Name something uniquely interesting/strange/out of the ordinary about your job

[LesClaypool]

For me, it's international WebEx's and conference calls. I have to do a lot of them, especially in India and the Asia-Pacific region of the world. This causes some inconvenient hours on the phone to say the least.

For instance I just got done sending an invite to a meeting next week that includes 4 people. It took me a while to find a time that is (more or less) convenient for everyone. When I was finished, here is what it looked like:

Me: 8:00 pm (Tuesday night)
My director in San Francisco: 5:00 pm (Tuesday afternoon)
Client in Jakarta, Indonesia: 8:00 am (Wednesday morning)
Colleague in Sydney, Australia: 12:00 pm (Wednesday lunch)

This one actually worked out reasonably well, with just me having to be on at an odd hour. When I talk to India, they're 9.5 hours ahead of me, so we typically take turns doing the early morning call. When it's my turn, it's not uncommon for me to get on the phone with them between 5am-6am. For them, they tend to be more used to having to live with US-based time zones, so they routinely get on calls at 8-10pm their time.

Anyone else have this reality at their job? If not, what do you do that's a bit out of the ordinary or interesting that others may not?

 

[SeaPA]

I am an accountant. The list of interesting, strange, out of the ordinary and exciting things I do is so long that it would crash the internet if I were to post it.

 

[SeaPA]

I actually did have one pretty cool gig that I worked on for a lot of years, cleaning up accounting records & putting together financial reports for a family that I'm good friends with. They'd pay for flying me down to where their business is located, put me up in the onsite staff room, and cover all of my expenses for the week I'd spend there (including food & bar bill). The staff room was on the 2nd floor of a building built over the water, overlooking a bay on a Caribbean island. I'd usually go right after tax season. Due to differing time zones and lifestyle (i.e. they all live on "island time"), I'd wake up 4 or 5 hours before anyone else on the island, work until breakfast, then spend the day diving. Go to bed & do the same thing the next day. It was a pretty sweet deal; I'd essentially be on vacation for a week, only better since I'd give THEM a bill at the end of the trip. Unfortunately for me, the #%!#% internet has made it easy to do the work from here. I'd much rather do it THERE.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

I actually did have one pretty cool gig that I worked on for a lot of years, cleaning up accounting records & putting together financial reports for a family that I'm good friends with. They'd pay for flying me down to where their business is located, put me up in the onsite staff room, and cover all of my expenses for the week I'd spend there (including food & bar bill). The staff room was on the 2nd floor of a building built over the water, overlooking a bay on a Caribbean island. I'd usually go right after tax season. Due to differing time zones and lifestyle (i.e. they all live on "island time"), I'd wake up 4 or 5 hours before anyone else on the island, work until breakfast, then spend the day diving. Go to bed & do the same thing the next day. It was a pretty sweet deal; I'd essentially be on vacation for a week, only better since I'd give THEM a bill at the end of the trip. Unfortunately for me, the #%!#% internet has made it easy to do the work from here. I'd much rather do it THERE.

In other words, John Grisham based The Firm on...you!

 

[SeaPA]

In other words, John Grisham based The Firm on...you!

Yes. The Ben Affleck movie is also based on my life. Pretending to be a boring tax accountant is a great cover.

 

[DFSNOLE]

In my current job, really nothing. But when I was in WPB, a lot of the work my construction companies did focused on historic restoration of the mansions on Palm Beach. We would often have to find a way to mimic old world techniques in order to bring something back to its original condition. It was always a challenge to make something look old and new at the same time.

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

In my current job, really nothing. But when I was in WPB, a lot of the work my construction companies did focused on historic restoration of the mansions on Palm Beach. We would often have to find a way to mimic old world techniques in order to bring something back to its original condition. It was always a challenge to make something look old and new at the same time.

You ever find cool stuff behind walls or under floorboards?

 

[TennNole17]

Nothing, really. Desk Jockey.

It is sad/funny/infuriating dealing with “outsourced” finance in India. Client based here in US, can’t tell me if a check they cut for me is cleared until 48 hours after request :/

 

[DFSNOLE]

You ever find cool stuff behind walls or under floorboards?

