My strangest job requires a brief introduction.

I had a data entry job processing mail for the USPS. Entering names and addresses for bar code placement. Scans of the mail appeared on a computer screen, and I'd type in parts of it. Boring job, but the benefit was being allowed to listen to headphones while working, so I would get tons of audiobooks and music to listen to. I also got really good at typing.

Eventually I got tired of it and quit to try doing temp work. After a few temp jobs with one agency, there was a lack of work for a couple of weeks and I was starting to panic. My agency rep mentioned a job opening that was similar to the job I quit, data entry for a mail processing company, that I would have to go in to test for before they offered me the actual job. I got there and experienced this:

At this company, the mail came to me on a conveyor belt. I had to type parts off of moving envelopes...if I was slow, the mail piece would stop in front of me, but as I completed each piece quickly, the conveyor belt would speed up...after about four pieces of mail it would be too fast for me to see until the mail stopped. So I was constantly having to slow myself down and wait for the mail to stop.

And the kicker that made this the weird job? I had to wear headphones - to give me audio cues for what part of the address I was typing in. So I wouldn't have even been able to listen to music....just sit there being talked to in headphones while the I Love Lucy conveyor belt spat mail at me.

They offered me the job after about an hour, but I told them I couldn't do it because it was too much like my previous job. They understood, but my agency rep was so pissed she stopped working with me.