Weirdest/interesting/fun Job

[Azat]

What is the weirdest or most interesting or most fun job you have ever had?

 

I'll start.

 

I have had all kinds of jobs growing up. I worked as a delivery guy, bag boy, cashier while I was in high school and also early years in collage. But those were not weird or anything like that.

 

In late high school years I worked at Baskin Robins, and while that was not weird or fun or anything like that, it was for sure the more fulfilling.

 

The most interesting job that I had was when I worked as a product manager/project manager for a small startup with a very expansive product($5+ million). I traveled all over the country and Europe doing demos of the product to Executives at Fortune 50 companies. I had meetings with people who were managing 5000 IT staff in their organizations. Company was later sold to IBM. It was a lot of fun.

 

But the weirdest job I have ever had has been the last one I was working at. I worked on Animation and Voice recognition(human interface we called it) technology. While working on voice recognition I got the idea and developed a CD/DVD player that included voice recognition engine in it. Allowed you to jump from song to song or to different scenes on the DVD. After it was publicized a little I thought we would get a call from Sony or Panasonic or someone like that. But guess who called, adult entertainment(****) companies. It has been very interesting working with them in making our product work for their content. Needless to say testing of the product is the most fun

 

Actually I am tired oh the whole project and fortunately they are going to go live at the CES show in Las Vegas in early January so we will be done with the project.

[Harut]

Azat, have you been listening NPR lately?

[Azat]

All the time Harut. when you work from home, you can turn on 89.3 all day long.

[Harut]

what do you think, how did i know you listen to NPR?

 

btw, did you listen that program some days ago about the *****graphy and the advances of the technology?

[Azat]

No I did not catch that. I wonder if they mentioned out technology. that would have been cool. I have seen our product demos on TechTV and few other shows(with much milder content) I have to find that.

 

As to the topic. 3-4 days ago that had a topic on part time holiday season jobs which reminded me of all the places that I have worked at paying my way through school and...

 

BTW: What station do you listen to? I jump back and forth between KPCC and KCRW.

[Sip]

One of the most fascinating jobs I have had was working at local "computer shows" when I was in my first 2 years at UCLA. The job was that we basically spent an ENTIRE weekend, setting up these trade-show type things but in essense, it was basically a place for vendors to sell stuff. This was right before online shopping and ebay really changed things around. Those of you in southern cal, maybe you went to the "shows" in CSUN or pasadena convention center in the mid-90s ... chances are that maybe I sold you a ticket or didn't let you sneak in the back door!!!!

 

We would show up VERY early sat morning, have a couple of donuts and basically do very heavy manual labor for a few hours setting up all the tables, lights, curtains, signs, etc etc

 

Then the vendors would show up to setup their booths and we would again go through some serious hauling and moving around.

 

The rest of the weekend would be much more relaxed ... we would alternate between selling tickets, watching the door, catching thieves (that one I loved!!!) and basically making sure eveyryone was happy. The main motto was: NO REFUND! hehehehe ... we had such amazing fights with totally pissed off vendors and customers who wanted their money back for some reason (disappointed with show, etc).

 

Why I loved it so much was that it was the first time I really saw a "market" in action. Watching these chinese vendors running around trying to make the sale, seeing which booths did well and why (they almost all had the same products but some would do REALLY well in selling), and also how human nature works in such "jungles"!!! It was one of the most eye opening experiences of my life. Plus, I got to learn some chinese from the vendors and they would ALWAYS give us awesome deals at the end of the day.

 

That's how I could afford most of the junk that I was buying back then. Needless to say, I usually spent most of the money that I made (I think it was $5.5 or $6 an hour) before I got home Sunday night. Man, those were the day ...

[Sip]

Oh I just remembered ... in one of the "shows" in near long beach, one day I sold roughly 5000 tickets all by myself!!!! Each one had to be individually ripped from a roll ... We were short handed and I didn't even get a bathroom or a lunch break ... that was an INSANE day and I still can't believe how I did it. My hands and wrists were hurting for like a week after that! Most amazing of all, at the end of the day I think I was only off by a few dollars in the "cash register" (which was just a cardboard box )

[Azat]

Sip, my first Pentium level computer I got from one of those type of shows at the Glendale Civic Auditorium. I have not been back to any like those since.

