Your best job

[troutman]

After High School I worked two summers at Heritage Park - that was a blast and I met a lot of women my age. Still friends with some of the people I met there.

One summer Aeneas and I worked in a basement lab on 17th Ave for Technifluids. We were basically unsupervised, doing chemistry experiments all day, with the music blasting. There was a 7-11 upstairs where we had lunch most days.

[Strange Brew]

The RCMP would hire college students for summer internships. I did that for a summer. Shortened one week training and you got a uniform, sans firearm.

My partner and I were responsible for patrolling lakes in Southern Alberta. It was quite the experience and got some cool stories to tell. My partner lived in Cochrane and depending on where we were working, many times I would drop him off and I would drive the police truck on my own and pick him up in the morning. Which seemed rather cool for my 19 year old self.

[direwolf]

Worked a record shop for 2 years when I lived in Ottawa. Best job I've ever had, hands down.

Also worked in various video stores for a number of years (Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, Rogers). Man, I miss those jobs.

[flamesfan1297]

Really neat thread idea, I've had a few really fun jobs. The first is where I worked in the Parks department as a summer student for my hometown, got to be outside all day and alot of my friends worked there, then after high school I was hired on full time for the winter, where I ran the Zamboni at the local arena. Cross that off the bucket list.

My next job was at a Coal mine operating heavy equipment, this was super fun and also where I made the most money. I was there 3 years and got to run some of the biggest heavy equipment there is, also another thing I got to cross of the bucket list.

[Nage Waza]

I've spent a few years of my life working in jungles throughout central and South America. I encountered pretty much everything you can imagine, from ancient temples and cartels to crocodiles and flying iguanas. Besides a few attempts at being kidnapped and a few legit near misses in planes, it was great.

A highlight was that I fell in an ancient mine shaft Indiana Jones style, got caught up in vines and had to climb out. When I looked down to assess my situation, I discovered a really large steel grey snake caught in there with me.

[OMG!WTF!]

I had one amazing year of employment when I was 19-20. I got hired at yosar...yosemite search and rescue for the summer. I lived in camp 4 and climbed with my hero's for 5 months. There were a few long rappels picking up tourists with bbq tongs. I never got the live ones. But it was an absolutely irreplaceable experience.



From there I met some people who hired me to deliver scripts in LA. I motor biked around town meeting the assistants to movie stars all winter. And Cher.



Then I worked at Grama's Bakery which sucked because it gets so tiring answering the question "Are you Grama?". I was not Grama. But there was a Grama and she was loaded and also owned a pretty sweet little night club called the Boiler Room. I became her personal assistant about town and had a vip table at the Boiler Room. It gets a bit shady after that and it ended not without some personal shame. But all in all, a jump the shark year of employment.

[81MC]

Best ‘job’ - Tim Hortons when I was in high school. Spending almost every evening with randoms from high school who I would otherwise never interact with, older college chicks with big plans etc. all the way through to elderly ‘lifers’. Funny how long ago it was, but certain shifts seem like just yesterday. Man, to go back to a time of such blissful naivety would be so nice.

‘Best’ job - Bodyshop that took my apprenticeship on. Never worked harder, or under more stress, but all the older guys who put time and effort into teaching me will never be forgotten. I have really really frequent dreams involving me showing back up there and going to work.

[81MC]

Also, CP has some hella interesting people.

[Galakanokis]

Had some fun jobs over the years.

When I was in Jr high I worked with my buddy at his dad's stores in Nfld. We would move the potatoes from the large sack to the 5 and 10lb bags, stock the warehouse and shelves, and pump gas etc and usually snuck beers the whole time. I loved it.

Worked in radio and TV for a couple of years in a small time. I had the time of my life then. I made great friends and did a lot of fun stuff. I met bands like Dr. Hook, and April Wine, Trooper, Kim Mitchell, Charlie Major, Alanah Myles, Beverly Mahood. My buddy and I interviewed Kim Mitchell but we had been drinking and kept bugging him about taking off the damn neon hat. He got right pissed with us and walked out on the interview. Also got banned from the show. Got Beverly Mahood and some band members rip roaring drunken and they missed their next show. Good times.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

I had one amazing year of employment when I was 19-20. I got hired at yosar...yosemite search and rescue for the summer. I lived in camp 4 and climbed with my hero's for 5 months. There were a few long rappels picking up tourists with bbq tongs. I never got the live ones. But it was an absolutely irreplaceable experience.



From there I met some people who hired me to deliver scripts in LA. I motor biked around town meeting the assistants to movie stars all winter. And Cher.



