Bizarre Jobs and Current Jobs

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.

OK, now I'm going to request a Temecula Valley wine recc!

Maritime Studies?  Can you captain a boat?

I mean, maybe with some hands-on training. But I can do the maths and sciences around various maritimey things, and talk all sorts of relevant history and culture. My capstone project was about weather patterns and climate issues in relation to the voyage of a scientific research vessel in the early 1900s, all from the ship's original logs. But, much as I'm an academic, I'm not sure I'm entirely cut out for academia.

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.

Wow, that is REALLY cool.

I just started a new role in billing at the water company. Fun fact, currently you can only use one water company assigned to your region. April 2017- for business owners only, the market is opening and they can use anybody. Hence why I was recruited for my role. Prior to that I did tenant referencing...I couldn't run fast enough away.


I have a masters in public administration and bachelors in criminology.

I've worked a lot in the US with the YMCA, doing youth development roles. Loved them all.   Even got to travel abroad with the Y.  I've also managed a Starbucks, did every role possible in a restaurant, and my personal favourite was working at a local produce stand in high school. I know so much about fruits and vegetables


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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.

Quite jealous, I love MC Hammer lol.


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OK, now I'm going to request a Temecula Valley wine recc!

It's been ten years since I worked there, I have no idea what it's like now, there may be even more wineries. Or not, it was a booming economy in 2006 but a lot has changed since then. I worked at Callaway Vineyard and Winery, they had a 2001 Reserve Cabernet that was really good. Punters paid $40 for it, but staff got it for $6. Just to give you an idea of the markup on that sort of thing . IIRC there was a winery called South Coast that had an inn with rooms overlooking the vineyards. It was really beautiful. The whole valley is beautiful and worth a trip, though the wine is not up to Napa/Sonoma or Central Coast standards, it's good fun and since the valley is so small you can visit most of it in a day. I actually really miss it sometimes and hope I get a chance to go back someday.

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.

Sad and all too common. I have a BA and MA in French and worked as a lecturer in my grad school university after I finished my degree. Foreign languages departments are all strapped for cash and students really resent the language requirements they have for their degrees. If I had a pound for every time someone asked my why I would bother with French when everyone speaks English, I'd never need to work again. I love languages though, and wish I knew more of them. Working as an EFL teacher you learn a lot about languages, because you need to be familiar with the characteristics of your students' first languages to know what kind of challenges they'll have with English, so I know a lot of facts about world languages but can only speak two.

Best job ever - picking avocados on a kibbutz near Tel Aviv, Israel after University. Out in the sun all day, driving a tractor or cherry picker, sorting out sprinkler systems and getting soaked in the process, and learning a little bit of Hebrew along the way.

After that I ended up working in various admin jobs for the UK Civil Service in the UK and the US, and am now retired.

I picked avos on my parents' farm as a kid, and my dad always gave me some of the cash. It was heavy work.

Paid work outside the home, from the age of 11:
Baskin Robbins
Gardener at a garden open to the public
Bead store
zookeeping assistant
smoothie bar
book store
assistant librarian
au pair
resident tutor
student teacher
Physics Teacher
exam marker (never again)

Really want to get out of teaching, maybe engineering?

zookeeping assistant

Awesome!    What did you look after?

My job history is ... definitely interesting.

 - Lifeguard
 - Attendant at a fitness center
 - Dancer in college, sadly not the upstanding type KFDancer did
 - Rave dj/promoter (this didn't really earn any money)
 - Hostess at a restaurant
 - inbound/e-mail tech support for so many different technologies
 - Mortgage vendor oversight
 - data analyst, specializing in mortgage data

.... and now we will see what comes next! Hoping I'll be able to find a data job in the healthcare industry, I really want to go back to school for public health & data mining so that I can do research and help find the genes for the genetic condition I have.

I mean, maybe with some hands-on training. But I can do the maths and sciences around various maritimey things, and talk all sorts of relevant history and culture. My capstone project was about weather patterns and climate issues in relation to the voyage of a scientific research vessel in the early 1900s, all from the ship's original logs. But, much as I'm an academic, I'm not sure I'm entirely cut out for academia.

That actually sounds incredibly interesting!

Awesome!    What did you look after?

Capybaras. Could be a little intimidating sometimes... big teeth and all. One escaped one time, but luckily not while I was there!

Capybaras. Could be a little intimidating sometimes... big teeth and all. One escaped one time, but luckily not while I was there!

Cool!    Yes, they look so cute but I wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of one! 

My first couple of jobs were at now-defunct video stores! It was pretty easy and I always got the DVD's of latest movies before they were available to the public.

I then worked at a preschool and before and after school care...NEVER AGAIN.

I worked around my university doing whatever job came my way, from delivering student surveys to working the student post (which I hated). Then I got settled in the print room and loved it. I learned so much. I was also in media studies and got to work on my own media for presentations, etc.

My best job was working at a football (soccer) club, even though it wasnt the club I follow! I was there for over two years until I left towards the end of my student visa. I was working in the community side of things but got to meet a lot of players and go to a few games. Again, not my club but the Premier League it so expensive, I appreciated the day out for free.

My Master of Philosophy degree (M.Phil...a degree nobody ever heard of *sigh*), is in Football, Media and Fan Relationships. Sadly I have not been able to get back into football, but I'm doing some social media and content management in the meantime.

That actually sounds incredibly interesting!

I agree, I've just read a book :

Deep Sea and Foreign Going: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Brings You 90% of Everything



Spoiler alert: Everything is now a race for the bottom, it's all about Indians and Philipinos who are ruthlessly exploited by the shipping industry. 

Here's another really great one:

Seized!: A Sea Captain's Adventures Battling Pirates and Recovering Stolen Ships in the World's Most Troubled Waters

It's about a guy who sneaks into foreign ports and steals back giant tankers that have been seized.