best job you ever had?

[cleason]

whats the best job u ever had. mine was working in the rush shell. 1970-1972, it was run by jim wemett(wambat funny car). everybody was a gear head.i was driving a 1969 dart ******* 340, 4 speed.i learned mechanics working there. every body drag raced and street raced. i also miss hanging out with penny,beth, and wendy. good times for a 17 year old.

 

[KRB52]

Good question, hard to answer. If I don't like the job, either initially or after the situation changes, I leave. Of the four major job's I've had, the one that I was at the least amount of time was five years. The others were 10 and 13 years, respectively. Present one is going on 6 years and is pretty easy and enjoyable.

 

[astroracer]

My best job is my current one. Working at the GM Milford Proving Grounds on new product development, fixture and tooling design and doing a lot of 3D Stereo Lithography stuff for our test labs. I was also recently hired direct at GM so that is a BIG plus. With a short drive to work (30 miles), being able to work from home on bad drive days AND being able to start at 5:30 on regular days (out at 2 and home before 2:45!) I have it pretty good right now.
Mark

 

[countryroad82]

I worked as a counterman/light machinist at a mom and pop auto parts store. Loved it!

 

[theoldwizard1]

After I retired, I got hooked up with a part time job for small engineering company as a rep to one of the Detroit 3. I got the job, not for what I knew, but for WHO I knew. I would be working with people from the department I had retired from a few years before.

What a gig. Go to meetings, drink coffee, have lunch with old friends, write some short reports. It didn't last long. I couldn't take the companies money for what little I was doing. Within less than a year the bottom dropped out of that market segment.

 

[nehog]

Define best!

Most fun: teaching university. It was a blast.
Most interesting: writing books (15 or so).
Most profitable: consulting/software development.

 

[bczygan]

Present one.......NONE!



Bill

 

[cleason]

astroracer i want ur job.someone still has astro vans,very cool.

 

[steve308]

PGA Golf Professional -- twenty years of working hard and playing harder.

 

[ScottsGT]

I guess the job I have now. It was more exciting when I was younger., but I work at a major university, so there is plenty of eye candy running around. Now that I'm an old fart, they all remind me of my daughters. You know you're getting old when you are checking out the moms on parents day or during orientation.

 

[cpttuna]

Commanding a Basic Training Company in the Army. No better feeling than taking a raw recruit from the street and 7 weeks and 4 days latter(with the help of Drill Sergeants and other personnel in my company), producing something the Army was proud of.

 

[bczygan]

astroracer i want ur job.someone still has astro vans,very cool.

We have a 95'.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I believe I have the best job out there but small town politics ****.

 

[guspech750]

This is an easy question. When I was younger. I worked at two different bike shops for many years. I loved cycling and I loved racing. Did that through high school and a year or so past high school. I absolutely loved it.

Then I worked at a machine shop for three years. I too really enjoyed that. What was weird though was I was employee of the month and literally the very next month they fired me. I never did find out why.

So then I simply answered an add in the news paper to work at a local drilling company. Needless to say. I've been drilling now for 20 years. It's my favorite. I get to play with big Tonka toys in big sand boxes everyday!! What's not to love about playing in the dirt, being paid very well and absolutely loving what I do!!


I did go to Illinois Institute of Art for 4 years. But I learned that I LOVE drilling wells, rock coring even more.

I have been blessed that all four jobs have been what I love to do.

My little CME 55 track drill rig.



GeoProbe hand cart for very hard to get to areas.



My large GusPech 750 drill rig I use for larger diameter drilling, air drilling, wells and deep rock cores.





200' angle rock core hole for deep tunnel project.



My GusPech 1,000 ATV





One of my wells I drilled.




Sorry for all the pictures. I just get excited about what I do. LOLzzzzzzz


Sent from The White House on taxpayers dimes.

 

[gearhead1]

When I worked for an engine manfucaturer as an engineer. Loved the job far more than an other, absolutely couldn't stand the politics though....

 

[e36jon]

I did two internships while I was finishing my mechanical engineering degree, and it was the best time I ever had by far.

