Every Job, Ever (mostly) – Dave Olson's Creative Life Archive

Every Job, Ever (mostly)

Dave making handmade decorative candle to sell with Bright Idea Company in Surrey BC, circa 1977
Dave making handmade decorative candle to sell with Bright Idea Company in Surrey BC, circa 1976

Surrey (1975~1985)

  • Decorative candle maker and sales assistant (with my Mom)
  • Editor of Pig Express community newsletter
  • The Columbian newspaper delivery
  • Surrey Leader newspaper delivery
  • Real Estate Weekly newspaper delivery
  • Associate Editor V.O.M fanzine

Utah Valley (1985 ~ 1988)

  • Pizza Feast – pizza making guy
    Pizza Beast – ibid
  • Supplement factory worker (Provo) – a string of super lame temp worker jobs, including one which repacked cheap tea from Taiwan into fancy boxes and sold them as a miracle cure, other gigs of equally dubious value
  • Janitor cleaning the office of a car dealership and a credit union or mortgage company of some kind (hi-jinks ensued!)
  • Software assembly line – another temp job packaging word perfect software
  • Phone surveyor for political and commercial interests (a rite of passage for many in the area, worst job ever… but i had my revenge… #story)
  • Night librarian (Utah Valley Community college) possibly best job ever!

Toronto, ON (1987)

  • Squeegee Squad (under-qualified window washing) Co-proprietor and washer of windows
  • Furnace cleaning service salesguy (via phone, in summer)
  • German bakery cleaner-upper (for ornery Germans, at night)

Burnaby, BC (1989)

  • Bicycle repairman and assembler (Sharpey’s)

SLC, UT (1990)

  • Land surveyor assistant (Heber, Park City etc with Bing Christensen) note: was lousy at this job
  • Cinematic newspaper distributor (Cinema in your Face) note: was great at this job taking paper to every cafe, bar – with fake ID – and book or record shop in area)
  • Word perfect class teacher (Univ. of Utah)

On the road (1991~~?)

  • Academic paper writer
  • Grilled cheese maker
  • Parking lot beer seller
  • Psychedelic experience consultant
  • Herbal distributor
  • Car delivery driver

Logan, UT (1992)

  • Bicycle repairman and assembler (Sunrise)

Germany (1992)

  • Rock band roadie (slacker, didn’t really *do* anything)
  • Grape picker (Rhodt, Germany)
  • Chestnut gatherer and seller (also Rhodt, Germany)

Japan, Tottori and Nagano (1993-4)

  • Mushroom farmhand (Saji, Tottori Japan)
  • Rice harvester (Nagano)
  • hitchhiking hippie poet/diplomat
  • “Flower stick” juggling stick maker and seller
  • Hemp bag maker and seller

Guam, Micronesia (1994-96)

  • Japanese-speaking Private Beach Club host (Star Sand)
  • Bi-lingual tour narrator on submarine tour boat (SS Neptune) offering tour in Japanese and Korean
  • High School teacher educating about Japanese and english in Guam JFK HS
  • Flower Stick and Hemp bag maker/seller

Olympia, WA (1996-2005)

  • Writer (essays for High Times, Cannabis Culture, Journal of Int Hemp Assoc, Menu etc)
  • Hemp bag designer and marketer (HempenWare)
  • Film producer and marketer (HempenRoad)
  • Maker of websites (so many!) and Teacher of Internets (Internet Adventures)
  • Marketing and business development guy for Olywa >ATG > Zhonka (a good run!)

Vancouver, BC (2006-2013)

  • Writer (articles in Heads, Cannabis Culture, Megaphone, Vancouver Observer and many other outlets)
  • Podcast maker (several)
  • “New school” marketing / communications / community / media-maker and community amplifier at various dot-coms, ergo:
    • Elastic Path – Mktg Coord
    • Happyfrog – Strategic Advisor
    • Raincity Studios – Community Marketing Evangelist
    • Movieset – Director of Fan Communities
    • HootSuite – Marketing Director > VP Community #bigtime

NOTE: Loads of public speaking and community project ring-leading in this era

Victoria, BC (2013)

  • Scrapbook maker

Elsewhere (2014-2018)

Okayama, Japan (2019~)

  • making paintings, poems, postcards, sometimes all at once, also audio/video sometimes
Scroll to Top