What was your favorite job?

[civvver]

Paying or non paying, employment or volunteering, what was the favorite job you've held?

I've only had three regular jobs (I've done side jobs like mow a couple neighbor's yards and babysat a few times), I worked at a flower shop in high school/college for five years, I tiled pools around the same timeframe for three summers, and the job I currently have I started as a software developer intern my sophomore year of college and have been working here ever since, over 16 years now.

Installing pools was the most fun. It was pretty grueling work, out in the sun all day, we never took lunch breaks cus my boss was kind of weird and thought eating just made us sleepy in the afternoons. We'd start at 5 or 6am, drive to the site by 7am, work til 7-8pm cus you only had summer to get it done. When I say tiled pools we installed the bricks that go around the sides too. I had to carry 50 lb buckets of sand and mix them with 80 lb buckets of mortar mix by hand with a hoe in a big bin, probably 2-3 times per job. That part sucked.

But what I liked about it was I was young, 18-21 when I did this job, and the physical labor was kind of fun, got me in shape, got a good tan, it was nice being outside. But mostly, even though we worked really hard, we joked around all day. It was sometimes just me an the owner who was only a few years older than me, other times it was us and one or two more guys, some of them my friends. So we'd just crack jokes all day and listen to sports talk radio or cheesy music like bon jovi or kenny chesney (I told you my boss was weird and that trickled down to his taste in music).

While I love my job now it's sometimes frustrating to have abstract problems that you never see a physical manifestation of a solution to them. Being able to build and touch and feel your product was kind of nice some times, as well as being able to see the progress and a finite end. Software development never has a finite end.

 

[Synobun]

I guess the one I have now. I'm in the early stages of being a book editor and it's rough at the moment, but in theory, continued progress should eventually lead to a comfortable* lifestyle that minimizes stress. I'm also good at it, which is something I don't like admitting.

I had a stint as a media writer for a print magazine for a while which was fun but very stressful. Being able to flash a badge and walk into any theatre I wanted during the International Film Festival was an enjoyable novelty, and there's something nice about picking up a magazine from a magazine stand and seeing your name on an article. It was just impossible to maintain momentum in that industry, though, and the stress required was immense.

Child-related jobs were always fun, but I didn't find them extremely fulfilling. They were the kinds of jobs that I would like to do on the side at my leisure but not as a daily, long-term commitment. You see and hear a lot of stuff you don't want to when working at a daycare or with children with delays. It's stressful and surprisingly physically exhausting. Usually it was the adults who made it stressful. The kids, even the problem ones, were okay.

I did rural busywork before I could legally hold a job. Planting saplings, clearing old hay, laying bricks, stuff like that. That was kind of fun, but only because I could do it alone or with a friend. If I had to work with a team or with strangers, I don't think I would have found it nearly as enjoyable.

* In contrast to my lifestyles up to this point.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Working as a teaching assistant in a primary school.
Children are wonderful when you don't have to go home to them at the end of a workday.

 

[Zardnaar]

Working in a factory with a heap of Polynesians.

Pay was very good, work was easy, no stress. Good overtime rates.

 

[Lexicus]

Probably interning at the National Center for Employee Ownership. It wasn't enough money to live in Berkeley but it was a cool organization.

 

[Kyriakos]

I don't think I ever had a job I actually liked. It is all done for money :/

Although definitely the most fun job was giving seminars/lectures for a local municipality. Cause I liked the environment, the librarians and the people who came to the program. So yes, that was bordering on being fun and did pay some money.
Sadly it was 2 years ago and then they installed a new rule that one has to have a specific tax property to apply for this work, so after working with them with three contracts I could do it no more.

 

[MaryKB]

I enjoyed being a bank teller. I liked seeing customers, and I felt a bit prestigious getting to dress up for work, and sort of be at the best-end of the retail spectrum. I enjoyed doing things like writing up official checks, processing payments, and so on.

I didn't like how busy our branch was, you rarely had time to catch your breath. We were literally the only branch (of any bank!) within two miles of the interstate exit, and also the big retail area of my town. So we had a lot of customers, also because we were on an industrial boulevard with numerous factories and a couple car dealerships nearby, I spent too much of my day doing merchant transactions, cashing paychecks, and such ... we always had a line to the door.

I wish I could've worked in one of the other branches my bank had in town, which were newer buildings and weren't anywhere close to as busy.

