I can’t think of a job much lower on the proverbial totem pole than that of a sign spinner.
You know what a sign spinner is, don’t you? That’s someone who stands out in front of a business, a restaurant, for example, close to traffic with a big, handheld sign to direct people to the business.
To catch the attention of drivers, the person holding the sign often dances or twirls the sign about. Presumably, this is done to circumvent zoning laws that prohibit businesses from planting signage in front of their buildings without proper permitting. So the sign spinners offer a marketing option to their employers.
But, boy, does it look like a demeaning job. And on hot summer days it’s hard to imagine one worse that doesn’t also involve tar and roofing shingles.
But here’s a question: If this is a job you’ve done in the past, would you include it on your resume?
On one hand, there’s a humiliation factor that might urge one to simply brush that episode aside and forget that it ever happened.
On the other hand, including it could communicate to a potential employer that you have tenacity, and that no job assignment is beneath you.
And if you’re the employer, what do you think if, say, a candidate for a general manager position includes sign spinner under his or her work history, without trying to disguise it as “marketing experience”?
What do you think?