Charlatan

Inspired by the Summer Job thread...

For those of you who are permanently employed, or just want to share, what was the best summer job you ever had?

Mine is a three-way tie:

Summer Job #1: Housekeeping in a hospital. Spent the summer of 1988 by filling in at the various postions left vacant by regulars on summer vacation. Worked Emergency, OR, Labour and Delivery and Duodenoscopy... The work was light, varied and gave me access to some really cool places

Summer Job #2: Gardening for a State Farm Insurance regional office. I spent the summer cutting grass, pulling weeds and getting a tan. They had closed the office the week I started but still need the grounds kept neat. No supervision = no stress. I was told I did the best job of any summer help they'd ever had.

Summer Job #3: Three jobs actually, all part time. 1) Cashier at the campus General Store (have you seen campus in the summer? I read a lot) 2) Proctor at the photo club (ditto quiet campus meant I got to spend my time working on my own projects for free 3) Usher at a Rep Cinema - all the popcorn you can eat and free movies... can you say heaven?

What about you?

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odu_sonar_AE

My favorite summer job was working @ King's Dominion in Virginia during the summer of 1991. I wanted to work in the rides department, and hopefully on one of the cool roller coasters. I did end up in the rides department, but got stuck in the kiddie section of the park (affectionately known as kiddie hell). It was a long, hot summer dealing with crying kids (and parents that acted more like children than their children did), but the group of people I worked with made it all worth it.

sailor

Working for a major bank as an intern doing computer work. They actually treated me like a regular employee. Great experience. I have done it for three summers now and will be doing it again this summer, so that says something about it. I plan on keeping on with it until I finish college in three years.

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mikec

working as a CT state employee in a State Park

state workers are the biggest slackers known to society. therefore I had to join the ranks of slackerdom in order to be accepted.

8:30 start work, load the truck with tools, gas up, shoot the shit, etc.
9:00 - Get on the road. Drive around and pick up any really big noticable trash or stuff in the road.
10:00 - 15 minute break
11:00 - end 15 minute break
12:00 - 1 hour lunch break
1:45 - return from 1 hour lunch break
3:00 - 15 minute break
3:45 - end 15 minute break
4:30 - get back to the barn, park the truck and unload it.
5:00 - quittin' time

hehehe, basically a day full of breaks, driving around and checkin' out the girls on the beach. we'd do cool stuff from time to time, and break out the big tools, or help out a nice picnic'er with installing a grill or something. that job was gravy.

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animosity

ive only really had one summer job, i normally work all year.

the job was working with my (ex)girlfriend's dad. we finished off 3 basements, and built a cabin on a lake.

it was hard work and long hours but i enjoyed learning experience...

Polyphobic

I've been working full time since I was 16. The only thing close to a summer job was a part time janitorial job I had for a couple months. Cleaning up toilets isn't what I'd call fun. Apparently, that's my least and most favorite job at the same time especially since it's my only one.

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StormBerlin

I washed cars last summer and worked at a movie theatre. I hated the theatre. I loved washing cars didn't make the best money, but I got a great tan and got to be outside all day.

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raeanna74

I have to list two of them. Partly because the first one wasn't technically a SUMMER job - it was between highschool and college where I stayed out for a year.
1. Gun store sales associate. - The owner was a former neighbor of ours. They would sometimes send me next door to the mexican restaurant for mixed drinks or beer for everyone who was working that day. They were easygoing, flexible, and we had quite a few interesting customers. Got to hear stories from hunters and police officers. Got to try out some of the guns too. He has a target range in his shop now - we didn't back then.

#2. Production Control Engineer - worked at a local window manufacturer where we made Crestline and Vetter windows. I programmed the glass sizes for the next days worth of production into the computer that controlled the glass cutter. The guys out on the floor only had to put the glass in, push a button, and the glass got cut for the right sizes. It was an easy job and fun. I worked in a bunker in the middle of the factory so I didn't get as much noise as if I worked out on the floor. I would always get done entering things before my shift was up and would end up doing errands running around the factory. It rarely got dull unless we had a LOT of orders to fill and I had a LOT of windows to enter.

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ARTelevision

Sky Ride Operator - first summer at college.
I liked the implications of setting people up for their "Sky Ride" and welcoming them back down to earth, too.

That was an interesting summer employment experience. The local actors, artists, and freaks were hired by an amusement park in our tourist town. I also played the part of "Judge Roy Bean - The Hanging Judge" in a western skit at the same park.