I had a boss that was THE get-it-done guy for the R&D department, and he had his own giant machine shop. Over the course of that summer and then again over winter break I learned to work metal (I had a lot of composites and woodworking in my background), and took on one project after another. They had such a back-log of things that needed doing that I felt like a hero every day.

It was the best combination of working with my mind and my hands, doing meaningful work (This was the R&D department at a big medical equipment co.), and getting recognized for it, that I ever came across. No politics. No BS.

 

[lat905]

Way back when I was a bouncer at a **********. Lot's of fringe benefits in that job.

But my current job is pretty good. Lead mechanical engineer for a chemical company. I travel all over to our plants and handle the mechanical projects. Interesting work, always changing, lots of responsibility, good money. The travel part *****, but its part of the deal.

 

[FEVERinc]

By far K-9 Deputy Sheriff. Not a day goes by I don't miss the work. The politics sucked *** though.

 

[larry_g]

I worked most of my carreer in electronics manufacturing. I always said I was a kid with a multi-million dollar Erector set.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[jonjon1]

My favorite job was picking up the fallen apples at an orchard when I was a kid, I did it from 12 to 15ish, it was simple, I got to drive a tractor (it was just a small lawn tractor with no deck on it and a trailer), I filled a basket then dumped them in the trailer, then when it was full, I drove it down to the cider stall and dumped it, and did it all over again. Paid $100 a week, after school on weekdays only for a short time each year, lol...

But I loved driving that lawn tractor, I think I would have done it for free, I think I learned how to drive on that thing...

 

[kaymccampbell]

For what it meant. First job. Not even sure anymore which one of several it actually was, as I had multiple jobs at one time, but it allowed me to be on my own and have 48 square feet all to myself.
For experience. Pacific rim courier.
For satisfaction. Welder, fabricator, machinist in my own business.
For money. My current job as IT management.

 

[imagineer]

Manager of a bicycle store. Sure it was a slice of hell dealing with an adolescent, sticky fingered, unreliable staff (I was younger than most of them) and all their lies, excuses and problems.

I took pride in how I ran that shop. Seeing little kids faces light up, or making sure folks bought bikes that were correct for them was worth all the headaches.

I say it frequently; if I could match my current salary, I'd quit my job in a heartbeat and go back to running a bicycle store.

 

[Zeke]

Best job I ever had was/is the life I've led. Race car mechanic and fabricator, fiberglass shop owner designing parts and producing them, contractor building and improving, and restoration of cars and now antiques. All hands on work and I wouldn't have had it any other way.

 

[52wrench]

part time gynecologist

 

[AndrewDouglasBird]

My current job at Leatherman Tool. Maybe not the best job, but certainly the best company I've worked for. Great benefits with a wellness program, yearly bonuses, plus I get to play with robots on a daily basis. They really do care about their employees.

 

[ssffnomad]

19 1/2 years , Excavating , last 15 as Supervisor. Great Small private company.
Coming up on 19 as FireFighter
I have been lucky to have great jobs
Would not change a thing.

BTW, list of part time , secondary jobs since a young man - to long to list

 

[yossarian19]

Ignoring the money: farm hand. While I was in college a local guy had a farm that he needed help with. I had a few (very) basic skills and a willingness to get dirty and learn. So he showed me where the tools were, showed me the property and gave me a fix-it list. Every day at noon the man made me a sandwhich, a bag of chips, a cigar & a hard cider. Rest of the day I was on my own to fix things or give it a good shot and ask for help. Loved everything about that job.
The money: Just as my apprenticeship ended in an auto repair place I was getting $20 an hour + awesome health insurance. I was a nervous mess all the time (The shop had one mechanic, an ASE Master with 30+ years under his belt. He quit. They hired me to replace him) but I thought that was decent bucks and I could ride my bike to work.
Overall: what I'm doing now. land survey technician. I'm outside a lot. I'm not stressed. I don't have the bennies at the current position but I am only just more than a year into the profession and the money is close to where I ended as a wrench.
I'll keep going with surveying till the wheels come off.

 

[ssffnomad]

19, good life story. Important thing is we need to be able to change , and you have .

