Summer jobs and holdover jobs of yesteryear

FURET

Before I settled into a professional career, like a lot of people, I had a bunch of part-time or "holdover" jobs, most of them minimum wage between 2000 and 2008.

Landscaping. I had to get up at 6am and cycle 10km to the nearest town to be picked up and transported to the worksite in Cork for 8am. Also worked as a gardener briefly at Dublin Zoo. That was nice and leisurely.

"Rose budding". Backbreaking work spent in rose fields all day grafting buds onto rows of rose stocks. Paid 100 euro per week.

Maintenance worker at a well known business park in Dublin. This was a weekend and summer job and involved vacuuming up leaves from car park spaces, emptying rat-infested garbage bins, and vacuuming cigarette butts from pebbles while call center workers dropped them down around me whilst on their breaks. Spent most of the time hiding. Crap work that paid well (6 punts an hour!) for a 19 year old back in 2001.

Assembly line worker. 12-hour shifts of utter tedium for a year, spent installing the "upper housing" on Accucheck glucometers. My shoulder still sometimes aches 13 years later from the repetitive strain of operating the drill, which was suspended above me by an extendable cord, which I had to pull down at least 150 times per hour every hour for 12 hours.

Retail security guard. Standing around all day bored out of my tree in retail clothes shops on Patrick Street, Cork. Periodically we'd get a "code 9" from a guy in another shop on the street, which usually meant they were being threatened by a member of one of Ireland's indigenous ethnic minorities.

Industrial security guard. 12-hour night shifts in the dockyards and construction sites of Cork. Was almost deliberately run over by a psychotic milk truck driver at 5am one winter's morning. Wrote my thesis during those god awful shifts.

Passport Office, Cork. Bliss compared with what came before.

These jobs collectively put me through college and taught me self-reliance and humility. They also taught me to persevere and to strive to succeed.

What are your stories?

razorblunt

General Operative on the line making those sticky security tags on the back of CDs and DVDs.
Mind numbing for me as a college student but not the worst job at all. Paid for a lads holiday to Crete and when I didn't have to pay college fees (changed courses and colleges) it paid for my first car.

podgemonster

I used to be a professional West Coast Wrapper.

Each summer spinning my table for hours in the Sun and late into the early hours of the morning. Phone ringing off the hook trying to get bookings with me, it was intense. Tips and free Lucozade to keep me fresh, smell of grass everywhere. Cruising through towns with all my gear, turning heads, I was a King.

I was really into the Black wrap scene but now I know times have changed slightly and it's getting more diverse. People say that lifestyle was plastic and the only way was hay.

Silage bales didn't know what hit em.

Mr. CooL ICE

I always liked having pocket money to squander on stupid crap.

Paper shredder: Worked in a financial which had a policy of shredding paper records 4+ years old. It hadn't been done in years so I got it. 14.

Porter: Same institution as above. Was holiday coverage so just a few weeks during the summer. 14 and 15.

Building labourer: Worked on building sites helping build house bases for two summers. Was 15 and 16.

Glass collector/barman: I was terrible at this as I was too young to understand how pubs worked. 16 and 17.

Janitor/washer upper: Busy daytime restaurant/ deli which closed at 6. Hated it but owner loved me for some reason. 17.

Circuit board solderer: Worked for a lone electronics contractor manually soldering components onto PCBs. Left after a few weeks as yer man scared me. 17 and just started college.

Assembly line worker: Horribly boring job making electronics for cars by hand. Management were dicks. Was let go after a few weeks, along with many other students and the factory shut a few months after. 18.

Helpdesk support: Work experience from college. Was an easy and relaxed job but dealing with the public made me know this wasn't what I wanted from a career. 19.

Assembly line worker: Worked for a huge multinational for a few months with a huge staff turnover cos they were dicks. Hated it. 20.

Assembly line worker: Worked for a smaller multinational for two summers. Job was horrible but people sound and great pay for a student. 21 and 22.

Chinese food delivery: Recession kicked in and my career had failed to kick off. Did this for a few weeks as had been on the dole. Hated it, but it was better than nothing. 22.

There's a few odd jobs I did at various times, such as selling stuff on the street at matches and fixing computers. Tried my best not to sit still.

hairyslug

Pushing trolleys for superquinn for £2.09 an hour, from there to pub work, scivvy in a car dealership and then onto car valeting for a rental company

Beta Ray Bill

Most of my work was in a local Supermarket Chains Offlicences and Freshfood

Off licence Shop A I'll be honest, I loved working in the "Offo" it was great. My boss there was class. She left and went on Maternity leave and when she came back a year later she was only part time so wasn't the manager anymore. She got really flirty, I was only 19 at the time and still had the big V, I think she was in her late 30's. Filthy stuff altogether. I think I sent her one or two pics... Jesus what was I doing? She was married with 2 kids!

Fresh Food manager Shop A and B I worked with some Lad from Cavan, he was difficult to work with. Hard boring work where I actually had to think about what I was ordering. I rememeber one week I got my order wrong and ended up having to throw out about 150kg of Rotten carrotts... whoops
Learned the best management rule ever here, When you get an ass kicking, double it and pass it on.

Off licence Shop B Back to college so only working part time again during winter, so went back into the Offo. Girls in Shop B were some of the most beautiful people I've ever had the pleasure of working with. SERIOUS eye candy. Guess how many I got with. I'll give you a hint: It's less than 1.

That was basically me for 5/6 years going through college
Offo was great Craic, Lads were all messers and there were no ass holes. Managers all good Craic too. (Except for one, she was a total coke head)

33 now, I sit in an office behind a screen doing Database stuff, where there are no beautiful women and no messing/craic. Times change

andekwarhola

Most are probably Jobsbridge now.

So anybody doing my old supermarket trolley collector job is probably a Trainee Courtesy Retail Fleet Executive.

valoren

All in Cork.

Worked in a photo printers for a month.

Did 12 hour shifts on Saturdays as a general operative during first year of college. It was when U2 released "The Sweetest thing". Played every hour, I loathe it, 18 years later. Boxing iMac computers.

Did a ten hour stint with the local 'fruit and veg' delivery man. He gave me a tenner at the end.

I worked for 4 weeks in McDonalds during the easter break in 2000.

I distributed re-election leaflets for a councillor and former lord mayor. 200 quid for the week.

I worked on the electoral registrar update for the summer in 2002.
I worked in a family run shoe shop factory for one summer.

I was an industrial security guard during college. Easy money and stress free. Lonely though.

I did call centre work for a major hotel company for the US market after. Hours were horrible, starting at 3.30pm until midnight. Soul destroying. You would be fielding 100 plus calls in a night while those who spoke languages were reading books and handling a fraction of your numbers. They got paid a bit more too.

Then did some nice office temp work before getting into my current role ever since in 2005.