Odd jobs

All over the internet there are lists of weird and wonderful jobs, some of them are the sort of thing you could probably find easily, others are a little more esoteric. A lot are american though they are a useful starting point for research on other countries.


The rise of unusual jobs, an article by Hiscox describing how their business in professional insurance has started to see a lot of jobs that are new and unconventional.




Here are some more lists.






Quintessential Careers has found links to a number of specialist job sites for seasonal jobs ranging from theme park work to ski jobs. 


Student jobs with a difference by Mookychick



Fun jobs from Yahoo


Unusual jobs at Employment Spot


Unusual Jobs has a range of articles on different careers, though there are a lot of adverts on the page. Their affiliate Dream Jobs has more articles and links to more affiliated pages at the bottom.


This list of strange jobs by an American blogger is a good place to look for ideas.


Job Monkey lists a lot of odd jobs and also offer some tips on finding the job of your dreams.


If you're flush, or have some pull at a library you could purchase some of the books in this series.

Starting your own business

An alternative to finding a job is to set up on your own, there are numerous resources around the web, here are a few of them

Running Your Own Business

• West London Business Network For small businesses.
• Startups For starting your own business.
• Hounslow Chamber For local businesses in West London, provides networking opportunities.
• Articles on own businesses from a site in Canada.
• Find an accountant - find charted and certified accountants from ACCA.
• Invention Intelligence - a blog about developing your ideas
• Achieving your dreams - a lecture on YouTube
• Mums quit work to start businesses - an article from the BBC
• Live Wire -  a resource from Shell aimed at under 30s, but with free advice pages

Under 24 years old? You can now apply for a loan from the Governments Start up Loans fund if you have a business idea.

Once you are in business, networking is a vital tool. Business Connections organises events for SMEs.


But don't assume that advertised Homeworking jobs are as good as they might sound. Bogus homeworking jobs Guidance from BERR (formerly the DTI)

Dream Job - Musician/Label Owner

Who do you work for? What is your job? Where do you work? 
I run my own label, Round Records, which was set up specifically to release my own music and that of The Wildhearts. We occasionally release albums by friends of ours too.

How did you start in this line of work?

Frustration at how restricting record labels can be for certain artists, such as myself. This way I get to say 'yes' to all my crazy ideas.

How did you find out about the job? Or where did you get the idea?

After being in the music industry I figured out that any record company is simply a system of delegated jobs, like marketing, press and distribution. Once I figured this out it made sense to put my discoveries into practice.

How did you get the job?

I asked the boss to hire me and I said yes.

What do you do on an average day?

Dream about the future and thank God for the present, a result of being screwed in the past.

What hours do you work?

Twenty four.

What’s the best part of the job?

Seeing the Round Records logo on the back of any release is still a thrill, but the greatest thing has to be writing songs that I know will be released without any resistance from the MD of a label.

And the worst?

There is no worst, this is a dream come true.

What can you not do your job without - Qualifications, licences, insurance, comfy shoes, eye for detail, sense of humour?

The ability to start and finish with grace and calm.

How much initial investment did you have to spend to get started in your career?

I invested years of experience into this venture. Money is fresh air without knowledge.

How does the pay and career path compare to other people you know? Can you support yourself, a family, a house on the income from this work?

Yeah, I do fine. A damn sight better than I ever did on a major label. In fact I now realise how much money the labels I've been involved with have taken from me.

Does your organisation ever advertise for staff? Where?

We tend to employ people we know and believe will do the best job.

Have you ever seen other jobs like yours advertised? Where?

Nope.

at would you be doing if not in this line of work?

Arguing with a record company about why something that sounds good is good.

Online resumes

LifeHack is a website full of advice on everything from a tidy desk to exercise. In this article they offer tips on creating an online profile for employers to see. You have to scroll down past their advertising and as you will see, this is not the first article they have published on the subject.


This article from The Guardian offers advice how to keep Brand You tidy online so prospective employers see only what you want them to see.

The Basics

Plenty of sites across the web offer tips on searching for a new job. Here are some that should give you a good grounding in the basic skills such as writing a CV, interview techniques and networking. Don't forget to click around each site to see what else they offer.

