The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 90,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Dead-End Sh*t Jobs ... Yours?

MJ DeMarco

I followed the science; all I found was money.
Staff member
FASTLANE INSIDER
EPIC CONTRIBUTOR
Read Rat-Race Escape!
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Summit Attendee
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
446%
Jul 23, 2007
38,258
170,786
Utah
Bartending can be hit or miss.

This actually sounds exciting. Might be something I'd want to do just to FN do it.
 

valuegiver

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
19%
Aug 18, 2010
341
66
LOL. System admin jobs are the worst. It's probably one of the most stressful job ever.

Lets see.

#1 Selling Dishes at a Factory Store
#2 Running a Plastic Injection Molding Machine
#3 Janitorial work at an Aluminum milling factory, everything from the bathrooms to the sludge pits.
#4 Cutting Sandpaper. Though it was cool sometimes to come home with no fingerprints haha.
#5 ISP Technical Support
#6 Currently working IT, Systems Administration and sadly it is probably the worst of them all because it is a damn thankless job these days. 65,000 customers that think this shit just runs its self.

Bryan
 

CEBenz

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
29%
Apr 16, 2011
833
242
Tacoma, Wa
This actually sounds exciting. Might be something I'd want to do just to FN doing it.


Oh it definitely can be. Bartending as a general rule, is not a crap vocation. Its just individual jobs that are shit, but then that's true of all jobs. It is also a way to sort of "be part of the party" while getting paid to do it.
 

bkypes

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
67%
Jun 25, 2011
42
28
31
Grand Rapids, Mi
I worked my way through high school besides during basketball season when I played but Ive worked at

1. Ice cream shop as a cook
2. Gas station as a stocker
3. Pizza ranch doing almost anything for an alcoholic owner who even had an air mattress in the basement lol
4. I still work at a car dealershit in service lane porting cars but I just told my boss Im done after July which will give me enough money to live while focusing on starting my business and moving to Arizona in August
 

Graves

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
9%
Jan 31, 2011
272
25
So um...
How did you guys find these jobs ? Do I just go door to door asking if any business needs help ? I've never been in the "real world" so I'm fairly clueless about it.
 

458

Platinum Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
343%
May 21, 2011
1,144
3,919
Worked in construction for about 3 months and even though it was a deadend job i still kind of enjoyed it. Makes you feel like a real man i guess.
 

pro

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
46%
Sep 5, 2011
188
87
Mum's Basement
My physically most demanding job:

Age 15: Golf caddying - 4 hours per 18 holes and sometimes I'd do 2 rounds in a day so 8 hours of physical work carrying a bag per day, out in the sun or rain. It was sometimes cold and I still had to wait for 1-2 hours in a caddy shack. I was paid $28-35 per 18 holes which could take up to 6 hrs with waiting

Most intellectually demanding job:

Age 15/16: Working as a bank teller in a competitive apprenticeship position (yes I performed the full functions) - there are literally 100s of unique transactions and I had to remember what to do in every situation. I also looked 13 (with little exaggeration) and had to come across professionally. I walked 1M per day to the job and then took another bus for 10M and did telemarketing.

Now I'm the job maker.
 

speedyexe

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
8%
Jun 23, 2011
328
25
37
Gdynia, Poland
1) tester waterproof military jackets :D (Poland)
2) telemarketing (Poland)
3) warehouseman (Dublin)
4) Construction Site, windows fitter helper etc. (window had 500kg) (Dublin)
5) steel and aluminium Recycling, weightbridge operator (problems with car thieves all day long) (Dublin)
6) system admin junior on helpdesk (Poland)
7)Quality Assurance game tester (kinect, xbox360) at Microsoft (got lucky in Dublin)
8) system admin junior on helpdesk (Poland) quited damn job
long unemployed and try work in demolition,street sweeping,painting playground ;/

9) Actual:

changed specialisation on college from network administration to Computer graphics 3d [bcos of microsoft and shitty helpdesk for 3 years) and currently on intership in game company leraning modeling and animating in 3D (Poland)




