Bizarre Jobs and Current Jobs

What's everybody's current job?  What are some jobs from your past that are interesting?

I am currently a data warehouse consultant.

I used to be a limo driving bellman who carried the bags of MC Hammer and Kevin Costner.  I've sold fax machines and delivered paint.  I can garuntee that I've spilled more paint than anyone on this forum.

Retired and loving it. First job in high school was digging uhhhhh......"stuff" in a sewer plant. Loaded it in a dump truck for delivery to local farms. 6 months in a landfill after college....amazing what people were throwing away. Mostly just school related things after that.

I used to be a limo driving bellman who carried the bags of MC Hammer and Kevin Costner. 

OK....who was the biggest a-hole you encountered?

I'm a financial director.  Conversation killer at parties right there.

I've had LOTS of jobs.  Used to be a professional dancer (out of high school) and was with a touring Broadway show and after that a dancer at the Magic Kingdom.

When I was studying (didn't start until I was 22), I worked for the Orlando Police Department and split time between the deal at reception and the radio (not emergency, I ran cars and people to see if valid registration or warrants).

I really enjoy finance.  It's been the right career choice.  I also really miss teaching dance.  I don't hold UK qualifications so am not able to teach here.  I have to settle for taking classes.  I love it but adult dance classes aren't quite the same.

I currently work as an aviation meteorologist, mostly with the UK military.

I don't really have any bizarre or particularly interesting previous jobs though.
- Age 15-18 I worked weekends in a garden centre
- Age 18-27, I worked on and off in a pharmacy, while I was going through university, saving money between degrees and looking for graduate jobs
- Age 24/25, I had a brief stint working as a TA/RA at a university in the US when I moved there for grad school
- At 27, I started my current job

Conversation killer at parties right there.

I was a total conversation killer at Dance Society social events at university, when other girls asked what I was studying and I had to tell them my degree subject was theoretical physics .

I wish mine was interesting... some of the circumstances around them are, but not so much the jobs themselves.

-Was a host at an Italian restaurant in high school, I got the job because I know quite a few Italian arias and my mom made me sing for them while we were there for their anniversary lunch.

-Sales Associate at a jewelry store, I know my stones and metals.

-Lead Roles at a Dinner theatre.

-I worked at a Car Museum for 2 years, the personal collection of a wealthy woman.

-And my first job here in the UK was for a very wealthy man who sells cars and shared a tv program with two others last April on Channel 4. So I ended up speaking with some famous British people, but I had no idea who they were...

And my degree is a bit of a conversation killer too: Mass Communication: Public Relations and Advertising. haha. Gotta love it.

OK....who was the biggest a-hole you encountered?

Nobody was a butt hole to me, they loved me and gave me tips so I loved them back.  No joke, it was great, I like helping people.  Even more when paid to do it.

MC Hammer was exceptionally nice, Kevin was nice as a normal person.  I heard Don Johnson was a jerk but I wasn't around to see it.   I once showed Rene Russo all the nicest rooms in the hotel and she was nice as well.  With that much info, somebody should be able to guess the movie!

I was a total conversation killer at Dance Society social events at university, when other girls asked what I was studying and I had to tell them my degree subject was theoretical physics .

Back in the days before being a geek was cool.  I would have thought it was interesting anyway.

I wish mine was interesting... some of the circumstances around them are, but not so much the jobs themselves.

-Was a host at an Italian restaurant in high school, I got the job because I know quite a few Italian arias and my mom made me sing for them while we were there for their anniversary lunch.

-Sales Associate at a jewelry store, I know my stones and metals.

-Lead Roles at a Dinner theatre.

-I worked at a Car Museum for 2 years, the personal collection of a wealthy woman.

-And my first job here in the UK was for a very wealthy man who sells cars and shared a tv program with two others last April on Channel 4. So I ended up speaking with some famous British people, but I had no idea who they were...

And my degree is a bit of a conversation killer too: Mass Communication: Public Relations and Advertising. haha. Gotta love it.

But you just said you don't have a license.  You must have driven some cool cars.  Tell us!

I'm a medical writer/medical copywriter now, but started my professional career (while still in high school) as a sportswriter for a 150K-circ newspaper. A series of fortunate events, that.

My first taste of freelancing on the side was for a now-defunct pro hockey magazine, and I was press-credentialed for matches and practice facilities for the Flyers, Devils, Rangers and Islanders. It was great, although being a 20-year-old woman in locker rooms was looked upon a bit askance -- not by the players, who were all 100% terrific, but the old-dude reporters.

I was working as a news editor and columnist for a once-great Pulitzer Prize-winning paper when I realised that the newspaper industry was dying, and jumped ship for medical writing. Along the way, I picked up two degrees that have nothing to do with anything. Although I have to say the second one, in maritime studies, has been a great conversation-starter in the UK.

