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Singing Telegram

Dan Cullum · Dec 14, 2019 ·

My part-time jobs were immensely valuable.

I never earned much, but they taught me about what kind of work I wanted to do, and what kind to stay away from.

One of the weirder jobs I had in my first year of University was being a Singing Telegram.

Here’s how it worked.

I’d get an email from my boss with the following things:

  1. A location and time,
  2. A short description of my costume (to be picked up from a hire store), and
  3. Some personal and funny details (including favourite songs) about the recipient of the Singing Telegram

After receiving this email, I’d have 2-3 days to pick one of their favourite songs, re-write it to include funny details about them, turn up at a party in costume, and surprise serenade them.

Those who bought Singing Telegrams were almost always co-workers farewelling a colleague, or a maid-of-honour organising a bridal shower.

I still remember turning up to bridesmaids’ dinner at an Auckland restaurant dressed in a chicken costume and singing a horrid remake of ‘Hey Jude’.

But the magic it didn’t last long.

I was paid by the job, so some napkin maths quickly revealed I was only making $6 an hour for a service comprised of personalised song writing, extensive travel, and sonic delivery. For reference, this was $3 below minimum wage.

Regardless, I’m so grateful I had this experience. I got to be creative each week, I got comfortable with regularly facing fear and stage fright, and I found my resolve to pursue a career of high leverage; which is doing work with the aim of impacting a large number of people.

I’ve got a bank of other weird part-time job stories, like being a perfume salesman for Chanel, but that’s for another time.

I hope this post helps you reflect on, and perhaps laugh about, the weird part-time jobs you had before you levelled up to “real life”.

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