to share!

[Joggernot]

Janitor and lunch time cook in the maximum security ward of large mental hospital. Interesting people...

[azxracer]

Let's see
1. 14 yrs old, I worked on an egg farm, primarily keeping the concrete troughs under the cages clean with a shovel, broom and water. Yeah, my 1st chicken $*** job. But not my last.
2. 17 yrs old, I worked on a highway maintenance crew cutting grass (with a sling blade) removing dead animals with a shovel and all assorted jobs like that. In the summer. In gulf coast Alabama. Based out of a state prison camp. Often, but not always, alongside prison work crews. With shotgun equipped guards.
3. 18 yrs old, spent the summer working in a shipyard in New Orleans as a "boilermaker's helper". This meant every hot, dirty, and ugly job that came up repairing freighters that had been carrying supplies to Vietnam (1968). My dad was the ship boss, and one day I overheard him talking to the yard supervisor about why I got all the dirtiest, nastiest jobs. His answer? "I want the boy to be able to recognize a good job when he sees one".

4. Not so much crazy, as maybe odd for the time. I worked in paper mill in Charleston SC (part time while I was in the USAF) installing CCTV to monitor the automated processes. This was in the parts of the plant they didn't want to leave people on a full time basis. Hot and nasty!!

[kgtest]

-Die operator (cutting labels by way of a die press, little tweaks here and there)
-Grain Evaluator (probed semi trucks full of grain farmers brought to elevator, some of those farmers were characters)
-Door to door salesman (selling promo marketing cards for local restaurants... when I quit this job the boss took a wad of cash from his desk drawer and just threw it at me like I was making the worst mistake of my life hahaah)

I had a temp job for 2 days where I cut milk cartons open that were expired to dispose of the milk. I did this at as fast a pace as I could, and it was incredible to see the loss of dairy product due to expiration.

[whitet]

Warning: Not wacky so skip if only interested in genuinely wacky jobs...

Just a few years ago, during a down time in my contract programming career, I decided to apply for a job at the Charlotte airport as a Transportation Security Officer with the TSA. After six weeks of training and testing on X-ray image reading, pat-downs, bag searches, operation of body scanners, metal detectors and explosive detection devices and many, many other things, I was hired. Four months later I had had enough, but it was a highly educational experience which gave me an appreciation for the extreme difficulty of keeping dangerous people and devices off of airplanes. And it provided a few funny stories to tell friends and relatives.

[prudent_one]

Videographer assistant at a school for the blind. A friend hooked me up as a part-time gig while I was in school. They would video certain teaching sessions for some reason. Some group classes and some one-on-one. First week I was the gofer for the video guy. Then he quit. I was promoted from videographer assistant to videographer with a whole week of experience. I would get to the school, get the equipment from the storage room, go to the designated classroom, and set up. Wait for teacher and student(s) to be ready. Then press record, sit down, press stop 50 minutes later, label the tape, move to next designated room, repeat. In a 4-hour shift there might be 20 minutes of actual doing something. I couldn't understand why they didn't get someone already working there to take the couple of minutes to setup/takedown rather than paying someone. And when I first got there I was the other guy's assistant! I always wondered how he talked them into getting a helper, it was silly.

[Idnar7]

I had a couple weird ones. One was installing a computer application to print labels in the Federal Prison In Bastrop Texas. It was for a Federal prison work program. The people were actually nice. The worst part was getting in and out through the series of doors that looked like they were from a bank vault. The door at one end would close and then after a few minutes the other would open. If I recall there was a series of two you had to go through. Then you still had to go thru the barred doors. At that time Dr McDonald was there. He killed his wife and there was a book and tv movie about it.

The other was to install and train plant personnel in a Amish community. The group were all in overalls and were staring at the screen, but when I showed them how to use the mouse and asked who wanted to go first, they all jumped back about three feet. One on one training worked better in that case.

[PaunchyPirate]

For a limited-time job, I painted a chain link fence that surrounded a 15 acre lumber yard. We used an oil-based silver paint. Two of us painted, one on each side of the fence. We used brushes and rollers to get it all covered. It was so messy with paint spattering that we ended up being covered in heavy, oily silver paint from head to toe each day. We looked like the tin man from Wizard of Oz. The paint got in my face and hair and in my eye lashes and even soaked through the coveralls we wore to show up on the rest of our skin underneath. It was not a fun 2 weeks. Oh, and it was hot and humid summer time. But I stuck it out and was rewarded with a full-time job working in the lumber yard for the rest of the summer due to my good work ethic.

[nakadude]

I worked in a bingo hall as a bingo caller!

I also owned a KOA Kampground (notice the K's to prove authenticity ).

[Lawrencewendall]

Spent a Summer as a teenager emptying out neighbors septic tanks with a 5 gallon bucket for $100 a pop. It went into a manure spreader for the crop fields. Never knew tapeworms could grow so long!

