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Whats the most interesting/weirdest/odd job you've held?

canadmos

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,513
19,523
Canaderp
You guys seem like an interesting bunch. I am sure some of you have had some odd, weird, disgusting or unusual jobs. I look forward to being entertained by your replies. :brows:

For me, the only "interesting" job I've had was working in a chocolate bar factory. I literally walked around all day and swept, shoveled and mopped up chocolate. It resembled poo after about the first two hours and the nougat that was in some of the bars smelled like poo.

Also worked at Fox apparel for a few years, before they closed up and moved to Calgary. Nothing too oddball about that job, but holy crap what a boozefest that was. If we weren't drinking after work, we were drinking at work, with bong sheds on every break.

Your turn.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,442
20,247
Sleazattle
I had a work study scholarship in college. I got paid to volunteer at the local animal shelter. There was plenty of forced public service labor there. I didn't have to clean, played with dogs and cats most of the time.

The not so fun days came when a farmers would drop off a few dozen of diseased barn cats. I then became a cog in a cat mass murdering machine.
 
StiHacka

StiHacka

Compensating for something
Jan 4, 2013
21,560
12,505
In hell. Welcome!
Mine was a summer job when I lend my muscle to an archaeological research in a baroque palace in my home town. Digging through layers of history all the way to bronze age artefacts was quite interesting.
 
jdcamb

jdcamb

Tool Time!
Feb 17, 2002
19,839
8,438
Nowhere Man!
Bike Messenger in Boston in the eighties. Roadie for Al Jarreau. Teamster. Burger King Chef. Transport and distribution specialist. Bob Moss. Bike Mechanic. Some other shit....
 
jstuhlman

jstuhlman

bagpipe wanker
Dec 3, 2009
16,696
13,050
Cackalacka du Nord
sternman on a very small lobsterboat in hs. half the time we just fucked around with other lobstermen's traps. boat was so small we had no winch so we hauled that chit in by hand.

also in hs, worked in an ice cream shed. set the record for most swirls of soft serve. also made epic forts in the loft.

i actually really like and find my current job as an art museum curator very interesting and rewarding. i get to organize cool shows, spend lots of other people's money, facilitate the creation of incredible things, and learn and teach. plus beers at lunch on the regular and the occasional fuckit fridays, mountain mondays, wilson creek wednesdays, and trailwork tuesdays and thursdays.
 
johnbryanpeters

johnbryanpeters

Hero
Sep 27, 2001
36,102
16,550
Making moss sad in New Haven, Vermont
Pre-OSHA gig as a wire stranding machine operator...

Working with divers on an ammunition barge that had gone aground someplace Haeundae way and spilled half its cargo of howitzer shells, which were being ground up by the hull and the rock it was lodged on...

Wiring up P* & A* Sound Studios in Boston when one of the owners came by and gave me a hit of I forget what designer psych-a-delic and I wired up an entire 50-pin connector backwards.

Making bombs and drugs in a defense laboratory which shall remain unnamed.

Fabricating a seat post from a piece of stainless tubing filched from the MIT nuclear reactor on Albany street - never did check to see if it was hot. Staring with fascination at the pool in said reactor all lit up with blue Cherenkov radiation...

On short notice heading out to sea trials on an LNG tanker; while boarding, watching the main vent let loose and dump gas all over a Coast Guard cutter at the same dock...

Etc...
 
gonefirefightin

gonefirefightin

free wieners
Feb 5, 2007
11,267
4,955
Surrounded by Police in a hail of gunfire
Best jobs I had:

hunting/fishing guide outfitter, wildlife management tech, gunsmith, military (combat zone), wildland firefighter (17 yrs)

cool jobs I had:

arson/fire investigator, avalanche tech, river guide, infrared operator from heli's, rappeler (heli's), rodeo, personal security, roadie for chris ledoux, snow groomer, worked for NASA.

Bizarre jobs:

ferrier, mule trainer, artificial insemination tech, tree climber, forest service blaster (explosives), cattle management (involved arm length gloves) spa installer, butcher, fish hatchery tech, repo man, bouncer.

Worst jobs ever:

Feedlot operations, mortuary affairs, teaching college kids, paramedic, jet A fueler, burn unit internship, diesel mechanic, insulation/concrete/drywall, truck driver.
 
stevew

stevew

resident influencer
Sep 21, 2001
40,596
9,608
i took care of a rich couples show dogs.

i walked quite a bit....read quite a bit....watched a lot of movies.....they had no cable.
 
AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
21,230
10,105
I have no idea where I am
Bouncer was definitely my weirdest job. Learned a lot about controlling people and situations without getting physical. It really honed my intimidation skills, not something I do a lot of nowadays. Also learned that physically restraining people, especially drunks, is not as hard as it seems.

