What was the best job you ever had?

[simon43]

I can only relate this as relevant to Thailand by citing it as the memories of a Thai expat

The best job that I ever had in my career as a 'rocket scientist', (for indeed, that was my profession for many years), was working for the French company Alcatel Space, in Antwerp in Belgium. I was employed on a tax-free, contract basis for several years to design and integrate satellite systems on a range of scientific research satellites that were being built for the European Space Agency.

For the mid 90's, the pay was good (2,500 THB per hour), plus as much overtime as I could handle. I was able to rent a beautiful loft apartment in the city docks area. Since I was working for the European Space Agency, I had semi-diplomatic status and my car carried registration plates from the Principality of Andorra, (W G Hill 5 flags theory!).

Antwerp is a beautiful city, with literally hundreds of centuries-old beer cellars and restaurants. Every evening, I and my space colleagues would sample a new Belgian beer or new restaurant - we could go to a new restaurant or sample a new brew literally every night of the year.

This was basically a lads' night out (not many women were working in the space sector at that time). But it was a lads' night out for food and drink, not for 'sampling' women! I was married, but my wife stayed in the UK and I commuted weekly from Belgium.

This was a great life for several years, until the wife visited me one week and decided that I was enjoying myself too much! She decided to move to Antwerp with me, and our first child was conceived in Antwerp. Then my employment took a slight turn for the worse after Alcatel was raided by the Belgian tax authorities LoL!

Good times (How I ended up building small hotels in Phuket is beyond my comprehension....)

How about you?

Edited April 4, 2016 by simon43

[1FinickyOne]

What a world, what a life - - glad you had a period of time enjoying yourself... quite unique that you worked in Belgium and were paid in Thai baht -

I was self employed and enjoyed the time I was exporting from Thailand - I was buying in Thai baht - so, we have some connection there...

Just kidding with you Simon - hope your hotels are doing well.

[sipi]

Funeral director. Horrible, but memorable. A few years was more than enough.

[BritManToo]

Best job, or biggest paying job?

I've earned a lot of money in jobs I hated and destroyed my soul.

The jobs I didn't mind doing paid me peanuts.

Never had a job I really liked.

Mainly I did it for the money.

Edited April 4, 2016 by BritManToo

[shagorillaHotel]

paper boy as a preteen. everything after that high point was downhill

[1happykamper]

Easy. When I worked for Hoover in Sydney. Affectionately know as the "suck and blow" company. I was a little lonely.. Working in a vacuum...

[huahinjoe]

Simon thats a nice career, someone would ever wish for, regarding how u end up here might be a coincidence but definitely its a different scene. You should be doing some startups with other fellas here like sending mini satellites with floatable drones to space or something very cool to use out your expertees

[Rob8891]

Shovelling sh1t on a poultry farm. But it was a foul job and the pay was paltry.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Rob8891

[simon43]

You should be doing some startups with other fellas here like sending mini satellites with floatable drones to space...

I'd like to still be involved in the space business. Many years ago, the Thai government was recruiting for a 'Head of Space Research', to further their interests in the space/satellite sector. My credentials fitted the job spec almost perfectly except... I was not Thai. I even suggested to them that they make me a Thai citizen, but they wouldn't budge on that.

Man, I didn't realise how good that Duvel looks

[mikebell]

I took a holiday job working on Gasometers in the UK. My dad & uncle were in charge of time-sheets showing we frequently worked 84 hours in a 7 day week. I used to clear 90 + UKP per week despite paying emergency tax. I was about to start work as a teacher after the Summer. I suggested to my dad that I work for a year to get a deposit for a house. He sacked me the next payday. My first teacher's pay cheque was 45 UKP for the MONTH. 1965 when I still had hair.

[Suradit69]

Had a summer job at the lab of the SW Sewage Treatment Plant, the Sanitary District in Chicago. My only qualification was knowing someone who knew someone, which pretty much summed up the qualifications of most of the permanent staff as well.

After a week or two of conscientiously doing what I was assigned to do, I was taken aside by some co-workers and informed I ought to slow down ... that I was killing the job. So for the rest of the summer the other two college kids doing summer work and I took it easy. Long lunches at off-site places like the Art Museum, frequent coffee breaks, clock watching, etc. Needless to say, once I grasped the fundamentals of political patronage work, my approval rating improved markedly ... and I learned how to differentiate a Monet from a Manet.

Edited April 5, 2016 by Suradit69

[puukao]

OP....Antwerp is nice. I spent over 11 years in the diamond center, underground, cracking safes.......

after collecting 200 million USD in diamonds, I headed to Thailand.....all my teeth all diamonds

shhhhhh

[rodcourt49]

Shovelling sh1t on a poultry farm. But it was a foul job and the pay was paltry.

...are you egging us on?....don't get your feathers ruffled!

[Denim]

Hospital porter when I was in my teens. Crap pay but more horny young nurses than I could keep up with. Started off a virgin but by the time I left 18 months later had hit double figures with young trainee nurses from all over the world

[Rob8891]

It's absolutely true, I'm not yoking. The pay really was chickenfeed, nowt to cackle about.

[Don Mega]

No job is a good job.

[villagefarang]

I enjoyed the side benefits of being on Thai TV but it wasn’t really a job I guess. I met a guy who owned a trading company and sourced product in Thailand. He put me on retainer to entertain his buyers when he couldn’t make the trip from New York. The Thai staff handled the daytime activities and I took over at night as the enabler of bad behavior. That was an interesting job if you can call it that.

[bark]

Retirement

[OmegaRacer]

I had a few great jobs.

