Vanity Jobs

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Have you ever held a vanity job?

I've coached at a summer volleyball camp, tended bar for a whopping three hours a week just because I loved the place, and manned a booth in a snowboard park (everyday I drank on the job and sometimes even got into the yayo; my day's wages were invariably gone before I'd even come close to finishing my shift. Every single day).

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

what the hell is a vanity job?

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:37 (twenty-two years ago)

You know...tour managing and shit. (j/k)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

ha!

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I work at a film school.

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:42 (twenty-two years ago)

right, like I had some sort of huge pile of savings to live off of, and didn't do it for money?

(you are insane, even if you're just kidding.)

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Vanity job: really fun or fashionable job that you don't really intend to keep for long or make a career of. So you can be seen, talk to people, and not be completely unemployed at the time of doing so. Of course these are very temporary.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:42 (twenty-two years ago)

all radio djs to thread!

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:43 (twenty-two years ago)

All DJs full stop, you mean.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm...then, um, was I right? (Not realizing what a vanity job is.)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm bringing this up because I'm thinking about starting an electroclash group. I mean, I'm skinny, so it should work out.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:46 (twenty-two years ago)

a Vanity job: Singing for Prince

― Kingfish Beestick (Kingfish), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:47 (twenty-two years ago)

really fun or fashionable job that you don't really intend to keep for long or make a career of. So you can be seen, talk to people, and not be completely unemployed at the time of doing so.

You've got to be fucking kidding.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

You're telling me you never did this kind of thing in school? Or in between "real" jobs? During one of my between-job lulls I wrote those stupid DJ synopsis "teaser" things for progressive house nights; during another lull I sold snob drugs for a weekend. It's not that absurd, milo, it's kind of like volunteering.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know whether to laugh or cry, since I can't seem to get ANY job, much less a "vanity" one.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 05:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I can spend time working, when I don't need the money. Or I can not work.

How is that even a question?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 5 December 2003 05:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah but milo bear in mind that I'm the type of person that starts feeling really guilty for some reason if I'm not working for a while. I mean vanity jobs are gimmicky and can never be anything more substantial than paycheck-to-paycheck living (if you're lucky) but it gives me something to do while I'm getting back on my feet.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I am starting to suspect that I should've never opened this thread.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Dude, I've done it, but I wouldn't call it a vanity job... more like a mercy fuck...

― ModJ (ModJ), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

One of my conditions for qualification as vanity job: you have to arrive at this job no earlier than noon. And you're allowed to look fabulous and be loud. Any internet writing you get paid for is pretty much a vanity job too.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I start to feel guilty like that, because the Visa people start sending unibrowed goons to my door.

I've been able to work hard for six months, and take six months off - it was great. No feelings of guilt ever arose from being unemployed. I was too happy not having a boss or having to put up with people I didn't like to feel guilty about anything.

As for needing something to do - well, first to bring up something you mentioned - volunteer-work. If I ever landed in a situation where I was going to work in a snowboard park for money I didn't need, I'd go volunteer at a night shelter or tutoring kids or something else that didn't make me feel like the worst kind of Vice reject. Or I'd get a hobby. Or I'd just sleep a few extra hours every week.

Taking a job for no reason other than to see and be seen is mind-boggling.

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:10 (twenty-two years ago)

why is that, hstencil?

(ps, I was wrong about the noon thing: the volleyball job I had to be at by 9:30am.)

One vanity job I kind of did last weekend: cover for my friend to gets paid to monitor and skate at night around an outdoor downtown skating rink with a big, glorious tree with light display right in the center. It was great!

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Any internet writing you get paid for is pretty much a vanity job too.

oh man, now I am convinced this thread was designed to humiliate me. I mean, shit, my last job of three years consisted mainly of web publishing!

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:11 (twenty-two years ago)

DQ - do you not realize that it is difficult in the current economic environment to get a job, even if you have plenty of qualifications? And do you not realize that unwillfully-unemployed people (such as myself) actually post to ILX?

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

shhhh! it's a class thing...

