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

dave773

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here it goes..

1. Supermarket nightfiller (good job as a kid, shit later on)
2. tiling assistant for a neo-nazi boss (two days)
3. landscaping assistant (for same neo-nazi boss two days)
4. courier warehouse - loading and unloading heavy boxes from a trucks full of dust
5. english teacher for passive aggressive bosses - shit pay and shit bosses
6. labourer/painter 5-6days a week

Did the WADM.. now looking for a new job. It's time to move out to gain some psychological freedom.
 
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sam9530130

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Been at my current job for 2 years (out of college)

Actuarial analyst in Pension and Investments.

The whole corporate thing is so toxic and destroys your drive, for me anyways.

It takes me about 3.5 hours of travel each day (door-to-door) and I get 0 satisfaction out of working for someone else.

I will leave my job before 2018 and move to another country while starting my other business. Working on getting some traction right now.
 

jpanarra

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1. Retail
2. Entertainer (costumed at a theme park)
3. Waiter at a chain restaurant
4. Chemist- basically a glorified monkey that learned complex chemical concepts to press a button daily...
5. Teacher- SO MUCH WORK, rapport, scheduling, problem solving..all for chump change.. and you're supposed to have a 6 year degree after all of this.. no thanks
 

happybhoy

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multiple production line jobs. The worst picking out bad potatoes from a line before they went into a packing machine. an 8 hour shift felt like 16 hours and 1 hour simultaneously.
 
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Raoul Duke

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This should be fun:
  1. Cutting brush in a damn swamp
  2. Driving hubs on a damn road
  3. Cleaning pipes on a damn campground
  4. Fixing sinks and toilets in a damn hotel
  5. Carrying boxes in a damn warehouse
  6. Now: staring at spreadsheets trying to make some damn money


 

G-Man

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Teacher- SO MUCH WORK, rapport, scheduling, problem solving..all for chump change.. and you're supposed to have a 6 year degree after all of this.. no thanks

Of all the jobs out there, this is one that probably makes the least sense to me. Being sandwiched between a government bureaucracy, a union, and other people's children? for 35k a year? Sounds amazing!
 

G-Man

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rollerskates

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I can't decide if my favorite involved cleaning toilets or working in a factory in the desert in the summer. :hilarious:
 

jpanarra

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Of all the jobs out there, this is one that probably makes the least sense to me. Being sandwiched between a government bureaucracy, a union, and other people's children? for 35k a year? Sounds amazing!

The sad reality is that we should be teaching those teachers how to teach children to be independent free thinkers and deal with real world problems instead of basics. They have to deal with so much shit from students that don't want to learn and then deal with their parents that don't understand that their child is not the center of the universe. I know this because I used to do it, I got a temporary position for 2 years because I had a chemistry degree and the school couldn't find teachers that have a background in chemistry with a teaching degree.(i wonder why).

Look over at Sweden or the nordic countries, children are done with "grade school" type of work at 8th grade. Then they go into certain specialties or even trades and is very similar to university type of concentration of learning by doing. It worked for the united states in the 1940s and 1950s because it was a way to raise the base standard... but now we have the internet and other tools to help us learn.. its time to update everything. The teachers get paid so low because their approach is outdated, so like everything that gets old... it gets cheap. Sadly the lawmakers have too much control over the education system and push dumb a$$ standardized tests and confined standards that all schools must be the same which kills the competition and growth of the education system.

I could go on about this all day, because I was in the system for 2 years as an educated chemist with some business sense for survival reasons.. Its a disaster, and its not the teachers or lawmakers thats paying the price.. Its the students and the future of the country that will have to compensate for the lack of education.
 
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maverick

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I have had many, many terrible jobs however to make a point I will list the last 3:
[1] strategy consultant for consumer goods companies (airplane,hotel,office - repeat)
[2] ecommerce manager
[3] CRM manager

The most important thing is that you have an end goal. What are you working towards? You need to know what that end goal is at this very moment. It will change over time as you reach goals however having an end goal is the motivation that will help you to keep going.

What I'm trying to say here is this:
I used the experiences I got from being a strategy consultant to build a network of people that work at the bigger consumer good organisations. This helped me switch from consultancy to an ecommerce role. After that I picked up CRM work. I then had the skills to setup my own company that creates digital growth for companies. You see how I transitioned that? I then used the skills and experiences I got from growing established companies, by setting up my own companies and driving the growth.