10) Fastlane Milionaire in progress[dating website and own games on iphone] (if not in Poland then "F*ckoff to" Canada propably hmmm Vancouver? start from scratch again and get to fastlane in some other way)
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.
Sep 30, 2011
77
4
33
Worked at a retirement home as a server/dishwasher/cleaner etc. for more than eight hours plus closing. Did not get paid overtime or extra time as I was slow. The girls left early. I was told that I would be paid $12 per hour which is low since my friend pulled $16 per hour at another retirement home as a beginner. I quit only after a day and that was the worst job I had and the quickest I quit. There was no empathy from the condescending chef either who said that sorry won't fix anything. I left liberated but dishearted as it was not the first job I quit. Some people can last long, but for me there is no motivation.

I am still unemployed and that thought is scary. I have self esteem issues and realize that the fastlane is one way to recover from that. Currently, a senior, former classmate called and requested that I go to a rural town up north and look for jobs as a field technician. In Canada, the winters are long and harsh, and the work is tiring. I will make good money but will be detached. I still am looking for jobs in my city just so I can make money, pay debts, and have savings for fastlane ventures.
 

andrewsemi

PARKED
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
0% - New User
Apr 2, 2011
24
0
Bellevue, WA
Over the course of like 3 years;

painting laborer

gutter cleaner

-Fish processing

-oil changes at jiffy lube and sign waver during down time.

***Currently***-Night stocker at a grocery store (dead end but i need to make my ends meet, plus it opens up my day pretty good)

Night stocker will be my last dead end job. I hate it just enough to be more motivated and focused on my fast lane methods.
 

SuccessInMind

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
17%
Mar 3, 2010
127
22
Santa Clara, California, United States
I think about 70% of the people that have posted on this thread don't understand what a shit job is. If it involves an office => NOT A SHIT JOB!
 

speedyexe

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
8%
Jun 23, 2011
328
25
37
Gdynia, Poland
I gotta agree. I fully understand the hours and the stress might suck. But if you're sitting in an air-conditioned office doing whatever, that's a pretty cushy setup by many people's standard.

Try chipping frozen pig sh*t when it's -20F (or even better, shoveling it when it's not frozen and you get the full aromatic benefits), or stacking 100 lb haybales all day in 100F and 95% humidity, or getting your teeth rattled loose driving a tractor over rough terrain all day in the broiling sun, or (sorry, but this IS marked R-rated) castrating a hundred 100-120 lb pigs. (Who, understandably, are not thrilled about the idea, and you have to catch them and wrestle them into submission so the man with the knife can do the dirty deed.)

Do that for a while and you'll long for the days of your stressful IT job.

IT job is actually stresful and frustrating, and I will not convince you why because I could wrote the book on this subject but its not productive. [its not just air condition and doing whatever]

If i had to go to shared hosting company again i rather try your options :D

My opinion is different than yours bcos:
In my experience hard work was on construction site but after shower and dinner i felt good, but while working every day on the phone and pc as IT like u said, after work my brain was like mixed in blender and couldnt do anything.

Its just my opinion about the subject.
 
Sep 30, 2011
77
4
33
Everyone's version of shit job differs. No need to have a hissyfit just because your job felt worse than someone else's job sounds. For me, most of my jobs were shitty. I cleaned up Stampede grounds during the busiest season of the year and people would wear cowboy hats and be drunk, gambling and what not while I cleaned the grounds in any manner wearing a yellow shirt and hat even when it rained. One young punk came up to me once and asked me how I could do this and he told me that he would never be able to do it and left. So yeah, it was emotionally shitty too when people come up to you and say that in your face instead of saying "thank you".

