Best Jobs

yeah, thought I would.

What's the best job you've ever had?

I worked as a rickshaw driver pedalling people around the inner city, made a fair bit of money doing it, no boss just bike rental, complete independence, excersise and learning the city like the back of my hand.

became really into london street layout and architecture and history while i did it. Fat tourists in the day and clubbers in the night-time, getting high with other drivers, being paid in booze and fags and pills. had its upsides and ts downsides (risk of scrawny teenager with obvious cash on him being mugged...fairly high) but i really felt connected to the city more than i ever did before. I think a lot of people who live here find the place quite alienating, but that really made me feel like i was getting a hang on the personality of London.

What about you lot?

 

Mine isn't as awesome as yours but, I'd say my current job now. Hairstyling
It feeds my creative cravings and I simply just enjoy it lol

 

For a brief moment in time, I gave guitar lessons.

I really enjoyed the mentoring aspect and being able to structure the lessons how I saw fit. It's pretty cool to watch someone progress at a skill and I love music. Another interesting aspect is that question, comments, etc. from the student and the process of going over different aspects of music felt like it helped further my understanding and development as a player as well.

 

12 years ago, I managed an electronic store with a couple salesmen, delivery drivers, and two satellite technicians. I could get my work done by 10AM and screw around the rest of the day, because I trained my staff to be competent enough to rely on them. I was paid a salary, and I would go fishing, get high, and go shoot pool most of the time. Sometimes when I got board, I would come back to the store and get my salesmen and installer high. On slow days, I would get a metal CD and play it on the Bose Lifestyle A28 system and rattle our 6000 SqFt store.

 

Thats what its all about man, the only tattoo i currently have i got to commemorate the first time I was paid money to do something i genuinely enjoy that couldn't have been done by somebody else in exactly the same way. I feel like that's a really important, and often overlooked, milestone. Some people go through life and never experience that, works just a shitty thing they have to get done.

If you have a creative job you get to put some of your personality into what you do, if there's no element of that, then you can often feel like your taking the money but parts of yourself are slipping away. Some non-creative jobs can be awesome though, there's no hard and fast rule.

That said, i do think everyone should have to do some kind of shitty public service job at some point, just so they learn how shitty customers can be and maybe remember to try and not be that guy.

 

You sound like a horrible manager. Hopefully you're not in a management position now.

 

I agree

 

I was actually a great manager. When I started there, the store was in severe debt, looked like a warehouse, and was on the verge of closing. By the time I was done, the store was out of debt, grossing more than eight times its average Net profit, had a beautiful showroom, and built a profitable electronic repair department. Our customers loved us and were very loyal. I did all of this, which afforded me the ability to be a slacker, but I never neglected the store, my employees, or customers. My employees had fun on the clock, but they never neglected their duties either, nor did they ever call in. At times they would come in sick or injured and I would send them home. The owner made so much money, he retired, sold his assets, and moved to Florida. I did successfully manage another place, before becoming disabled at age 25. Many large corporations use a free-reign management style and are some of the most successful businesses in the world. I was not completely free-reign, kind of consultative, but not autocratic or persuasive in my style. I take it that you have never been in management, so probably not much of what I say will make any sense to you.

 

Taking advantage of a salary position, leaving work to smoke weed or crack or whatever, fish, get your employees high... yea, those are the best qualities people look for when hiring.

 

You labor under the delusion that I care about what qualities you look for. The owner did not care what I did, because his business was highly profitable. He does not even care about it now, because he is baking under the sun year around enjoying his very comfortable retirement. Like I said, I earned what I worked very hard for. I earned the ability to slack after 10AM when I wanted to. I earned the loyalty of my customers and employees. Now let me turn the tables on you--are you just a self-righteous asshole troll, or are you jealous and wish you could of had a superior like me?

 

I have had managers at both ends of the spectrum. Certainly none of them left work to go get high or shoot pool though, lol.

 

Though I was young, very young, I did not just understand the principle of business management, I understood the principle of small business ownership. When you own a business, you can be very involved or not very involved. Most owners, like the one I worked for like to not be very involved because of the increase in freedom. I also enjoyed freedom, so I utilized a tactic called self-duplication. It is a tactic which imbues your traits into one or more of your subordinates. I trained one of my salesman to run almost every aspect of the business, except for specialty items that could compromise my security. All I had to do was train him to follow the parameters and protocols I set forth. He did, so he was a highly productive extension of me. This is what gave me freedom. This is also a common practice in top management, when you are looking at large corporations instead of small business.

 

Like Pengu, I'm a hairstylist. It's the best job. I get to make people feel great about themselves every day. I get to hang out with fun people, my clients. We've become like family. We laugh and cry together. It never feels like I'm going to a job when I go to work. I just get to go play with hair and make the world more beautiful one head at a time.

 

Nice, seems like hairstylists have pretty high job satisfaction levels

 

I can't wait to get my rat tail hair cut.

 

aye, i used to know some trainnee hairdressers who'd do me for free, but mainly they wanted womens hair because there's more of a range of things to do. these days i have to pay broke as hell so my hairs a complete mess.

If i had the cash i'd really like to go somewhere where they do a proper cut-throat razor shave, its a dying art in a lot of places, but there are a few turkish places that do it really well still.

 

I dont think I've ever had a job I've really enjoyed. The job I have now is a job I like better than any other job, but its still a boring office job. However, sometimes I get a chance to help people in my work. (I am in healthcare). What I want to do eventually is some kind of patient advocacy work so I can help people 100% of the time instead of just occasionally.

 

Definitely working behind bars was my favorite job. That's actually pretty much my only "real" job.

Everything I've done was fun though from bar tending to horse riding to treating sports injuries.

Although I have relaxed job now that's really a hobby of mine, so it's like not even work, I maintain that best job for someone is a job where they can come home with zero worry about the day, can relax for the few hours at home without thinking of work the next day and where they can sleep well and wake up without hating on the thoughts of working that day.

 

to me, the best job would be one that was the least stressful.
opportunity and usefulness to be creative at it, is a desirable bonus.

well probably the best job i've every had, and i don't think i've ever had one that was low enough stress to not have to be constantly worrying about the damd thing,
but the best job, what i think is the best job, i've ever had,
was the year i spent working for the railroad as a heavy equipment apprentice.

what i consider my real job though, is not what i've had at various times, to do for a living,
but trying to get the ideas across, that come through me, of how we could,
well within what we are capable of as humans, or whatever else we might happen to be,
live in such a way, that we would have a world, we could all enjoy living in.

 

My job is ok. Many people don't want to do it (arborist/ electrical utility specialist) but that's fine. Less competition. The business side of it sucks sometimes but I enjoy being my own boss. I decide who I work with. The biggest redeeming quality to all of the business B.S. is more freedom. I'll go to work tomorrow but....if I didn't want to ...I simply wouldn't and that would be the end of the discussion. If I want to fly to California for a week....I'll just fly there and enjoy my week and not answer to anyone for it. I don't do that often enough but it's nice to know I can.