Here's my sucky day job story...
In highschool, I worked for a mid-size pretty high-tech manufacturer. I was an extra IT guy, basically-- The high school kid who gets the crap work. Plus, I handled all their Macs. Anyhow, it was a pretty good job. As time went on, I worked summers when home from college, and eventually got phased out. For a while, I did contract work to support their Mac people, and then someone decided they had a large service provider who could do that, so they phased me out again.
Then, the summer after I finished my MA, I ended up working with them again. I just really needed a job. So, with my shiny new MA in Philosophy, I took a job on the second shift. I was packaging consumables. Basically, I took thousands of metal widgets, put rubber bands around them, and stick them in boxes. Then I put the boxes in bags. And put those bags into boxes. And put them on shelves. Later I moved them to other shelves.
I wouldn't have minded the job so much, I guess, as a short term thing... but the timing just sucked.
"Hi, I used to make $10 an hour here in IT. Now I have a Masters degree. What do you have available?"
"Want to make $8 an hour working the night shift packaging widgets?"
At least now I live off of my sites and photography.