Someone had asked this elsewhere but then deleted their own post and I don't know why! I was meaning to come back to it and read it, so rest assured that I won't delete this one as there were some really interesting stories of unconventional ways people landed their work.
TL;DR: I got headhunted after directly emailing dozens of people and pitching myself as an available, on-call substitute in my line of work, instead of submitting job applications traditionally.
As for me, I cold-pitched myself via Google Maps and other searches as an available substitute to those in my skilled trade (upon moving to a different region) in basically a 50-mile radius, and eventually word of my availability reached a large, overarching institution that connected me with an organization that had a full-time opening. It took me probably 4-5 months from the move to the job offer.
Edit: My story is actually a little more complicated than that, now that I recall the details from years ago; there wasn't actually a full-time opening at my now-workplace at the time, haha. What happened was that I was briefly interviewed and quickly hired as an assistant to an overwhelmed director who ended up getting massively sick and nearly died from COVID, so I subbed as the director. They had been having interpersonal problems with her and I rapidly noticed them in the weeks before she got sick and warned them of her. While I wasn't trying to take her place, the higher-ups said they were aware of her shortcomings (she had basically said "Shut up" to another director higher than her rank, to give you one of many examples of how bad it was, and she must have been in her 50s if not 60s).
Nearly everyone at the org apparently loved my work while I subbed for her for nearly a full month, and they eventually fired her and made me her replacement after another interview. It was definitely unusual...
Oh hell
That one was the Bulldog. She's still a good friend.
Short little thing, about 5'6". Cute too, and hates being reminded she is. She's a few years younger than me, and had been working on fake id, but that's a whole nuther kettle of fish
She was, and is, fairly butch, if that means anything to you. So her head comes up to about my nipple line, and my arm was bigger than her leg, and she wasn't the most petite little thing, she worked hard and exercised.
But the first thing she said to me when I came out of the office was that if I ever picked her up like that, she'd feed me my balls on a stick.
That's the Bulldog.
So, this is a drag club in the south in the nineties. Regular gay bars caught hell, but a drag club near a main road, with neon lights and parking lot full of some of the brightest flames it has been my privilege to see? It was a target for every cretin, redneck, and bigot for a hundred miles around the city.
So we'd end up having run-ins with gay bashers or at least assholes trying to act tough almost every shift during decent weather.
More than once, she would kneecap some fuckwit coming at me from behind, or when I was tangling with someone and couldn't get loose. She was also known for tackling and choking the hell out of assholes, even when they'd just stand up with her hanging on their back; hence the nickname.
So, there were knives that didn't get me, ball bats that never got swung because she had my back in every sense, and vice versa.
But the big one? Fuck me, it was bad.
A seriously crazy fucker went after one of my favorite patrons, this skinny, sweet little twink with nothing but love and hugs for anyone that would give him half a chance. But the kid was off property, halfway down the block, and we weren't supposed to go that far.
Me, bulldog, and Kerry were on the lot and door that night. Kerry is a tall, lean but athletic ex marine and drag queen. He actually haunts lemmy to, so he might chime in. But when I took off running when I saw the crazy asshole come out from a shadow and hit the kid, Kerry starts cussing, but it was Bulldog that was right behind me first. Kerry was smarter, and stepped inside to call for help, and tell the inside staff to call the cops.
Cops always took their damn time showing up there.
Anyway, me and bulldog are running hard, seeing this kid on the ground, getting beat and kicked.
The nutjob grabs some junk from the lot he stepped out of, some rebar with concrete on it and pulls back to bash that kid's head in.
I get there, thank the gods of speed for making my big ass run fast enough, before he can do it, and we go at it. I'm swinging wild, because this was back before I got serious about martial arts. I'd done some wrestling and a tiny bit of boxing, but never dedicated.
The nutter was fast, and hyped up on something. I was always slower. I got a few in before he caught me and I took a knee. He was cueing up for my skull when the Bulldog comes in growling, literally, and goes at him.
He swings with the rebar and smashes her in the face, and she goes down hard. It was fucking meaty sounding. I can see blood, so I fucked up and moved to her, and the crazy gets me in the back with the improvised club.
If Kerry hadn't been busting ass, I'd have been dead because I couldn't breathe
Kerry comes in and puts a boot upside the guy's head, then steps back between all of us and him.
But the guy is lit up by whatever it was. He's trying to get at us, and Kerry is having trouble because damn. Three people down, and Kerry ain't budging, but you can't cover everything like that.
So the dude slips by and tries to kill the kid again, after having feinted at me.
Kerry bumps him off target, and I get up.
That's when it got ugly. I kinda lost my shit. Picked the guy up, slammed him and just went off. I don't even know what I was saying, or even thinking, but Kerry tried to pull me off and couldn't.
But Bulldog? She pulls herself up, comes over to me and gets in my way. Grabs my arm and stops me hitting the crazy guy again. She's dripping blood, broken nose, plus other fractures that weren't visible. But she was the one that put herself in the way and kept me from killing the guy. She did that half blind from swelling, concussed, and bloody.
She still has scars from that. Outside for sure, but inside too.
Saved my life two different ways in one night.
Worst fight I was ever in. Well, against a human.
But, yeah, her and Kerry kept my ass alive for sure. There were other nights I kept them safe too. That's just how we did it.
At that time? She wasn't even legal to enter the bar. That's the night I found out she was using fake info, but that's not really important. But we were young. The "kid" was around the same age as me, and I couldn't buy a drink at the places I bounced yet.
It was a fucking crazy night. But our boss? That dude paid every hospital bill, not just for us, but for the kid too. I missed work at my regular job, and he just paid me like I was working full time for him. Told me I was an idiot, and not to do that to him again. But he hired on extra security so we could walk patrons to their cars when they couldn't park on site.
