Steemit Icebreakers: What is the Strangest Job You Have Done?
This is going to end up like a confession from about 20 years ago, but here goes...
To fund university living costs, I had two unusual jobs...
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Firstly, I was a university warden, which meant accommodation was paid for in exchange for being available out of office hours, for any hall accommodation issues and keeping an eye on proceedings.
This involved making sure that if complaints about noise etc were received, I would have to go and tell people to be quiet, break up too loud parties (along with the other wardens), and call the fire brigade for the endless times the fire alarm was set off.
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I also had to walk around the halls a couple of times a night, to make sure that everything was as it should be and turning a blind eye to the cannabis smoking going on, as no need to make a big deal out of that (only interfering to make sure that they covered the smoke alarms, so they didn't go off), I'd be up all night! It was a really easy job in exchange for free accommodation.
My second job was at a call center. Nothing unusual there, except for the phone calls I made.
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I would call up people who had called up sex lines and ask for the bills to be paid. As they could call the lines on a local rate number, but the 'fine print', or 'fine talk' in this case, said there would be further costs to be paid, but very few selected that option to listen to it and were unaware of the extra costs. This job was possibly barely legal, but it wasn't bad pay and targets were easy to reach for bonuses.
In the office across the road, were the girls who made the calls. We were often 'encouraged' to consider this an option, but I thought that talking dirty for a job would probably kill any future relationships if that kind of talk became automated or second nature to me, so I left that well alone.
However, during my early university years, I even considered some jobs that I should not of, like being an escort, as I naively thought that my charming company for a meal would be enough, but the line of questioning on the phone interview told me that wouldn't be the case. Especially, when he started asking whether me and my friend would like to come out as a pair. I am thankful I had some morals and am not quite so naive (or innocent) these days.
Oh, but I did try pole dancing for two days as well. But travelling home on my own at 3 o clock in the morning in London on the buses made me a little nervous (not to mention the clientele of the club).
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So what interesting or strange jobs, (or confessions) can you tell me about in the comments?
Or maybe, you could even create your own posts on the subject and let us know about them here? #strangejobs
These are the confessions of @hopehuggs
Wow! Very interesting experiences! I’ve had some interesting jobs. When I was in undergrad, I worked hockey games. I tried to get people to sign up for credit cards in exchange for hockey swag. Pay was actually great, plus we could pop our heads in on the game!
Also, I worked on a farm in Australia sorting and packing squash/pumpkins. That was a fun job and very interesting experience as there were people from all over the world working there! We even spent a few days in the field picking the rest of the squash near the end of the season.
Lastly, which was the most normal job, but led to the weirdest experiences... I started delivering a weekly local newspaper when I was about 7. If you’ve ever delivered door to door, you’ll know that you see a lot of weird stuff... generally in the form of naked or half dressed people!
I sorted apples and put them in bags for a couple of weeks and also had a nice job for a while handing out party food in venues like Tower Bridge and The Natural History Museum in London, even served dinner once on a Thames riverboat cruise.
I expect you saw some things you didn't want to see at 7 (or maybe you did haha)
At 7 I didn’t really know WHAT I was seeing! Hahahaha
I wouldn't say this was a strange job, but I once worked as a pizza delivery person. What makes it strange was the people you meet late at night delivring food too. Drunk people, people super high to which they can bearly see cause their eyes looked super cheeched and people who I'm pretty sure they didn't leave their house in years. I remember once I delivered a pizza to someone, and while they paid for their pizza some dude ran by us and stole that dudes bike right in front of us.. luckily I got paid first, but that dude ran after him sooooooo fast.. I was like well not my problem and I left lol. Also while I was driving I used to drink multiple bottles of NOS energy drinks to a point that bottles would fall out of the delivry car all the fucking time... I had a saying back than of " dont NOS the car if you can NOS the driver" :) Hoped you all enjoyed my story , I deffinitly enjoyed all of yours!!
Hah, similair story. I worked as a pizza delivery guy too. Once I had a drunk lady who told me that she was ordering wine and not the pizza that i just brought her. She gave me 50 euro for 10eu pizza. Yes, tips included :D
Couple months later got screwd by some dude with a fake 50 who "bought" pizza for 10eu...