Mostly just stuff left by the original workers; bottles, cans, newspapers sometimes. The most interesting thing was a leopard gecko. The sucker was about a foot long living inside a wall. I was told people used them as a living exterminator to get rid of mice and roaches. Startled the hell out of us.

 

[Fijimn]

I am an accountant. The list of interesting, strange, out of the ordinary and exciting things I do is so long that it would crash the internet if I were to post it.

Do you have a coffee mug that says: Accountants Do It By the Numbers.

 

[NDallasRuss]

I'm an auditor/"risk management consultant", so of course there's a lot of really cool things about my job.

In previous roles the travel was really great - I got to go to Delhi, India for two weeks, and Melbourne, Australia for another two weeks. That allowed me to see some really cool stuff - like the Taj Mahal and Bells Beach, where Bodi rode out to catch the 50yr storm waves. I also got to go to baseball games at 22 of the 30 MLB stadiums (though, to be fair, the Brewers game was rained out, so we stood in the concourse eating and drinking).

In my current role, I've gotten to manage clients's fraud hotlines, and do some fraud investigations - those were fairly cool to me, because of the impact they had. In one instance the client had a guy contracted through an IT staffing agency who was responsible for a specific system. He was in a position to "sole source" (bypass procurement) for a different vendor to manage the software upgrades/maintenance. It turned out that he was the owner/operator of this other vendor, and was double-dipping. I put together a binder of all the evidence, met with the DC Office of Inspector General, and the guy ended up getting walked off the property by the cops - not sure if the client ever prosecuted. Anyway, that's my job...

 

[helmetnuts]

Well for the last 10 weeks I've showed up, clocked in and then did nothing, literally NOTHING work related.....about as strange or out of the ordinary as I've ever seen (in the mortgage industry doing private label mortgages and the new bank my company has assigned me to requires a comprehensive background check - like military security clearance level apparently...and they appear to move about as fast doing it)

 

[wbnolefan2]

I'm a hospital pharmacist - I'm constantly amazed at how drugs work in the body. For instance, there's a drug for peripheral artery disease that works by making the cell walls of red blood cells more flexible, so cool to me!!

 

[F4Gary]

Got to fly twice the speed of sound, got to fly 500 knots at 50-100' in Turkey and scare the crap out of a bunch of sheep and one farmer on his tractor.
Got to take an airplane full of Make a Wish kids to Orlando ( got the whole fire truck shower and escort to the gate. Aurora Borealis over Cleveland (and farther north of course). St Elmo's fire on the windshield in the rain.

 

[seminoledq]

Something strange about my job is we are a non-profit org yet charge the highest prices in the industry for our base services. We hear a lot of "how can you be a non-profit when you charged me three grand to be here?"

 

[cfbfan23]

Something strange about my job is we are a non-profit org yet charge the highest prices in the industry for our base services. We hear a lot of "how can you be a non-profit when you charged me three grand to be here?"

 

[GwinnettNole]

I’m one of the first five people in the office in the AM and one of the last to leave in the PM (usually a 7:30- 6pm day) and I like it this way.

The mornings give me time to get the day planned and learn something within my industry (IT) and the PMs help me wind my day down and focus on anything that was missed during the day. As a senior manager I feel it’s part of the job. When I was a individual contributor I wouldn’t of worked those hours.

 

[EconSean]

Usually I progressively engineer open-source best practices, but on occasion I’ve been known to fungibly innovate installed base process improvements and even distinctively evisculate standards compliant virtualization. But that’s just my side hustle.

 

[Random_John]

I try and meet 2-3 new people a week at my job. I drink my weight in coffee. I've gotten people to move from all over the country to Tallahassee. I'm a recruiter.

 

[ggmike1992]

26 years in corrections. I think I've seen my fair share of strange things.

 

[seminoledq]

I try and meet 2-3 new people a week at my job. I drink my weight in coffee. I've gotten people to move from all over the country to Tallahassee. I'm a recruiter.

Only for the Tallahassee area?

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

I’m one of the first five people in the office in the AM and one of the last to leave in the PM (usually a 7:30- 6pm day) and I like it this way.