Still, take some people who have worked under communist regimes and I bet most of our jobs would be so much better. The moral is not to be happy with what you have but rather appreciate that every experience is there to motivate us and makes up for good stories to tell our grandchildren when technology comes and makes their life even more convenient.
 

speedyexe

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
8%
Jun 23, 2011
328
25
37
Gdynia, Poland
Everyone's version of shit job differs. No need to have a hissyfit just because your job felt worse than someone else's job sounds. For me, most of my jobs were shitty. I cleaned up Stampede grounds during the busiest season of the year and people would wear cowboy hats and be drunk, gambling and what not while I cleaned the grounds in any manner wearing a yellow shirt and hat even when it rained. One young punk came up to me once and asked me how I could do this and he told me that he would never be able to do it and left. So yeah, it was emotionally shitty too when people come up to you and say that in your face instead of saying "thank you".

Still, take some people who have worked under communist regimes and I bet most of our jobs would be so much better. The moral is not to be happy with what you have but rather appreciate that every experience is there to motivate us and makes up for good stories to tell our grandchildren when technology comes and makes their life even more convenient.

Well said.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

garyfritz

Silver Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Summit Attendee
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
116%
Jul 16, 2011
694
807
Colorado
I agree. I'm honestly not trying to get into a pissing contest saying "mine was worse than yours," but just trying to give people some perspective. The job they thought was so terrible might not seem so bad compared to some other options...
 

kahem89

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
10%
Jul 20, 2011
104
10
Norway, Oslo
Heres some of mine.

1. Ice Cream Man (3months)
2. Lunch maker, for employers. (2weeks)
3. Postman (current job (not so shit job,endurebole atm just came out of debt, helps spirit.)
4. Portfolio Sales for yellow pages Norway (1 year. Worst job, lousy product/price ratio, gained 10kg i was acutaly comfort eating. Budget over the roof, i earn more as a postman. Sold For 5mill NOK around 1mill dollar/yearly My pay around 50 000-60 000 USD.(not a good sallery in Norway average pay is 90 000 USD i think. And The company in general had bad culture, and i generally hated the place.)
5. Selling fish oil from stand, (lousy pay quit after 2 days)
6.Newspaper Boy
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Brander

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
Jun 3, 2011
607
208
Australia, USA, Europe
Before started college:

Trainee Accountant (two weeks) - I was just sitting around and listening to grown women gossip all day. It was pure torture as they wanted me to participate as I was the only man there. I left screaming out the door almost.

Computer assembler (2 months) - It was fun at the start, but became too repetitive and quantity was the name of the game, not quality. No wonder so many people brought the computers back during warranty :)

Computer import van driver (2 months)
- Same company, but this was actually fun, we were the fastest moving vehicles on the free-ways - fully loaded vans with computer equipment racing in the middle of the night from Austria and lying to the customs of what we really had in the back (it was company policy) :)

Butcher helper (3 weeks) - was unloading cow parts and pig halves to get processed, was making sausages, etc and selling pig halves to people who wanted to freeze them for winter. The environment was so full of meat residue and so cold that I broke out with massive acne all over my face during it, so I stopped and the pay was shit. I still have a picture of my face in that time somewhere.

Mars bar, Pedigree pet food salesman (3 months) - This was probably the most soul crushing job I ever had in terms of lowering my confidence in my sales ability. After posting a record first month, the boss negated my achievements (he was afraid of me upstaging him I guess) and re-assigned me to the worst shit area that you could ever imagine. After trying to improve the sales there I succeeded, but the office politics and horrible predatory attitudes drove me away. I was the first to leave from my crop of salesman, then I met many on the streets afterwards and they all quit as well 6 months down the road. What took them so long to see what I saw on week 1?

Tile and bathroom retail salesman (7 months) - This was one of the easiest jobs ever, until I had to lift packets of tiles when someone bought, or when the shipments came in. Having scoliosis meant that I left after they fired the warehouse guy and expected me to lift heavy tile packets and do it for no extra pay on top of it.

Warehouse employee and salesman of FAKE flowers (5 days) - worst job ever, the bastard never paid me either, even though he knew my father. A total scammer.

During college:
Subway manager (1 month or so) - Took the job because I was offered one, didn't really need it, but the early AND late food prep hours were killing my energy (and looks:) ), as I am not a morning person at all, so I quit.

