John's Blog

I had what I thought was a great idea, that somebody should put together a program along the lines of those adult baseball fantasy camps that would allow you to do someone else's job. But as with most "original" ideas, somebody else has already thought of it. Vocation Vacations offers you the opportunity to test drive just about any job you can think of. You can view it as a fun experience, or as a way to try out something new as a first step in a career change.

The program presents a surprisingly wide range of opportunities; the only ones that I couldn't find listed were Astronaut and Stripper. However, if you are tempted to sign up for the $699 per person two day session as a bed & breakfast innkeeper, here's a bit of advice. Just go to a B & B, stalk the innkeeper, and pocket the change.

But although many of the career options that they are offering up are for some prestigious and interesting fields, what appeals most to me would be some far simpler experiences. A few of the jobs that I'd like to have, if only for one day:

I'd love to drive a train.

Or to be a back-hoe operator.

The guy who drives the boarding tunnel to the plane at the airport always looks like he could be having fun... although they seldom look like they enjoy it. Then again, don't come to my job and critique me either.

A guy who drives the one man garbage truck, with the giant mechanized arm that empties the can into the back of the truck. Funny thing, my parents told me that as a child, I used to watch the guys load up the garbage trucks, and told them that I wanted to do that when I grew up. They must have been very happy to hear that.

Strange how all these involve operating the proverbial "heavy machinery". I'm sure some Freudian analysis could reveal something dark and ugly about that.

Tags: jobs, vacations, pointless rambling