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

this ain't The Simple Life, Orbit, so don't shhhh me.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:14 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah well see if i give *you* a job, rabble-rouser!

;-)

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I wouldn't want to work for you, if how you treat ex-boyfriends is any indication.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:16 (twenty-two years ago)

you have no clue what you are talking about and are a complete dickhead for making the ignorant comment.

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:17 (twenty-two years ago)

milo I don't think seeing and being seen is the only reason for vanity jobs though it does sound very shallow that way. It's work that doesn't feel like work. And of course it puts a little playcash in my pocket, just when I need it. This way I can still have fun when otherwise I'd be living spartan until the next solid job came round.

Hstencil I definitely didn't mean internet writing as in your situation; I mean writing a one-off little article about something fashionable and getting twenty bucks or a gift certificate for it as well as being able to give a friend the URL. And are you sure you can't find ANY job? I'm pretty sure a lot of ILX people are overqualified for many jobs but if it came down to it they could find a beneath-station job for the time being (I just worked three months of grueling retail I was way too good for but had to take just cuz I needed to live.)

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Orbit you are correct, I am just as clueless about you as you are about me yet you laughed at Girolamo's joke at my expense.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:19 (twenty-two years ago)

er,
#1 I didn't laugh at you and
#2 the two hardly comparable.

Go to hell.

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:20 (twenty-two years ago)

DQ - the only jobs I have been offered since being laid off from the three year internet job are:

1. tour manager (hahahaa! I must be doing that only to be seen!)
2. telemarketer (no thanks)
3. dog walker

I'd be happy to take a retail job if one was offered to me (none have) and it paid more than I make on unemployment.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:21 (twenty-two years ago)

stence has a fair point though, I think making "oh hee hee! Isnt it zany, I go and do silly jobs even though I dont have to! How wacky of me" comments are up in the Paris Hilton range of weirdness. Its an insult to everyone who cant find any kind of work, IMNSFHO.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Orbit, his joke was about me, so by extension you were laughing at me. At least I took at as such. I held back from immediately telling you off, but perhaps I should've posted it to your "things you haven't posted thread."

And if you don't want people assuming things about your personal life, then don't post about it on ILX.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:23 (twenty-two years ago)

which applies to me, of course, but I didn't bring up tour managing on this thread.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, I really wasn't trying to get you down, man. Just a little poke in the ribs, that's all. If I've offended, I'm truly sorry.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, I can think of an example of this (sort of). I have this friend who is an attorney - works for the Department of Justice - who last year starting vending at Chicago White Sox baseball games. She totally doesn't "need" the money, but she thought it would be a fun thing to do at night, be able to get into games for free (she is a huge baseball fan), get a little exercise lugging suds, and pick up a bit of pocket money. She had to join the vendors' union and everything, but she only works the White Sox games (the same group of workers also is eligible to work Cubs, United Center and Soldier Field events). And even then, she usually only ends up working the minimum number of games required of workers (I think it is something like 2/3 -54- of the 81 home games).

But she loves it cuz she gets into the games free. Granted, she sees little to none of the game because she's working but she can still soak in the ambience, gauge how the game is going from the fans, turn around and see a home run ball sail out of the park, etc. Plus they are required to stop selling beer by the 8th inning, so if she is able to check out quickly, she can usually see most of the 9th. And on a good night she can take home around $150 or more. So I guess I would classify that as a vanity job.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:24 (twenty-two years ago)

But seeing and being seen does seem to be the primary motivator. If the cash is necessary (including some spending money/"fun money"), it wouldn't be a "vanity job" - it would be a "job that I don't hate with the power of a thousand suns."

Combine it being unnecessary with the jobs mentioned thus far, and it sounds like hipster slumming.

But hey, I don't understand the guilt over being unemployed, either, so maybe I just don't get this. In my dream world, I'd never have to 'work' again, just spending time doing things I enjoy.
(IOW, I dream of being the idle rich, but don't really care about the rich part.)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:25 (twenty-two years ago)

what joke? where i said "ha!"
i was laughing because i spent many years in the entertainment industry and i know that tour managing pays so shitty it might as *well* be a vanity job.

as far as posting my personal life of ILE, as many regulars do, there is nothing in anything there to suggest I treat my ex like shit, only what you assume and read into it for your own evidently FUCKED perspective. i have been on the receiving end of more SHIT than YOU can even conceive of.