The end goals as they changed for me - in sequence:
[1] Move into ecommerce
[2] Expand my ecommerce knowledge
[3] Grow my independence

All in all, I set an end goal and moved the goal posts as I achieved them. This can be applied to ANY sequence of jobs. Just as long as you set realistic end goals.

Looking back, the overall end goal is ALWAYS growth - keep growing and evolving.

I'll end my rant here..
 

andviv

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RETAIL RETAIL RETAIL.

Never do it.
Are you kidding?
It is one of the best ways to learn how to work with people, learn soft skills, understand how to deal with issues that customers bring to you, etc.
 
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Wolf0427

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Call center rep for the phone company: Union Job, max pay about 71k because on all the union's work over the years.

Coming into this job, started at $11/hr, currently at $26 only about 7 months away from maxing out except maxing out just lets me know that it's a dead end. High sales are not rewarded in proportion to the pay, as they think the high hourly is compensation enough.

I feel like this is the "middle class trap" kind of job. Really easy to get comfortable at 71k/year but the mental stress this job brings is really not worth it to me. Burn out is real. I've been burnt out for at least a year now. smh.

I feel like I sound ungrateful but I did manage to get in here with no college degree even though a degree was required.
 

Mattie

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1. Salad Bar Attendant
2. Cashier, Stocking products in department store. 3 different stores.
3. Nurse Aide 4 places Inhome care 2 places.
4. Factory Temp Jobs
5. Mental Health AFC Group Home.
 

Almantas

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Interesting thread, so here I go:

1) 5-12 picking potatoes in a small family owned farm during holiday. I had to earn everything, even money for sweets.
2) 14-16 supervisor assistant at Four Seasons. Duties involved mopping floors, cleaning toilets and scrubbing dishes.
3) 16-17 Store Manager Assistant (Internship). Duties involved cleaning shelves and mopping floors daily.
4) 17-23 Business Development Assistant. Basically studying and working 24/7, didn't have a break for at least 5 years.
5) 23-24 IT Recruiter. Working in an open-space office environment was a killer - constant distraction and pointless meetings...
6) 24-24 (6 months) Business Development Manager. Challenging role, quit it because decided to pursue my own venture.
 
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Keenan G

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Iʻm a firefighter for a large city ( ~ 1 million population) I love it, and the schedule allows us to easily have side businesses. I donʻt have anything yet, but I read the book and am trying to find my niche
 

jlwilliams

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My worst dead and shit job was graveyard shift security at a major casino. I punched in at 11:45pm and worked until 8:00am. It sucked, but my wife was pregnant and I needed health insurance. I hated every minute of it. The non stop noise was mind numbing. The shift consisted of four "posts" two of which would be "standing posts" which means two hours standing in one spot not walking, not leaning, not sitting....just standing there trying not to fall asleep. Second hand smoke all night. People pissing themselves rather than walk away from the table or slit machine was a more or less every night thing. Small children would be left in a room while mom and dad gambled,then they wake up and wander around crying looking for their parents. You know who plays slots at 04:00? Zombies, that's who. Lifeless forms mumbling and staggering from machine to machine with a jingling cup of misplaced hopes.

I don't count the dishwashing and prepping jobs I had as a teenager as bad. It was fun, I had some scratch in my pocket, and I was a teenager. Good times.
 

YoungPadawan

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Back during college, I used to work for a plastics factory in South Dakota. I had the graveyard shift from 7:00pm to 3:00am. I would stand at a station and dislodge plastic pieces from their molding for hours on end while listening to the same 20 songs on the radio.

Ugh, that sucked.
 
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Longinus

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My worst dead and shit job was graveyard shift security at a major casino. I punched in at 11:45pm and worked until 8:00am. It sucked, but my wife was pregnant and I needed health insurance. I hated every minute of it. The non stop noise was mind numbing. The shift consisted of four "posts" two of which would be "standing posts" which means two hours standing in one spot not walking, not leaning, not sitting....just standing there trying not to fall asleep. Second hand smoke all night. People pissing themselves rather than walk away from the table or slit machine was a more or less every night thing. Small children would be left in a room while mom and dad gambled,then they wake up and wander around crying looking for their parents. You know who plays slots at 04:00? Zombies, that's who. Lifeless forms mumbling and staggering from machine to machine with a jingling cup of misplaced hopes.

This could so be the intro of a new Nicolas Cage blockbuster.
 