The crazy dude did serious time, attempted murder, multiple counts.
Now, I gotta be honest here. I've told this story a few times between reddit and lemmy. Kerry tells me that none of them are fully accurate. That I keep getting things mixed up in the order they happened and such. I know that when I remember it, there's a lot of blurry edges, and stuff comes to mind scattered. It's flashes of stuff that was terrifying and I was flooded with adrenaline, fear, and anger, so it's hard to be confident in the details.
I'm certain about Bulldog's face, because it made me cry to see her like that. I know for sure that the kid was in a bad way, and almost died on the way to the hospital. I can remember his face too, when I rolled him over before the first ambulance got there. And I know I was fucking hurting lol. My back, my hands, my knees, my face, alllll beat up lol. It took me a few days to walk upright and not hobble.
Kerry, chime in! Wow, this was an insane read. I'm glad the guy got justice served. What a horrible struggle and that sucks that multiple people were scarred in multiple ways. Did you not go to a hospital after?!
Your boss's coverage in the aftermath was also great, given how that all probably happened in just 5 minutes or so. With stories like this, I now feel like there could be a /c/Bouncers community on here. I'm glad no one got a TBI or was permanently paralyzed; either of those would have probably been the worst outcome (apart from just straight-up dying, needless to say). I wonder how many bouncers now have pepper spray or other self-defense tools.
Since baby boy said I could, he ain't too far off from what I remember.
When I saw him and bulldog take off after that bastard what hit that boy, I knew shit was going to go down.
See, baby boy, my hairy monkey, he had been getting in a bad way, dealing with them redneck assholes for a while. We'd get bottles thrown over the fence at us, get cussed, get threatened. He was gay friendly when he started working with us, but the more shit he saw, the madder he got. The week before he had said that one of these days, someone was gonna get killed. I asked him if maybe we should talk to the boss again, get some extra staff on the lot.
He said yeah, but he reckoned one of us would have to kill somebody since the popo ain't shit. Well, that ain't how he said it, but that's what he meant. We'd call them when someone would start trouble, and they'd be a half hour getting there. You old enough to know public enemy? 911 was a joke in that town.
So, when he took off and I heard him saying "not this time motherfucker", I knew shit was gonna be ugly. When I ran back in, I told them my boy was gonna fuck a redneck up, to call an ambulance.
Time I got back out, they was already blood everywhere. I saw my boy moving to cover my girl and get hit. Heard something crack, so I went at that piece of trash.
I ain't never been the kind of serious fighter my boy is. Even in the corp, it wasn't something I took to, but I can do okay. But that trash was on some serious shit. Too fast, too mean. Couldn't back him off, and he was going after someone to kill.
When baby boy got back up and grabbed that sorry asshole, he was screaming. When he threw him down, it was like when a watermelon gets smashed on concrete. That head hit the ground first, and I thought for sure I was gonna see brains. The sound his head made was stuck in my head for a long time after.
And I couldn't hold him. Baby boy ain't what you call small. I was trying to grab him back, stop him from killing that man. He was growling and screaming how he was going to kill him. Saying he'd show him some hate. Baby boy weren't really there. They was teeth bouncing after one hit, and I started yelling for someone to help me, but all the other staff wasn't doing nothing but watching.
But Bulldog, bless her perfect little soul, she drag herself up off the ground and get in there. If baby boy had kept swinging, she'd be done thrown, she ain't but maybe 130 pounds now, and weren't as strong then. But she stopped him.
And then we's all crying, and baby boy snaps out of it and starts helping that happy fairy boy making sure he alive and breathing right.
I can't forget seeing baby boy haul that motherfucker up, over his head and just throw him. The sound he made when he did it, you ain't want to hear. And then that thunk.
I'll say this too. Baby boy, my big ol teddy bear, that ain't the last time he put his self between some ugly motherfucker and somebody that can't stand for theyself. Ain't many men I ain't fucked that I love, but my baby boy is number one.
Oh, yeah I was taken to the hospital. Kerry said he'd put his size 12 boot up my cracked ass otherwise lol.
I was the least injured other than Kerry, who only got some bruises and a scrape. I had some cracks in some ribs, my knuckles were kinda split but didn't need stitches. Most of my injuries were blunt force stuff, basically deep bruises. I wanna say it was three ribs that had fractures? They weren't bad, but they hurt like hell for a few months after.
Bulldog got the worst out of the squad. Broken nose, fractured orbital, concussion, split lip and her face was shredded from where she slid on the concrete.
The kid was fucked up though. Took him days to wake up. He recovered with no disability, but it was a long recovery. Broken ribs, skull fracture, jaw broken, I can't remember what all else.
The asshole was worse off though. His trial was like a year after, and he was still fucked up. Missing teeth, couldn't walk (though I suspect he was faking that some), mostly blind in one eye, some other shit that isn't coming to mind. I know he wasn't faking stuttering and messing up words. He did end up with brain damage. I wasn't joking about Bulldog saving my life a second time, I damn near killed him. If she hadn't stopped me, I probably would have, and it was most definitely excessive use of force.
Regarding bouncers and gear, it depends on where you live, but you have to be real careful with what you carry and use. Cops tend to not like bouncers, or didn't back when I was still doing it. So you spray someone, you better have witnesses and plenty of them. I knew guys that carried knuckles, batons, even knives though, particularly at one of the rougher strip clubs. A few would carry a small handgun too, but it isn't a good idea, imo. Legal, at least in my state, but not a great idea in a setting where you're supposed to be keeping shit cool.
I dunno how often he checks in, but @[email protected] , if he notices this, he might remember some of the stuff better, if he sees this any time soon