Most unusual jobs

What jobs have you held that you actually got paid for but that you consider unusual?

I had just started graduate school a few months earlier when the high school where I was working laid me off and I needed a job quick. A contract security company was not too fussy in its hiring and had lots of temporary jobs so I ended up at construction sites, food warehouses, college dorms and once at a closed campaign headquarters of a mayoral candidate. A city cop was also assigned to the building and went and got "free" food for us and then made me hide so his dog could recover its confidence after failing to find a suspect in a building. Luckily I could quit that job after about 3 months when I got a job at a university. The security company had wanted to promote me and make me carry a gun but I refused.

Much later in life I ended up working from home. I responded to a newspaper ad for a "television monitor" and ended up watching lots of TV news and videotaping the broadcasts as an independent contract worker. I then had to send in summaries of the broadcasts over the computer and send the tapes by FedEx to the company headquarters. It paid surprisingly well and I was well situated to pick up news from many TV stations. The company tried to sell the coverage to organizations and politicians covered by stories. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks the company changed its operations and let me go.

After several months without a job, I became a proofreader over the computer. A company set up the jobs and took about a third of the charge to the customer. Two people read the document and split the remainder of the fee. It paid really well if you could pick up large documents or do several small documents quickly. Workers could have only 2 documents at a time unless directed to take more related documents. If you could do legal, medical, engineering, financial or other special documents you got a bonus, also for non-English. It was quite competitive and supposedly had people from all over the world (even Gaza) participate. Documents could be as short as text for a billboard or an invitation or as long as books. You did get your pay docked if you let errors go through or, worse, told someone to change text that was correct. I kept that job for over 10 years, until I retired. It required very little to be successful as long as you could spell properly and were good at grammar. The company tested you before hiring. You needed a dictionary, a manual of style, the Associated Press rulebook, a good Internet connection and a Yahoo Messenger account to communicate. I did have to stay up all night a few times to meet deadlines. As a contract worker, I did not get benefits and had to pay double Social Security. A few times I made up to $1500 a week. I could work when I wanted, skip when I didn't want to work or had appointments or other things to do.

What have you done?

Will

Great idea for thread, Will; I haven't started full-time employment yet, but I have a relevant anecdote I thought I'd share. Let's try to not start a petty "debate" over what constitutes a job; the "unusual" part here is actually more the "payment" rather than the job, anyway.

A couple years ago (shortly after I first started cataloguing my coins on Numista, so 2014-15 ish), it was a slow couple of weeks for me during the holidays, and I spent hours lingering about at a dealer's even after I'd spent my budget for the week already. The bloke happened to be sorting through a big bag of coins (one of those guys who buys coins by the kilo), and I (rather helpfully, I might add) pointed out a few non-Commonwealth/American silvers that he had missed. Long story short, I ended up spending the day helping sort through the whole bag.

At the end of it all, I wasn't expecting anything other than verbal gratitude, but the nice old man got a few of the copper-nickel (post 1947), but still pre-decimal coins and gave them away; more as a token of thanks rather than payment proper. Either way, it's given me a nice little story to tell over coffee; being "paid" for my "service" in £sd, fifteen years into the new millennium.

Not really a job but when I was younger I was kind of helping the referee during "balle pelote" games in my village. In french we say "marquer les chasses" because it's something very specific but I don't think it can be translated. Even the game itself doesn't seem to have a wikipedia page in english. It's a job usually done by kids or teens. I was paid 10€ by game, which lasts between 1h30 and 4h, more or less.

if you want any explaination on this sport  :
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balle_pelote
in video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_aBxoUzW-Y

It was very famous before in Belgium but nowadays it tends to disappear.

Back during the days of the Cold War, I used to work for the 44th Strategic Missile Wing / SAC / USAF, at Ellsworth AFB near Box Elder South Dakota. My job was to aim the Minuteman II missiles in their silos. This mostly consisted of measuring angles between light beams reflected off various optically flat mirrors, using a Wild T3/AM theodolite (supposedly the same model used by the Russians at the time). There were other tasks, such as using a very expensive (and classified and heavy) geosensor to measure the earth's rotational axis, to give us a true north reference azimuth.

BTW, on most days, we had to carry "loaded military sidearms", although we also had guards with M-16 assault rifles to protect us. I seem to recall that one of the guards shot himself in the foot during a quick draw competition (not with a real bullet, I presume).

Back in 2012 the company i was working with was asked by the British Olympic committee to make a copper petal , all very secretive at the time, we ended up making over 600 of these


3 months solid work bashing copper in to shape, we finished them 1 week before the Olympics started in London, 1 set of 204 petals for the Olympics, 1 set for the Paralympics , and 1 set for practice run.
this is the finished article at the London Olympics -


All handmade and beaten in Cambridgeshire, England, close to where i live.
without doubt the most unusual job i ever did

I was offered a job as a giggalo by a wealthy old lady while I was working as a porter/waiter at a local tourist attraction that had accommodation and a restaurant on site.