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Garisson

Video Store Clerk. I would open the place and close it down at night, sole employee of the place. Watched movies all day and all night. The owners would come in every now and then and grab all the cash out of the register. Paid me in cash, strangely enough.

laconic1

I guess the best summer job was the only summer job I had. I was a poolboy for 6 years during high school and community college. Easy work, just fill up the cholrinator, vaccuum the pool, skim the top, clean the tiles and that was it. Unfortunately the porn stereotype of poolboys being asked to rub lotion all over hot naked chicks and have sex with them is grossly inaccurate.

flamingpeach

Working for Molsons Canada for Edgefest. I got to go to the concert for free 3 days in a row and have a great time. It was an awesome little job.

Was only 5 days long, but still my favorite.

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Charlatan

I am really sorry to hear that...

canuckguy

had a sweet job at Ford motors working in the paintshop area one summer, was easy work and made killer cash! like serious $$$$, worst summer job was corn detassing or working in the tobacco fields. booo

bookerV

My best summer job was being a bouncer at a bar here in town for the summer. It was awesome. I only had to work 3 - 4 nights a week. Free after hours drinks. After hours parties every night. Got to vent some frustration every once in a while. Lots of funny stories. To top it all off a fairly decent wage considering 95% of the time I just stood around and ID'd the odd person. Definitely a lot of fun.

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maleficent

Two summers in high school, I life guarded at a private country club's pool, bunch of rich brats that got dropped off by their moms in the am, and picked up by the chauffer later on. Easy work. Great tan (though I know the various skin cancer scares I have had in later years were a result of too many years in the sun)

In college, I interned at First Boston bank for two summers, lived in the Combat Zone with a few other people and worked my butt off with long hours but had a great time. (was awesome too because it made me realize that my Finance Major wasn't the major for me)

Best best best job I ever had was when I spent a summer touring as a roadie with the Grateful Dead- never did a drug in my life, think I got contact buzzes, but it was soooo much fun.

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absorbentishe

Several summers I worked at a private golf course, we got tips and on a few of the tourneys where beer was abundant, got drunk. And we got to play a lot of golf too! It was great. I wish I could go back.

WarWagon

Driving for NAPA. All I had to do was drive and be around cars all day. Did make some awesome tips when I was detailing and washing cars, though.

k1ng

Last summer I worked as a temp for Daewoo. It was a really lax atmosphere. I sat at a desk and listened to music and talked with the other people in the area while I repackaged parts. It did get kind of old after a while, but overall it was a pretty good summer job.

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Lasereth

I guess I'm the only one that can't find a sentence that can have "best" and "summer job" together.

I suppose I can arrange one: the best summer job I've had is working in a hot kitchen which does give me 30-40 hours per week. It's fucking horrible, but I like getting a 40 hour paycheck!

-Lasereth

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rockzilla

I worked for a few summers as an Ice Cream Man. I drove around the suburbs on a bike with a giant cooler attached to the front and made little children scream to their parents for money. Most days I'd just hang out by the neighbourhood pool during the day and then head over to the soccer fields come evening, and rake money in hand over fist.
They'd station me downtown on Victoria Day and Canada Day and resupply me with ice cream every 20-30 minutes. I took home about $400 on either one of those holidays. Not a bad day's work for a 16 year old.

Cynthetiq

best summer job... working at the video store. It was when and how I learned how to love movies. If I did not have that summer I would not have seen almost every movie on VHS in 1989, and also played almost every NES game.

rock on!

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qtpye4u84

Working at a Ice cream place....YUmmmyyyyyyyyyyyy I smelled like Ice cream all the time too!!!!!!

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Cujo

Ah the summer of 1988. Worked as a trainee in the firehouse at a local steel company. Best damn job I ever had. Got to drive 3 of the 5 big fire trucks and helped fight a huge iron breakout in the blast furnace. Had that job from may to october and wish I could have kept doing it.

CinnamonGirl

I always worked through the school year, so I didn't have any jobs that were JUST for the summer... my favorite "seasonal job" would have to be working Fear Fest at Kings Island. That was awesome...I worked with great people and got paid nine dollars an hour to scare people. The costume, however, sucked...and so did the macho guys that hated being scared in front of their girlfriends (one almost kicked me in the face, missed by maybe an inch or two). Overall though, fun times.

