Designated life guard on canoe trips down the Cortois* in Missouri. I was there mainly as a box ticking exercise and to transport the cool box, the guiding was handled by someone else.

* generally has a depth of about 30cm

Not glamorous but working in a William Hill call centre was pretty good as a student. Got quite quick at it and got put on a special line for VIP customers where the phone didn’t ring very often. There was nowt else useful to do so they were quite happy for you to chat to others, read a book, or watch all the sports that were on TVs all over the place.

Pay was pretty decent too – especially double time on a Sunday which I think was about £14 an hour.

A tie for me.

One great summer job was picking, packing and dispatching hedge cutting platforms. I worked with two other fellas mostly wrapping steel frames in bubblewrap, working in a barn in a large country house. All the tea and juice we could drink, and a couple of spaniels to throw balls for. We could work flat out for half an hour, then have a half hour break when we’d generally play tennis-ball cricket. The boss didn’t mind a bit!

I also loved lambing one spring – early starts, bitterly cold, properly mucky but really rewarding

In 1987 I was in between jobs to I got in touch with a French woman I knew who had a chalet in Megeve where she taught French to English kids. Turned out she was looking for someone to collect the kids from the airport and take them skiing in the afternoons, so I spent the whole winter season living in the chalet, driving to and from Geneva and skiing in the afternoons. Terrible, it was! It certainly improved my skiing.

The other great job I had was driving for Hertz, most of the jobs were returning hire cars to depots like Marble Arch or delivering them to airports. This was in the days of 3 litre Granada and Capri Ghias, so I had a lot of fun. We used to drive in convoy from Newcastle down to Marble Arch in five cars at a steady 95 mph then pile into one and drive back. Typically one or two of the other drivers would be Police so when we did get stopped for speeding the problem would magically go away.

Working in the edinburgh fringe… Did this 3 times, pretty different each time, all brilliant.

First time, dogsbodying in a nightclub/music venue. Decent wages, terrible hours but got to watch all the bands and meet most of them, which was ace at that age, chilling with Mogwai and Midge Ure, Uresai Yatsura, the Fannies, the Wannadies and the Divine Comedy… And a bunch of rubbish that I’ve forgotten. And blagged my way into a ton of gigs and parties off the back of it. 5 weeks stupidly hard work, made more than I’d expected to in the whole summer, probably aged me by a year though.

Second time, working in a theatre venue, running the box office. There was basically one essential thing to do here- establish that I was the one heterosexual male in the theatre industry. I love the theatre! Got paid **** all and spent far more on drink and condoms. The work was great fun too.

Last time out, a more serious venue. Less fun, less shagging, more money, better shows, better blagging and the best last night party ever. For ages I had on my CV “flamethrower operator/machine gun loader”

Working at Vue as a customer assistant.
Fairly hard work, poor pay and antisocial hours but the staff at all level were fantastic. I actually enjoyed going into work because the social aspect was so much fun. Turns our that our cinema was one of the best performing too!

Island sitting pumpkin island on the great barrier reef (now XXXX island- the beer), 4 posh chealets on the island; you lived in which ever was empty.

Bit of cleaning, ferrying about in a dinghy/on a quad then relax in the most beautiful place on earth.

Storms were insane!

Spent a summer working for Brophy Ground Maintenance, who won the tender to look after all the flower beds, parks and grassed ares in the city. What a wonderful job, I’d spend the mornings driving a 7.5t truck, pulling a trailer, all laden with trays and trays of flower which I’d drop off at various locations (big roundabouts were my favorite – yes I am going to drive onto the grass), I’d then spend the afternoon helping to clean up the beds and plant them all out. We had a tipper on the truck, but nowhere to tip, so all the muck had to be hand shoveled out of the back at the end of the day. I ended up fitter than any sport has ever made me.