[romstead]

I did several weird jobs growing up, putting my self through college. Janitor at a local Candy shop, where the owner told me to eat as much I wanted. Caught young Turkeys in the large stinky containment buildings, slipping and sliding in a foot or two of Turkey dung putting 15 turkeys in a crate then taking them out one by one and vaccinating them in the neck with a auto injection gun system,and As a Parachute Instructor at a local Skydive center. I taught first jump students how to make static line jumps. and got 3 bucks a student. but when I got paid I turn around and had to give all my instruction money back to the Skydive center to pay for my own fun jumps. I did not take home much money but I did take home a smile that still last today with over 2000K jumps Im still smiling.

[someday soon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speculator Back in September of 1969, I worked at the Aurora Plastics factory located in West Hempstead on Long Island, NY. The factory manufactured models of Universal Studios' monsters and my job was to sit near the end of an assembly line with a box of thousands of stickers proclaiming "Glow in The Dark!" As each model of Frankenstein or the Mummy passed me, I would attach a sticker to the box. This was the most boring job I have ever held (though I'll never forget it) and I lasted only two days before I left.

Thanks for your 2 days of dedicated service.
Those monster models were some of my favorites as a kid!

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by romstead I did several weird jobs growing up, putting my self through college. Janitor at a local Candy shop, where the owner told me to eat as much I wanted. Caught young Turkeys in the large stinky containment buildings, slipping and sliding in a foot or two of Turkey dung putting 15 turkeys in a crate then taking them out one by one and vaccinating them in the neck with a auto injection gun system,and As a Parachute Instructor at a local Skydive center. I taught first jump students how to make static line jumps. and got 3 bucks a student. but when I got paid I turn around and had to give all my instruction money back to the Skydive center to pay for my own fun jumps. I did not take home much money but I did take home a smile that still last today with over 2000K jumps Im still smiling.

Wow! 2000+ jumps!

[LXEX55]

During my high school and college years I was a decent amateur boxer. To earn money I would spar with top ranked pro boxers from middleweight on up to smaller heavies. They would pretty much beat my brains out for $25 for three rounds. I lived in NYC at the time, which was then a boxing center. Today, Las Vegas has eclipsed it due to tax laws. I was sparred three rounds against a top heavyweight, who has since passed on. After the third round he turned to his manager and said "This bum should pay me for boxing lessons"

[Gumby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LXEX55 During my high school and college years I was a decent amateur boxer. To earn money I would spar with top ranked pro boxers from middleweight on up to smaller heavies. They would pretty much beat my brains out for $25 for three rounds. I lived in NYC at the time, which was then a boxing center. Today, Las Vegas has eclipsed it due to tax laws. I was sparred three rounds against a top heavyweight, who has since passed on. After the third round he turned to his manager and said "This bum should pay me for boxing lessons"

I boxed while I was in college. Those are the longest six minutes of your life.

[Nemo2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gumby I boxed while I was in college. Those are the longest six minutes of your life.

Friend of mine used to box......during his last fight he said he said he asked himself "What the hell am I doing out here?"

[albundyz]

I graduated college in 1973. I was 22. Degree in Accounting from Cal State Northridge (California). I was married, Felt pressure. Had to get a job by June, when I graduated. My hippie days were over. I was not at the top of my Accounting classes, so I realized, early, that I wasn't gonna get a job with a Big5 Accounting firm. I interviewed with banks, utility companies, and anyone else (when yer desperate!). I accepted the first job offer that came along. Unfortunately, the job was repossessing cars. Seriously? I got a degree in Accounting and I'm repossessing cars? Fortunately, 2 weeks later (before graduation) I got another job offer from a utility co, a Fortune 500 company. I made up some stupid excuse and passed on the "car repossession job" and accepted the job with the utility co. 34 years later, I retired at 56. I'm not rich, but comfortable in my retirement from the utility company.

[deserat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by albundyz I graduated college in 1973. I was 22. Degree in Accounting from Cal State Northridge (California). I was married, Felt pressure. Had to get a job by June, when I graduated. My hippie days were over. I was not at the top of my Accounting classes, so I realized, early, that I wasn't gonna get a job with a Big5 Accounting firm. I interviewed with banks, utility companies, and anyone else (when yer desperate!). I accepted the first job offer that came along. Unfortunately, the job was repossessing cars. Seriously? I got a degree in Accounting and I'm repossessing cars? Fortunately, 2 weeks later (before graduation) I got another job offer from a utility co, a Fortune 500 company. I made up some stupid excuse and passed on the "car repossession job" and accepted the job with the utility co. 34 years later, I retired at 56. I'm not rich, but comfortable in my retirement from the utility company.

You should change your online name to "REPOMan" ;-)

[Time2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Moderator on an early retirement forum.

It will never last!