 

[coljar]

The most enjoyable job was working at a Gulf station/speed shop in the late 70's if you don't factor in money or benefits. The best job money and benefit wise is the one I have now.

 

[nadogail]

Probably being a Chief Petty Officer, US Navy, was best job I ever had. There were some difficult days, but overall I really enjoyed the prestige and responsibility.

After leaving the Navy, I worked for a bank as the facility technician for 15 buildings, which included 5 banking offices. I had a company truck, with a gas card, and a beeper.

Again, I loved the independence and the respect of those I served.

 

[nadogail]

Probably being a Chief Petty Officer, US Navy, was best job I ever had. There were some difficult days, but overall I really enjoyed the prestige and responsibility.

After leaving the Navy, I worked for a bank as the facility technician for 15 buildings, which included 5 banking offices. I had a company truck, with a gas card, and a beeper.

Again, I loved the independence and the respect of those I served.

 

[nutsnbolts]

My current job. I get to learn how to fix things, build things, fabricate things, and glean all kinds of info from guys with tons of experience all day long. And I get to say hi to Russell Wilson every Tuesday. Hospital politics aren't fun, but if you can tune them out, it's the place to be. And 80% of my co-workers are female...just saying

 

[TeeJayHoward]

I've worked at, in order:

---High School---
Pizza Hut as a waiter. Sucked.
McDonalds as a cashier. Sucked. They stopped putting me on the schedule for two months straight, so...
Wendy's. Sucked. Got a call three months in telling me I was fired from McDonalds because I hadn't shown up. WTF? I hadn't worked there for five months. Apparently I was supposed to come in every week and look at my schedule, even though they stopped putting me on it. In the mean time, I was supposed to do what, exactly, about my car insurance and gas bills? Bastards.

---College---
Sonic. Amazing job. Manager would come back and help out during the rush. 100% of the pay was mine to keep. No stress, no bills, no real responsibility. Sadly, it interfered with my class schedule.
Work-study (graphic arts dept). Boring. Helped out maybe two people during the year I was there. Taught one class how binary worked. Cool teacher, though.
Work-study (IT Helpdesk). Not a bad job. Kept me busy, learned a lot, had a boss who took my side against a higher up.
Internship (Northrop-Grumman certification and accreditation). Worst job in my mind. Best paying so far, but holy cow was it dull. Sit alone in a room for 8 hours writing paperwork you don't understand about a system you're not allowed to see. Still, because of this internship, I landed:

---Real World, take 1---
3D Graphic Artist (Northrop-Grumman). I got paid more than my previous job, to create video games. It was my first real "professional" job, and the group was full of whacky people. Everyone was excited and enthusiastic. Everyone was friendly. There were a lot of people my age around. They paid for my security clearance. I rented an apartment and bought a Miata, my first new car. Then my boss's boss went and committed corporate espionage. Northrop gave me two months to find another job while I looked for security vulnerabilities in EFI code. Didn't find one. Dream over.

---The contract years---
After six months of looking for a job, I finally got in with a headhunter. They landed me a 6-month contract with Lockheed-Martin as a Solaris Systems Administrator. It was my first graveyard position, but the salary was better than any I've ever had before, and the job was something I was interested in. The people there were good folk. Not as enthusiastic as my previous job, but knowledgeable and friendly. It paid off my credit card debt. Then I made a series of mistakes that got me let go. Decided to go back to school.

After finishing up my Bachelor's degree, the same headhunter had me working for the county as a Windows/Linux SysAdmin. Pay raise, but it wasn't worth it. Dreadful place. No smiles, no fun, all business. Grumps abound. Worked there for a year and a half (I think), before getting into a yelling match with a coworker that resulted in me being let go again. I was honestly relieved.

Two weeks after that, I was in a job at JDSU. Linux SysAdmin. Learned more here than at any previous job. Nothing really exciting, just 8 hours a day of simple work. I watched the industry average pay for my position continue to rise, and watched my pay continue to stagnate. When my contract ended, they asked me if I wanted to continue working for them. I told them "Yes, but I've got to have a pay raise. I'm 30-40% underpaid depending on who you talk to." They hemmed and hawed. During this time, I went looking for non-contract work. Found it, at a pay raise, plus some damned good benefits. JDSU gave me a 15% raise. I handed in my two week's notice.

