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

[maralevin]

My worst dead-end job was giving horseback riding lessons to rich kids at a particular riding school. In the summer, the poor horses and I had to trudge around in the sun, sometimes in 100 degrees. (Thank you, Gatorade.) I had to teach many children to ride on an ancient, tiny, rickety pony that I was told to whip if she wouldn't move fast enough. (I pretended and just chased her with the whip.) If students didn't show up, the school billed them but wouldn't pay me a cent for my time waiting. They billed $80 and up per hour for my time and only gave me $15.

But, my husband wins the prize. His worst job was at a meat by-products factory in Linden Illinois. The job was shoveling dried pig's blood that was so dusty it got in his nose and ears and eyes. When it got wet, it became "maggoty", because it was very fine and decomposed quickly.

 

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[murlin99]

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

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Bartending can be hit or miss.

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

 

[rich2me]

Here goes:

Summer camp counselor at age 14
McDonald's at age 15
Delivering circulars (sales papers) 15
Selling scented oils age 16
Clerk Typist at age 17
Cashier at Sears and Pathmark age 18
US Navy Admin/Drydock/Maintenance submarines/US Vet age 19-24
Glorified Admin age 20s
Part Time sales clerk, telemarketing, SAHM, 20s
Glorified Office Manager, getting ripped off by business owners
age 30s

Reading MJ DeMarco's book at age 36, finally seeing the light at age 36, getting out of this rut at age 36 and beyond...My last job which I quit last Friday, landed me in the hospital due to stress. I will take selling scented oils over that again any day...

I cannot thank everyone enough for this forum!

 

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[valuegiver]

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]

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.

 

[Likwid24]

Here's my Shitty List!

1) McDonald's - only lasted 2 weeks!
2) Photo Studio- About a year on and off
3) Brick Layer - for about 2 months in December and January by the water in Brooklyn
4) Flag man - In february by the water. Lasted 2 days lol
5) sheetrocking- 3 months
6) demolition - on and off for about 6 years. did some huge jobs. this was actually fun because we were breaking things and eventually I became a supervisor at the age of 22 and the money was good
7) Painting - Where I learned my future biz but started painting real ghetto apartments in Brooklyn. We use to paint right over roaches!!!!
8) Asbestos and lead removal- On and off. went along with the demo

 

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[bkypes]

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]

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.

 

[garyfritz]

I grew up on a farm. With hundreds of animals, all of which produce their daily quota of manure. All of which has to be shoveled somewhere else. (Never mind about the constant heavy labor, e.g. tossing many hundreds of 100lb bales of hay, all day long, in a 100°++ hayloft.)

Then the summer after I graduated from high school, in desperation I took a job working at a chicken-raising operation. Each large building had 40,000 chickens in cages stacked 8' high, all crapping on each other. And any time you walked through the building, every chicken within about 15' went absolutely batshit insane, flapping its wings and beating itself against the cage. Which raised a huge cloud of dust, feathers, and dried poop, and of course we had no breathing protection. I said "no way" and quit after a day -- but I couldn't get the smell of chicken crap out of my nose for almost two weeks. The janitorial job I found after that was a godsend, because it was such an incredible STEP UP from where I'd been.

McDonald's, UPS store, IT!? Pffft. Trust me. You have NO CONCEPT of "shit jobs."

 

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[458]

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]

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]

1) tester waterproof military jackets (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)

 

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[Blacktye6000]

Government for 24 years~it's Dead-End because I'm stuck…

 

[TheAstonMartian]

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.

 

[murlin99]

grew up on a farm. With hundreds of animals, all of which produce their daily quota of manure. All of which has to

McDonald's, UPS store, IT!? Pffft. Trust me. You have NO CONCEPT of "shit jobs."

I agree that your job was shit on a manual labor and the funk factor much more so than IT would ever be. But do not be so fast to down IT. When something breaks and you have 65,000 people whining like little bitches and you work 48 hours straight with maybe a 2 hour nap in between to get the problem fixed, surviving on cold pizza and energy drinks it will crack your mind fast, and there is no break after its all over, you are expected to be back at your workstation the next day, with maybe a few extra hours to recover. Knowing that at the end of the day you are salaried and weather you work 40 hours or 80 hours, your paycheck is going to be the same. On top of that being tied to a cell phone 24/7/365 never knowing when you will get called with a problem, and being tied to deadlines to finish writing software. It all is mentally taxing. Shit means different things to different people. Would I ever want to do what you did? Hell no, would not even consider it unless I was in dire straits and I commend you for even attempting it. But IT has its own shit factor that should be figured in before you say we have no concept of shit.

 

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[andrewsemi]

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]

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!

 

[garyfritz]

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!

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.

 

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[speedyexe]

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

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.

 

[TheAstonMartian]

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]

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.

 

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[garyfritz]

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...

 

[Blacktye6000]

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!

Anything that's not Fastlane is Sh*t, IMO.....

 

[kahem89]

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

 

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[garyfritz]

Now THIS is a shit job:

 

[Brander]

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...

 

[Vigilante]

When my wife was pregnant with our first child, we delivered newspapers together to make ends meet...

 

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[GDevDir]

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]

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!

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.