I worked as a cashier, but my job title was ‘Customer Service Representative’. I was not a telemarketer, I was a ‘Telecommunications Research Technician’ (this particular company did phone surveys).

I got there in the morning and would find a list telling me what I was supposed to do that day. It was just me and the owner, and since this was a farm mechanic’s shop, and he would keep really long hours for himself and travel all over the place, it was just me there. All the time. Oh, and a radio. I’d look at the list, roll a cigarette, turn on the radio and sit down and smoke while contemplating what to do first. Sometimes I would start by sweeping the floors, but I usually postponed that for later. It would be metalworking, fixing stuff, figuring things (including a metal lathe and welding) out for myself, tending to the one a week drop-in customer (most jobs were dropped off outside my hours or off site), and clean engine parts off in a half barrel full of diesel (you smell nice after that. or manly.). I did some forestry work, digging with an excavator, wall building for the expansion of the shop and once even dumping two metric tons of old potatoes next to a field for composting.

It was a great job! If I could live on the pay, I’d probably still work there! Nowadays I work as a stage tech (continuing playing with my mechanical skills) and photografer.

\r\nBack when we were in preschool there were only a handful of sensible options for the career-mind…

Temporary job for a discount clothing store chain.

They bought several truck-loads of panties from a defunct manufacturer.

Approximately 5 percent of the product was defective, mostly improperly sewn seams in the crotch area.

Sat on our butts and went through hundreds of boxes containing thousands of panties in each box. Grab a panty, peek at the crotch, then either accept or reject said panty then throw in the approppriate container.

All male crew, for whatever reason.

We were not too picky.

Really, I design and build catapults of various kinds at the company I work for. These sell mostly to schools for science, physics or history projects but we get a lot of folks who simply want to Hurl! Get fun and the history behind them is incredible. Sometimes the “historical” jobs really do come back to life…

Dressed in all black and ran around getting things ready for the play. At the end, they played James Bond music and we came out to it.

Although my title wasn’t great, I think it was something like Engineering Technician I, the actual internship was interesting.

I was paid to go into people’s homes and photograph the entire house for existing damage to prove pre-existing conditions if someone tried to sue over damage done to their house due to nearby construction activities. I would then use seismic equipment to measure the large truck/equipment traffic, pile driving, or actual blasting work.

I saw a lot of houses, met a lot of strange people and got to watch some stuff blow up. (Nothing big like buildings, but cool nonetheless.)

My job was to drive out to the smaller towns around Nashville, and visit all the hospitals and court houses to see if the injured person had a pre-existing conditions or had previously been to court over the same injury (which implied a pre-existing condition).

The job paid well and was simple to do but I mentioned it because I was actually able to walk right up to the records desk in any hospital and get medical records for any person I requested. The only ID I had was a business card.

Man, have times changed. I couldn’t go to a hospital today and get the records for my own wife- even with a photo ID.