I greatly enjoy my current job, not so much because of the work, but because of how much freedom I have being able to work from home and set my own hours (salary ftw!) I also like how I'm relatively important in my company (some of my work goes all the way up to the CEO)

 

[rah]

I've had many jobs over my lifetime. Building houses was fun because at the end of the day it was easy to see that you had accomplished something, but my favorite job was probably being a simple caddy. Fresh air, good exercise and you'd spend the day telling rich people what to do. You'd be walking barefoot and they'd listen to you and respect you for your knowledge. While that may sound weird it was good to feel appreciated. I even did it a PGA tour event. Being in front of the crowds felt good.

 

[Snerk]

I enjoyed being a mounted tourguide on horse treks with tourists. Not a lot of real jobage in my life thus far so any comparison is thin indeed, but even if I had lots of different employment I'd expect that it would still be up there. It's riding, what's not to like.

 

[MaryKB]

I enjoyed being a mounted tourguide on horse treks with tourists. Not a lot of real jobage in my life thus far so any comparison is thin indeed, but even if I had lots of different employment I'd expect that it would still be up there. It's riding, what's not to like.

I'd go on that tour.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Most of my jobs have been both fun and challenging. I particularly enjoyed being an Instructor at the NC Outward Bound School many years ago. Also I ran/taught at a progressive, alternative, elementary school in the 70s and that was truly amazing and fun.

 

[civvver]

I've had many jobs over my lifetime. Building houses was fun because at the end of the day it was easy to see that you had accomplished something, but my favorite job was probably being a simple caddy. Fresh air, good exercise and you'd spend the day telling rich people what to do. You'd be walking barefoot and they'd listen to you and respect you for your knowledge. While that may sound weird it was good to feel appreciated. I even did it a PGA tour event. Being in front of the crowds felt good.

Being a caddy sounds like a great job, but why were you barefoot?

 

[MaryKB]

Being a caddy sounds like a great job, but why were you barefoot?

Why wouldn't he be?

 

[rah]

Going off at the crack of dawn, there was usually a considerable amount of dew on the ground which would destroy regular gym shoes quite quickly.
Great excuse, but walking on grass barefoot really feels great. You just have to avoid thorns and rocky areas.
And some members figured you were too poor to afford good shoes and would tip you better.

 

[civvver]

Why wouldn't he be?

I have never seen a caddy not wear shoes. Though I don't golf much and have never used a caddy, just saying like on tv, whatever.

 

[rah]

At tournaments, appropriate attire is required.
My niece does caddy during the summers and said that barefoot is not normally done anymore.
I was doing it back in the late 60's and 70's.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Caddying was very popular when I was growing up in Scotland. So was diving for golf balls before the golf courses decided all lost golf balls belonged to them.

 

[Narz]

Neither of my top two "jobs" are appropriate to discuss on this forum

 

[Thorgalaeg]

My first job was at a huge shipyard quality testing metal weldings. It was interesting but way too many hours, unhealthy and dangerous, finally they wanted me to take weldings radiographies which implied using gamma rays sources and i said no way. Payment wasn't high enough to worth the risk.

Since then i have been working for the government for several years in different places, always administrative work. Not that interesting but working conditions are muuuch better, less hours and more money. Attending public was somewhat funny but stressful, office jobs were more relaxed but boring.

A couple of years ago i jumped to a different department as administrative inspector, which means being public authority, implying more responsibility and more money. Most of the time i am doing office job but sometimes i must inspect stuff which usually is isolated in forests, mountains and such, so i take a 4x4 do some trail driving and watch some amazing landscapes, those days at least it is the funniest job i ever had.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I got a job with this tank company. They made underground and above ground fuel tanks, water tanks, and sometimes a specialized tank for the refining industry, none of which is relevant. I started out as a yard hog...moving stuff around with fork lifts, mixing and pouring fill concrete between the double walls of above ground fuel tanks, loading and unloading trucks, pouring and finishing these concrete pads that we sold along with the above ground tanks...pretty much anything that didn't involve actual fabrication of the tanks. Then I got promoted to breaking and shearing. I ran equipment that cut sheet steel, bent it as needed either in square corners for square tanks or by rolling it to make panels for round tanks...pretty much everything but the actual welding.

None of that has anything to do with the cool part about that job though. That was this: when I left at the end of the day I had absolutely no reason to have even a single thought about the job until I got back the next morning. That is the only job I ever had that was like that.