Odd Resumes...

What strange jobs have you done?

[SEOMike]

I've sure led an interesting life for someone under 30. Here's a list of my odd life experienes...

In chronological order...

Pizza shop employee
Nursery employee (plants and trees)
Bicycle Mechanic
Commercial Union Construction
Small Business Networking business owner
Army National Guard
Home Remodeling
Emergency Medical Technician
Emergency Medical Technician Instructor at a College
SEO / SEM for a company (current)
SEO / SEM for myself (current)

I finally decided that I had to surrender to my being a computer genius... and am happier than ever.

So... what odd jobs have you held on your way to webmaster / SEO?

[grelmar]

Many of these jobs overlapped. I get bored doing the same thing all the time.

- Shipper/Receiver (unloading trucks for a feed company)

- Account Manager for a major TelCo

- Night Club Bouncer (at the same time I was working for the TelCo... Great stress relief, knocking a few noggins).

- Framer/Carpenter, residential construction. (Been doing this on and off since I left the TelCo. Nothing like being able to really "see" what you've accomplished. I'll prolly keep doing it, at least once a year, until I'm physically unable to do it).

- Copy Writer - Advertising, contract. (Scummy, I know, but hey, it pays the bills).

- Apprentice Pipefitter/Oil Fields - Never, EVER, take a job in the field in the Oil Patch. Dirty, dangerous, exhausting, dangerous, physically punishing, and did I mention DANGEROUS?

- Apprentice Electrician, Commercial - Actually completed a year of my ticket.

- General "Geek on Demand" consultant.

- Custom Fencer - As in, barb-wire, corrals, rail fences, etc. On and off for the past 6 or 7 years. A week at a time, maybe a month total a year. Great to get out into the countryside, away from the city, cel phones, computers, NOISE, etc. and get paid to excercise in the fresh air.

- Political Analyst - Serves me right for dining with the "wrong crowd" and expressing my opinion. Been doing occassional consulting work for a politician ever since. Yucky.

- Various and sundry web-related jobs, consulting type.

[vkaryl]

Hm. Well, my working life goes back a LONG time.... um. Frist job in 1968.... selling tobacco and pipes (meerschaum, anyone?) in an upscale (for the time) store in the only mall in Las Vegas....

Then while I was in secretarial school (after a divorce) I sold "special" books at a "niche market" bookstore (we're NOT going there!).

After that I worked for the JayCees State Fair as Fair Secretary (interesting working conditions.... you might even say "dangerous"....)

Then I managed a life insurance brokerage for a few months, after which I ran the office/payroll/bookkeeping department for a furniture manufacturer with its own OTR trucking division; for this company I set up the first private (that is not government or banking) computerized payroll system in Northern Nevada (1971) - without ANY previous computer experience (was run by NCR, but I had to figure out how to dovetail hourly with special and bonuses for line employees; salary plus bonuses on line-employee output for the shop stewards; office personnnel salary plus longevity and perks; and per mile, plus on-time, no-accident, tailgate and unload bonuses/incentives etc. for the tractor drivers).

Went to work for a credit union, managing front office, teller staff, and background systems management.

Worked for the State of Nevada as a Welfare Eligibility specialist - want a sob story? I've heard them all. They were mostly lies - the few people over the 7 years I worked there who REALLY NEEDED HELP were "ineligible" for a variety of reasons. Don't get me started....

"Retired" for 20 years.... went back to work as office manager for a new home construction/development company with plumbing and college housing divisions.

Now working for an OTR transportation company with 300 tractors, managing the fuels desk which includes tracking fuel prices, matching submitted fuel-buy reciepts with appropriate trips/miles/routing, and reporting IFTA fuel taxes.

Gonna retire again 8/27/04....

[John_Caius]

Laying out bodies for viewing in a mortuary was one of my more interesting ones...

[loanuniverse]

-Selling hot dogs in a corner of a major city's downtown in the 80s was probably the most interesting one. Lots of time to do people watching.

[photon]

--Assembling "Octo-Plugs", devices used to plug spent oil wells.

--Delivering above ground pools and pool chemicals. The scenery was nice. ;)

[Macguru]

I have been training flies for the movie 'The Fly [freespace.virgin.net]' by David Cronenberg.

