In my younger days, I had a lot of part-time jobs and one-time “gigs” (for lack of a better word). Most were dull and tedious, but there were a few oddball ones that really stand out:
- Model for watercolor workshop – age 15, FULLY CLOTHED, $5/hr
- Italian Icee truck driver – age 21, 20% of the take, lasted a week
- Bone counter – age 20, temp job in the shipping/receiving department of a company that took cadaver bones (which arrived semi-butchered and frozen) and chopped them up into useable bits for transplant purposes. I was the only temp they didn’t gross the hell out. I think I got $5/hr.
- Substitute mommy – age 15 & 16, three little boys, parents went to Montego Bay on vacation during the February school break and I took over. Crappy pay though – $250-300 for 8 days. By the way, she was an alcoholic, they got divorced, she died of liver problems at age 47 (but looked 67).
- Audition Assistant for corporate video – age 21, one day’s work, $50
- Dessert maker – age 22, Italian restaurant in Edinburgh, $20/shift
Show me I’m not alone, people … what’s the strangest job you’ve ever done? You know, the kind of thing you don’t put on your resume?
MoneyMate Kate 
You take the cake on the Bone Counter thing.
*shudder*
Umm…. I haven’t had any weird jobs. I’m sorry! 😦
Fabulously Broke in the City
“Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver.“
Oh, lord.
Carpet blower in a factory. I blew the dust off those sample boards that show up in stores.
Security guard for the Superbowl, WWE events, and boy bands. I am a small woman–5’5″ and at the time around 100 pounds, but yes–I was a security guard. I kicked Lennox Louis out of the Georgia Dome. Go, me! $6/hour, maybe?
Extra in a music video for a hardcore Christian death metal band. No pay, I just had to do it for the experience.
Belly dancer. I still do this, but it’s just put me in some of the weirdest situations I’ve ever been in. For example, in a creepy old mansion, dancing for a Senator’s daughter’s wedding. On a rooftop in Manhattan. On public beaches in New Jersey and Florida. Running around a state fair and riding rides in costume. Our company also provides Lady Buffet, where a mostly-naked girl is covered in sushi or other hors d’oevres. I haven’t done it myself, but I’ve arranged the food. 🙂 Not divulging pay since I still do this.
There are probably others….
Yuck, I can’t deal with the dead bodies. I went to a magnate science school for part of high school and it was held at the med school. We had to go in the gross anatomy lab, oh god. Our lab rooms were lined with freezers full of body parts and there would be buckets of brains on the tables.
You take the cake, I haven’t had any weird jobs. I taught sailing and was a secretary before starting my career, that’s it.
bone collector, huh? That is a good one!
wow, on little miss moneybags, Christian death metal bands, belly dancing and Lady Buffet (that’s a new thing I haven’ heard of – gonna have to google that when i am at home).
me – wierdest? don’t think weird, but I wouldn’t put on my resume: exotic dancer, phone s*x operator, tarot card reader for Miss Cleo, cigarette girl for concert venues, pathology assistant (dissecting body masses like tumors, fingers, etc…). Ya, maybe the latter one is weird to people. 😉
Wow! You had some interesting jobs… I wish I could say the same!
My first job (the only job I don’t put on my resume, b/c everything else is/was legal related) was at a chocolate store… I did learn a few things about their practices that I wish I hadn’t. :p
I love that you still remember what you made at a job when you were 15. It makes me smile.
Oh bless me MoneyMateKate, for I too have…
Model–nude, women’s art school with the rare male in class. $5.50 an hour (I think?)
Agricultural labor–wholesale greenhouse $4.00 an hour (ag employers aren’t required to pay minimum wage!), 7 hrs a day with two 10 minute breaks. Joy!
I put in on the resume when I was young, but it was so…ug. ICU secretary and nurses’ aide (did the aide thing a few times). The most enjoyable part was having bloody urine and poo explode all over me. Ahhh, memories.
And, of course, selling drugs.
Oh Dear… What a List!
Oddities that I don’t put on my resume (I am a medicinal chemist now, so they would not be remotely relevant) include:
*Photographer for insurance agent selling home insurance. Talk about awkward moments as I ended up scaling fences when no one was home to take pictures as needed. $20 per set of pictures when a client signed on, plus meager expenses; 2 months mid summer.
*Vetrinary Tech at a clinic for Birds. Involved working after/before hours cleaning out cages, assisting in microsurgery, etc. Minimum wage; 9 months.
*Model/Booth operator for Liquor companies at a Food and Beverage convention in Las Vegas – one time gig lastly weekend. No pay, but freebies included room and board in LV, transportation to LV from Los Angeles, and various promotional attire/mugs/samples.
*Ice Hockey Referee. I actually put myself through college on this job. Horrid hours, lots of travel, anywhere from $10 to $100 per game, with the biggest game I ever officiated being UCLA v. USC in front of 2500 people in Bakersfield (alumni sponsored). FWIW: I am 5ft8, weighing 150 pounds. And I had to break up fights between guys a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier. Despite this, it was fun at times. =)
So nothing that copmares to bone counter, but odd all the same.
I’ve got nothing on the bone counter job…sorry!
wow the bone counter job wins hands down!
I disagree…I think Liz & Little Miss Moneybags both have me beat!! Signing for cadaver part deliveries and taking inventory of little jars of bone chunks really wasn’t that gross.
OMG you are awesome 🙂 And i’m SO stealing this post idea! haha… i’ll have to give it some good thinking, but right now i recall working for a company that made stamps! it was crazy weird, esp cuz i couldn’t wear anything w/ pockets in them in case i stole a roll of stamps! you know, cuz that’s like $200 worth on the black market 😉
Wow, bone collector definitely takes the cake! I don’t have anything that comes remotely close to that. Some comments were pretty cool too — belly dancer for Senators, nude sushi. Definitely not boring jobs.
Great topic!
When I was 10 or so, I used to pick up my neighbor’s dog’s poop for $5/week. It only took about 10 minutes twice a week, so it’s not a bad wage. I was doing the same thing for free at my house!
[…] job you apply for is better than MoneyMateKate’s list of the weirdest jobs she’s ever done. You have to see […]
Pelvic model at the University of California San Francisco medical school. For $95 an hour, I let nervous med students on their gynecology rotation give me pap smears. Something must be terribly wrong with me, because I continually fell asleep during work.
naked (male) model
but, here the lines between weird and “normal” become blurred…….you see, i am an exhibitionist, so i love getting naked in front of a bunch of nubile young maidens in a post-secondary art class.
when your “nice” friends tell you it’s all about sex……tell them: YEAH!!!
check out my blog , if you want to read about my experiences and observations of a naked model, at
http://www.themodelundraped.blogspot.com
oh, lieutenant generalist………..what a fantastic job!!!
if i had been born female, yes, i would travel to the ends of the world to get a gig like yours…..and well-paid, too…..i am jealous.
and i think you win the prize in the “weirdest job” category……………………….YOU FELL ASLEEP???????!!!!!
[…] Moneymate Kate, who once worked as a bone counter, described it as a “temp job in the shipping/receiving department of a company that took cadaver bones (which arrived semi-butchered and frozen) and chopped them up into useable bits for transplant purposes. I was the only temp they didn’t gross the hell out.” […]
I modeled adult diapers for an online medical supply catalog. How about that?
[…] you thought today was gonna be boring 😉 This all started the other day when my girl Money Mate Kate posted up some crazy-a$$ jobs she’s taken in the past (Italian Icee Truck Driver, Bone […]