At 14-15 I had a summer job as a do-all at a hotel in the mountains. I was the only boy in that age group and there were lots of girls vacationing there. Memorable!

Then I worked at a small, newly opened airport. We only had 2 to 3 flights a day. The rest of the time I spent reading.
I worked as a cinema projectionist. Great job, lots of freedom and free movies.
Then coffee machine technician and coffee trainer. Again, lots of freedom travelling in and around London.

But the best job (not the easiest) is without doubt the one I have now: self employed doing something I'm passionate about. I definitely work more, but the sense of freedom I feel is priceless.

(Side note: The jobs I hated the most were postman and waiter.)

[quandow]

I was a peripatetic music teacher for several international schools for several years. It was part time, I was paid for three days (two at one school, one at the other) and I would go in on my own time during the week and occasionally on weekends to accommodate the students' schedules. It was a BLAST!

[dotpoom]

When I was an active Alcoholic I once got a job as a barman in England. Unfortunately I was let go at the end of the first day. It was the norm over there for a customer to buy the barman a drink and if you made him feel he was introducing you to "his" own special tipple that you had never tasted before....he was only too happy to buy you another. A guy came in that first night and exactly that happened... and we sort of hit it off fairly good. I spent most of that night drinking with him...me inside the bar and him on the outside. That's why I was "let go".

Not as illustrious a story as the OP's but brings a smile to these weary old eyes when I look back on that night 50 years ago.

Hell on earth followed that same uneventful night for the next 35 years....but each and every step I took led me to Sobriety 15 years ago and a life beyond my wildest dreams ever since ....here in beautiful Thailand.

[Estrada]

The best job I was offered by the Florida mob (B1Million/month) and never got to do, was to head up a company to rebuild the infrastructure in Iraq after the planned invasion by Bush and Cheney. They told me that it would take 6-7 days to bring down Saddam Hussein then after that we would go in and make a fortune. After 6 months of waiting, I went to work for Colonel Gadhafi in Libya as senior Engineer on the Great Man Made River Project from 2004 until 2010. Starting salary was B440,000 per month, but it was hard work and the temperatures in the Sahara can reach 54C. It was a satisfying job bringing water from the desert to the coastal areas for drinking and for farmers.

I was MD of a company in the UK for 20years where I built up a water recycling systems company which still saves billions of litres of water per year for their customers. This was also one of my best jobs due to the achievements we made for the environment. I also worked for the EU as a Consultant in Romania fro the Ministry of Development which was also a well paid job and our achievement was to bring Romania up to a standard where she was admitted into the EU as a member.

For me it is about bringing benefit to the people and not about the money.

[akentryan]

Editor and publisher of a weekly hi-so paper in Palm Beach, Florida. Also published the "Little Black Book' officially titled the Social Index Directory. One of the few places I know of where they give names to their residences (Donald Trump lives at Mar-a-lago). Hob nobbing with the rich and famous and the "aspiring crowd" that would part with favors for ink time.For a young and divorced man it was heaven.

[bobmac10]

Selling icecreams on a nudist beach in France

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Being a bouncer at the Regent street branch of Mothercare.

[Paul Laycock]

Being a forest worker in the south east of England, poorly paid but freedom and happy times.

[nahkit]

^{The best job I ever had was working as a contract programmer and being paid per program rather than an hourly rate. Each program was given a value, 3 days, 5 days etc. based on complexity and a day was valued at £125. A simple menu program was given a 3 day value and the first one probably took a day and a half to do. After that, I could knock out other simple menu programs, using the first as a template, at a rate of 2 a day. I could have worked faster but the client started wondering if he was paying me too much per program. I was earning over £1k a week and that was back in the early 80's. I had just returned from my first trip to Thailand and couldn't wait to get back once I'd made some money.}

[sydneyjed]

Worked on a diving centre located on the Red Sea..had to leave in the end as the amount of pussy either working there or coming on holiday was unbelievable..it was a United Nations smorgas board of fanny on offer...parties every night and a shaggers paradise for me at 21 yo!

Other job was I worked 11 years in Fosters Brewery in Sydney...12 hour shifts night and day but we basically only had a 36 hour week officallly...then all overtime was at double time and call out money plus travelling expenses were $112($490 a shift).

I was coining it in and bought an appartment at Bondi Beach then a house also which basically set me up for life...they closed the joint down 11 years ago as they said they could save 10 million in wages a year moving the brewery to Queensland(I'm not surprised).We also got 4 cases of beer a fortnight and of course unlimited beer on tap if you wanted it especially on night shift..Glad to get out in the end otherwise I would have been dead now !

[HooHaa]

power, sound and light setups for festivals and concerts and other large scale outdoor events.

very hectic, 15-20 hour days, but at 2000 USD per day, infinitely doable.

[F4UCorsair]

The best job, by far, was being a pilot for the Flying Doctor Service.

I graduated to much larger airline aircraft, but there was nothing as exciting as the flying I did for the flying doctor service all those years ago, and cutting my teeth as a young pilot on short runways, some just 600 meters long with 60+ feet trees at each end, emergency flights in the middle of the night, often in terrible weather, sometimes no runways lights (occasionally shipping flares to light the general area), three small fires to mark the runway threshold, and a 4WD at the other end to line up on. On one occasion I had to land on a road, with passing motorists stopping the traffic at each end of the 'runway', and once on a beach. Many times my sphincter was chattering, cutting washers out of the seat, but I survived......and thrived. My heart rate still increases when I think of some of the flying, borderline dangerous at times.

I learnt a lot, but wasn't paid much. If I'd been paid commensurate with the level of skill and excitement, I'd still be doing it.

Edited April 5, 2016 by F4UCorsair