What Has Your Favorite non-Finance Job Been?

Worked at Legoland (UK)

Never brought this up to an interviewer since I was definitely child labor, but man was it fun. From the time I was 12 until around 14 I worked at a video games store earning $150 per week. It was fucking heaven - all you have to do to get people to buy games is play them well behind the counter.

Another interesting job was as computer lab guy in high school. I had a feeling our principal had certain illegal things on his computer but my 17 year old self wouldn't say anything. Some years after my graduation, bam, FBI investigation and he's behind bars.

None of this is interview material, unfortunately.

Busing tables has to be my favorite. I worked at a busy bar/restaurant that attracted a steady stream of stereotypical Trump voter. I learned how to work in a fast paced environment while dealing with the various types of aggravating customers. That was a great summer.

Worked at my Dad's Hookah bar/Mediterranean restaurant/cafe since I was 14. All the college kids laughed at me when I asked for their ID but I miss everything about the job, great people.

I interned at a Private Aviation startup that operated on a Netflix-like subscription model. Worked with great people who I'm still friends with. Every interviewer I've had has loved it and spent a lot of time asking about my experience there.

Well, I'm still doing this, but I'm writer for SparkNotes, which also lead to me getting a job at another similar, smaller company just like it. I would get told to read a book, and write summary and analysis, and would get paid $500 for it. Then, at the smaller company, they would have me watch films, and then get paid $600 per film summary and analysis. It's not the coolest job, but I think it's definitely kind of interesting.

private surf instructor

Lol I really would say my non-finance jobs have been rather tough and gritty. I worked for a morgue doing deliveries which was insane tbh and my other job was working on a farm from dawn to dusk in some pretty intense weather.

Worked on a ranch for a summer, herding cattle, bucking an bailing hay, and welding steel fencing. Was a pretty incredible few months.

I've had oddball jobs my whole life, but my top 2 favorite were - working at a neighborhood mechanic shop. I learned how to maintenance, repair, and tune automobiles and loved it so much it became my favorite thing to do. I'm only in finance because it's flexible enough to let me keep my expensive hobby a hobby. Don't know if I'd ever want to make it a career. I'll stick with CRE lending for when race teams and manufactures want to build warehouses and factories ;) (cough Mazda/Toytota - im knocking on your door and also begging you to start building 2J FDs). Employers always perk up when I mention this. They like to see I'm so passionate and dedicated to my hobby. Cars are a tough love. - cocktailing! god the cash is just too good. I still do it on the side here and there.

The most interesting I'd say was when I was a caddie for a PGA level golf course (PGA champ. was held here before) which actually sucked but was awesome at the same time. Money was great, for the one member/guest I caddied (3-day event) I was tipped $3000 for the whole thing. A well known retired (HOF) football player would come out and get absolutely hammered on the course, I'm talking shots between every hole. I wasn't his caddie for this but he did have to be brought back to the club house in a golf cart once because he couldn't make it back, they were on hole 11 I think at like 12 or 1pm. I shook a lot of hands on that course, and I always thought about trying to network but I wanted to keep it professional and let the players play their game. They say you're not really suppose to be engaging the players in the conversations they're having with each other, you're just there to caddie and let them play.

I've heard about tons of illegal shit these guys do, how they cheat on their wives (this was a common one), how their daughters are whores but "What the hell am I suppose to do about it?" A lot of the guys invited me to dinner parties, to come out on the town with them, so that was great and very unique.

It wasn't all fun though, carrying two bags sucks bad. The worst would be when a guy comes out with blades in his dang staff bag, which okay fair enough, but then I would watch him hit on the range and it would be easy 20+ handicap, I knew then it would be a long day. I never tell anyone to pick their ball up, but after 9 strokes and two lost balls it may be time to. Or they definitely just shot an 8 on a par 4 and they're doing advanced linear algebra calculating their score down to a 6 and asking me to confirm it. Caddying for women wasn't fun, most of them were ice cold. No offense.

Riflery instructor at a summer camp

In my teens, I set up fields/courts for various sports depending on the season. Got to drive around in a golf cart. Lot of fun especially when you dont have your drivers license. Then during the games I worked the snack stand. Probably 2:1 ratio of hotdogs sold vs. eaten. Would also crush beers in the back at times.

I started working at 15 and multiple jobs through college, so a lot of odd/tough jobs. My favorite was definitely working for the sports department at my college. I did a few random tasks, but mostly helping with stats on game day. My ABSOLUTE favorite was football, where I actually had no real responsibilities except to answer the press box phone. I'm sure it is done differently now, but at the time Stats Inc and a few other services would call around to the smaller schools and ask for updates on the score, time and maybe a key stat or two. For a 3pm game my day would look something like this:

9am: begin tailgaiting Noon: Access the school VIP tailgate to get better food and maybe a drink 1pm: Continue tailgating, but slow down the drinking 230: head into the stadium and hit up the fresh press box food spread 3pm: get seat on 50 yard line in the press box 315: get more food 330-415: combination of food and answer 2-3 calls. 415: elevator down to the coaches office to deliver the halftime stats 420-6 answer 5-8 calls, maybe another run at the food. 6pm: go continue the party with friends

It was the best meals I ate all week, I was buzzed, got great seats AND got paid.

The school was small (1-AA at the time), but good sports program with stars you'd know.

Not me, but my roommate's family friend got interviewed for a FO position at GS....MD worked at Macy's when he was younger...roommate's family friend was working at Macy's at the time...MD hired him "solely because they both worked at the same place"...I wonder how true this really is but my roommate always talks about it and I did meet the family friend.

Child labor - mowed yards. To this day, I still think about pulling a Forrest Gump and mowing yards for free with a Snapper. I also think mowing with tractor mowers looks really cool. I don't know why.