• Start with checking your cover letter is well written
• Honesty is always the best policy
• eHow publishes advice from professionals on everything from what to wear at an interview to descriptions of particular careers.
• Which shows you the questions you need to know the answers to.
• Monster UK offers advice on  everything you need, click the links in their Expert Careers Advice box
• Practice psychometric tests on the Prospects site, these tests are sometimes used by big corporations.
• Advice from The Guardian on getting feedback on your applicattion
• A really useful article on not appearing desperate.
• Interview advice in video clips from VideoJug, and look at the other clips available
• Advice from Jobsite on interviews
• What to wear for an interview (men) (women) (and don't forget to get your underpinnings fitting well)          NB These videos may begin with an advert.
• And look out for the weird questions some interviewers might throw you.
• Do no overreact to rejections

Dream Jobs

A day in the life of:

• a monk
• police officers
• a trader (finance)
• a market trader

The Guardian also has a Working Life feature that examines the lives of people in a variety of careers and a Behind The Job Title section describing more about real people's work.

Volunteering

Volunteering is a great way to build or learn skills and boost your CV, but also a good way to try out different roles and types of work.


There are plenty of places to find out about volunteer opportunities.

• Volunteer England support and enable volunteering and have a free newsletter.
• Do It collates opportunities from volunteer centres around the UK so you can search by location as well as by type of position.
• Global Volunteering helps you find places across the globe.

Have a read of the experiences of people who have volunteered for The Prince's Trust.

Life Coaches

There are lots of life coaches offering careers guidance and tips on their websites, many offer a free Newsletter as well.
Here are some of the best I have found, in no particular order.

• Carol Ann Rice
• Suzy Greaves 
• Careershifters
• Job Seekers Advice

Find life and career tips to help you stretch your wings

It's not all work work work

Don't forget, while you are job hunting or changing careers you need to maintain game fitness, both mentally and physically. Here are a few links that might help.

Personal Development

TED.com Get inspired, watch free videos of talks, performances and lectures. My personal favourites are Prof Stephen Pinker, Prof Richard Dawkins and Tony Robbins.

Academic Earth also shows videos of lectures

The Happiness Project is an exploration of all the advice there is about how to be happy.

Greater Good from Berkeley also has tools for improving your general wellbeing.

American Universities offer some of their courses online for free. Try one of these:

• Berkeley
• MIT
• Yale
• Notre Dame

Online Courses

Vision2Learn offers NVQs in Money, Life, Computer and Management skills

Reference on line, if in doubt, look it up Refdesk.com offers all sort of information

All the information ever on the internet is here at archive.org.

Away from work

• Plan a Day Out - it's not all work work work, take time out to enjoy.
• Royal Mail Includes Postcode Finder, Online Stamps and Delivery Tracking.
• MyPill A handy service to remind you to take your pill (ladies).
• Cosmetic Labels How to understand all the symbols on the packaging.
• FlyLady - a briliantly instructive site on keeping clean and tidy and organised.
• If you are tightening your belt while changing track, you might try becoming a little more self sufficient by growing your own food, even if you have no space you might find some through Landshare.

Treats

Because we all need a little something to brighten up a week.

Aroma balms from Kate Logan, they smell wonderful and can improve your mood.

Shoe jewellery from PrettyPinkToes to personalise your feet and accessories for your shoes and bag.

Green gadgets and goodies from Nigel.

Have a daily Haiku

Remember it could be worse - yuk!!

Or even dirtier - but Mike seems to love it! And here he gives some thoughts on jobs.

Traditional Skills

There are a whole raft of traditional skills that are dying out in Britain. This article from London's free Metro paper discusses some of them. (It is a bit slow to load.)


Try the jobsearch pages at English Heritage, the National Trust, National Trust for Scotland, Cadw in Wales, British Waterways for Jobs using some of those skills.


For training, the following offer courses:

• Scottish Traditional Skills
• The National Trust has an apprenticeship scheme for young people as well as courses in caring for historic properties
• Get a bursary for training
• The National Heritage Training Group
• NECT in North East England

Read Dave's Blog on his experience of traditional skills.


The National Trust has blog written by people taking part in their training schemes.


Read a local newspaper's article on blacksmithing and look out for links to other articles they are going to run on other traditional skills, or this article on creating sustainable furniture.

Do you know any good sites related to working with traditional skills. Please let me know in the comments. Any updates will be added to this post, use the search facility on the left of the page to find it again.