Karma...
karma is a bitch haha
I imagine you see the interesting side of humanity - those of whom barely interact with the rest of us- as a pizza delivery man.
Yes, I should imagine that you would meet all kinds of people with a pizza delivery. Wierd and wonderful!
Fun Post! The strangest job I ever had was artificially inseminating cows on a farm with a gigantic syringe filled with bull happy endings, elbow length gloves and TONS of hand soap.
I guess it could of been stranger/worse...I could of been the guy acquiring the material for the syringe!
OMG that's insane. Do you still have flashbacks? Do you have to be in a safe space when it happens?
BTdubs.. I love your handle.
That experience could be the reason my handle is what it is! Drinking milk has never been the same, sometimes I go out for a burger and feel a pesky need to wash my hands :)
lol lol, this is officially the comment that has made me laugh most!
Agreeed! hahahah
Hey ,
Thanks for the great content
Thank you for sharing your experience!! I think many people do odd jobs in their life cycle and it may great source of different experience.
i agree with u...
thanks you nice...
I thought it might be something that a lot of people could share some stories about.
I once shoveled about a ton of rotten chicken gizzards as part of my work. It was definitely the grossest thing I did at that job, but not by much. It was a pretty weird job.
I hope at least they paid you well.
Yeah, seriously hahahah
I'm embarrassed to mention this, I peddled a pedicab for a while to earn some extra cash. most nights I would barely make anything, but one time, I had to drag 6 people in my pedicab at once. the pedicab was designed to fit 2-3 at the most. I had folks hanging off the back. The folks tipped me $650 though. Crazy...
A job that keeps you fit and earn a little. Not too shabby.
Amazing, thanks for sharing
Thanks.
I used to train dolphins to find bombs for the US Navy. I wrote a story about it in my blog. :)
Oh wow, I am going to go and read that.
Strange Job - I worked for a while in an organization where i went to houses and asked for a donation for charity, and at the end of the day, I got 8$ for every hour i worked and they paid me from the money that were supposed to go to the charity.
I didn't know that it was bad back then, Now i'm trying to do as best as i can and i'm volunteering in a non-profit organization that brings food for the needies. #StrangeJobs
Yes, I think that was common practice once upon a time, nowadays there are phone verifications and all sorts available to ensure the charities are above board. That sounds like a fantastic and fulfilling volunteering role.
I did my fair share of strange jobs while I was in university, and some of them were:
did you get funny looks while being dressed as a condom? I wonder if that was an effective marketing campaign?
Yes I did indeed LOL. I think it worked because we were giving away free condoms =)
So funny.
There are some good #strangejobs there @evecab, they all sound a lot of fun (apart from the last one, as it sounds like it is something you'd rather not think about now)
yes, ahahah thanks @hopehugs!
Once an italian guy paied me ver very well just to spy his wife in the night. He was to gelous..omg. I was like a ninja in the night...a stupid ninja. lol :))
Sounds like that was easy money and an easy job. I hope there was nothing untoward to report.
yeah..was nothing intresting...a naked wife :))
I worked in a call center for 2 days. The second night I had such horrific dreams of phones and rejection that I quit. The strangest job I had was when I was 6 years old and would go with my mom's boyfriend to take care of the nearly abandoned cemetery where his family was buried. He paid me 1 soda, 1 candy bar, and 1 scratch-off. If I won more than $1 on the scratch off, I had to pay him the $1 back.
I did telemarketing jobs back in the day... cold sales calls were the worst. even though you don't know & will never meet the people who reject you over the phone, somehow it still stings.
The cemetery job sounds eerily cool. being such a young age, it must have left an impression on you.
It really does. Did you last longer than a couple days?
Seems strange, at first, but we are emotional beings, so I guess it makes sense :) Working in a cemetery at 6 did teach me that graveyards are not the frightening places portrayed in movies. I travel a bit and when we can, we go to cemeteries and clean off tombstones.