Website designer (2 years)- not a shit job really, but slow-lane as you can get

Pizza delivery at Domino's (a week or so) - wasn't bad once I was on the road. A lot of people want to scam you once you get there "This is all I have." They could always find another 50c after I started to walk away :) It was then that I learned how small-minded people can be. It's not even worth my time opening my mouth to "save" 50c, much less face humiliation. Geez.

After college:
College computer help desk at the same university I graduated (1 year) - Loved the technical side, learned a whole lot, but hated the people, who thought we should be treated like butlers not co-workers. Thankfully I got a promotion.

Computer networks engineer at the same university I graduated (1 year) - enjoyed that job very much, but office politics drove me nuts and away eventually. The same guy who gave me the jobs, turned out to be a nice guy overall, but completely incapable of taming down the office politics - in fact he liked a good a$$ kissing. Nice guys don't make good managers.

Computer network engineer (1 month) - another company. Took the job just to be able to get a loan for a house, but then I changed my mind about buying the house on credit and basically coasted through the end of the month and got fired, just to get unemployment benefits up till the time I started my own business. Come to think of it, this was the only time in my life I ever got fired.

After that went on my own and stopped with the shit jobs...
 

GDevDir

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
23%
Nov 9, 2011
84
19
UK
always felt myself *lucky* to have worked after school in my free time to learn game design, hands on exp with editors, 3d modeling and 2d art programs. landed a job @ 17 doing what I've always wanted to to since as long as i can remember, make computer games.

Fast forward 8 years later as a "Senior" and having a few "niceish" cars (my other passion), looking at my empty bank account from my room in my parents house, barely able to afford the parts i want and to run/insure a fast car and that's without a mortgage / food / bills etc.

figured enough was enough, long hours, no overtime pay and making what friends say is a "good wage", Still I needed more money, faster, quit, sold my cars and here i am, making my own thing, hoping that in a few years, this will all pay off and I'l be making money while i sleep.
 

Andreas

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
166%
Jul 22, 2011
112
186
Cmon guys ... DEAD END SHIT JOBS!

Property Manager, Realtor, Bartender ... these are respectable jobs! Mopping floors and scooping up turds in backed-up toilets aren't!

gross.jpg

Cleaning dust off a factory that hasn't been cleaned for 9 months. I was so bored with it that sometimes, i pretended that i was a ninja. Basically i used the broom stick as a bamboo stick that samurai's use and do random moves.

Other times i threw the shovel and broom stick (and the portable dust bin) in a corner, get out of the factory and burned in the 38 degrees Celsius sunlight to clean outside using other tools.
 

bmarone

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
5%
Nov 15, 2011
116
6
37
1) currently sears roebock (merchandising, cashier)
2) warehouse packaging and processing
3) maintenance (including mopping floors and stocking shelves) at gas station
4) inventory auditor (RGIS) - lasted one month

I'm currently working a "shit" job and it is only providing all the more fire to get me moving in starting my business. Every time I step foot in my job, I feel the motivation increasing even more due to my extreme discontent with my current situation. From where I stand right now, the light at the end of the tunnel is a tiny dot but visible nonetheless.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

DrummerDad

Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
26%
Apr 8, 2011
82
21
1) Fast food. Most of the major chains.
2) Slow food. Washing dishes, and cleaning counters.
3) Factory Work. Ive upholstered, and wired mobile homes. Ultimately, they are all the same.
4) Construction. Tieing rebar, and hanging iron.
5) Airframe Mechanic. This is the one I thought was different. I started out with no experience, just a little electrical background from the Army. Moved up to lead, then trainer, then supervisor. And somewhere along the line it hit me: they are all the same. As long as you work for someone else, eventually you will either hate it, or you have to become complacent.