I was serving her dinner and she was telling me all about how she was travelling the world since her husband died and left her his fortune and how lonely she was. She told me to bring her dessert up to her room, and when I got there she propositioned me. I turned her down as I had just got married that year and I don't think my wife would have been too happy. If I was single I would have jumped at the chance just so I could brag to my mates that I got paid for my services.

I seem to attract them, I got propositioned by an old lady on the bus when I was a teenager too.

Neilithicman,

You may win the prize for the most unusual offer of a paid job but you didn't take it so it doesn't count. Thanks for sharing. It brought back some memories. In my college days I had a different problem. A guy in a white furry coat outside a movie theatre when the show let out made clear he wanted me to go with him (I later found out he was what is known as a "chubby chaser", he likes overweight guys). And another time I had to get off a bus way before my stop because a guy beside me kept pushing himself tighter against me and smiling at me. Believe me, I did not encourage them. To each his own, but they were not my cup of tea. On a tour to Mexico much later I did have to fend off the advances of an older woman. She actually lived fairly close to me and after the tour pestered me so much on the phone I had to buy an answering machine to screen calls. On the tour one night she knocked on my door late in the evening to see if she had left her glasses in the room when people earlier were admiring my room, the best in a converted mission. I managed to get her out fairly quickly. Her husband was the source of much amusement to me on a train ride. I sat in a different carriage from them and he came back and sat with me and we were talking. Suddenly he said "Oh, God!" and ducked under the seat. I looked up and saw his wife at the carriage door, scanning the seats. But she didn't see him and left again. Poor guy! I just now remembered that I couldn't figure out why a teen Mexican cowboy in the village kept spending time with me. He kept calling me "guapo" which I found out later means "handsome".

Will

Quote: "phfoticus"​Back during the days of the Cold War, I used to work for the 44th Strategic Missile Wing / SAC / USAF, at Ellsworth AFB near Box Elder South Dakota. My job was to aim the Minuteman II missiles in their silos. This mostly consisted of measuring angles between light beams reflected off various optically flat mirrors, using a Wild T3/AM theodolite (supposedly the same model used by the Russians at the time). There were other tasks, such as using a very expensive (and classified and heavy) geosensor to measure the earth's rotational axis, to give us a true north reference azimuth.
​
​BTW, on most days, we had to carry "loaded military sidearms", although we also had guards with M-16 assault rifles to protect us. I seem to recall that one of the guards shot himself in the foot during a quick draw competition (not with a real bullet, I presume).

​Wow, this is really cool :). Was there a situation/alert when you got order to get ready for real launch ?

Quote: "LEÓNIDÁS"​

Quote

​​Wow, this is really cool :). Was there a situation/alert when you got order to get ready for real launch ?

​In Oct 1973, we went from Defcon 4 (our normal readiness state) to Defcon 3. My job (as a maintenance person) was to help bring the base training site up to Strategic Alert (i.e. install a nuclear warhead, since the training site normally has an RV simulator instead of a warhead, and bring the site up, ready to launch, if needed).

Our Missile Wing hangar was busier than I've ever seen it, and that was at 3AM.

Quote: "phfoticus"​

Quote: "LEÓNIDÁS"​
​

Quote

​​​Wow, this is really cool :). Was there a situation/alert when you got order to get ready for real launch ?

​​In Oct 1973, we went from Defcon 4 (our normal readiness state) to Defcon 3. My job (as a maintenance person) was to help bring the base training site up to Strategic Alert (i.e. install a nuclear warhead, since the training site normally has an RV simulator instead of a warhead, and bring the site up, ready to launch, if needed).
​
​Our Missile Wing hangar was busier than I've ever seen it, and that was at 3AM.

​Thanks, I like these stories from cold war :)

Quote: "phfoticus"​

Quote: "LEÓNIDÁS"​
​

Quote

​​​Wow, this is really cool :). Was there a situation/alert when you got order to get ready for real launch ?

​​In Oct 1973, we went from Defcon 4 (our normal readiness state) to Defcon 3. My job (as a maintenance person) was to help bring the base training site up to Strategic Alert (i.e. install a nuclear warhead, since the training site normally has an RV simulator instead of a warhead, and bring the site up, ready to launch, if needed).
​
​Our Missile Wing hangar was busier than I've ever seen it, and that was at 3AM.

​Thank God,you didn't launch the fucking thing....

Something straight out of Dr. Strangelove (that 1960s satirical film with a man riding the bomb), that is!