Dream Job - Paramedic

What is your job?

Rapid response paramedic and HART paramedic operative, and  student Critical Care Paramedic

Where do you work?

Surrey/Kent/Sussex

How did you start in this line of work?

Local paper ad

How did you find out about the job? Or where did you get the idea?

My sister in law who is a nurse

How did you get the job?

Application/interview/fitness test/driving assessment

What do you do on an average day?

Anything from minor injuries to cardiac arrest and severe trauma. The HART role will involve a national response to accidental or terrorist release of chemical, biological or radiological devices, urban search and rescue and casualty rescue from dangerous environments such as at height or underground. Also attend university and/or clinical placement in hospital. Once qualified as a CCP I will be tasked to higher acuity incidents which require the specialist skills I will be able to bring.

What hours do you work?

12 hour shifts, nights and days

What’s the best part of the job?

Working with Police/Fire and the variety

And the worst?

Unnecessary calls

What can you not do your job without - Qualifications, licences, insurance, comfy shoes, eye for detail, sense of humour?

State registration, strong stomach, driving licence, ability to relate to all types of people

How much initial investment did you have to spend to get started in your career?

Nothing significant

How does the pay and career path compare to other people you know?

Most of my friends don’t have ‘conventional’ jobs either, or are also paramedics. If, like me, you are always on the look out for a new challenge, then opportunities are there. Pay will never be great in this line of work, but there’s more to life

Can you support yourself, a family, a house on the income from this work, if not do you have to have another job?

I don’t have a family or a mortgage so I do fine

Does your organisation ever advertise for staff? Where?

www.jobs.nhs.uk i think

Have you ever seen other jobs like yours advertised? Where?

See above

What would you be doing if not in this line of work?

I have absolutely no idea.

Blogs around the world

I will try to keep this post up to date with posts from blogs discussing job hunting, the process, tips and sources of information.

• Job hunt fatigue by Ronnie Ann, a careers coach (USA) with lots of interesting links on her page.
• Follow CareerShifters careers guidance on Twitter for tips and advice (UK)
• The New York Times publishes a regular blog on switching career (USA)
• Anti 9 to 5 blog, by Michelle Goodman, Seattle (USA)
• Guerilla Job Hunting advises on proactive searches and improving your approach to employers (USA)
• Jobseekers Advice has lots of advice and a forum. 

To find this post again use the search function on the left of the page.

Job search sites

There are many sites providing searches for jobs, the majority are for the ordinary every day jobs but some have the occasional unique position on them.

NORAS monitors worldwide recruitment sites and compares the Job Boards.

EAS this page from the Government's Department for Business explains the regulations that agencies have to adhere to.

The Guardian listed the Top Ten sites in 2008

Job agency sites

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Manpower - A well established 'big name' agency. As well as a job search facility, they offer advice and training. Many of the jobs are driving or plant operating, but they also have clerical and sales jobs. The quick search allows you to inout location and keywords while the advanced search includes options such as skills and language.

Reed -  a very colourful site from a well known agency. Includes jobs in a variety of sectors. The search facility allows you to inout salray range, location and keywords.

Select - a bright site, with pictures of buttons and stars that specialises in jobs in admin, legal, medical and accountancy.

Brook Street - quite a dense site from a company that claim to find positions that will advance your career.

Adecco -  a very simple and straightforward site from another big name in recruiting

Blue Arrow - one of the Times top companies to work for with a very simple site

Work Thing - a bright site that offeres advice as well as a job search

 

 Job search sites

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JobSite Slightly cluttered site with a simple search and a range of sectors. Allows you to store a CV online. Also lists top agencies.

Monster A very large and well known site with sites in many countries. Although the front page does not offer sectors it does offer a quick search and several links to their in house advice centres. Allows you upload or create a CV for corporate visitors to access.

Jobserve

A clean, fresh looking site with a simple layout. Has a quick search and lots of jobs by sector. Also offers CV advice and international sites.

Fish4Jobs

One of the biggest sites, it is used by many local newspapers to powwer their own job searches. offers a quick search and a list of sectors and regions on its front page.

Total Jobs

A colourful site with lists of sectors on the front page. Offers career advice and a chance to upload your cv.

Target Jobs

Very colourful site aimed at graduates. with sectors on front page. Also has advice pages

CV Library

Clear and uncluttered site, includes sector search and allows you to register your CV.