Nothing about my career trajectory is anything I would have guessed at as a kid, but I've never been bored.

I'm a medical writer/medical copywriter now, but started my professional career (while still in high school) as a sportswriter for a 150K-circ newspaper. A series of fortunate events, that.

My first taste of freelancing on the side was for a now-defunct pro hockey magazine, and I was press-credentialed for matches and practice facilities for the Flyers, Devils, Rangers and Islanders. It was great, although being a 20-year-old woman in locker rooms was looked upon a bit askance -- not by the players, who were all 100% terrific, but the old-dude reporters.

I was working as a news editor and columnist for a once-great Pulitzer Prize-winning paper when I realised that the newspaper industry was dying, and jumped ship for medical writing. Along the way, I picked up two degrees that have nothing to do with anything. Although I have to say the second one, in maritime studies, has been a great conversation-starter in the UK.

Nothing about my career trajectory is anything I would have guessed at as a kid, but I've never been bored.

Maritime Studies?  Can you captain a boat? 

I teach English as a foreign language (EFL)and French, and I freelance as a French-English translator. Teaching English as an American in the UK can be ... interesting. I spend a lot of time defending my accent and vocabulary. It's terrible pay, as well, but a wonderfully rewarding job. I've had fantastic students from all over the world and learned so much from them.

My most interesting former job was probably working at a winery in southern California. You don't often think of the LA-area when you think California wine, but there's a tiny little microclimate in a place called the Temecula valley, and it supports about a dozen small wineries. I worked as a wine tasting and tour guide. It was an incredibly beautiful place to work and sometimes got some interesting customers, but there were also a lot of jerks. Rich people from LA or Palm Springs, spending $5 on a tasting ticket and expecting $1000 worth of ass licking.

Worst job ever was doing telephone market research. Cold-calling people to ask them market research questions, being forced to lie to them about how long the surveys would take, using aggressive tactics to keep them on the line. I used to dread going in every day. Fortunately it was only a temporary summer job. When I left they offered me a permanent position and I said hell no, I'm going back to college to get an education so I never have to do this crap again.

But you just said you don't have a license.  You must have driven some cool cars.  Tell us!

I've had a US license since I was 18. I just haven't been able to pass my UK test yet.

Haha, I wish. I bet he would have let me take one of the cars out with another team member if I had been comfortable driving on the right, but I wasn't when I worked for him.  We only had one car and he offered me one of the company cars to get to and from work.

I got to see some really great cars, they had lots of Hurracans, Porches, Land Rovers, Ferraris, and Bugattis, but my heart belongs to the classic cars. He had one of the Bond Aston Martins in for awhile. I can't remember which it was though...

He hired me in part because I had worked at the car museum, so I had some knowledge of classic and luxury brand vehicles and he thinks American's give good customer service.

Sadly, I couldn't have driven any of the cars at the car museum (Allen Unique Autos owned by Tammy Allen) because you either had to be on their insurance or be the owner to drive them. I was not one of the lucky few. My good friend there got to drive some of the cars though when they needed to move them around.

The one job I got to ride in some cool cars was at Gateway Canyons Resort, it's owned by the guy who started and owned the Discovery Channel. He has a car museum too. haha. I got to ride in a new Mercedes Mclaren and a new Aston Martin Vanquish, that was back in 2009 when they were having a car show.

I teach English as a foreign language (EFL)and French, and I freelance as a French-English translator. Teaching English as an American in the UK can be ... interesting. I spend a lot of time defending my accent and vocabulary. It's terrible pay, as well, but a wonderfully rewarding job. I've had fantastic students from all over the world and learned so much from them.

My most interesting former job was probably working at a winery in southern California. You don't often think of the LA-area when you think California wine, but there's a tiny little microclimate in a place called the Temecula valley, and it supports about a dozen small wineries. I worked as a wine tasting and tour guide. It was an incredibly beautiful place to work and sometimes got some interesting customers, but there were also a lot of jerks. Rich people from LA or Palm Springs, spending $5 on a tasting ticket and expecting $1000 worth of ass licking.

Worst job ever was doing telephone market research. Cold-calling people to ask them market research questions, being forced to lie to them about how long the surveys would take, using aggressive tactics to keep them on the line. I used to dread going in every day. Fortunately it was only a temporary summer job. When I left they offered me a permanent position and I said hell no, I'm going back to college to get an education so I never have to do this crap again.

My wife is a lecturer at a major university, she used to teach EFL and French until they stopped teaching French!  How sad is that.

Your 1000 pounds of ass licking made me laugh out loud, now everyone in the office is looking at me.