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  • Odd jobs
  • SprocketJockey
    Free Member

    I used to work for a “large telecommunications provider” – where my job was basically to make nuisance calls on an industrial scale.

    I worked in a team working shifts managing the predictive diallers for a 2000 seat call centre. Theoretically these things were supposed to automatically adjust the dialling rate based on the number of agents available, average talk time etc, In practice the technology was in its infancy and they needed near-constant tweaking to avoid silent calls (and the resulting wrath of the regulator) etc and to maintain the hit rate.

    The kit itself was hosted offsite and at the time filled most of a gloomy hangar-like bunker in Swindon – getting in there was like getting into the Roswell airbase and nearly as strange.

    We’d target specific demographics and parts of the country at different times of the day and week. Had a wall of tellies in the office so we could crank up the calls at peak times around certain TV shows- we’d get a fantastic hit rate in places like Eastbourne and Southend just at the end of Cash in the Attic!

    It was really well paid as it was shift work (we worked overnight to process data etc), and got loads of free time during the day when I was on lates, but can’t say there was much in the way of job satisfaction and it all left me feeling a bit empty. A classic case of a job where you don’t actually feel you’re doing anything useful.

    On the positive side, it got me a foot in the door into IT, which I still work in, so I guess it wasn’t all bad.

    nbt
    Full Member

    I got paid £25 to watch Kim Wilde and Michael Jackson. Was working in a burger van at the “Bad” tour gig at Aintree racecourse: as soon as the music started we shut the windows and said “not allowed to serve while the music’s on”. Still one of the best gigs I’ve ever seen

    40mpg
    Full Member

    I worked at Tussauds on the Jeremy Beadle exhibit – I had to work a weak hand

    alpin
    Free Member

    grape picker in Oz… early mornings, knock off at 11 as it is then too warm. lots of redbacks. lots of weed.

    hawking in Oz… i lasted a day. i’m not a salesman.

    bike guide… lots of riding.

    flat-pack furniture erector… had a period of no work so got some leaflets printed, parked up at Ikea on a weekend and flyered all the cars in the car park offering to put their furniture together. got lots of work from it in the end.

    recently built a floating stage in a roof-top swimming pool in one of Munich’s poshest hotels.

    maccruiskeen
    Full Member

    I used to work for a “large telecommunications provider” – where my job was basically to make nuisance calls on an industrial scale.

    I had a friend at art school who really had the gift of the gab. In the holidays he’d do call centre work and always seemed to be given the weirdest brief. One of them being to cold call old-folks homes and try and sell packs of council-display scale fireworks. In July. He managed to make a 2 sales for every 100 calls!

    Another guy used to have to put together lists of numbers for a telemarketer – by calling directory enquiries (this was before t’internet). At the time directory enq calls from a landline were charged, but from a call box they were free so they’d have him standing in the call box across the road from the office all day with a note pad and a thermos.

    dabble
    Free Member

    (watch an old film on telly, keep an eye on the top right hand side of the screen, every 20 minutes you’ll see a white circle or oval followed by another 8 seconds later, first one is get the next projector running, second one is switch projectors)

    [TylerDurden] In the industry we call those “cigarette burns” [/TylerDurden]

    Did you ever make soap? 😉

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