JobSearch

A clean fresh looking site that allows you to set up alerts and upload your CV

careerjet

In one simple search, Careerjet claims to give the job seeker access to a massive selection of jobs that are compiled from various internet sources.

AllTheTopBananas

A site that links to employer sites for simple applications.

Portal reviews

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Jobs1 - a portal to a variety of employment sites in a wide range of sectors. Easy enough to navigate and not too cluttered or confusing. Also offers a How To Search guide.

Job Agencies - an easy to navigate portal with international jobs. Not cluttered with a wide range of sectors listed.

Agency Central - a portal that links to both agencies and search sites. Easy to navigate and uncluttered with top tens of sectors and regions where visitors have searched.

Get-UK-Jobs

This is a site designed for people moving to Britain, with poor English.

irekruit

A fairly basic portal with advice and tips

Non-UK sites

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Job Hunt -an American portal

Fab Job

An American site with guides to different professions

Quintessential Careers

Slightly cluttered American site with advice pages and offers a Top Ten of other jobs sites

jobs.com.au

one of Australia's largest Job Search Listing websites

Review sites

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Review Centre This is not a very easy site to navigate, but if you do find what you are after you will find extensive reviews by members of the public.

All Jobs UK Provides a star rating for all the job boards, publications and agencies although it is not very clear from the front page, just choose one of the tabs at the top of the home page.

First post

This blog is a continuation of www.not-the-9to5.info which is being discontinued as its host makes changes to the platform. Here you will find all the resources and links that were included there, plus more content and information.
If you would like to include your job as a dream job please contact me and I will send you the standard questionnaire, your answers can be anonymous if you like or can include a link to your own site.


Happy job hunting

Dream Job - Guitar Teacher

Who do you work for? What is your job? Where do you work? 

I work in schools around the borough for the local Music Service. I also do a lot of private work either from my own teaching studio at home or at a private school in West London. In addition I work as an examiner for the Registry of Guitar Tutors which, although a small part of what I do, can take me all around the country.

How did you start in this line of work? 
I taught a jazz workshop for adults. The private work has built steadily over a number of years starting with just one or two students per week.

How did you find out about the job? Or where did you get the idea?
A friend who was teaching the course recommended me when he decided to leave.

How did you get the job?
I was told by a member of staff that a vacancy was coming up so I applied directly to the Music Service with a CV.

What do you do on an average day?

Usually I will have two schools to visit in a day where I teach either individuals or small groups depending on what students I have. I will also have private students which I see at various times during the day.

What hours do you work?
I do 3 ½ days teaching per week for the Music Service at the moment but it varies and each term can be different. It tends to be busier in September and tails off a little by the end of the year. There are also planning and other associated tasks involved which take up a couple more hours each week. Private work can be anything up to 20 hours per week

What’s the best part of the job?
Seeing people improving. Working on my own and not having to rely on others and the ridiculously long holidays.

And the worst?
Feeling like I’m not a proper musician.

What can you not do your job without - Qualifications, licences, insurance, comfy shoes, eye for detail, sense of humour?
You don’t need any qualifications to set yourself up as a private teacher, not yet anyway. To work for a Music Service you need a degree although QTS isn’t necessary. Patience and the ability to communicate clearly are essential. 

How much initial investment did you have to spend to get started in your career?
Not much really as you don’t need a lot of gear and anyway I already had all the equipment that I need. If you are self-employed you can claim all your equipment as start up costs no matter how long you have had it.

How does the pay and career path compare to other people you know? Can you support yourself, a family, a house on the income from this work?

I don’t know about other people but it certainly pays better than any job I ever had before. Teaching is now my sole source of income and I survive fairly comfortably. 

Does your organisation ever advertise for staff? Where?
I don’t know about that. Teaching jobs are a bit like gigs in that it’s mostly word of mouth and contacts. 
Have you ever seen other jobs like yours advertised? Where?
Teaching jobs are advertised in the Times Educational Supplement (TES available Fridays) but it’s not very often that instrumental work turns up. The RGT will very occasionally let members know if a job is available

What would you be doing if not in this line of work?
Probably still working in the sales office of a musical instrument importer/distributor or driving a van.


Thank you to the guitar teacher who provided this information, you can contact him at:
mail@andrewcurtis.co.uk