Interesting factoid: US cemeteries are modeled after the 18th century landscape gardens of England. It was supposed to inspire people to spend their recreational time with family, but I think the sorrow of loss is way too powerful for people to bring their children for playtime at a loved one's grave.
Yes, I worked selling windows and hated every second of it. It sounds like I should be putting my children to work doing something, like the housework. Sounds a good pay for a 6-year-old. I hope the cemetery didn't give you nightmares.
IMO, kids should definitely be put to work (not 18 hours or anything). The cemetery was a way better job than the call center. Helped me develop a sense of responsibility for all grave yards. These days, when I visit a new town and need some down time to think, I'll go to a cemetery and spend a few hours clearing off the tombstones.
Selling windows... I'm just not into sales, so I feel ya there!!
I'd call it job because it came with a sort of payment. Growing up, I and my friends were movie freaks, but unfortunately our video player got bad. Father refused to repair or replace it, I know his wish just came true as he wants us to study more :)
But being kids, we must do things that kids do. We walked about 2 kilometres (about
1.3 miles) to watch a movie in another house. But there is a price, the home owner had about 4 goats and he insisted we only get to watch the movie if we brought grass for the goat. My friend and I were like 7 then, we agreed. We went looking for grass in a nearby field. Got some and got paid for the job with movies. So yeah, I just paid a "cinema" ticket with weed 😁😀
Oh did I mention we got whooped for sneaking out from home? That would a story for another day :)
It sounds like a story from a movie. Haha, amazing !
Life could be stranger than fiction.
Nice story. Cellphoneless days.
@rockwellontherun good old days :)
Yes, definitely worth writing one of your fabolous stories about this ;)
@hopehuggs, already considering it. thanks a lot
Thank you very much for sharing your experience in this post, thanks to the story after the story
thanks for sharing @adsactly
I hope it was fun to read.
Thanks. I was very pleased to read this post
Great
really good expereince , you share with us,i think it may great idea source of different expereince, many people are doing job,, i believe that job is our need,, with out it , we can not live, but thank you for sharing your best expereince with steemit family thank you dear @yousafharoonkhan
hope you also listed me in your freind list,, thanks again for this best post
Yes, we all need jobs, but these days we also have the option of creating our own jobs too.
When I was nineteen and broke I once worked as a telemarketer.
I would call people from a list, primarily the elderly, and seek donations for the Fraternal Order of Police. In exchange for their donation the people would receive a bumper sticker that said, "I Support the Fraternal Order of Police".
People thought this would give them protection in traffic stops. The thing was they were not affiliated with the police at all.
I quit after one day due to the shame of what I felt to be scamming the elderly. I also didn't want to be associated with anything that had "Police" in the name.
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seems like they've automated that job with a robocall now. I get them about once a month and it's clearly a recording. don't know how effective that is, meaning most people will just hang up upon figuring out that they are not talking to a person... but whatever.
There are some strange call centre jobs out there.
@hopehuggs I think being a pole dancer for two days is the best one. I don't think I would have lasted that long either.
My weirdest jobs - I worked at a very fancy Moroccan Restaurant as a server. we had to dress up in traditional garb, customers were required to remove their shoes, sit on the ground and eat with their bare hands, we had carry huge silver trays filled with food over seven courses, and weave back and forth from dining room to kitchen and try not to bump into the belly dancers - dropping our trays, potentially injuring a table full of people. It was very challenging- but the tips were huge.
Then i moved to NYC to become a makeup artist apprentice- as the assistant, I had to paint models with body makeup for certain shots. We had to do a "nude" shot of Christy Turlington for a YSL ad, and I had to paint her backside with a huge paint brush to get the shot. We were both very embarrassed and shy. but we got through it. It could have been worse.
Mine had to be washing and cleaning cattle testicle to be sold as food. Was 12 years old and at the time I was payed $2.50 an hr..
A job is a job. Some interesting cow jobs in these comments.
Thanks for sharing ,the posts and some comments on it are encouraging
thanks
Great works, I wish you success @adsactly
@ADSactly do have some amazing posts.
Two couple
great job dear thanks for shear with us
No problem.
Im an Mechanical engineer from India, but all the jobs jobs I did so far is not at all relevant to what I studied.