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:::OshnSoul:::

an internship at a popular alternative radio station in Seattle. So many fun missions, free concerts & cd's, cool parties, and meeting bands........*drool*

fckm

I'll be going back to my Co-op at Sandia in Livermore, CA. The pay is top notch (more than 20/hr) and there'll be more than 160 interns there, most of whom will be living together in the same apartment complex. California + money + college aged kids = party.
And doing research at a national lab is friggin' awesome.

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Jesus Pimp

I got my foot into the IT field one summer during collge working for an annuities company called ING. They liked me so much. I worked there for two years. Best experience I ever had. The pay was good too.

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dy156

One summer in mid july there were bad floods in an area with alot of summer camps. Everyone was miserable, and lots of counselors quit. I was waiting tables and heard about it, and how several ones were looking for replacement counselors. Quit my job and went down there for July and August. I got the perfect schedule -horses all mornigs, lifeguard all afternoon. I woke up early to get the horses ready, and didn't have to mess with the kids getting ready for the day, Then by the time it got really hot, I traded jeans for a swimsuit and sat around the lake. At night, I had to/got to work at the stables instead of doing skits and stuff. Didn't make much money, but what I made I had at the end, because there were no expenses. When school started, I was more tan and fit then ever before, and had saved up some money too. Perfect.
In addition, since I was only there for part of the summer, I wasn't so sick of it that I was scratching to get out of there. By the way, lest you think that I didn't interact with the kids enough, at the end of each session, they ranked each activity in popularity. Horseback was ranked quite low before but was ranked much higher after I got there. (I'm sure it was because I was there and not because there weren't floods!)

onetime2

The best summer job was teaching swimming lessons at an apartment complex pool. The apt's management company "hired" me to teach and let me keep any money I got from the families registering for classes. I got like $1000 at the sign ups, taught for a couple of weeks and then the pool went green and closed down for the rest of the summer. I assume the management company made up the money to the families but I got to keep what I earned. Used that money for scuba lessons and have been diving ever since.

Next best was:

I spent several summers as a lifeguard at the local pool. During the week would work from like 3 4 or 5 pm till 8pm. Then on the weekends worked from noon till 8. Better money than any of my friends were getting at the time and got to sleep late every day. The drawbacks were that I had to work every day of the summer and my nose constantly looked like swiss cheese from the bad sunburns (hopefully the skin cancer gods will take a liking to me and skip my name on the list).

The worst summer job was working at a religious shrine. While some of the people were very nice, it was long and boring work. Basically working in the shipping and receiving area. Inventory, packing boxes, etc. They loved me there and even offered to hire me full time but no way was I gonna go that route as it was between college semesters and there was way too much fun to be had back at school.

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cameroncrazy822

My best summer job by far was the year I worked at McDonald's as the sommelier. Very easy work with no pressure or expectations.

yournamehere

Every summer during high school I worked with our town's Street Department. Most of the work involved patching potholes, cutting the grass in the town parks and cemeteries - that sort of thing. My last two years, though, I was transferred to the sewer department - cleaning out the sanitary sewers with high pressure water hoses, and clean the rotting leaves out of the the storm sewer catch basins with "honey dippers" - basically a giant gravy ladle on a 10-foot pole. Fortunately, for every 15 minutes we spent working - we spent 45 minutes refilling the truck from a fire hydrant.

But the best job was the summer between my senior year and starting college - I actually worked at the treatment plant. The smell went away after about 5 minutes, and the workday consisted of testing the water downstream every few hours; switching chlorine tanks occasionally; but mostly just watching gauges. For a few weeks, I was put on afternoon shift (3-11) - I was the only one there; we didn't even check the water in the afternoon, so I basically just looked at gauges for a month, and usually, around 9:00 p.m. or so, some friends would show up with beer, so we'd just sit and hang out my last few hours.

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Blackthorn

#1 all time favorite job was being a life guard at a community pool. I got more ass those summers than at any other time in my life. WOW were those the days. There was even a few occurances of ON CAMPUS ass getting that was GREAT!

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chains

Best summer job and job I have ever had was being a surf instructor at Waikiki beach in Hawaii. I grew up about 6 miles away and thought it was nutz that the hotel was going to pay me to work at the beach teaching people to surf 12 foot long boards. Why did I leave again?

Charlatan

Shit... why DID you leave?

Skettios

Can you tell us what station? I spent several summers in Seattle when my parents lived there.

The only one that even comes close to being popular and 'alternative' would be 107.9 The End. We used to call up the DJs and ask if they'd trade weed for tickets to endfest.

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Captain Canada

Best Buy
Working construction with some friends of mine...building houses and stuff.
Movie theater.

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