General

My favorite job was my first job.

Through the entirety of high school and college I was a tour guide at a small show cave. I'd work weekends during the school year and then work full time during the summer.

It was a super fun job that gave me some crazy stories.

The craziest was a time where a large foreign tour group was going through the cave. On one of the tours, during the part where we turn off the lights to let the tourists experience "Total Darkness" one of the men in this tour group dropped trouser and crap right in the middle of the walkway.

I was not assigned to do tours that day, and was instead working in the giftshop. Since I wasn't giving tours, me and a few of the other gift shop people were tasked with cleaning up this grown man sized pile of soft serve-esque fecal matter.

Our manager tells us to take two buckets into the cave, one empty and one filled with clorox. We used the empty bucket to get water from the stream to throw at the death pile, until the majority was washed away via the creek that ran through the cave. We then dumped the bucket of clorox where the crap was to try and eradicate the very powerful stench that was filling this poorly ventilated hole in the ground half a mile under the earth's surface.

Unfortunately, our manager had not considered the effect 3 dumb kids using a bunch of clorox near a body of water would have on the fish in the water.

So sure enough all of our fish start going insane because we poisoned their water with clorox. So now we have fish, brook trout specifically, that are huge due to the fish feed we give them, thrashing around in the water so hard that they are literally leaping out of the poisoned water onto the tour walkway. Our stream, which has a grate at the exit to keep the fish inside, is full of the bodies of dead and dying fish. At first, I was catching fish with nets, putting them into buckets of water, and running them across the parking lot to an untainted outdoor stream in an effort to save them. This did not work. So after a few failed attempts I was equipped with hip waders and a frog gig and had to walk the entirety of the cave stream gigging these dead fish. The entire time this was happening, tours were continuing to come through the cave, as it was a busy summers day.

Once I had em all gigged and in bags I was given a shovel and told to go out in the woods and bury them a few feet down so that scavengers wouldn't dig them up, eat them, and die.

I'll never forget so many moments from that day. But coming around a corner and being hit with the sight and smell associated with that elephantine bowel movement will be forever etched in my memory.

I am looking for new work right now, not because I hate my job but I would like to make a little more money. I have been with my current Employer for 9 years and for the last 3 I have supported people with developmental disabilities. I love the work, but I have not be had a raise in 6 years. Its not my employers fault we just dont have the funding... But hopefully that changes in the spring.

I am a percussionist and have had lots of terrible gigs and lots of amazing gigs. Easily, the best one I ever had, without question was when I was in college. The dance instructor came over to the music building looking for a drummer to play some congas for her dance class. 2-3 times a week, I would walk to the next building with my djembe and improvise a simple 4/4 beat for an hour while looking at fit college girls dancing in leotards. And they paid me $20 every time I did that. Easily the best job ever!!!

I was a cop in the military until 1998. I landed a job shortly thereafter in the Payments/Fintech space. Been doing some form of solution consulting/sales engineering for the past 24 years. Honestly I’m kinda getting burned out. If wasn’t for the amazing pay I’d likely want to go find something new to do. I worked for a terminal manufacturer in early 2014 before (and during) the shift to EMV. That job was probably my favorite. We were like family and I got to be part of the growth the company went through during EMV adoption. My team was amazing and hold those guys and gals close to my heart.

I've had a handful of good jobs over the years. One that I regularly reminisce on was working freight crew for Winco Foods. It is a 24-hour grocery store that the freight crew handles all of the inventory, stocking, shelving, displays, etc. during graveyard shifts. It was a steady 8-hour shift that you were routinely busy with standard tasks but nothing overly grueling. Nights flew by as I was essentially shooting the crap and breaking balls with a bunch of younger guys in an open warehouse/grocery store environment. Tons of fun and standard shenanigans that I'm sure would occur in any other store. One memory that sticks out is when I dropped a 24-case of Liquid Smoke. Multiple bottle blew up. Even after cleaning and bleaching the aisles the entire store smelled like a barbecue for a couple weeks. Every time I see Liquid Smoke I can't help but be reminded.