Spicymemer45

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10-15: Cutting trees for a family-friend logging company

15-17: Waiter/Cook

18 (Now): Dishwasher for the past two months

Also starting my first imports!
 

RemedySC

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I have had many, many terrible jobs however to make a point I will list the last 3:
[1] strategy consultant for consumer goods companies (airplane,hotel,office - repeat)
[2] ecommerce manager
[3] CRM manager

The most important thing is that you have an end goal. What are you working towards? You need to know what that end goal is at this very moment. It will change over time as you reach goals however having an end goal is the motivation that will help you to keep going.

What I'm trying to say here is this:
I used the experiences I got from being a strategy consultant to build a network of people that work at the bigger consumer good organisations. This helped me switch from consultancy to an ecommerce role. After that I picked up CRM work. I then had the skills to setup my own company that creates digital growth for companies. You see how I transitioned that? I then used the skills and experiences I got from growing established companies, by setting up my own companies and driving the growth.

The end goals as they changed for me - in sequence:
[1] Move into ecommerce
[2] Expand my ecommerce knowledge
[3] Grow my independence

All in all, I set an end goal and moved the goal posts as I achieved them. This can be applied to ANY sequence of jobs. Just as long as you set realistic end goals.

Looking back, the overall end goal is ALWAYS growth - keep growing and evolving.

I'll end my rant here..

This is exactly my thought process when I was attempting to become a Police Officer.

Other than my first dead-end job, my other ones were always moving me towards my goal.

1) 15 - 20: Convenience store. Sales clerk.
2) 20 - 22: Security at a mental health inpatients.
3) 22 - 24: Addiction work.
4) 23 - 24: Bylaw Enforcement.
5) 24 - Present: Correctional Institution

All of this aimed towards a career in policing, but my ambitions changed and I have a family.

So I'll stay at the Correctional and work from home until I can finally quit.
 
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Niptuck MD

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here it goes, (in order)


Newspaper writer (whilst in HS)
supermarket stocker (whilst in HS)

Firefighter (injured)

Home depot sales associate - what a joke

LAZ BOY truck de-stocker - lasted 1 month (walked off and never returned) (painfully laborious job) made me respect illegal aliens and immigrants that worked this job - we are talking removing futons, chairs, sofas and large furniture off of a 18 wheeler (with a broken POS dolly) in the docks with no HVAC in the summer/winter in chicago)

security guard (easy but long hours to make some decent $$$) - one of three jobs worked during the recession
Overnight security guard - one of three jobs worked during the recession

contract Bank data entry specialist- one of three jobs worked during the recession

IT Cable Cat5 Cat6 installer - (pending lawsuit employer cheated my team of wages)


USPS rural carrier driver (not bad but physically demanding job)
USPS mail sorter

machinist

manufacturing engineer (horrible BIG named organization)

machinist again

customer service rep for phone provider (not bad at home gig)

Finally, got everything together and started valuing time vs money vs priorities vs overall end result and picture;
 

Shamrox

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1. Straight into call centre, telecoms sales (after graduating in the top 5% in my highschool - which ultimately means nothing)

2. Same call centre, but broadband technical support

3. Same call centre, but finance sales (After two years I could see the business was riddled with poor management so I jumped ship. The operation shut down 6 months later)

4. Making pizza at a famous chain to tide me over (I remember this Job as my one of my favourites)

5. Mutual funds customer service agent at U.S. fortune 500 company (glorified call centre of said company) - tough job to have in 07/08.

Left to step it up, do a few tech courses, with a view to returning to a better job in the same company, while living on spare change for a year.

6. Back to same company in System's Engineering as an IT technician. Travelled all over Poland upgrading systems, great experience.

7. The euro crashed bad and the Irish government hiked income tax. Moved back to the UK and took a pay cut working for a U.S. fortune 500 manufacturing company as a technical analyst. Few prospects in this slow moving machine.

8. Moved to small private company as head of infrastructure (before this I thought things couldn't get worse than a call centre - I was wrong - the shitiest job by far. Run by two tight fisted @holes who didn't know what they were doing or care about their employees. The 60% annual turn over in that small workforce said it all - I have the utmost respect for all the managers and business owners I've worked for - bar these guys.

9. (Current job - which I LOVE) Got tired of exchanging pounds of flesh for pennies and got hired by another small company as an ERP technical consultant. Been here 3 years. Really well paid job. Make a great living by local standards. Great boss and a great business all round.

