What is the best job you ever had? I took a year off from teaching to get another degree. While doing this I worked for

[debm55]

the Fed Gov't doing CAD. Loved it.

[LoisB]

1. Operating my bookstore. It only lasted two years but I loved it.

[debm55]

7. Thank you very much, LoisB

[OLDMDDEM]

2. Nebraska State Trooper. I drank my way thru my first year of college to rebel against my parents

telling me I had to go to the university my brothers went to. I was offered a full ride basketball scholarship elsewhere but they wouldn't hear of it. So, I went and rebelled, I flunked out and became a state trooper. I grew up in that job and I went back to college in Omaha, not Lincoln (where I flunked out) and got my degree. Many years later I got my masters and Phd in Economics.

[debm55]

8. Thank you very much, OLDMDDEM for sharing with us.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Diagnosing and fixing mainframe operating systems for IBM. It's a job I held for a decade before joining management.

[debm55]

9. Thank you very much, sinkingfeeling. for sharing.

[Aristus]

4. Tank crewman.

Best job I ever had...

[debm55]

10. Wow, thank you Aristus.

[Aristus]

14. Since this film came out, "Best job I ever had" is a frequent response on tanker social media.

I actually love being a PA more than I loved being a tanker, but at least as a PA I don't have sergeants screaming at me all the time.

[Silent Type]

5. Worked for a state Medicaid program during startup years. Really liked that job, colleagues. Put in lot of extra hours.

Of course, I was young in my late 20s.

[debm55]

11. Thank you Silent Type. Having a job that you like, really makes it easy to put in the extra time.

[NNadir]

6. Working on the industrial scaleup of the early AIDS drugs.

The protease inhibitors. When Magic Johnson went on TV to say his life had been saved, I was a (tiny, but still vital) part of that.

My current job was great until the current attack on science took hold.

[debm55]

12. Congratulations, NNadir. And thank you for the lives that you helped save.

[TlalocW]

13. What I'm currently doing

Balloon twister. It was my main source of income forvover 10 years (also did freelance computer programming ). COVID shut down both for me so I got a job at the Red Cross through my SIL, which is a lot of sitting around honestly so I do a lot of craft work like crochet there, and twisting is back as a side gig. I'm in my 50s and had a health scare in January and no longer feel the need to be part of the rat race.

[debm55]

15. Thank you very much TialocW. Interesting jobs. Best of luck on your health.

[ProfessorGAC]

16. Yes!

I really only had 2 jobs.
Research chemist/R&D Manager & process integrity director.
The titles changed at times, but it was still those same 2 roles.
I can't say I favored one over the other.
The only other job I had was at a banquet hall where I was a janitor & ran the fish fry on Fridays. (HS & college) Didn't hate it, but I wouldn't wanted to have done that my whole life

[debm55]

17. Thank you very much ProfessorGAC for sharing with us.

[sakabatou]

18. Martial arts teacher,

but I hated the business side of things.

[debm55]

19. Thank you sakabatou. That is very interesting. Thank you for sharing.

[Upthevibe]

20. debm55............

Convention Services Manager at a luxury hotel in L.A.

It was SO stressful but I was young (in my 20's) and had a lot of energy. It was like being a show runner on a show or a stage manager for a play. I loved it! I also loved being Reservations Manager at another resort hotel in TX.

[debm55]

21. That's great, Upthevibe. Thank you for sharing.

[AllaN01Bear]

22. working for a rental yard dealing with heavy equipment etch

[debm55]

23. Thank you for sharing AllaN01Bear. Love, Debbie

[Wicked Blue]

24. Working as a reporter for a large daily newspaper

I worked in a two-person county bureau, away from the noise of the main office.

[LogDog75]

25. I had a variety of jobs in the AF

My job in medical logistics involved a number of positions. While in Germany, in the 90s, my OIC assigned me the task of inventorying 10 war readiness projects, reporting everything as excess, and then shipping the items and projects to other bases. I lead a group of six composed of NCOs and junior enlisted whom the OIC didn't think much of or have faith in. I showed them how we'd do the job and assigned each of the one of the projects. As we began one project, everyone would follow the orders of the person in-charge of that project regardless of rank. The first person was a Buck Sergeant (one of the last in the AF) who didn't want to be in-charge but I wouldn't let her back out of it. After she completed her project and shipped it out she came to me and said "That was fun. Can I do another." The others completed their projects in-turn and we completed everything ahead of schedule. It was rewarding to see troops grow in their confidence and capabilities.

[elleng]

26. Rail Merger Coordinator @ Interstate Commerce Commission!

Challenging!
THOSE were the days!

[pfitz59]

27. Flying helicopters in Puerto Rico

Total blast

[Americanme]

28. I had a union job

for 37 years, at a gas/electric utility. Had a lot of duties, learned so much. Trenching machine operator, pipeline welder, corrosion control field tech, emergency responder, appliance repair, pipefitter, I had a blast, made a good living. Best job I could have hoped for. I retired a couple years ago, now I work part time, stocking building materials at Menards, it's a pretty fun job too.

[no_hypocrisy]

29. I worked as the producer for a progressive talk radio show in the NYC region.

Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Never did it before, but I loved it. This was 2008 to 2010.

I got guests for the host by making cold calls. Politicians, authors, actors, regular people doing extraordinary things, etc. (Shameless name-dropping: Ted Sorensen, Jim Hightower, Greg Palast, Carl Reiner, George McGovern)

My guy could get a book from a publisher and just breathe it in one day and be ready for the interview.

I also marketed commercial time and wrote script.

When the show was on, I monitored for quality, e.g., if a mistake was made, I'd IM the host and he'd correct it on the air. I'd also scour online for late-breaking news to broadcast.

While there were three other talk shows on the air as we were, there were times we beat them with breaking news. For example, we were the first to broadcast that SC Governor Mark Sanford was missing and provided updates during that broadcast.

And we were one of the few radio shows that had former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (several times) to give him air time for the corruption that put him in prison.

No other job can ever give me the satisfaction I got from this experience.

[jmowreader]

30. Intelligence analyst at Field Station Berlin, Germany

[Woodwizard]

31. Furniture designer

Worked in a small company making high end teak furniture I designed and then built the prototypes. Also built jigs and fixtures for production efficiency.

It hit all the problem solving and creativity drive that I enjoy in work. The company grew rapidly and with that started getting toxic with management power plays. One day after 13 years I quit after having another run in with the toxic VP.

Ended up starting my own shop doing custom work still going 21 years later.

A year after I quit I emailed the VP thanking him for giving me the motivation to expand my horizons.

They went out of business 3 years later, jumped ship at the right time.

[Emile]

32. US Navy, 18 years old and seeing the world.

From the Arctic circle, northern Europe, ports of call all over the Mediterranean, Aegean and Caribbean seas. From the French Riviera to the Greek islands, young, single and having a blast.

[Hotler]

33. Motorcycle escort for funeral processions. nt

[Mad_Dem_X]

34. I left a very stressful office job and wound up

at another office, where there was just me and one other person. It was so quiet and laid-back; just what I needed after the former job. I had just enough work to keep busy, but not be overwhelmed. The phone hardly rang. Plus, there was this incredible food place right down the street that I loved to go to.