All of these experiences have helped me in some way. Either they contributed to my knowledge base, or they showed me why I wanted something better. I think everyone should have a shit job, at least once. I dont agree with guys who allow their kids to take a high position in a company they own, without any real world experience in that position or field. I think that was the final straw for me. Seeing people move up a ladder with only one rung, while the people busting their a$$ got knocked off the ladder to nowhere. Its time to switch ladders.
 

rc08234

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
69%
Jun 29, 2011
320
221
35
South Jersey
1. Construction-Carpenter- Pretty much a gopher for my pops. Started in 6th grade ended when I was 18 or so.
2. Lumber salesmen at Lowe's- Nothing like moving 80 lb bags of concreate for some a**hole, and sucking up concrete dust in 90 degree weather. THe manager of the store was so anal we had to vaccuum the concrete bags at night to get all the dust off so it was clean. I shit you not.
2.1 Paint department at Lowers- Everyday telling the difference people between eggshell finish and satin. Then have them argue with me about it. Luggin 5 gallon buckets all day gets old.
3. Loss prevention at Boscov's. Kickin a$$ was fun, taking names wasn't all that great. It was a cool job till some kid punched me in the face and I opened up a can of whoop a$$ on him only to find out he was 3 months away from being 18. Had his mom literally black mail me until the case was dropped. I also got bit one time.
 

hispanic-mj

PARKED
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
0% - New User
Jan 3, 2012
10
0
Castroville, Ca
i have the shitiest job

i have to stack boxes full of lettuce bags and stack them on a pallet a certain way and they come out really fast and i sweat like crazy.

the saddest part: 9.50/hr $14,000 year

thats why im desperately trying to find another way to earn income
 

Mr.Marnier

New Contributor
Read Fastlane!
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
12%
May 3, 2011
51
6
Currently I am doing housekeeping in a tourist hot spot hotel.

Man, someone already said it but **** me, I would KILL to be back in the "shitty" office jobs I've had before. Before this I thought my time in telemarketing was the modern day equivalent of being hung-drawn-and-quartered, thought selling mortgages in an air-conditioned room was akin to being burned for witchcraft!

I was wrong.

Cleaning a hotel room that's just played host to 8 slack-jawed, pizza eating, beer-swilling, rambunctious snowboarders for a week has to be one of the most degrading forms of work in the western world, I don't mind cleaning up my own shit but anonymous, foreign turds? - come on!

To add icing to this nasty cake of mine, I'm doing this alone in a country 4600 miles away from anyone I know and my co-workers don't speak much English.

My thoughts oscillate wildly during the day between those of "yea this is the grimy, back-breaking work on the path to success!" to "holy shit I have ****ed up here....fml."

The only plus is that I can wear headphones so I spend most of the day trying to assuage my pain with positive audiobooks from the likes of Earl Nightingale and Dale Carnegie etc...
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

FiveOone

Bronze Contributor
Read Fastlane!
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
141%
Jan 16, 2013
74
104
Australia
My worst job, and I've had some really shit ones, would have been walking around a building site where my 'friends' ( and i use the term loosely) dad had just built 10 new townhouses. I was tasked with breaking up chunks of spilled concrete with a 6'ft long crowbar. The townhouses were near completed at this point so the cement had had alot of time to set and become a real pain in the balls for anyone trying to move it. The bar was heavy as hell and I just smashed it into rock hard cement all day long until the cement became smaller manageable chunks that I could get it into a wheelbarrow and cleared away. After the first week my hands were shredded with blisters and my back painful and aching but I took that first pay cheque and got mortal that weekend as reward for my hard work, never thinking that it would just lead to more of the same.
Deadend sidewalking in full effect.
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Arif.T

New Contributor
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
56%
Dec 29, 2012
9
5
32
grocery store "cart boy"
office assistant for an actual crazy person (conspiracy theory mailing list shit)
dishwasher - salad cook - pizza cook (promoted through the ranks at a cheap italian place)
point of sale technician (not as respectable as it sounds, mostly a low paid delivery job with some button pushing)
dishwasher - prep cook (presently; calamari and lobster are as disgusting to clean as any toilet)
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

Latest Posts

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top