― Orbit (Orbit), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:26 (twenty-two years ago)

having nothing to do sounds a lot more fun than it is. And being able to go out and actually not worry about how much money I spend would be nice, too.

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

By the way, hstencil, I highly recommend temping if unemployment is the kinda thing to get you down. Plus, the pay's pretty decent considering.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Trayce, relax. It's not that snarky a topic and you know it. And there IS an element of necessity with some vanity jobs. Like I said, without these stopover vanity jobs, I'd be living VERY ghetto in between proper ones.

X-Post milo: exactly, I don't define vanity job that strictly.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:28 (twenty-two years ago)

some people don't have a choice about living "ghetto."

(I don't live "ghetto," btw, just not that great at the moment.)

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Hey, if you do it for money cuz you do need some, thats totally fair - it didnt quite come across like that first time round thats all. Plus I was kinda siding with stence cos I know he's having a hard time of it on the job front and I know how damn frustrating that can be (I'm in IT, which is becoming a very precarious industry to be in, I may lose my job any time and I'll probably have no warning, and if this happens, I'm fucked royally).

(xpost sorry thats for DQ)

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, and I love slumming. My family went from dirt poor to wealthy-as-dogshit during my lifetime and I went to preschool at the Salvation Army while my mom housekept at Best Western, so when I slum is fun as hell!

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, so does having ghetto roots make it a bit less disgusting to slum? Sometimes when I pass through my old neighboorhoods I just think "We got out. Yes." I don't feel bad about it afterwards at all.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:35 (twenty-two years ago)

despite all the rocks that you got, you're NOT still Dancing Queen from the block?!?

― hstencil, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha, well actually, that's probably the reason I never really ball it up even when I have the funds, that weird sense that if I'm not clever with my cash, I'll have to start all over. I'm very aware of my class consciousness. All my life I've dreamed of living in a clean building with stainless steel LCD intercoms, and I'm not gonna fuck it up. Yeah I embrace my past but the motherfucker smells.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:40 (twenty-two years ago)

having nothing to do sounds a lot more fun than it is.
Stence OTM.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Friday, 5 December 2003 06:42 (twenty-two years ago)

That's another thing. Even a vanity job gives you structure. Without structure I'm not very together in life, period. If I'm idling for too long, I'll waste money and then tear my conscience to shreds for doing so.

― Dancing Queen, Friday, 5 December 2003 06:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know, it's not even a vanity job though as long as you are not, like, throwing the money you receive from it off a bridge! I mean let's say you're in a job that pays $X0,000 a year, and that is enough to cover all your living expenses comfortably. It also means you'll probably retire at, say, age 58 or something. But we all probably want to retire as early as possible! So if your friend at the cool hott club offers you the gig working the door Friday nights, you might take it; not only because it's really cool and let's you be seen and hang out but you don't really *need* it, but because the money you make from it, should you choose to save it and not spend it immediately, could actually help you retire earlier!

I mean, I wouldn't begrudge anyone who approached it that way, and certainly don't see it as taking jobs away from the unwillfully-unemployed.

― Broheems (diamond), Friday, 5 December 2003 07:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh heh, does being a "rock star" count? I did that as my vanity job for two years.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Friday, 5 December 2003 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Making "independent film" is vanity work.

― sucka (sucka), Friday, 5 December 2003 10:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Helped run a cabaret / dance group in Turkey

Put on shows, selected and edited backing tapes, hung out in dressng rooms, helped with costume changes, did a few onstage things, and got paid in Deutschmarks..

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 5 December 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Making "independent film" is vanity work.

Does this count if you're working on it for 18+ hrs per day, everyday for a month, while on leave from your regular job (hence no money coming in)?

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 5 December 2003 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

counts double.

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 5 December 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

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