Mine was just last week, where I signed up to be a bike courier. I like to bike, so I figured I could make some money off of it. No brainer, right? I was all gung ho.
Eh. Well it seems that you need the world's strongest legs to do it. I can handle most hills, but the town that I was working out of, let's call it Barlington, was full of steep hills that were almost vertical. No I am not kidding. Plus my bike isn't one of those really expensive ones, so it wore out my brakes like in 2 delivieries flat. And Barlington is built like Manhattan: skyscrapers everywhere. building on top and touching, people everywhere, cars everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. How I managed not to hit anything or anyone is a miracle. I couldn't bike a few feet without someone stupid driving or walking right in front of me.
I admit I don't much much stamina, so I was panting after a 5 delivieries. Each delivery was like a mile to do. When I signed up, my boss asked me one question only during the interview: WHich days are you available.
Looking back, it was a huge red flag but at the time I was glad not to be asked all those stupid questions and thought, great! Anyway, I said "I'm available Saturdays and Sundays, all day." I guess he took "all day" to mean all day and all night because he scheduled me for that. Well...ok, I thought, I'll give it a try! Let me tell you, daytime with all it's problems was a cakewalk compared to nighttime! In the dark, I couldn't tell where anything was. Everywhere I looked, I saw the same thing: Dark, movement that were the crowds and cars, dark, and more dark. There were streetlights, but instead of helping they made it worse by reflecting and blinding me. My bike doesn't have any lights because lights turned out to cost the same as my whole bike. I got lost and asked for directions and I got wrong ones. Plus I had to deal with all of daytime's problems: steep hills, etc.
I asked if I could work daytime only, but my boss said NO. Well, gee. I guess that's that then.
Oh yeah, and my bike nearly got stolen as well. Some theif took a hammer or something and smashed my lock and broke it. WHen I tried the combo, it wouldn't work. By sheer miracle, I managed to get it off the pole it was locked to. :/
Which jobs have you all had that were not what you expected at all? So much that you had to quit eventually. Whether it was too hard, too dangerous or too weird. This one was too hard and too dangerous. :/ WOuld I take another bike courier position? Maybe, if it was daytime only. And that's an iffy maybe.
Eh. Well it seems that you need the world's strongest legs to do it. I can handle most hills, but the town that I was working out of, let's call it Barlington, was full of steep hills that were almost vertical. No I am not kidding. Plus my bike isn't one of those really expensive ones, so it wore out my brakes like in 2 delivieries flat. And Barlington is built like Manhattan: skyscrapers everywhere. building on top and touching, people everywhere, cars everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. How I managed not to hit anything or anyone is a miracle. I couldn't bike a few feet without someone stupid driving or walking right in front of me.
I admit I don't much much stamina, so I was panting after a 5 delivieries. Each delivery was like a mile to do. When I signed up, my boss asked me one question only during the interview: WHich days are you available.
Looking back, it was a huge red flag but at the time I was glad not to be asked all those stupid questions and thought, great! Anyway, I said "I'm available Saturdays and Sundays, all day." I guess he took "all day" to mean all day and all night because he scheduled me for that. Well...ok, I thought, I'll give it a try! Let me tell you, daytime with all it's problems was a cakewalk compared to nighttime! In the dark, I couldn't tell where anything was. Everywhere I looked, I saw the same thing: Dark, movement that were the crowds and cars, dark, and more dark. There were streetlights, but instead of helping they made it worse by reflecting and blinding me. My bike doesn't have any lights because lights turned out to cost the same as my whole bike. I got lost and asked for directions and I got wrong ones. Plus I had to deal with all of daytime's problems: steep hills, etc.
I asked if I could work daytime only, but my boss said NO. Well, gee. I guess that's that then.
Oh yeah, and my bike nearly got stolen as well. Some theif took a hammer or something and smashed my lock and broke it. WHen I tried the combo, it wouldn't work. By sheer miracle, I managed to get it off the pole it was locked to. :/
Which jobs have you all had that were not what you expected at all? So much that you had to quit eventually. Whether it was too hard, too dangerous or too weird. This one was too hard and too dangerous. :/ WOuld I take another bike courier position? Maybe, if it was daytime only. And that's an iffy maybe.
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