The mornings give me time to get the day planned and learn something within my industry (IT) and the PMs help me wind my day down and focus on anything that was missed during the day. As a senior manager I feel it’s part of the job. When I was a individual contributor I wouldn’t of worked those hours.

I think you have it backwards!

 

[GwinnettNole]

26 years in corrections. I think I've seen my fair share of strange things.

A few stories? Were you the one that described how bad the women prisoners behaved versus the men prisoners? If not apologies, but it was interesting to hear how poorly the women behaved...

 

[Formerly Rockymtnole]

Traveled a bunch overseas in past 10 years. Gets old and takes a lot out of you, but I've seen and experienced some pretty cool stuff over the years.

 

[Bill From Tampa]

It is filled working with entertainment stars and future stars.

 

[Fijimn]

For the most part, we are involved very early in the origin and cause (forensic) investigation for our cases. If the dollars are high enough, the client likes us there coordinating joint inspections. So that can be very interesting.

Every once in a while I get to participate in the jury/adversarial trial system we have developed in the US. It can be inspiring and well as frightening to see 12 strangers decide if you client wins or loses.

 

[ggmike1992]

A few stories? Were you the one that described how bad the women prisoners behaved versus the men prisoners? If not apologies, but it was interesting to hear how poorly the women behaved...

Not sure I was that person but I'll take a good old fashioned male thug over a deceitful conniving woman convict any day of the week. Reading some PSIs over the years has made my skin crawl, sex offenders (especially with the explosion of the internet), the things people do to their own kids, the inventiveness of fraud, and the big crimes (robbery, murder, etc...) I knew one guy who was on the compound during the Waco siege. His PSI read like a movie script. I remember the first time I found a homemade dildo and learned about the many non-traditional uses for feminine hygiene products. I was also working at Tallahassee when we had the work-based shooting when 2 people were killed. Met lots of interesting people over the years.

 

[CC0492]

Thinking.....thinking.....thinking.....I got nothing.

 

[NoleFan2U]

Prostate exams.

/thread

 

[SeaPA]

A few stories? Were you the one that described how bad the women prisoners behaved versus the men prisoners? If not apologies, but it was interesting to hear how poorly the women behaved...

I think that was Tribe, discussing a previous job interviewing, or observing interviews of, prisoners.

 

[funksouljon]

Prostate exams.

/thread

Getting or giving?


My job is boring. Has been for a while. I have been angling to get a trip to India for over a year now to meet my offshore resources. Still not set, but might happen....

 

[Banditking]

Jobs have included psychologist, neuropsychologist and neuroscientist. So I’ve heard lots of bizarre stories and seen a lot of bizarre things.

I’ve given academic talks in building built in the 16th century. That was in Florence. That was pretty cool. I’ve traveled the world and talked to preeminent scholars in those countries about their work. I’ve made it a point to be broad so my work has me interacting with PhD engineers of various types, computer scientists, mri physicists, neuroscientists, linguistics professors, ethnomusicologists, cardiologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, materials engineers, and so on. I get to see their cutting edge research ideas and process. Debate with them and ask questions to design new research goals.

I’ve also for a time supplemented my income as a musician in the Chicago music scene, and, much younger, Miami. Both resulted in some colorful experiences.

 

[surfnole]

The original poster's description sounds like my own. My friend and I get a kick out of some of the names in the corporate directory.

Cherry Wang
Long Hong
Sameer Deekshit
Nigel Cockram
Gina Cockburn

The list goes on........

 

[RTM58]

Prostate exams.

/thread

 

[NoleFan2U]

Getting or giving?

I am a woman so....

 

[RONole]

I've been in the mortgage business for over 15 years. I've specialized in renovation mortgages the past 6-7 years and seen some very cool projects done with my loans. I've been able to create a new product from scratch and I also worked with the city of Tallahassee to pair down payment assistance with renovation mortgages and I wrote the protocols for the city. May be boring to others but, I enjoy what I do a lot.

 

[itsjustme0770]

I get to hold companies that kill people accountable for those deaths.

 

[itsjustme0770]

I get to hold companies that kill people accountable for those deaths.

 

[seminole97]

I get to hold companies that kill people accountable for those deaths.

 

[cmanole]

Prostate exams.

/thread

Ever lose a ring? Or a watch?