Collected some very strange stories from that job. Glad to not be part of that lifestyle any more.

example:

The A.L.E. like to make up rules about taking IDs that are often difficult to interpret or enforce. And they like to stop by from time to time to inspect. When two of them got to the door, they both proceeded to march past me. I stuck my had in the first dude's chest and stopped him. He shows me his badge and tells me who he is. I tell him that's a pretty badge, now show me your ID. Dude looked at me for a second then pulled out his wallet. Carded his partner as well. They found exactly nothing that night. Told the bartenders later what I did and they couldn't believe I actually carded the A.L.E. :rofl:
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,981
24,535
media blackout
Not a weird job per se, but a weird part of my job... We have a cadaver lab in the basement of one of the buildings on campus. Our license is only for parts. Not uncommon to walk around in the basement and see people use power tools on a leg.
 
gonefirefightin

gonefirefightin

free wieners
Feb 5, 2007
11,267
4,955
Surrounded by Police in a hail of gunfire
AngryMetalsmith said:
There was a group of contract fire fighters from some place in OR that were at the pub one night when I was working. Can't quite remember the co. name, it might of been somebody's name. They were funny dudes.
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I despise contractors, barely trained slobs that never get anything done. Here are the Oregon contractors I know of Grayback, Miller, ASP, GFP skookum, Ferguson.
 
Serial Midget

Serial Midget

Al Bundy
Jun 25, 2002
13,053
1,896
Fort of Rio Grande
My first job at 13 was moving irrigation pipes across alfalfa fields for Gregg Stables in Parker Colorado, my friend and I tended the fields for a summer and were responsible for moving the electric barrier that kept the horses out of the area being irrated. The ranch owner, I. P. Gregg, taught me how to drive a 3 on the tree GMC truck in about 5 minutes, I had to sit on the edge of the seat in order to work the clutch. The shift handle was broken so we shifted with a screw driver for 1st and 3rd, 2nd and reverse were not an option... we split $7 a day, $10 if we had to muck out the stalls.
 
boostindoubles

boostindoubles

Nacho Libre
Mar 16, 2004
7,880
6,178
Yakistan
I did a stint in a cheese factory. Can you say beard net and CIP? Cutting, salting, and flipping the curd was my favorite job there, I could eat lots of fresh curd.

Then there was the USDA Pea and Lentil breeding program... the only job I used the line "You can't fire me, I quit!" Those bastids made us do farm work in the summer heat, from 9am to 5pm.

Best paid job ever was the backcountry archeology in YNP. Big animals and we found cool stuff. We were attempting to trace the Nez Perce flight trail of 1877 through the park.

Right now my job is running a hop pellet mill, which has me constantly reaking of hops. When the pelleting season is over I'll move back to working on the farm, growing various tree fruits. It would be cooler if I had more time to do my most favorite jerb of all time....

...the non profit trail building organization my friends and I run, we be building mtb trails here locally. No money in it for me, just trails.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,442
20,247
Sleazattle
Nothing terribly unusual, but I have worked on enough industrial manufacturing projects that I can pretty much guarantee that I have worked on machines that have made parts in a car you own, or parts in a plane you have flown, or parts in the bulldozer that built the road you live on, a machine that was used to test a chip in your cellphone, the printers that made the tags on the shelf where you bought your groceries, the chillers on a server farm that brought you this post...

I just hope that none of you ever need the drugs that I helped to make.
 
blackohio

blackohio

Generous jaywalker
Mar 12, 2009
2,773
122
Hellafornia. Formerly stumptown.
worked at a skateboard shop. drank alot, smoked alot. slutted around with ladies, cocaine, lsd. the usual for a 21 year old dirtbag.

It was the era of Kids, most of the guys there were art nerds and straight edge. One other dude was a mess like me. We got into lots of trouble. Chinese finger cuff'd female coworker at company xmas snowboard trip, the later got into a fight where he literally tore wood siding off the cabin.

was cool. would do again.
 
eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,321
13,612
directly above the center of the earth
Best two jobs

Firefighter, Santa Cruz County for all the cool stuff we got to do

Scuba Instructor at the Santa Cruz Yacht Harbor/ Divemaster Truth Aquatics Santa Barbara (linked jobs) Hot babes in all the classes, Hot babes on the beach in front of the shop. House on the beach with a hot tub...Lets just say I had way to much fun from 1980 to 86 and was lucky not to catch any STDs or become an instant daddy

Suck job: winters spent scraping barnacles off boat hulls in the yacht harbor 6-7 hours a day to make ends meet. Cold polluted water, frequent gamma globulin and tetanus shots

Stange but fun job. Beach garbage man in Santa Monica in the mid 70s, emptying 55 gallon drums of trash with riding shirtless on the back of a 6x6 garbage truck checking out 1000s of women in Bikinis
 
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eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,321
13,612
directly above the center of the earth
gonefirefightin said:
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Men at Work, great flick

pretty much, but we were out on the sand. I remember parking the rig out by the waterline and climbing up on the roof to watch the sunrise on one side and the waves breaking on the other while burning a joint then going for a chili cheese burger with jalpenos at Tommys #5 on Ocean and Pico afterwards



 
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Tom Ritchey's Moustache

Tom Ritchey's Moustache

Monkey
Sep 11, 2015
332
118
gonefirefightin said:
roadie for chris ledoux
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That is rad. I loved the shit out of Chris LeDoux growing up on the junior & high school rodeo circuit as a kid. Pretty sure I still know the words to most of his songs.