I worked this job between my freshman and sophomore year of college while simultaneously working at our local cinema. I pulled 60-70 hour workweeks split between days and nights while maintaining a social life, girlfriend (now wife) and my older brother moving back into town. By the end of the summer I was pretty much gaunt from lack of sleep, poor diet and not really seeing the sun for a few months. Despite being completely exhausted I fondly look back upon that summer. Non-stop work, partying and a relatively care-free experience before heading back to school. Funds from that summer basically paid my tuition for the next year.

I worked doing drafting/CAD work during school and I finished my engineering degree a few years later. Now I work in project management for a large commercial plumbing subcontractor. I've had a few pretty high-profile jobs at Disneyland, LAX, downtown LA, etc. Very cool to see projects from start to finish and get to be behind the scenes of some cool areas. It obviously comes with a lot more stress and responsibility but also a nice paycheck.

Don't mind me, just here for research purposes...

also 40, working since 16 and beyond freaking tired of it. my current job is by far the best job ive ever had, defense contractor. im low paid compared to my peers but its still far better than anything else i could do in the area, and they know that ,so its like eat crap and stay or go, we dont care. , and relocation isnt an option til youngest is 18. so im very much trapped in it.

i dont *hate* what i do, i like the people, a whole lot in some cases. i like the schedule i have right now (weekend shift, three 12 hour shifts fri sat and sun and off all week, tons of free time), the pto ( little over 6 weeks a year with holidays), the benefits are competitive, the 401k match is very good. i just hate the company, god i hate them so damn much. and im so ready to be done with the "corporate" world where you're just a number when i dont need it anymore. its quite double edged, working for this corp has afforded me what nothing else here could, but i just despise this company lol.

in some ways it might still be favorite oddly enough, there are some real positives. we are not asked to break our backs or bust it every hour of the day, its not google relaxed, but for whats asked of us its not that bad.

the real contender though if my first job as far as just fun goes. when i was 16-18 i worked for hastings, some of you know what that is. a record store, book store, and video store all in one. it was just going in and hanging out with your friends and doing some work. some worked alot harder than others, but it still wasnt bad. it paid nothing even in 90s money obv, its a job for school kids lol. but we had alot of fun.

I've generally come to the realization in my early 30's that I'm only going to do work I enjoy doing. I used to love hard manual labor, but my body simply cannot take most of it. The days of doing high production work for a paycheck are past me.

My favorite jobs I've done include;
Working parking for a state fair for 7 years.
Going from a cashier to a line supervisor, to a lot supervisor for 4 years I loved the job. Wasn't hard work was just long hours as I'd also do pre fair set up about 2 months before the event and post fair take down for another month. I was paid hourly for pre and post, but received one heck of a salary for the days of the event. So as a 15-22 year old it was really nice having a 15 grand check at the time for a little over 3 months of work.

Working Concessions/Catering for 11 years at a major sports venue.
My title was officially concession runner. I'd do ice set up for stands, pre stock inventory throughout the week. During games we would wait for fulfillment orders and deliver them, but during the game I was responsible for delivering kegs through the entire upper concourse of the stadium. What a rush that was. Absolutely loved it though, but had to forgo that job for a better job in the company with benefits. One of my big regrets was settling for more money and benefits vs doing a job i enjoyed so much in the position I was in.

Working at a major hospital as a patient transporter.
I only did the job for around 6 months, but i absolutely loved 90% of the duties involved, but the nurses made that job 10x worse than it needed to be whether it was delivering inadequate care, lack of knowledge or their own frustrations. It became a constant battle with them advocating patient safety and the rights vs wrong of the job. Management in my department was very misinformed of information as well and it added to it. Plus I was only a temporary contract employee and the pay differential between myself and my coworkers was nearly $9 an hour so i knew every day i came in there I had to bust my ass to get things done. Once i was on my own I constantly maintained top 3 numbers of transport calls. I was capped at working only 50 hours a week if need be, but still it was $700 a week post taxes after 40 and then just under $1000 after taxes if i did the additional 10 hours.