 

I have to tell you a story about how the previous company I worked at got sold to IBM. We were at a Tivoli World shoe in Nashville. The owner of the company was a savvy/shroud businessman. We had an okay booth in the back of this small conference center. It was nothing special. He went and gave a nice bribe to the few of the convention flore staff and before you know it they moved the only 2 bars in the convention center on either side of our booth. Well, all the attendees would come to get a drink and we would show how we managed Tivoli objects better than Tivoli does at a Tivoli conference. Within 6 months the Tivoli customers put enough pressure on Tivoli so that they acquired us.

[EZ]

My weirdest and funnest job was being a ...

 

'Flower picking girl' alias 'Hortensia girl' in the French Normandy.

 

On special request I will come back tomorrow to tell the story. But right now I should hurry to bed or my husband will kill me.

 

Bari gisher.

[Azat]

We are all ears.

[EZ]

My weirdest, interesting and funnest, but also (physically) hardest job was being a flower-picking-girl in France.

 

About 10 years ago as a single mother I was always short of money, until I ran into this job opportunity to work in France in the weekends, picking Hortensia's. I had never heard of a job like that and imagined it to be very romantic. I pictured myself in the middle of huge and beautifully colored hortensia fields wearing a large summer hat under the warm French sun. Of course I realized that it could turn out to be somewhat different in reality, but even though I was scared, because I desperately needed the money (250-500 Dutch guilders per weekend, which was quite a lot for Dutch standards), I decided to bluff and I got the job!

 

My boss thought he found himself a girl with guts, who could speak fluently French and had excellent driving skills. The truth was that I didn't know what I had gotten myself into and when the time came to go on the first trip of the season I could only take a very deep breath and hope for the best.

 

The goal was, to bring back as many Hortensia's as possible. But there were no Hortensia fields, the flowers were growing in private as well as public gardens. The boss put me in his crew (he had several!) - a crew consisted of two people. He was going to teach me the 'business', the trade, himself. (What a relief! ).

 

On our very first trip, when we had reached 'our' territory in France, at some point (until then I was simply enjoying the French scenery, secretly hoping that we would never reach the spot ) he suddenly stopped the van and told me to go and try to get permission from the house accross the road to cut their hortensia's. I almost got a heart attack!! Of course by then I knew a little more of what was awaiting me, but to actually be there and having to perform!... Oh my, I imagined someone knocking on my door asking for permission to cut my precious flowers, I would tell them to go and see a doctor! I felt soooooo bad. But I had to go through with it, needed the money. So I went, my knees trembling, and I rang the doorbell, hoping that no one would open.

 

Will be continued.

 

[ December 12, 2002, 05:05 AM: Message edited by: EZ ]

[Boghos]

Hello Elly, fascinating narrative, do continue please.

[gamavor]

I worked as an assistant cameraman in my student years. No, no it wasn't ****o movie:). Actually it was a very serious movie and a huge production.

It took my a while to realize that assistant cameraman is first class "hambal".

[EZ]

So there I was, waiting for that door to please, please NOT open. But of course the inevitable happened. All of a sudden I found myself standing before this short French lady, dressed in a way that reminded me of my mom when she would be working around the house wen I was young, somewhere in the sixties. While the woman was checking me out with her eyes I was still thinking about what to say, how to explain, how to justify the crime that I was about to commit. "Bonjour", pffffff, that wasn't so hard. "Bonjour Madame, je m'appelle Elly...." (Hi madame, my name is Elly). I knew if I wouldn't hurry up with it, she would start to think "yes, and? so what?" and of course I didn't come all the way from Holland to tell her that! But I was afraid that "Hi, my name is Elly and I came from Holland to cut your flowers" would make her take out a broom and chase me off the property with it. However, I did not have much choice; my knowledge of French was poor and I would not be able to say what I felt necessary in this situation. So I went on, stuttering and in the best French I could come up with: "... and I we came from Holland to look for flowers, Hortensia's.... may we cut some of yours?". I hoped that adding "some" would be less shocking. Guess what she replied. "You are too early, come back in October and we shall see."