I used to work as a bread van delivery boy, from 4-5am on a Saturday. Hard graft but it gave me great forearms and, with a bit of skulduggery, it paid well. That helped pay for all of my lifestyle issues and since we knocked off early, it meant I could still play school rugby or hitchhike from London to Stoney Middleton and get in some steep limestone action. I hitched that route every weekend for about 2 years, adolescent obsessions being what they are. That job made me appreciate the beauty and clean air of the early mornings, even in east London plus it meant I always had natty English shoes.

hora – Member

My bestmate had a summer job at Japanese airlines. He said all the girls were gagging for white guys but they did nothing for him. He likes blondes. He wouldn’t take me to see them as he said he didn’t want to get in trouble/fired.

That would have been my dream short term job….

Ya, they do, they do … I am not white so consider sub-human to them girls. D’oh!

In the meantime, the best short term job I enjoy was I think looking after 500 pigs (12kg – 85kg) in the farm, even if the place was full of pig shite but they were good shite. Very tiring but not bad. I doubt I have the energy to work long term as it’s very physical.

Apart from that … not sure.

had quite a few jobs in the past…. mostly short term.

as one of our brethen above, i spent a year in Oz (gulp! 12yrs ago). was a delivery guy of sorts to many hostels thanks to a “dude” i met six months previously. i was lodging at a hostel with my own room with a lady friend, only having to clean the kitchen and yard each day. was fun riding around town and the suburbs and i saved up enough to finance a big chunk of the rest of my time there.
also had a stint picking grapes with an old college friend in the SW. early starts, bloody cold, but soon got warm. 5:30 till 11. those five’n half hours were spent in a sunny haze. had the odd red back run up your arm or leg which woke you up. was a good time spent hitching around between towns, forests and the coast and camping wherever we fancied.

more recently, but still many years ago, my work mate and i built a timber framed house for his in-laws. from spring through till early winter, all day spent outside, hard graft (GF found a photo from that time, she said i look like a triangle), good laughs… and nice hard cash at the end of each week. earnt enough that year that i packed lots of it into that ISA thing and meant i could support myself for a few months in germany.

and i enjoyed guiding a few seasons back. two summers spent either riding with guests one week or driving the support/lugguage vans the other. met lots of fun and interesting people, knew many of the locals in the villages we passed through and could eat for free in many huts and restaurants. it was a demanding job, having to heard and encourage 6-10 people of vastly varying ability along, up, over and down mountains for six days on end whilst always being on call and the go-to man for everything takes its toll on your nerves. (i longer guide, but i do drive for them still.)

where as with the van i have total solitude… my only real contact with people is when picking up the luggage from the one or two hotels between 9-10. then i drive for a few hours to the next hotels through fantastic scenery, drop off the luggage by 12-1 and then head off to find a spot to kip for the night. usually up high or by a lake if i want a wash. still have four to six hours to ride (on my own, at my own pace, without worrying about those in front or behind me). each week starts in Germany and ends either on Lake Garda or Como.
by kipping in the van it means i save my allowance and can invest this in lift tickets for the afternoon.
it’s more of a paid holiday than a job and still do three or four weeks a year in summer when my normal work is low on the ground.

One of my first photography assisting jobs on leaving art school was Penthouse UK relaunch photography shoots. Bit of an eye opener. 😯

Tipping frozen black currents (along with snails) into a giant mashing machine. Twelve our shifts with the option of an extra twelve hour night shift at 2x rate on a Friday for a lucrative 24hour marathon. Loadsa money for a spotty youth.

Pulling somebody out of the mashing machine by his feet and seeing the look on his [surprisingly still intact] face was priceless.

summer job at a brewery in leeds.. opening and pouring the contents of the damaged cans down the drain..my neck.. never went home sober was still drunk on the train to work the next day..every day..

summer job at a scrap yard.. worked on the weighbridge.. read prom mags from 7.30 till 4.30 every day..

Not a job as such, but some family friends live in Snowdonia, we go visit for a month at a time. She is retired, he is semi retired working for forestry commission. And to earn our keep I help out on the logging harvest. They have a deal that any fallen tree can be taken for firewood. So driving about on the old field Marshall with a trailer and a saw, dragging wood out to get the barn stocked up for the winter. Take my bike never ride it, as I’m too busy wood collecting. Hard graft, but best holiday I have