I used to be an assistant instructor for self defence classes. Most people were your average person that wanted to feel a little safer but a couple of times we got to aid in police force training and did a lot of work with security guards (retail shops) which was quite cool. I was only 18 when I did this but almost all the real instructors were ex military so they had some quite interesting stories.

The best experience(s) I've had were short-term, one-offs but nonetheless interesting. One, which would have been a killer experience, I had to turn down due to at-the-time work duties, but was an opportunity to be part of the presidential motorcade with the SS a couple times. The couple of people that I know that were given clearance and were able to do it got to escort the likes of Clinton, Obama, and some diplomats. One of them had Clinton and a HF manager jump into his car on one of the trip segments. Regret not skipping work for this, it was a lame job.

Second opportunity was a stint in a small country that's been in the news a lot lately. Got invited to the only foreign embassy there and shared a meal with the ambassadors. We even had a possible schedule to meet The Dear Leader at the time but had to scrap it due to time constraints. This one was a very good learning experience and truly an eye opener for me. This one comes up sometimes in interviews and leads to a 15 minute tangent, but every time is a nice way to initiate small talk and connect with the interviewer/panel a little deeper.

Aside from those two, charitable work over the summer for a few years was an unforgettable experience. If any of you have the chance to commit 1-3 weeks to such nonprofit programs, I'd recommend you to do it at least once. It really makes you appreciate different aspects of people and life.

Landscaping. Putting in water features, patios and gardens. Working outside and descent pay. I was in my early twenties at the time fresh out of the service. Basically, work hard, customers would have side work to do when the project was done so a couple of us would knock it out on the weekend and make some additional cash. Went to the bar everyday. Days off for rain.

At the age of 12 I taught myself music production through trial and error and did that as a hobby/side-job until I was around 19 or so. I couldn't really speak English when I was first starting out and the stuff I was producing was horrible, so everyone just kept laughing at me on the forums I was on lol. After around 3 months of trial and error I made my first successful beat and started slowly learning how to speak English. Fast forward a year later I had gotten Freeway to use one of my beats. I don't know how many of you are familiar with rap music, but Freeway at the time was signed to Jay-Z's Roc-a-Fella Records. For me it was a blessing to have someone who probably had Jay-Z on their speed dial to use a beat made by me, a 13 year old kid who could barely speak English and was from the slums of post-communist Europe

I made beats throughout high school, mostly hip hop, R&B and soul. I ended up earning enough money through my little hobby to fund my college education and also had a lot of fun doing it. I ended up producing for some other bigger names such as UnboxTherapy on YouTube, Canibus, Snowgoons and others. So yeah had it not been for my crazy little hobby when I was 12 I would've never gone to college and would've had to work right after high school at some shitty factory lol

I don't really make beats anymore, I stopped when I was 19 when I started going to college, but still by the far the most interesting non-finance job I had and probably ever will have

I was a bouncer for a few summers in my hometown and for a few semesters at my college but it is nothing like Road House. Mostly its telling people they can't smoke unless they are in the designated area or telling people to stop standing in the doorways of the crowded bar. Incredibly boring work and not something I would bring up in an interview.

My favorite job though was making ice cream for a few semesters. It is easy work and you get to have loads of free samples and even buy 3 gallon reject tubs for like $3. Everyone loves ice cream so I would always get asked about it when I had that job on my resume (I've removed it since it is too far in my past now).

Ice cream man by a mile.

I worked as a security guard at medium and high-end hotels. Working the night shift was exactly the stereotype you would imagine - unlimited access to the kitchen, zero supervision and a lot of free time for an 18 year old to mess around with (or just fall asleep). Nothing quite like getting paid to fall asleep.

The best was guarding weddings and pool parties though, once alcohol gets involved so much fun can be had. I once worked a wedding where the bride's brother punched the groom in the face after word got around that he had cheated on her... The most Jerry Springer/WWE scene you can imagine. Since there were only two guards (myself and a lady under 25) there was no way I could safely get involved so I just sat back and watched it unfold. Sucked when it came to police paperwork afterward though.

But like any good spinster, when it came to interviews I used to highlight the time I talked down a drunk moron from jumping into a shallow pool. He was four floors up and screaming to everyone to watch him cannonball into maybe a 2 meter deep pool. Nothing makes you look like a hero in an interview more than literally talking someone off a ledge. I was given the advice that the key to early job selection is to find jobs where you can tell "hero stories" that also grant a lot of freedom to have fun. Would recommend.

A detective like Poirot and not Holmes

My senior year in HS through the end of my freshman year in college I worked at my local Porsche dealership with pretty much no real job title - my best friend's father hired us two to be the handymen outside of the service center.

We ended up just being the guys who moved the display cars, washed and detailed new vehicles coming from Germany (to be prepared for owner delivery - usually they just picked up @ dealership), delivering porsches to client's driveways while they were off on business trips/vacay, and pretty much just keeping everything in order and looking pretty.

17-18 years old, being able to work w/ your best friend, and driving (even if only for 30 seconds at a time) beautiful sportscars and supercars, (oh yes, we would have the occasional ferrari, one time we got to drive a 918 spyder!) you really can't get better than that.

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I worked at a minor league ballpark in high school shucking peanuts and licorice in the stands.

Worked at one of the nicest golf clubs in the state. It was an ultra expensive course that was never crowded so it was pretty slow most of the time. I would literally sit in the golf cart most of the day, pick them up from their expensive cars, fill up the balls on the driving range, etc. I had a blast since we could play the course every now and then and there was a lower level golf club next door that we were able to play at for free. I networked on the course because you were matched with members if it was ever busy. I met a lot of cool people and 85% of the members would treat you really well. The tips were awesome and food was great. The wealth of the members were some of the fuel to my career into finance.