[skippy]

Telemarketing for a cemetery. Two for one on plots.

[JasonD]

Thw most unusual job I have ever done was working as a process server.

For a small guy like me (5'8") serving domestic violence injunctions to guys that all you know about them is they like knocking their partners about.... Well let's just say it definately hones your sales skills!

I remember one job where 4 huge guys had been previously to serve an injunction and they had all beaten a very hasty retreat. I went along, got an earful from the guy before he invited me in and we had a cup of tea and a chat. He tore the injunction up in front of me saying, "No bit of paper is going to stop me...."

He continually broke the injunction which led to loads of repeat business but a cup of tea was always given to me when I got there. From memory he should still be on holiday care of Her Majesty!

The job paid well though :D

[edited by: JasonD at 12:58 am (utc) on July 9, 2004]

[loanuniverse]

LOL JasonD

[Warren]

I think the worst job I ever did was clean train station carparks in the earliest hours of the morning. Strapped to my back was a petrol air blower, that was about 80 decibals loud and weight maybe 7 or 8 kilos.

My job was to blow all the rubbish and leaves out of the corners where the road sweeper had trouble reaching.

The only reason I did this job was it fitted in with my study schedule and it paid cash. Not sure if my boss knew I was turning up straight from a night club to work (it started at about 3am).

Kinda ironic I had just spent the night listening to loud music which made me deaf and enjoying it and then going straight to work where I would wear hearing protection.

[BlobFisk]

While in University I had a part time job as a clown...

Enough said really! ;)

[trillianjedi]

I had a part time job as a clown

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.

TJ

[loanuniverse]

I rather like being a process server and developiing a relationship with your victims.

[ska_demon]

1. Put up xmas window decorations in Harrods, Selfridges etc
2. Electrical test engineer on Oil Rigs.
3. Stacking Fruit and Veg at Supermarket
4. R&D Electrical circuit protection.
4.5(Spammer ;-)
5. Current. SCADA programmer in the glass industry.

[Warren]

"5. Current. SCADA programmer in the glass industry. "

That is what my degree allows me to do - hence why I am now in Sales / Marketing!

[edit_g]

While in University I had a part time job as a clown...

I'm sure we could get quite a kitty going to see a pic of that!

[hannamyluv]

Hmmm, I cleaned restrooms in the third largest amusment park in the US. I think the clown job beats me out, though. ;)

I do have a friend that once worked for a company to inventory frozen cattle bull semen. Can I win by proxy?

[grandpa]

Looks like I should be dusting off the old resume... no wait, I always did that when I was *looking* for a job. Shrug, still might come in handy.

#Before 30#
.5) Neighborhood paper delivery boy
1) Pots and Pans Washer
2) Pizza Maker
3) Can't mention by name
4) Poet
5) Electronics Technician (radio)
6) Hot-Shot Driver
7) Photo Lab Technician
8) General Warehouse (shipping, receiving, inventory, broom patrol)
9) Warehouse Manager

#After 30#
10)Devotee
11)Full-time Student
12)Computer Lab Assistant (AS/400 go-to guy)
13)System Operator
14)Programmer
15)Day Laborer
16)Freelance Street Bum
16.a)Macrame Doodler - Bracelets, necklaces, pouches
(It was a job - and kept me from going hungry)
17)Volunteer - On Staff and with regular pay
18)Webmaster - volunteer with a kick in the butt

Along the way I've also become proficient in some of the following areas; plumbing, auto mechanic, home remodeling, counseling, electrical work (except HVAC), concrete work, carpentry, cooking, and more.

It's interesting... the role models I had while growing up all led singular lives. The worked the same job every day from the first day until retirement. Policemen, construction workers, teachers.. my siblings have mostly followed those examples. The one significant exception was my mother. She turned more than a few hobbies into enterprises. And, a few years at #10 helped me realize that its all temporary anyway. Too bad I never tried being a clown, I'm probably a natural.

[bcolflesh]

third largest amusement park in the US

Is that Busch Gardens?

