Favorite Odd Jobs

ZacRedBearZacRedBear
in General

Having side gigs has always been exciting for me. While I can appreciate the stability of a day job, I've always loved the shakeup of a side hustle. Filming weddings, house/dog sitting, maintaining a cemetery, and transporting bodies to funeral homes, are a few I've done.

What's the most fun/weird short-term job or gig you've ever had, or are currently doing?

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Comments

  • pmvinespmvines

    I am inspired by the story of Wrinkles the clown to start a side hustle as a clown who scares the crap out of people for a fee

  • cuddles_ndreamcuddles_ndream

    When I was 16 I used to pick up my nephews & nieces from school 🏫 for $20 a week 😅 but I wasn’t making money no other way so I don’t know if this is considered a side hustle or my actual job at the time 😂😂

  • [Deleted User]CharlesThePoet (deleted user)
    edited June 2021

    I don’t have a “real job”.

    I’ve made my living for the last 25 years as a professional producer, musician, teacher, game designer, and crochet artist.

    My real job before that was professionally described as a physical conflict resolution specialist, A.K.A…. thug.

    But that sort of work doesn’t do good things for your psyche, and the retirement plan SUCKS, so I decided that real jobs weren’t for me and set out to be an artist.

    My whole life since then has been nothing but a gig, commission, or residency.

    I truly recommend it.

  • ZacRedBearZacRedBear

    @pmvines Please tell me there’s a pic of you in clown makeup you can share 🤡

    @cuddles_ndream I say it counts as a hustle! I worked a food stand once a week for just enough cash to fill the gas tank and the occasional video game or airsoft supplies 😆

    @CharlesThePoet Sounds like you made a good switch! I just imagined your TikTok intro for the crochet arts: “From snitches get stitches, to teaching crochet stitchin’.”

  • pmvinespmvines

    @ZacRedBear just an idea at the moment , nothing implemented yet . Still am thinking about it

  • oberonoberon

    My favorite oddjob

  • cuddleNsqueezecuddleNsqueeze

    I have babysat many friends children in my time and now I finally have a toddler of my own.
    I use to unload and set up stands at a swamp meet before I was old enough to get a real job. Taught me a lot about work ethic and money management at a young age.
    I have tutored children and teens with their homework, but that was for free...
    I was a behavioral tutor for children with Autism, which was the most rewarding job I've had.
    I would say professional cuddling is my favorite odd job though.

  • pmvinespmvines

    When I was a teen I helped put together shows at a couple of local.punk venues and at times worked the door

  • [Deleted User]squeakytoy (deleted user)

    I used to love office/bank temp work (data entry, transcription, envelope stuffing, helping with annual computer swap-outs, etc). It was such a nice change from my previous jobs at the time - not dirty and physically taxing like farm labor, and not thankless and soul-sucking like customer service jobs.

  • PrinceDonPrinceDon

    I've driven for Uber for about a year. That was actually pretty freaking fun! Meet so many cool people and drunk people are often pretty funny. When I was a merchandising manager for a multi billion dollar food wholesaler for 30 plus years, my side hustle was helping my father-in-law build houses. Well my side hustle became my main gig. I quit my job several years ago and now I build houses full-time. Way cool working for yourself and to hell with the corporate life! Now I wake up everyday and do what I want to do, not what others want me to do. Oh, but don't get me wrong, the wife is still the boss. :-)

  • cuddleNsqueezecuddleNsqueeze

    I currently have an on call job setting up stages and seats at the theaters in my city. It doesn't pay much compared to my insurance job but I love the work out I get and the camaraderie I share with my co workers. Working my labor jobs are fulfilling due to the teamwork and trust that grows when we are building things together.

  • LAU24LAU24

    I got a $300 offer for just feet pictures once

  • UKGuyUKGuy

    I used to shoot model portfolios and create websites for photographers.

  • ZacRedBearZacRedBear

    @oberon I’d say you hit a... Grand Slam!

    @squeakytoy I hear you on the heavy labor chores and awful customers. I’m definitely not taking my new office job for granted!

    @PrinceDon There’s no feeling like being your own boss! Good for you, turning your passion work into main income.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    I once had a job as the ghost writer for the CEO and President of a women’s and plus size clothing chain. I also wrote their manuals and even translated government laws pertaining to policy into laymen terms for the company manuals such as the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) when it was passed. I also did the layout for the monthly newsletter/Magazine. I loved that job and still giggle to this day that my direct boss for the plus size chain was a 4’11” woman who was 95 pounds if she was lucky with an incredibly distinctive accent that sounded like Scarlett O’ Hara. She was a Lilliputian stranded in the Land of Giants. As for the CEO, he was a guy about 45 with a pockmarked face that looked like Robert Davi . I hope Davi has a sense of humor because the CEO did not except within the column I wrote for him. He had final say but I had to explain every aside and inference to him I wrote, which is to say I had to explain how I gave him a personality. But I do miss those days of injecting excitement into the latest strapless bra for those with ample chests requiring uplifting apparel.