Then I worked at Grama's Bakery which sucked because it gets so tiring answering the question "Are you Grama?". I was not Grama. But there was a Grama and she was loaded and also owned a pretty sweet little night club called the Boiler Room. I became her personal assistant about town and had a vip table at the Boiler Room. It gets a bit shady after that and it ended not without some personal shame. But all in all, a jump the shark year of employment.

We are going to need to hear some more about the Boiler Room vip table.

[PaperBagger'14]

Its easily my current job. The guys I work with are mostly awesome and tight knit, to the point that wives are even close friends.

Its still in the electrical field but not as an electrician. The one thing that really keeps me dialed in at work is the inherent danger of what I do. Think of it like this, if you aren't paying attention to what surface you're touching, or how far your wrench travels while tightening a nut, you'll set off a bomb in your face. There is 0 room for error and that is a hell of an adrenaline rush that I get almost every day.

I get to work on the tools every day, still around rough and gruff people but also with a highly technical aspect of performing tests and analyzing electrical data. This job is the weirdest blend of having to be an old school construction ass while being smart enough to back it up.

[AltaGuy]

Coffeeshop in Kensington. I worked the earliest shift and just had to go in, turn things on, and brew some coffee. The same ten to fifteen people would come in every morning throughout the week, and I'd have their orders all lined up and ready to go before they arrived. Then I'd get to just hang out with the regulars and chat for most of the morning before the shift ended. Some super quirky/interesting people who I became good friends with, and a job I've often thought about going back to in some form or another one day. The feeling of community was great, and I looked forward to work most days.

[Puppet Guy]

Most fun job was either the summer I spent running a rickshaw in Halifax - exercise, outdoors, paid under the table in American money - or my first gym job. The gym job paid nothing, but I was doing fitness testing, designing programs and doing training...everything the industry was supposed to be. Too busy to get bored.

Job I enjoyed best was a media monitor for DFAIT in Ottawa - cutting up newspapers for relevant articles to the department, making them into booklets and distributing them. The hours were awful but it paid well and reflected on my education at the time.

[username]

Doing maintenance at Country Hills Golf course back in the late 90's. Easily the best job I had. You started around 5, were done by noon and could golf the afternoon.

[habernac]

Helped build a half-pipe and then was hired as the skatepark supervisor as a teenager. Got a great tan and learned to skate.

[Fuzz]

Working for a forestry guy in BC. One part of the job was bagging pine cones at the tops of trees, so beetles wouldn't eat them. I'd climb over 100ft tall white pines, no ropes, no spikes. It was terrifying. But then you'd get to the top, strap in, and have an incredible view of the Sunshine coast. It was a very unique job.



My buddy came with me, and was significantly more terrified of heights than I was. The thing is, the cones are at the top, which means climbing to the spindly floppy bit. He didn't like to get that high. So my boss, Rod, would say "just a little higher, Larry." And Larry would climb another whorl. "Nope, nothing here Rod". "Little higher, Larry, I can see them." One more whorl. The whole floppy bit starts leaning over on him. "Just about there, little higher!" Total deadpan, Larry looks up. "I don't think so, Rod."


Rod was a crazy mother####er. He was up one tree, and climbing down and back up another tree was a good hour loop. So he had finished one tree, and saw another one about 10 feet away. He asks if there are cones in it. "Yup, Rod, that's a good one," I say. So he's 100 feet up, and starts this tree sawing back and forth. Then he leaps through the air like a goddamned flying squirrel, and somehow doesn't die.


It was an incredibly physically challenging job, filthy, sticky sap, it could be cold and wet..but, man, a good experience. Rod said he never had a helper come back more than twice. I did 2 seasons. Larry did not.

[undercoverbrother]

Army, which at times was also the worst job I have ever had.

[surferguy]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Total deadpan, Larry looks up. "I don't think so, Rod."

Lol - I haven’t seen Larry in two decades and I still read this in his voice.

[surferguy]

After university I moved to Australia for a year and landed in Byron Bay. I got a job making salads at a restaurant. Zero brain power needed other than meeting the demands of a busy kitchen.

I lived in a hostel at the time and spend 4/5 hours surfing everyday. That fact combined with the not stop influx of new international backpackers everyday it turned out to be a pretty special part of my life. That job was really easy with a good crew of ppl on the team. It allowed me to live a very fun lifestyle for 7 months.

[Buff]

I was 15 years old during the peak of the sports card craze. My friend and I got a job at a sportscard store. We opened boxes of cards, put together sets, sorted the extras into the commons box, or put the more valuable cards in the display cabinet. I was getting paid to do my hobby of the previous 10 years and hang out with my close friend at the same time.