re: What paying job have you held in your life on which you had to work hardest physically?

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worked for a roofing crew when I was in HS one summer

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this!! South Louisiana humidity plus hot tar and shingles equals the suck

Painter helper at exxon, climbing 200' sweating balls, and risking life for 7.00/hr....been an inspector for 25 yrs was gravy n got paid usually 50.00/ hr so no sweat there!

My college job was as engine room maintenance for Exxon Inland Waterways. I stayed in the engine room of tugboats going up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, cleaned them, painted them and then hopped on another boat at a lock and started again. i was basically the engineers bitch. I made about $200 a day and stayed on for 70 straight, which was huge money in 1986 for a college kid. Holy crap that was a hot and miserable job.

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I worked for a moving company one summer. I remember one stretch of moving furniture 40 hours in 3 days. That can wear you out pretty good

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My brother works full time as a telecommunications technician, many times which includes installing cabling in attics. And then, the crazy person spends his weekends doing move jobs for his friend's moving company.

I have no idea how on earth he does it.

He's 24 and his first home is almost finished being built.. so he isn't poor. He works his arse off though.

During summers while in college I worked for my Uncle, a contractor. He was the contractor for local schools so we did work in schools. Hanging large chalkboards (~250 lbs) after hauling them up stairs. It was me, his foreman, and a crazy Vietnam vet. We replaced a gym floor at one of the high schools. 115 degrees inside, and this was back in the 80's. To get the old floor up, you used a long, heavy crowbar-like device to pries up the wood. You could only do a few boards before succumbing to the heat. Started working at 5 am to beat the heat, but Vietnam vet went nuts showing up drunk, high, or both. It was soon down to me and the foreman.

Dishonorable mention. Worked in the mess hall at Keesler AFB under a sadistic frick of a supervisor.
I would be farmed out to help at other mess halls on base, and this jerk was well-known for his lunacy.

Nah. In a ~5 year relationship. I'm sure marriage and kids will happen within the next 5. They're both pretty laid back and homebodies.

On topic - I have always found HVAC immensely fascinating. I legit get excited when a friend calls me with AC issues because fricking around with it is fun. They get paid pretty decently too. Sadly, part of the job requires you to carry AC units up and down from attics, which I lack the physical strength to do.

Start lifting

Army is correct answer brother!

Working maintenance at a golf course for $6/hr.

The sand traps did not drain, so every time it would rain, you would have to go out and rake the wet, heavy sand back up to the edges of the traps to make them look presentable. Laid a lot of sod too, which gets heavy quick.

The worst was the thrice weekly 8 straight hours of weedeating in July while wearing the mandatory jeans and boots. I drank about 2 gallons of water each day.

At the time, I was jealous of the cart staff guys because they got to hang out in the air conditioned club house and take care of golf carts all day and only made $0.40 less than I did. Now, I reflect on that job and think about how much I learned about the value of education and how obscenely cheap physical labor is. I'm really glad I had that job and would want the same for my son.