  • MxSmithMxSmith

    So, I haven't actually had the honor of being able to do this, but I recently read about something called a Death Doula, which I find inspiring. You've probably heard of birth doulas, which are essentially event planners for birthing. Death doulas are like event planners for death. I think it would be incredible to help someone plan and actualize how they wanted to say goodbye to their life and body. Maybe they want to make videos for loved ones, write letters, eat some favorite foods, listen to favorite songs, drive to their childhood home, burn the journals, (and yes, cuddle). Of course there's also managing difficult family members that may unintentionally hijack a person's last moments with their own emotions. Nobody wants a micromanager telling them how to die correctly. There's helping with paperwork and bills, etc. There's having those really scary conversations about what could be on the other side of all of this. I just find the idea of preparing someone for their next step into the unknown to be special and something worth really intentionally organizing if one has the luxury to be able to see death coming.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @MxSmith You ever wondered if zombies use a Death Doula? Questions like these keep me up at night.

  • MxSmithMxSmith

    @FunCartel ❤ your late nights sound lit.

  • ZacRedBearZacRedBear

    @LAU24 If you took that offer, I hope you use the cash to "make it rain," but using your feet instead of hands 💸

    @MxSmith I was pretty close to talking a friend into letting me film & store a video will. Just so they say the classic, "If you're watching this, I'm dead." Also it's nice to see a death-based occupation that's more about helping someone come to terms with how they're leaving, more than "Well this coffin finish is only $500 more..." 😤

    @FunCartel I have to believe the doula is also in charge of zombie reclamations for cemeteries.

  • quixotic_lifequixotic_life

    @MxSmith ~ I have a friend who is a Death Doula and an ex who served as an end of life CNA - he told me about curling up with one of his clients and holding her so she could sleep. She had advanced Alzheimer's and often cried out for her late husband. There was another, a young woman dying from Aids, he did that with as well (with her he stayed over night so she didn't pass alone). My aunt has also served multiple friends in that way. And I was in the room when my mother passed, and with my uncle when he let go too.

    I love that there are people like you in the world and hope your sheparding spirit is able to bring comfort and calm for another's transition. What a beautiful gift. ♡

  • LAU24LAU24

    @ZacRedBear lol I used it for tuition so sorry to disappoint you

  • TheNewNovelistTheNewNovelist
    edited June 2021


    I’ve never done side jobs for money, but done it in order to share my knowledge; I’ve studied martial arts my entire life, and hold black belts in three different disciplines. I teach informally to family, friends, as well as people recovering from the trauma of violence. My reward is knowing I’ve empowered people to heal and protect themselves.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    I too have dabbled in the martial arts. It did not protect me from radiation exposure.

  • cuddles_ndreamcuddles_ndream

    @MxSmith I found everything you wrote very intriguing about considering being a death doula …. From every single angle lol lots of thoughtfulness & funniness pass through my mind lol , …. All in all I think you should give it a go : )

  • PrinceDonPrinceDon

    My computer beats me at chess, but it's no match for me at kickboxing. Anyway, @TheNewNovelist and @FunCartel, I hold a black belt in Tang Soo Do. I did teach for a while, but I didn't get paid. My payment was I got free lessons.

  • pmvinespmvines

    @MxSmith my friend is a doula and she used to call me death doula because I worked in hospice, which was fitting because we essentially prepared people for death and the dying process, and tried to give people the most peaceful death possible

  • [Deleted User]CharlesThePoet (deleted user)

    Some of the most beautiful, meaningful, terrible, and heartbreaking work I have ever done is playing music that allows hospice patients to sleep when they otherwise cannot.

    I wouldn’t trade it, and I know I will go back to it once the pandemic allows, but it definitely takes a toll.

    A price worth paying, but a price nonetheless.

  • TheFunCartelTheFunCartel

    @CharlesThePoet You are an 😇. The dying need gifts of kindness more than anyone.

  • quixotic_lifequixotic_life

    There are certainly some amazing beings among us!! @pmvines and @CharlesThePoet ~ I'm looking at you two 🤗🥰

    I've had a couple "odd" jobs... The most recent was being the DRE (Director of Religious Education/Exploration) at a Unitarian Universalist church for five years. I was raised by an 'Agnostic-Atheist-Pagan' who, when I asked her about churches (because most of my friends went to them), she tossed me the phone book and a pack of bus tickets and said, "Knock yourself out." - I think I was around 12.

    So other than being clueless (about religions in general, to how a church functions, to managing a slew of volunteers, to how one 'should' conduct themselves at board meetings, etc...), I can't really explain how ill-suited that job might seem for me. But every time someone who knew me found out that's where I worked on the weekends they'd do a double take, "You?!" and would laugh in disbelief. But I did it until I was too burned out to keep going... 🤷‍♀️

  • TheMidnightOwlTheMidnightOwl

    @pmvines Right? That's exactly what I was going to say. A death doula is basically a description of a hospice social worker.

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