Worst/Best summer job

[MonsterBack]

I grew up on a farm with lots of land and lots of livestock, so most jobs sucked and have been mentioned already.

Spending every weekend shoveling **** from 6am to 6pm was probably the worst, but it was a year-round job, so it doesn't count as a summer job.
So I'll have to go with collecting dead turkey carcasses to the dead pit over baling hay for the worst summer job.

Best summer job was probably my internship with Paramount Pictures, followed by bartending at That Place in downtown Ames.

 

[CyGal]

Worst job: I spent 2 summers when I was in middle school working at a can redemption summer. Hot, humid Iowa weather in a warehouse that had all the doors open most of the day. I got to count and sort cans and bottles. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I don't care for the taste of beer. Warm, rotten, moldy beer is not a good smell.

Best job: I worked a couple summers at a home daycare, followed by a couple summers babysitting just the owner's children. The kids slept in - which means I got to take a nap, watch tv, read a book or do anything I wanted. One kid was basically old enough to take care of himself, the other was always off in his own little world. At the daycare, the owner took care of most of the kids herself, just needed an extra body in the house so she could take on more kids, so I got to do all of the fun stuff.

 

[CyForPresident]

I grew up on a farm, and worked pretty much all the time growing. I never detassled in my life, and I actually think it's more common work for kids who grow up in rural areas, but not ON a farm, as most farmers don't really plant commercial seed corn. Another thing I noticed is that the jobs that sucked when I was 12 became enjoyable by the time I was 18.

This. I grew up on a farm usually spending my time bailing hay, hauling shat, or casterating hogs. At the time I hated all of it, but now I would give anything to go back.

I've never detasseled, but I did spend one summer scouting 3,500 acres in NE Iowa. I don't like being covered in pollen, but since I was my own boss, it was an awesome summer. I only had to report to the farmers when something was wrong.

I've never really had a job I didn't like. I've had jobs that at the time sucked, but I didn't realize how good I had it.

Worst: Spent a summer working at a plastic factory. I was done with work at 3 pm and worked with MaxPower57 and a bunch of my friends from HS. It was actually a blast because I never followed the rules and should have been fired about 5 times. It also taught me the importance of a BS degree and the dangers of crystal meth (Some of the people that worked there were tweekers)

Best: The job I have now as a research assistant for ISU Soybean Breeding. I work with great people and have fun every day. I work about 50% outside and 50% inside. I do fun stuff like walk beans and pollinate soybeans (Really easy).

 

[Ms3r4ISU]

Detasseling with friends on a crew run by some of your teachers was kind of a right of passage when I was growing up. I couldn't wait to turn 14 so I could sign up. If you truly work at it, there's no time at night to get into trouble. I could hardly stay awake through supper. Plus, my check at the end of the "season" was around $150. That was huge money to me, plus it was enough for me to start my own checking account. So, at the time, detasseling was my best summer job.

 

[DRCHIRO]

My dad is a teacher and has run a large detassling company up in NW Iowa for 30 plus years. Those of you who worked up in NW Iowa probably worked for my dad. Needless to say, I was in cornfields in July since I was 8. Through Chiropractic school and now in my own practice, I still go home and drive a bus for him if he needs me on the weekends. It's kind of a family affair that never leaves your system. Although I am thrilled that I don't have to do it for 30 plus day anymore.........but all my kids will:smile:

 

[Bipolarcy]

Worst job I ever had was a full-time job but it was worse during the summer. I foam insulated motor homes, spraying the insulation between studs on the outside walls before the metal skin went on over it.

This insulation was heated to 250 degrees and came out of a spray gun. I had to wear coveralls and gloves to do it and it was hot enough doing it in the winter, but when summer came and the whole plant heated up, it was miserable.

The stuff was toxic too, so I had to be shut up inside the factory in my own little room, doors closed with an exhaust fan, where it was hotter than the factory itself. Then I had to climb up to the equivalent of a second story inside this little room to do the top of the motor home from a scaffold. Naturally, it was even hotter on the second floor because heat rises.

I swear, some days it would get up to 150 degrees in that little shed and I was in coveralls leaning over foam that was 250 degrees. When I'd finish insulating, I got the joy of crawling down in a pit and spraying undercoating on the bottom of the motor home.

Then I'd have to trim any excess foam insulation that had slopped outside the studs, then toss four sheets of plywood on top of the motor home, staple them down, then use a router to cut out the vent holes in the roof I had just stapled down.

It was supposed to be a 2-man job. Someone else was supposed to undercoat while I was foam insulating, then come up out of the pit and trim the excess foam while I was doing the top of the unit, then trim the top when I was breaking down the gun and cleaning it between units.

then we were both supposed to throw the plywood up and staple it. But I did it by myself for a year and a half and kept up with the line all that time. It's one of the reasons I went back to school so I could get an office job.

 

[MidwestZest]

I got tired and sweaty just reading that.

 

[Cyclone62]

I got tired and sweaty just reading that.

It's the humidity

 

[SpokaneCY]

One summer I was the bathroom

janitor at Adventureland. All I did for 8 hours a day was go from restroom to restroom.... I'm still amazed at how many people drop their dukies next to the bowl. Also suprised at how many people vomit there. Oh - worst job by the way.

Best was laying asphalt... Great tan, muscles from running a jackhammer, and $5 an hour...

 

[clones_jer]

You should have detasseled during the floods of 1993. Nothing beats walking through corn with water up to your waist all summer long.

My old man and a couple of my brothers and I did 54 acres (only 10 were full-pull) in 1995. I think we only did about haf that most other years, but I do remember '93 being brutal.

Best job: Contract Inspector for detasselers ... more pay, less work, and just as much sunshine.

 

[Longhorns3131]

Worst Job: Picking sweet corn for a family whose dad was in jail for molesting two 13 year olds. Never knew what we were going to get paid until the end of the week and they always paid in cash. The only thing the son said to us is "All I want to see is elbows and a$$holes".

Best Job: Advance Training for the Army at Fort Huachuca in the southern Arizona desert. They would kill us Monday thru Friday but come Friday evening we were free to do whatever we wanted until Sunday evening. I sure do miss those limo rides to Nogales Mexico.

I'm sorry but that worst job description is funny. Elbows and A$$holes.

 

[swammi]

Worst was probably janitor at SS Kresges in downtown Des Moines. The candy counter was a sticky, dirty mess that had to be spotless at the start of each day. Got paid in cash and usually caught several hours nap in the process. Best? I had many good ones. I enjoyed spraying weeds in county ditches in '65. Drove a flatbed truck with a 1,000 gallon tank and a 3 section boom. Went from county to county. At each stop the county road-grader operator would drive the truck and I would sit on the outside and operate the boom. Met many interesting people and made a little money (got $10 for every tank full).