Working for UPS as a driver helper.
I love doing this job I've done it 3/4 years and it's fantastic. It's a 50/50 work vs relaxation job as it's all demand based and quick deliveries and pickups. It's a great feeling knowing your the one that delivers a package to someone for a loved one to their doors for the holidays. Plus you get tips out of it on top of it. I'm lucky as well as I don't have to travel for my assignment and can work in my neighborhood directly and my driver picks me up and drops me off before and at eos. If i could do this year round I absolutely would even at minimum wage. The pays nice in my area, but it did go down from last year to this year from 18-17, but for the labor aspect of it and the guaranteed 30+ hours a week I get out of it I'm totally fine with it.

Random fun topic, reopening

I have had a bunch of jobs. My favorite job was probably Holiday Inn. I was a housekeeper with my girlfriend (now my wife) and it was fun. I was technically a house man, which meant I would stock the storage closets with towels etc. I would sometimes make beds for the housekeepers too if I had downtime.

I remember we’d get to keep things if they were left there for a certain amount of time. I got an old man’s cane, a pair of Nike slides in my size, and two gba sp with a ton of games. That was cool.

I miss the relaxation of working for fun and living in my car. The money was play money at that time because I didn’t really have many bills.

Has to be my first job, I worked at a pretzel shop called Pretzel Time in my local mall (pretty big/nice mall). I was 15 or 16 when I started. Almost everyone that worked there went to my school, which made it a lot of fun right off the bat. I think every time we were hiring, people just recommended friends, and they got the job before the manager looked elsewhere. Upper management was very loose, and wasn't even present most of the time, so as long as we did a half decent job, they didn't really care what else went on. There were always friends and other kids from school coming by just to talk and hang out. We were allowed to eat and drink as much food as we wanted. We had an Icee machine (usually Cherry and Blue Raspberry, but sometimes one would be replaced with Coke), 2 slushie machines, and the best lemonade I've ever tasted, that easily put Chick-fil-A's lemonade to shame. My favorite thing to do was to mix the lemonade and strawberry slushie, it was the best drink ever. I set up trades with people that worked at the Cinnabon and Chick-fil-A, so I could get free food from those places any time I wanted, plus a smoothie shop that was right next to us, and a cookie shop. Just a few months after I started working there, I became the assistant manager. It only came with a little extra responsibility, plus some perks. I got paid a bit more, which was nice. I also got to make the schedules, so I had complete control over when I worked. Aside from that, I was "in charge" any time the manager wasn't there. She basically only worked 9-5 M-F, but would occasionally come in for a few hours on Sat or Sun instead of a weekday. The rest of us covered nights and weekends, so most of the time I worked, I was in charge. It was actually good experience for me at a young age.

Most pretzel places use pre-made, frozen dough, but at Pretzel Time, we actually made our dough fresh every morning. It was well-known that I made the best pretzels, and people would always ask for one of "Scott's pretzels" specifically. I've had so many people tell me that my pretzels were the best they've ever had, and they can't even get pretzels from other shops now because they're just not the same.

I enjoyed baking over night for Panera Bread. At most, there was only one "helper" to get bakes ready and whatnot but on several nights, I was all on my own. I could listen to music or even throw on videos while I worked, and I always treated myself to a nice big (free) sandwich for break time. I always enjoyed seeing the "bread wall" all set up by the morning ladies as I was leaving for the day -- getting to bask in all the work I did the night before. It was pretty rough on my daily life though, being on a completely different schedule than everybody else, including my girlfriend. But the work itself was nice whenever I didn't have to deal with management or any shipping eff ups.