There were some supplemental courses along the way but no uni or college. Worked from the ground up. Uni is a farce.

I'm 30 in March, and even though I'm 5 - 10 years ahead of my peers financially speaking, I need to exit the slow lane.

One pattern I'm seeing here is that most people with dreams aren't willing to settle. Most of the posts, so far, reflect that people who want to be successful embrace change and reach out for something better even if it was in a slow lane career. We always knew there was something wrong. Now, thanks to people like MJ DeMarco, we know what to do about it :)
 
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FeaRxUnLeAsHeD

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You don't take jobs anymore? How do you pay rent?

At the time I was a student. I'm working full time in sales right now, but could survive off personal training income if needed.
 
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grindmode

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Starting from the day I turned 14 and could legally work in my state.

1. Unloading rolls of sod from inside of semi truck trailers which where stacked on pallets onto empty pallets on the ground... (boss was too cheap to invest in a forklift used 14 year old kids instead lol).

2. When I turned 16 quit job #1 to work at a debt collecting agency... 16 calling people who were all over at least 60 days on payments. Bomb threats and calling people at 7:00am on Sunday morning to hear a squeaky voice teen preach to them... Lasted 2 months.

3. Car wash drying off cars for tips after they ran through an automated wash system.

4. Crime scene clean up, sewage backup cleanup, and mold remediation. Mostly crime scenes or natural deaths but the person was not found few a few days/week............

5. Estimates/Sales for a home remodeling company.

6. Adult Entertainment Industry.......

7. Gym rat/"muscle building supplement sales"......

8. Licensed Insurance Agent at a brokerage pure phone sales leads provided.... First time I ever wore a tie to work and experienced "water cooler chat" among grown adult sheep that made me work the hardest I ever could to quit and start my own business....

9. Hired myself as a "wantentrpreuner"!!!! Have been a SUCCESSFUL "wantenpreuner" for the last 3-4 years....

10. Became a "volunteer" to a few people who are "entrepreneurs" roughly 1 week ago....
 

mike24601

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I've had a few sucky jobs that would have led nowhere, but I did learn something useful at each one.
1. Flipped burgers for major fast food chain in high school. I respected the franchisee who owned the place, owned about 5 or 6 locations at the time and was doing pretty darn good. While we were tarring the parking lot one day he drove in and splattered his brand new AMG Benz and shrugged it off like it was nothing. I learned about the franchise business, and about how much a company can rape you if you decide to become part of one.

2. Worked at a seasonal plant nursery one summer in college. It was a little less than full time at just over min. wage, with a lot of dirty work, heavy lifting, etc, but the owner was a very down to earth millionaire who franchised several regional brand drugstores and had a lock on almost an entire region, multi million dollar real estate deals, etc. He was about 70 and still would come down and sweat with us while we constructed the greenhouse, and he'd be the last one to leave each night driving the forklift around. Very down to earth guy. He'd buy us lunch sometimes and we'd talk about business. That's when I knew I wanted to hang my own shingle. The work was unpleasant and the money sucked, but I'm glad I stuck around and used an otherwise crappy situation to learn something.
 
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Andrew Smith

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- my first "job" was cutting lawns for $1 when I was a kid
- paper route in Iowa as a kid
- construction painter
- construction laborer (I still do this for personal projects keeps me humble and appreciative)
- landscape laborer (still do this for personal projects)
- pizza delivery
- pilot focus group attendee (actually fun but incredibly time consuming for not much $$)
- human science MRI and psychology paid volunteer for research experiments
- test proctor (time consuming not much $$)
- college tutor (wasnt shitty but didnt get paid much)

and the most humbling "work" I have ever done is...
- prison sanitation night worker (while I was incarcerated)
- me and one other guy cleaned the entire jail, kitchen, bathrooms, trash everything (took 8+ hours)
 

minivanman

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I made that toilet cleaning job in to a pretty lucrative career. But I'm sure a lot of the girls that worked for me would say one of their worst jobs was cleaning toilets. :)

Personally, I think every 'job' that I had was a shit job. None was better than the other even if I made more money at it.... fast food, convenience store, construction worker, printing press...... I guess there was 1 job that I did like and that was running the 17th Street Parking Garage in Omaha. All I did was sit in a glass office and watch the girls walk by all day every day. And I made $1845 a month, I thought I was making a lot of money. lol
 

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