Newbie Seeks Most Bizarre Past Jobs and Pastimes

This is a great network, and I know you will find out some interesting tidbits about people as you get to know them better.

You may be the first Chief Executive Goddess I have ever met!

Welcome!

I used to work at The Nut Factory in Spokane, WA.

Seriously. I am a psychotherapist who worked at The Nut Factory!

Can anyone top that? :)

Well, I think it is safe to confess online that I have done a bit of private investigator work in my past. It was actually incredibly boring and before the Internet was so accessible (I'm sure it is much more exciting to do now!). I need to remember to tell that to John Hays next time I see him - he will get a kick out of that!

For revealing juicier secrets, I require a poorly lit bar, a captive audience, and a nice big cocktail (though I'm not sure I could top Rachel's odd job)

Nice to have you here, Levitea!

I'm not positive, but I think "shrink" only applies to psychiatrists (and maybe psychologists). Those who can be called "doctors."

In any case, I like to emphasize that I work with people just like you and me. Not so much the true nuts of the world. Maybe that's why I quit the nut factory....!

This is a great topic. Bizarre jobs on my list include: 1) working at fish packing plant, shaking crab meat out of crabs 2) overseeing a specialty German Shepherd dog kennel where I got to do a bit of everything (e.g. clean out kennels, keep track of breeding activities 3)telelphone sales for recipe book.... It's actually fun to look back (thank god, I'm not looking forward with these jobs) and see where I have been. By the way, welcome to Biznik!

I had a job one summer in college working for a start-up (read cheap and broke) televison commercial company in NYC. They could not afford the clothes/costumes for the actors so they would send me out with the measurements of the actors and a description of the outfits I needed to buy. I would get the clothes at local department stores, bring them to the set to be worn with tags still attached. The next day I would return the outfits for refunds and start the process again.

I've been a janitor, a forensic case manager/ report writer, a lunch lady, and a custom framer.

I'm currently a fire dancer. That usually gets people.

:)

Thanks for the compliment to my blog, Levitea. :) I hope we'll get to meet up sometime...maybe a meet-in-the-middle Biznik event somewhere sometime.

Oh geessshhhhh......I could really get myself in trouble with this one. ......bites tongue.......

Yep, that's definitely one that conjures up images. Levitea, thanks for starting this ball rolling! best, Karen

I was the voice of a rug in a radio commercial.

I substitute taught a math class and I am woefully math challenged.

I played a nun in a tv commercial (in the catholic city of boston--out on the streets. Oh, and I'm a non-believer...) It was for a car dealership and the passers-by bowed their heads and bid me, "good morning, sister.)

I was tasked with finding a bikini in Lisbon for a female carpenter on the Rolling Stones tour. She had a beach date and no time to shop.

Before I had any voice work experience, a producer dared me to fly to NYC and be a voice in a nationally aired commercial with all seasoned pros (except for sweaty me.)

I was a clown in a photo shoot. As I rode --in full clown regalia--with the makeup artist to the shoot, I noticed kids in other cars were screaming and waving like crazy. I had forgotten I was in costume and was avoiding eye contact with them.

I've written catalog copy for arch supports.

Freelancing is quite a ride, eh?

This is a hilarious thread. Here's my contribution:

I worked my way through college as an art class model.

In Italy, I edited a book on AIDS research. It comprised dozens of conference presentations by Asian and Eastern European speakers for whom English was a second or third language. The presentations had been transcribed by an Italian for whom English was a third language. I edited the thing on a computer that had an Italian-language keyboard (keys in a different order).

When I first arrived in Seattle, I was the temporary secretary at the Renton Sewage Treatment Plant. The manager there was the best boss I've ever had.

Back East, I was a reporter on an multi-year investigation of illegal collection and dumping of hazardous medical and industrial wastes. One morning my then-husband insisted on joining me on a surveillance of illegal pickups. It was that day that the garbage truck driver spotted me and suddenly threw the truck into reverse, coming at my car at full speed. I had no choice but to back up, blind, into a major thoroughfare, sending cars swerving all over the place. We got divorced shortly after that.

Just came upon this thread. I cannot top many of you (the voice of a rug? fire dancing?). However, I get a lot of weird (and confused) looks when I tell people I was self-employed summers from the age of 10 to 17 as a bark peeler.

I shimmied up the cascara tree, perched on a strong limb and slit the bark in a vertical line, as far down the trunk as I could go. The hard part was pushing the fingers around the tree, underneath the slick, inside edges of the smooth gray bark, past the sharp notches that ripped at the hands. If I did it right, I would pull the bark away in one long piece, kind of like those people who can take the skin from an apple in one long peel.

I stuffed the bark into my sack and sold it later at Mr. Reid’s store, seven cents a pound for green bark, twenty cents for dry. Mr. Reid sold the dried bark to pharmaceutical companies like Eli Lily, where it was in high demand. The reason being that its main ingredient, cascara sagrada, was used to make Fletcher’s Castoria and other retchingly bitter-tasting laxatives.

So there you go. Don't know if it qualifies for bizarre, but it was certainly a different job. Thanks, Levitea, for this fun thread!

These are great stories! I remember when I drove an ice cream truck. Yes, I made it through alive without the repeating jingle driving me nuts. It was always especially pitiful when a group of kids would gather around, and there was always one last kid standing there, who didn't have any money. Always wanted to give them a free bar, but what if they were allergic to dairy or chocolate products. The most bizarre time was when I was out in the truck, midday, and suddenly the sky turned dark and weird stuff started falling from the sky. Mt. St. Helens had blown and I didn't have a clue. Would have not have been happy to be in an ice cream truck on the day the world ended!

Welcome Levitea!

In college I was a house boy in a sorority - which always lead to a lot of interesting stories/situations. Not of lot of odd jobs - just a lot of different jobs over the years: curly-fry salesperson at the state fair, blueberry bush planter, picture framer, model for Japanese clothing, antiques salesperson, clothing salesperson, dishwasher, waiter, gardener, art salesperson...

Southern Oregon roots here - my mom is a Cantrall (of the Cantrall Buckley Park Cantralls) and connected to many of the old Ashland, Medford and Jacksonville pioneer families.

Well, this is soooooooooo extremely unprofessional and only my closest friends know this, but my oddest job was...um......naughty texting...lol. It was nearly seven years ago, I was 20, had just had my first daughter and it was the first thing I found at the time that would pay me to work from home. I only lasted a few days...but those few days were filled with much laughter :)

Other than that, my only other odd job was taking customer calls for HSN from my home :) Oh, and I also had a freelance position leasing some really ghetto office space (which strangely enough was located in an affluent neighborhood).

My skeletons are out of the closet now :)

Hilary, that's an awesome story! I had NO idea there was such a thing as naughty texting...I mean, as a career. Glad you shared.