BUT my favorite job has got to be the freelance writing job I'm doing now for CBR. That's a no brainer. I type too much about dorky crap that actually interests me on a daily basis already, now I get paid for it with thousands of people seeing it daily. Can't complain there. Plus it's helping me hone the actual craft of writing past just bloggy blurb-style type ups. Hopefully I can move from "freelance" to "career" at some point, because I do love writing.

I want one of "Scott's pretzels" now.

bill wrote:
Send an offer :)

My current job. Im a jr sys admin but more a helpdesk person till next year

bill wrote:

I wish I could still make them, but I wouldn't even know exactly which ingredients we used.

Funny thing I left out...for a year or two after I stopped working there, any time I was at the mall, I would just walk right into the store and get a drink/pretzel/whatever. The manager liked me and didn't care, and most of the people who worked there were still people I knew from school. One time, there was some new person working who didn't know me, but a couple guys who did. I walked in and just started grabbing myself a pretzel and this guy is looking at me like "WTH?" He started to say something to me and the other guys were like "it's cool man, that's Scott!" It wasn't until almost 2 years had passed when everyone I knew had kind of cycled out and it was all people that I didn't know working there, plus the manager had retired, so I couldn't do that anymore.

Working at that pretzel shop is one of the most frequent reoccurring dreams that I have, so clearly it was an important part of my life.

In college I managed to be a "regional campus rep" for Namco. I nominally got paid minimum wage for 40 hours to host 3 events surrounding games and take 24 pictures on a disposable camera for each event along with some papers I would right up describing where, when, how it was done, etc. I was on for 3 launches. Soul Caliber 2, Spawn Armageddon, and Street Racing Syndicate. Each release I'd get like 50-80 copies of the game, bunch of shirts and swag. Soul Caliber 2 was a breeze to do. I kind of did it right. I found a couple of game stores, said hey I want to put on a tournament, you get 2 free copies, I give the top 3 finishers a free copy of the game, everyone gets swag. I also throw a couple of house parties. I end up with like 40 copies of the game left which I then do a combination of returning to target / wal-mart for gift cards (and getting all of my friends to do to so as well, lots of grandmas on both side of teh family buying Soul Caliber 2). So I ended up returning like 67 copies at $50 a piece + tax or something like that.

Next out was Spawn. This game was a single player action game, sort of God of War esque but not very good. I try the same game shops and they turn me down for doing a tourney because they didn't get it / didn't like the game. So basically I went to a few house parties, took fake pictures of people "playing". Give out all the swag, try to give the games to house hosts but no one wants Spawn. So go to wal-mart, bestbuy, target, etc. This time returns are getting harder. They require an ID and you can only do so many returns without a receipt anymore. Still manage to get rid of all the games, but by the time I did some stores had put the game on discount so I would only get lowest price ever sold on returns. So not nearly as good as SC2. Had maybe 60 games averaging like $40 return. Still good, but big step down.

Street Racing Syndicate was just a crap game from what I could tell. At least it races which were timed so just had people do those. Didn't even both calling game stores, just staged some photos with friends. Pretty much all of my friends were still banned from no-receipt returns, so ended up having a friend sell them on ebay for 10% with like 50 copies, selling them at lowest new price available. I think we had 50 games we sold for an average of $35 and ebay fees were significant even back then, so it ended up not being a whole lot. maybe $1k total.

I was dropped after that. Not fired or anything, just a "thanks for the successful launch of the past titles, we will be exploring new campuses for future releases" or something like that. Overall made close to like $8k for maybe 60-70 hours of "work". Basically it was scamming and making decent coin, so that was fun.

The job I had giving out samples, promoting products/services, and promoting video games/systems on the night of their launch. It was fun to see sales increase of the products I demoed like hamburger helper, a new caffeinated gum brand during black friday, and basically anything that wasn’t selling very fast. Had a custom made sheet of cupcakes with master chief’s helmet and raffled off a regular, steelbox, and legendary edition for the latest Halo game at the time.

Job paid me in peanuts though so it was time to give notice for something new.