 

This was my very first experience with a 'costumer' in France. So no flowers, but at least the friendly response did not cause me to immediately quit my job and hitch-hike home. There was hope still and after this first attempt many more came, even on this day alone. I didn't know then that I would be doing this for the next 3 years, every weekend from august until december.

 

That day I learned a lot about the different aspects of this weird trade. The boss showed me how to cut the flower bushes without leaving ugly holes in it, so that I didn't have to feel so guilty while cutting them, although this unpleasant feeling never completely disappeared. And I got to practice my French and added some new words to my vocabulary.

It turned out that 'we' already had some regular customers, who were sometimes even pleasantly surprised to see us, but a big part of the territory was yet to be explored and 'conquered', a lot of flowers and new costumers still to be discovered.

 

While for us August was the beginning of 'our' Hortensia season, for the flowers it was the beginning of the end. They would slowly start to dry on the bushes, their (for my taste often too bright) summer colors fading, changing into a beautiful and more natural looking mixture of dark red, pink, purple or blue with very soft shades of green and beige. To determine if they were ready to be harvested or not, for the purpose of being sold as semi-fresh and dried flowers on the flower auction in Holland, next to judging the colors we also had to feel them. So I learned how to judge their quality and state by carefully stroking them with my hands. I was aware of the fact that this would be a strange sight for passants, but later on as I became more experienced I really got into my role as an 'expert' and I would do it with the utmost persuation, so no one would even think of laughing at the sight of it.

 

At the end of this first day, having been on the road since 4 am and out in the open air all day working my "esh" off, naturally at 8 pm I was very happy that my boss decided to call it a day and check into a hotel. I could not imagine that 1 hour later I would be sitting in an excellent hotel-restaurant, enjoying the wonderful French haute cuisine over a bottle of delicious Pinot blanc. What a contrast!... to have started the day feeling like a beggar and ending it like a queen that just had a working-class-nightmare. I had a little trouble keeping the conversation going, as the boss and I did not really have much to talk about, except for his favorite subject: Hortensia's, so I ended up listening to his personal stories. At 10 pm I could not keep my eyes open any longer and before my head would fall into my lovely, but also extremely stinky, cheese plate, we decided to go up to the room, OUR room. Yes, well, it was cheaper that way. To be honest, it did make me feel a little uncomfortable having to sleep in the same room with a male stranger, who at the dinner table had told me about his love affair with my predecessor!

 

May be continued.

 

[ December 16, 2002, 05:09 AM: Message edited by: EZ ]

[Azat]

What a great story Elly. And how beautifully told.

 

Do continue please.

[vava]

Yes, yes! Very interesting indeed! Please do continue...

 

As an aside... maybe it would interest some of the hye-forumers to have a 'creative writing' section, where people could share their works. (I am NOT volunteering BTW - ) It was just a thought.

[EZ]

Not according to a couple of Armenians who wrote the only Eastern Armenian dictionary on the market.

 

But wait until I start posting some self made poems in Armenian.

 

[ December 16, 2002, 02:41 PM: Message edited by: EZ ]

[EZ]

Thanks to all of you for your nice responses. I will need the encouragement to overcome writers block after each part.

 

About the next part, don't expect too much excitement.

[Accelerated]

OOOooooooohhhhhhh!

[Sip]

Too late already, looks like Jug is done for today

[Harut]

i know. my enlish-armenian dictionary also translates ass to "esh".

[Azat]

Harut jan, another way to say donkey is ass.

[Sip]

That's actually where the term "dumb ass" comes from. It has nothing to do with the human body part.

 

Also, "make an ass of yourself" and "jack ass" ... they all refer to the "donkey" meaning of ass.

[Harut]

didn't know that.

thank you

[Harut]

 

"esh" means donckey.

 

[ December 16, 2002, 12:27 PM: Message edited by: Harut ]