When you look back on all the jobs you have had, which one was the best one, to you?

My current one; teaching ESL.

I’ve only had three jobs in my life. Two at department stores when I was a teenager. Then I had my first full time job for 30 years. The first five years of this job was the most fun. I got to travel and meet all kinds of people, and eat at restaurants that I had never been to before and in the evenings, me and my co-workers partied.

When I taught civil rights to middle school girls in a private school.

Watering flowers in a garden store in the morning before the animals arrived. It always smelled fresh and good and quiet. Later in the day there was the pretty cashiers. The manager was great, always let me out when I needed to go to a concert. At the time it was not bad money, probably because it was one of the most affluent communities in the country at the time. Those were the days.
It was a panacea from working at the industrial bakery from 12 to 8 am, having flour mold growing in my pores day in day out.

My current one is the best. It pays more than I’ve ever earned in my life. My boss is really nice and he’s never there. I run the place myself and there isn’t a lot to do, so I get to spend a lot of time on fluther. I keep waiting to be found out.

I have had three mini-careers and loved them all.

Did astronomical research at the Harvard Observatory

Taught French to third and fourth graders.

Ran the college placement program at an Independent Quaker day school.

When I formally retired, I made labor-intensive traditional quilts, showed them at galleries and sold many.

Wow @gailcalled. Really?

@bkcunningham: That’s where a really good and vague liberal arts education will take you..almost anywhere.

I had no formal training for the second and third jobs. I just shut my eyes and jumped into the pool.

Okay, I just saw the traditional quilts part of your career. What an interesting life you’ve led. I bet you have some wonderful stories. French to third and fourth graders. Where was that?

I’m a part time wilderness skills instructor. I get paid to teach kids useful stuff and hang out with them all day. Sometimes I get paid to hang out by the water all day or go semi-primitive camping with them. So basically the stuff I enjoy doing, but getting paid for it. Plus, the land the school is on is fantastic, and we get to harvest stuff from it. The other school I’ve worked for doesn’t have its own location, but the one I taught at was similarly great in terms of natural resources.

Plus, we might be able to build an experimental eco-village on the land this fall. So: free rent, relatively free food, clean air and water. Yea, good job with benefits. Hope we get to do that.

My last nursing job. It was with palliative patients and cancer patients primarily. Really being able to help is why plus my co-workers.

Actually, out of the multiple jobs that I had over the years, I guess the one that I enjoyed the most was when I was driving 18-wheelers long-haul all over the United States & into Canada. I had never been out of TX when I started driving & I got to see all of the states (except Alaska & Hawaii of course!). This country is so beautiful & I got to see all of it. When I was driving there were very few women truck drivers & I used to get a real kick out of the surprise on people’s faces when I told them what I did for a living. And I also got a kick out of being able to be in control of something as large & powerful as a big rig (there is nothing like it).

What I’m doing now. I make good money so I work when I want to. Like, tomorrow I might just stay home. It’s going to be 107 degrees out there so I move jobs around and hope to hell winter comes early this year. But when I’m working there isn’t a 20 year old who will be able to keep up because they cry, so that’s one reason I work by myself…which to me is a perk in and of itself. And, everything I do is perfect.. which come to many as a surprise because I don’t look like much.

I was going to say my first travel agent position. It was a corporate travel position, so no sales were involved ( I hate sales). All I had to do was make flight and hotel arrangements for Caterpillar employees and potential hires. But after thinking about this a bit longer, I would say homemaker. We may not have a lot of money because of this decision, but my family is happy (and so am I).

I’ve had one career my entire life. All I ever knew how to do. I made pretty good money; got to meet some amazing people, some of whom changed my life; I had a lot of freedom and was applauded and won awards for what I did. I can say with all honesty that I agree with @jonsblond. The most rewarding, difficult, delightful job I’ve ever had has been being a homemaker, mother and wife.

@woodcutter does your name tell what you do? Are you a carpenter or cabinetmaker?
I had the most fun at the Smithsonian in my 20s hanging out with other arty types, doing creative design work, going to all the parties.
The most growth and personal enrichment later at the Navy Museum, researching all kinds of different things, meeting all kinds of different people, scholars, scientists,explorers, and working on historical exhibits.

My first job. I worked in an Italian restaurant. I made awesome money (15 years old making 11 an hour some nights) and made a lot of good friends. Im still in contact with most of the people I worked with there. The only real downside was it made me dislike cooking at home since I cooked all day everyday and my boss who was completely crazy. In the end she was the reason I quit because I got in a big fight with her, but I sure do miss those days. I got to hang out with good friends and laugh all day at work all while making great money.

Tis a shame I was a dumb kid at the time too and blew most of that money.

@anartist I fix problems. I make house calls where their problems aren’t of the sort that the average carpenter will handle. Many of them require a lot of finesse as most of the work is going to be right there in plain view and it can’t be half- assed together using quick and easy fixes.It may involve fixing walls, trim carpentry, welding, painting, cutting trees off of roofs. Pretty much weird stuff. Since I have many skills I can most of the time to a turnkey job and save the customer a lot of money by them not having to get a different guy to do parts of the work. It’s not easy because I am my worst critic. It sometimes is necessary to mess with something for a lot longer than the average guy will have the patience for just to make sure it looks good. It has to look good or else I won’t and people will talk. In all my time at this I had just one call back and that one really wasn’t my fault, but I made it right. Doing shit work just doesn’t sit right with me and I don’t like sweating over stuff i shoulda done a different way. It’s important, to me.

When I worked for Mass General in Boston. It was at a point in my career that springboarded me and confirmed many things. I was empowered to do many things and was able to step up and provide value.
I have also had a few other parts that were fairly rewarding, ut nothing tops that on for all is did and has allowed me to continue to do.

My current one is the best paid, and the one I’ve been doing for longest. It’s just general office administration, which is all I can do, really.

The most fun was working as a cook in a primary school kitchen, for kids aged 5–11, but it was only 15 hours a week and the pay was terrible.

Trainer at a large regional bank. They had great respect for training and I was treated like a valued employee. All of my managers (I had four over seven years.) were great. I wouldn’t have left except for the constant travel. Which I heard ended almost entirely about 6 months after I left!

Best job ever was most definitely at Wise Owl Daycare. I was in an after school age program room with children aged 9–13. The ratio of teachers to children for our room was 1:15 and there were already 2 full time teachers. The after school age program had about 20–25 kids regularly. However, there was a physically disabled female child in the program and when she had to use the restroom, one of full time staff had to assist her. This would put the teacher/child ratio below the required level. So the government gave a grant for me to get paid $12 to literally just hang out and play around with pre-teens for 2 hours before and after school. It was awesome. I’ll never forget it!