Most interesting job might have been when I was in high school and worked for two gay barrel horse trainers. I learned a lot about life in those two years, and I rode a lot of very expensive barrel horses. Pushing cattle at a sale barn was easily the worst. Not bad when it was nice out, but it sucked so hard in the winter.
 
Jim Mac

Jim Mac

MAKE ENDURO GREAT AGAIN
May 21, 2004
6,352
282
the middle east of NY
Not sure if it's interesting, but I worked as a local roadie at a civic center. Worked for Slayer & Stryper in the same week. Slayer were so much nicer people, lol! Got to meet and hang out with Philthy Phil Taylor from Motorhead (RIP) at a show there, such a nice dude. got to see Pat Benatar pull her (then) young kid round the stage whist having a tantrum during sound check (see, "Hell is for children"!). Shitty lifting work, but got to drink on the job & we were paid in cash at the end of the night/morning.
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,325
16,791
Riding the baggage carousel.
I once spent 3 days working for this hack. Sketchiest shop I've ever had the displeasure of working in. FAA violations everywhere.

In high school I worked for three years at a little mom and pop grocery store in a small town. Pretty much everyone who lived in town shopped there. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

Best job I ever had was my first aviation job. Phil was the best boss I've ever had, and a lot of fun.
 
jimmydean

jimmydean

The Official Meat of Ridemonkey
Sep 10, 2001
41,208
13,343
Portland, OR
I took a job I found in the paper for a tow truck driver. I knew nothing about it or the industry going in. Turns out I worked for one of the few legit shops in the industry that paid me a salary vs commission (pays to screw the customer). I got to meet some drivers from the other local shops while hanging out on call. The stories they told blew me away. But I had a sick truck and learned some very cool winch tricks with it.

<edit> Before I took the tow truck job, I had been out of work for 6 months and I was going crazy. Prior to being laid off I was making about $80k/year as a software engineer. There was a huge lifestyle change from 2001-03, driving a tow truck gave me a level of perspective I had gotten away from.
 
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Straya

Straya

Monkey
Jul 11, 2008
863
3
Straya
Farmhand, abattoir worker and home maintenanc have all had some crappy aspects.

Oddest job was working as a polyethelene pipe welder at a gold mine. Good money and interesting work but long hours.

Best jobs were helping build bits of the grouse grind and MTB trails in Vancouver and Wildland firefighter.
 
Repack Rider

Repack Rider

Monkey
Oct 8, 2007
183
66
Marin County, California
Rock band roadie for decades, smoked a joint with Jerry Garcia and met Janis Joplin when she was wearing red panties and red shoes.

After that, 25 years as a piano mover.

Also, my friend Gary Fisher and I rented a garage in 1979 where we made bikes under the brand name "MountainBikes."

Crane_02.jpg
 
mantispf2000

mantispf2000

Turbo Monkey
Aug 9, 2001
1,795
246
Nevada, 2 hours from Mammoth
I must lead a sheltered life. Nothing too weird/odd.

Cannery worker in King Cove, Alaska, for a crab season. Trap and skeet puller/setter in high school. Landscape sprinkler installer for a summer in AZ.

My current job as a pit boss/dealer does show me the best/worst sides of humanity at times.......
 
AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
21,230
10,105
I have no idea where I am
Repack Rider said:
Rock band roadie for decades, smoked a joint with Jerry Garcia and met Janis Joplin when she was wearing red panties and red shoes.

After that, 25 years as a piano mover.

Also, my friend Gary Fisher and I rented a garage in 1979 where we made bikes under the brand name "MountainBikes."

View attachment 121078
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Will you please just stop telling us you and your pals invented mountain bikes ? We get it, you rock. We are all grateful for you contribution, but please STFU. Thanks, love you bye.
 
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Da Peach

Da Peach

Outwitted by a rodent
Jul 2, 2002
13,683
4,912
North Van
My mining jobs were pretty cool. Driving an 80 tonne haul truck was a good time. Hand brake turns in the mud dump were pretty wild...

Almost got blown up working on the blast crew in an open pit coal mine. Glad I wasn't.
 
AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
21,230
10,105
I have no idea where I am
IH8Rice said:
what part is so hard to believe?
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Oh, sorry man. I didn't mean to post that. Thought I had deleted it.

I only started to mention it because I dated a chick who worked at the USPS and she told me some serious horror stories. Such as they couldn't fire a coworker who had been stalking and harassing her.
 
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