---Modern day---
I started working at my current company as a night shift guy. Between the shift differential and a little bit of overtime, I'm making literally twice what I was at JDSU. Plus I've got health care, retirement benefits, actual training, etc. I'm only six months in, but I love the company. I can't see myself in this job 10 years from now, but I can definitely see myself with the company. This is my first time as an application guy. Normally I'm more infrastructure. As for the job itself? A little dull, to be honest. That's okay, though. It's nice, lazy, brain work. It allows for time to self-improvement. Hell, the company will pay for my Masters, which I'm thinking hard about. My coworkers aren't the young, enthusiastic folk they were at Northrop, but they've got skills I can only dream about. I figure, a couple more years to really learn the applications, then I'll slide over to networking or go for a management track.


So, best job I ever had? That's a tough one. It's either a tossup between the carefree Sonic days of a teenager, or the passionate days as an artist with Northrop-Grumman.

 

[pringa8]

I spent a year working in a Porsche race shop, working on restoring vintage porsches and also working pit crew on the World Challenge circuit. Took me to some awesome tracks and places I probably wouldn't have got to.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[chruler]

Wow! You guys have had some incredible jobs!

My personal favorite was my stretch as a pro photographer specializing in motorcycles.
I traveled the country, Europe and Australia shooting some of the world's best custom motorcycles and culture. During that time I was on a few TV shows about motorcycles as well. American Chopper, 2Xtreme Motorcycle TV, and other segments. Big fun!

My work has appeared in American Iron Magazine, Easyriders, Biker, Hot Bike, and several other publications and I have photographed several famous people I never dreamed I'd ever meet!

The best part of the career was seeing all the great shops people did their work in and how thrilled they were to be having their custom bike photographed for a national magazine. Everyone was happy, and we all worked hard to do a good job on the feature.

It was a really good run.

 

[TX RamRod]

When I was 16 or 17 I ran a portable saw mill. After hurricane Rita tore through this part of Texas in 2005, people had more downed trees than could be hauled off. We would come to a site and produce whatever lumber the owner wanted. I think the guy charged about a $1000 a day and we could produce about $3000 of lumber.

My favorite project was for a guy that was adding on to an 80+ year old barn and wanted all dimensional lumber to match the existing wood. I remember realizing for the first time how big of a difference there was between that old lumber and the stuff we use today.

Another project that guy had all kind of different trees down. So when we go finished there were separate stacks of ceder, pecan, oak, pine and few other "exotic" type woods that you don't normally see made into lumber.

 

[bobcatdan]

Probably the truely best job was helping Pa in the shop when I was younger. At the end of the visit, he would always give me some "scratch" so it was in away a paying job. My time at Bobcat was pretty good gig. My own shop, my own service truck and 90% of the time my own boss. Plus the under the table benefits were very nice. That said, my best real job is the current one at the foundry. Making by far the most I ever have and generally doing way less work. Plus union benefits make it pretty hard to beat.

 

[My Old Tools]

Most fun was teaching police pursuit driving at Texas A&M for a year while in grad school. Best overall is the one I have now, running IR&D for a major defense contractor. 38 years here and most of them have been pretty good.

 

[d.mcfarland]

Best paying or best to have ....

Because best to have was in college where I work with a bunch of hot chicks. Pay was awful though.

 

[75149]

Most fun job - Security at the headquarters for a gas company in NC. Had to carry a gun and loads of other stuff, but dated a few gals there and looked at all the others.


Best benefits and long term stability - Current job in a city utilities department. Taking calls, dispatching crews for everything except police & fire. From animal control to health inspector to the guy who checks the city side of the ******* pipe.

100% at a desk, so no more hot summers and cold winters. Starting here pretty late in life but I can retire when I'm 61 and it's not a psychically demanding job (I could do it from a wheelchair, and get better parking).