What's the best job you've ever had?

[PeteXXX]

Mainly, as others, retirement though I do work between 6 & 8 days a month to top up the pensions.

Favourite job?
Working on a Kibbutz, Degania Alef, in the Jordan Valley where the River Jordan flowed from the Sea of Galilee. My main job there was in the Date plantations though I did help on other crops: avicados, grapefruit & the gardens.
I hitchhiked there taking a couple of months before living & working for my keep, beer & cigarettes for a year or so.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Mainly, as others, retirement though I do work between 6 & 8 days a month to top up the pensions.

Favourite job?
Working on a Kibbutz, Degania Alef, in the Jordan Valley where the River Jordan flowed from the Sea of Galilee. My main job there was in the Date plantations though I did help on other crops: avicados, grapefruit & the gardens.
I hitchhiked there taking a couple of months before living & working for my keep, beer & cigarettes for a year or so.

There's something about fruit picking in a foreign country that makes you feel alive! Yes it's hard work but I did enjoy most of it (apart from oranges where I kept falling out of the tree). Maybe I was just young and fit then, and now I'm not, which probably helped

 

[PeteXXX]

There's something about fruit picking in a foreign country that makes you feel alive! Yes it's hard work but I did enjoy most of it (apart from oranges where I kept falling out of the tree). Maybe I was just young and fit then, and now I'm not, which probably helped

Yes, there is 😎
I didn't do much Orange or Banana work apart from drive the tractor 🚜
And who knew that grapefruit trees have vicious little spikes that scratches the skin off your arms and you barely notice until you have a shower and then they sting like a *#@%?!

And the spikes on Date palms can temporarily paralyse a knee or other bodily joint if it gets stabbed. DAMHIKT 😋

 

[Jenkins]

I'm very lucky in that I've worked in the music business most of my working life so I get to listen to music all day, go to gigs and get paid for it.

A bit like my retirement then

 

[Dave7]

Seeing as it was by far my longest lasting job, it has to be my self employed window cleaning round. I had my round for over fourteen years, beating my second longest job by far, as that was five years as a care assistant in an old folks home. It was the only self employed job I had in my forty plus jobs I has over the decades. I should've done it years before, but my parents always put me off, saying that working for an employer is far better as you get holiday pay, sick pay, workers rights etc, whereas when you're self employed you don't get any of those. OK, I didn't get holiday and sick pay, but being able to fiddle my tax returns, unlike an employee can, I saved that money for a rainy day, as in saved it for when I couldn't work due to bad weather, illness and taking family holidays. Window cleaning kept me fit, up and down those ladders, stretching, walking, fresh air etc and I had a good rapport with many of my customers. I even found my beloved dog Jake/Albert when cleaning windows as his previous owner asked me to look after him for five minutes while she went in a shop, when I shouted from the top of my ladder 'He's cute, what sort of dog is he'? That five minutes became permanent when she told me she couldn't look after him anymore, so I bought him off her. Yes, self employed window cleaning was definitely the best job I ever had!

I started a Saturday window cleaning round when in my late 30s......with a view to doing it full time. It went well until the 1st cold spell hit, then I quickly decided 'this is not for me'.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I started a Saturday window cleaning round when in my late 30s......with a view to doing it full time. It went well until the 1st cold spell hit, then I quickly decided 'this is not for me'.

When I first started my bought for £800, sold for £7,500 round I was quite fit, weighing about 14 stone. After my 2007 cancer scare my weight dropped to around 11 stone, making keeping warm on cold days much harder. I hear folk say they couldn't work outside in winter, but being an outdoors type up till a few years ago, I loved my window round, even on cold days. Though sometimes the rain did get the better of me.😉

 

[Dave7]

When I first started my bought for £800, sold for £7,500 round I was quite fit, weighing about 14 stone. After my 2007 cancer scare my weight dropped to around 11 stone, making keeping warm on cold days much harder. I hear folk say they couldn't work outside in winter, but being an outdoors type up till a few years ago, I loved my window round, even on cold days. Though sometimes the rain did get the better of me.😉

I have Reynauds. Not as bad as many but eg my fingers just go white and I lose feeling. I enjoyed the physical part but just couldn't handle the cold.

 

[numbnuts]

I've only been a Blacksmith and a part time security guard,
the latter was nice as I worked in Southampton Docks on nights
just walking around the whole area.

 

[yello]

For me, 'best' and 'job' don't really go together. In my vocab, awkward bugger that I am, jobs are something you don't enjoy, your not meant to enjoy, almost by definition. Enjoyment is a by product and wage slavery is nearer the truth. Don't don't me wrong, I know fulfillment can be had and I know people do enjoy their work but that's not really me and I'd wager it's not most people. The most the majority of workers can hope for is decent colleagues and working environment.

Further, for me, it's not a job if it's enjoyable. I find great pleasure in my gardening, it's physically taxing and, mentally rewarding - but it's not a job. I do it for me.

I've been very lucky in my working life. I was a computer programmer, both as a contractor and self-employed. It was rewarding to design and write programs for clients. Software that made their businesses run a little more effectively, or whatever. This was in the 80s and early 90s when solutions couldn't be bought off the shelf and there was a lot of bespoke work. I considered myself a tradesman, an 80s tradesman. Touring the UK's trading estates and gaining an insight into how different small businesses worked. Ok, I wasn't saving the planet but it gave me something that I could call a satisfaction.

The 00s arrived and I had to go in-house, get a job. The 80s tradesman was no more; bought out, outsourced and corporatised. In honesty, I wasn't a very good employee. Good at my work, sure, but an 'attitude problem' (as they say) and I couldn't/wouldn't play the game. The best thing I can say for any of those 'jobs' was that I enjoyed the coding aspect. I could engross myself in a task and the day would pass. As one might with a crossword or sudoku etc. The last job I had the added benefit of being close to home so I could walk to work (you'd be surprised how many long ways I found!)

 

[Binky]

I worked in sesimic exploration.
Brilliantly exciting, travelled the world and got paid for it and was tax free.
Mega stressful at times but that's why was paid the big bucks, I actually thrived on the stress which seems nuts as at the time it was tough.

 

[Electric_Andy]

When I first started my bought for £800, sold for £7,500 round I was quite fit, weighing about 14 stone. After my 2007 cancer scare my weight dropped to around 11 stone, making keeping warm on cold days much harder. I hear folk say they couldn't work outside in winter, but being an outdoors type up till a few years ago, I loved my window round, even on cold days. Though sometimes the rain did get the better of me.😉

Can you clean windows in the sun Accy? My MIL says you shouldn't, because it leaves streaks. I'm wondering if this is an old wives tail?

 

[Bonefish Blues]

Can you clean windows in the sun Accy? My MIL says you shouldn't, because it leaves streaks. I'm wondering if this is an old wives tail?

She's quite right, streaking in the sun's never advisable.

 

[Webbo2]

I worked a bus conductor for 6 months which was pretty good and I think some of things I learnt doing that helped when I became a mental health nurse. Which for the most part was pretty enjoyable until they decided at my grade I had to become a manager. After that it was count the days till retirement.

 

[dicko]

Running and maintaining my very own coin operating laundromat and dry cleaners in the heart of bed sit land close to the beach in sunny Bournemouth. It was so good I went from an Austin Mini ro a Dolomite Sprint in just one short season.

 

[Rezillo]

While a student in the 70s, harvest-time corn carting. Long hours, loads of money, great fun and an acquired skill of reversing a large tractor and trailer at speed through narrow barn doors that has been utterly useless to me ever since.