I worked as HR for 6months
Now I work as a Video Editor,Cricket Umpire and steemian.
I also worked as a Mystery shopper for an organisation where I had to go and spy at our clients employees during the working hours.
Too bad I couldn't try anything wild like Pole dancing so far😋
#strangejobs
Sir i am also a mechanical engineer and not working in relavent field...😋😋😋
Hahaha, what do you do for a living?
I used to work in an company that created instrumentation equipment, I seem to recall at least two mechanical engineers disappearing to IT jobs instead.
I wish very good things will happen
Nice work dear tq for sharing your past experiances to us... i hope your future will be bright...
Thank you
I had a lot of strange jobs, but the strangest as i recall, was being a waiter at an Adult Videos Convention. It was an exciting, but strange kind of experience at the same time.
Sounds like an eye-opening job.
Wow. What a story.
Thanks
This is so funny I'm going to do a post like this.... My strange jobs
Big ups
Please do and why not tag it #strangejobs, let's start a thing!
wao great post with interesting photo...
I try to pick out some interesting photos to go with the text.
I was the "Flower of the Week" Girl for about 2 years in my early 20's. I got a gigantic cart of flowers in the very early morning and delivered them one by one to offices all over downtown for a flower shop. Usually I swapped out the cart for a new one at lunch, but sometimes did three of them.
I got the old vase from last week and dropped off the new one to people's desks for the most part. Big offices might get 20 flowers or some crazy out of the way place might get only one.
This cart was so heavy and I was in and out of all kinds of buildings and offices and stores and warehouses and alleys and busy streets. These were not nice areas of town! People would steal the flowers and tried to pick me up or hit me with their cars as I was trying to drag that cart up and down curbs.
I made really good money for the early 80's - all cash - maybe $100 for about 10 hours work once a week. Then the flower shop went out of business or I would have still done it.
That sounds both a glorious job and a scary one at times, but it sounds like you loved it. Delivering a bit of beauty to cheer up offices.
Yes, it was fun - and people were glad to see me. It was quite a workout but I was making people happy.
And now you just need to create a post worth 8SBD to make that cash.
Amazing.
Share ya
I like to share.
birde mantıgı bir koparsam cok guzel şeyler olacak
Early in the college life, I did a private job by phone. Told mathematical problem and I solved. Pay by flexiload in phone. I didn't see them. I think it strangejob in my life. Thanks for sharing such a good post
Wow, I don't think I'd ever be able to solve a mathematical problem. Budgeting is hard enough.
Interesting story to share. Each one has something to tell for sure that #strangejobs can be more fun to read with each one's unique experiences...
Lots of good ones in the comments too.
These are strange indeed.lol
They paid for living costs at uni, that's for sure.
Good post.. Thanks very usefull... @mukliss
Not sure about useful, but I hope it got a few laughs.
Yes try to the best...
Great ....
Thanks for sharing
Cool
thank good picture
Thanks
once i do a cuddle job for $20 a day... i do it for a girl who feeling lonely.
How sweet. I should sell Huggs lol
Awesome ....
Thanks for information
I use to be a dancing sign hodler :)
Its money, regardless ;)
This wasn’t a job per se, more like small gigs.
In school I started to learn a lot about iOS devices, and it go to a point where my mom boss would call me to the office so I could fix any issues related to Mac or iOS devices, sometimes it was little things like managing the music on iTunes hahah
And since I charged in dollars every time I went I received the equivalent of like 2 or 3 minimum wage salaries just in one day. (In Venezuela salaries are very bad)
An entrepreneur from an early age it sounds.
Hehe, yes you don't sound quite so naïve Reese days, what a fascinating early career!
I still have my moments of naivity, just not major lapses haha
Medicine Marijuana Testing
What a relaxing job!
wow, nice post your boss, I like to see it, how to find this material, see your post I feel very interested with this, if you can know the material from which this,
do not forget to love my parents well
@nurdinnakaturi
Dont forget vote my post ok.....
Thakyou
Thank you very much for sharing your experience! I think many people do odd jobs in their life cycle and it may great source of different experience..
Amazing. Thanks for sharing bro