[john_k]

These are the strangest jobs I've had:

- Ft. McCoy cuban refugee compound.
- Swim team coach
- Fuller Brush salesman (yes, it was door-to-door)
- Planted trees *
- Patriot Missile system technician in the Army

* We worked in crews where each individual would plant from 1000 to 3000 trees per day. I never kept an exact count, but I easily planted over 100,000 trees during this 4 month stint. This was all by hand using "hodads" (sp?) and "dibble-bars".

I do have a friend that once worked for a company to inventory frozen cattle bull semen. Can I win by proxy?

My wife's Grandfather used to travel all over the world to "deliver" this stuff. He's a great guy. Almost 90 and still delivers meals on wheels to some of the younger seniors. He also seems to know quite a bit about everything - including computers!

[edit_reason]I reread the subject line and removed the not-so-strange jobs.[/edit_reason]

[limbo]

In chronological order:

1. very junior graphic designer
2. pizza chef
3. postman (give these people respect - they deserve it!)
4. construction engineer
5. van driver for a brewer :):o;)
6. landscape architect
7. writer/designer for local paper
8. web designer for charity
9. civil servant (webmaster)
10. not so junior graphic/web designer

Not exactly 'strange' by any leap of the imagination, but it seems I have gone full circle over the last 10 years!

[mfishy]

Door to door meat sales was the oddest position I ever held. The company gave my friend and me a pickup truck with a cooler on the back filled with steak and chicken and told us to sell it. Typically we just drove the car over to his house and watched tv but the times we did go door to door were quite amusing :)

If you think you have a hard job now, try door to door sales...

[bedlam]

1. Industrial laundry slave
   
2. Grocery store grunt
   
3. Picture framer (framer not farmer)
   
4. ESL Instructor in Korea
   
5. Precision sheetmetal parts designer (everything from machine widgets to barbecues...)
   
6. 'web guy'

Eh...this can probably be accounted for by the fact that I have degrees in Art and Philosophy, and a diploma in Mechanical Engineering. I have this bad habit you see...

[Essex_boy]

This list is really reassuring, means im not the only one out there.

So on leaving school in '87

Wrote commercial game software (rarely got paid)
Sold Computers (Turd of a boss)
Sold carpets (Sacked)
Sold Art & Antiques (gave up due to an accident)
Smuggled Cigarettes (great job traveled all over)
Worked as a commercial debt collector (Laid hands on a £230,000 debt that was six years old)
Chopped lettuce in a factory (worked with a load of east europeans - hardly any English was spoken)
Housing officer (Current)

Yeah you think serving notices on wife beaters is risky, my job entails that I serve notices on violent drug dealers and people who beat the hell of one another at the drop of a hat.

Ive one estate at the moment where the police wont go unless they are all kitted out in riot gear and theres at least 8 of 'em.

Its the only job bar the army where gun shots dont bother you any more.

The money is pretty amazing though.

[hannamyluv]

Is that Busch Gardens?

Nope, King's Island in Cincinnati, OH. At least that's what they told us. It falls behind Walt Disney World and Cedar Point in attendance. Mostly because KI is a stopping point for any coaster enthusiest, home of "The Beast", longest wooden roller coaster in the world. Ceadar Point is like coaster enthusiest capital and Disney, well, it's Disney.

[lawman]

Am employed at the present time as a "hit-man".

[mivox]

I'd say the only two truly strange jobs I've had were exotic dancer and clean-room janitor. One was like working in a bad movie, and the other was like working on an alien space-ship.

The rest of my jobs were mostly dull, although I did enjoy verbally abusing the late-night frat-boy beer customers at the 7-11 convenience store. ;)

[momsbudget]

Lifeguard - best one ever
Delivered newspapers - that lasted 3 weeks
Psychic - yea, I'm not
Florist - crazy family business in college
Neurobehavior therapist - 3 years of brain injured patients who liked to fling feces, still some of my favorite people though, at least they had legitimate reasons for verbal and physical outbursts, unlike some "normal" people
IP paralegal - I've never had so many papercuts in my life
My so called life now - two separate businesses, covering every business issue imaginable in the legal and real estate fields

[Macguru]

>>exotic dancer and clean-room janitor.

So mivox doesn't really mind about the dress code.

Please mivox, tell us more about... what a clean-room janitor really does.