WORKER SMART: You think you know all about the dirtiest TRADES IN THE WORLD?

Mike is featured in the April/May issue of the Romanian issue of Worker Smart magazine. (Translated from Romanian copy)

Mike Rowe has had more jobs than you. In fact, Mike had more jobs than anyone! Series creator and executive producer of the Emmy nominated Discovery Channel, “Occupations dirty”, Mike has spent years traveling the U.S. and working as an apprentice in more than 200 jobs that most people would try to avoid. The extracted coal to gathered flocks, up worms and castrated rams, Mike has worked in almost all possible branches and filmed the series in almost every state in the U.S., bringing homage to Americans who work hard to enable civilized life for everyone else.

Nobody is better than Mike as a guinea pig for mild – primarily because this is not about a role. “Dirty Jobs” is a series carried out entirely without a script first, and Mike did not cheat at all. Even doing the job that is given and shows a sense of humor rarely seen in such professions. In fact, Mike has made a personal mission to present the idea of ​​hard work as noble and fun activity. In 2008, Labor Day, Mike launched a website called mikeroweWORKS.com, which pays tribute to hard work and skilled labor, in hopes of attracting attention to the constant decline in the number of workers registered in various fields and that may encourage more young people to attend vocational and technical colleges.

In addition to its efforts related to “Dirty Jobs” and mikeroweWORKS, Mike is the voice of the narrator of the “Deadliest Catch” and national spokesman for Ford. He traveled extensively for Discovery Channel – South Africa, showing “Shark Week”, where he personally field tested a “shark suit” made of steel mesh and Egypt, where he presented “Egypt Week Live” opening and exploring the newly discovered tombs in the Valley of the Golden Mummies.

Before “Dirty Jobs” Mike’s CV was not boring. Without any special training, began his career as a professional musician, managed over time to enter the Baltimore Opera and even win their union membership card Opera. Shortly afterwards, appeared unannounced at an audition for QVC Cable Shopping Channel, where he was immediately hired to sell dubious merchandise in the night. There he played a TV presenter for nearly three years, but spent all this time checking techniques for keeping secrets and learning all the ins and outs of live television. In San Francisco, Mike is best known for appearances on CBS, the presenter of the program “Evening Magazine” – from where he left in 2005 to begin production for “Dirty Jobs”. She currently resides in San Francisco.

Interview with Mike Rowe

Discovery Channel: All the dirty jobs that we’ve seen so far are really essential?

Mike Rowe: In the last five years I had contact with many trades and it made me wonder if there are better ways to practice, it is true. But the idea of ​​the “Dirty Jobs” is to present the latest technologies available, but to point out that if those jobs would not be practiced, our civilization would begin to unravel. I have not seen any job in the program that is not absolutely necessary.

Discovery Channel: How did you realize that this game is one dirty job that suits you?

Mike Rowe: I honestly was a simple accident. Five years ago, trying to convince the people at Discovery Channel to hire me as a correspondent. I wanted to work six months a year can they pass through the world and making things fun and interesting. I wanted to present the “Shark Week” and go to Egypt, to climb Everest and visit the Titanic. We shook hands, but to begin, they asked me to make a three hour mini-series about something and I started talking I can do. I we have presented an idea called “Somebody has to do and that’s why.” After a while, the idea turned into “dirty jobs” and we shot nine trades.

Discovery Channel: Episode bat cave with remains the most disgusting job?

Mike Rowe: I could say that was the most disgusting, but I can say that will always remain one of the top three places in this ranking. There is no other place on earth that can compare with a cave full of bats: bat guano I dive in at the same time I was bitten by millions of bugs eating meat, living in that bat guano … I felt like I was laying there and face mask begins to hang me and I realized that millions of bats give birth to me, standing above the cave ceiling … It was a very special moment. It’s very strange for a grown man to stand waist-deep in dirt, while the top is smeared with urine and feces … and newborn baby … And all this time to slowly suffocate … Yes, it was a great day!

Discovery Channel: It’s hard to know women after they have seen where you were?

Mike Rowe: The short answer is no. I have no problem in this regard. Strange is that all my life I had problems in this sense, but suddenly these problems have disappeared. Do not know why men and women are not interested in crawling through sewers, remain trapped in caves full of bats and remove with the teeth ram’s testicles, but we live in a crazy world. Tastes are not discussed, women also have their tastes – and everything remains a mystery to me.

Discovery Channel: All these people engaged in dirty jobs have a common attitude?

Mike Rowe: Yes. The only surprise was the greatest satisfaction, balance and contentment that I find in all those dirty jobs. I think that is about the people I’ve met in this program receive feedback continuously throughout the day. Much of what they do has a beginning, middle and end, whether to move a cactus or to raise an animal hit by cars on the highway. These jobs are constantly telling you, minute by minute, where are you and how you get on. And these elements are missing from our current definition for a “good job”.

Discovery Channel: There are dirty jobs are well paid?

Mike Rowe: Yes, many of them. Society is wrong believing that any dirty looks is hardly profitable. In some cases, it is true. But there are many trades in which entrepreneurship plays a very important, and I know many people who are so rich that most viewers would probably be shocked to find out details. There is a guy named Matt Freund, who is a farmer. Has a dairy farm. One day, Matt realized I had to close their farm: milk became so cheap that he was no longer effective to work in the field. But on the other hand, he realized that his cow dung scattered everywhere. Then he created a device to convert cow dung into heat – and began to warm their home this way, then the neighbor’s house. Then he created a device that allowed him to make flower pots from cow’s dung. He began to plant petunias and chrysanthemums in these pots, which they then buried in the ground. Flowers grew great, so he started selling pots made of dung. Also now sell millions of pots and it works very, very well. There are dozens of other examples, guys like Matt, which are covered with dung, mud, sweat and other nasty stuff, but fortune.

Discovery Channel: What percentage of the program is the spontaneity?

Mike Rowe: The program is 100% spontaneous. Is directed at a rate of 0-100.  We do not look for talent. Make a few steps before shooting, just give some calls and get the necessary permits. When we come to see everything first film. Shoot from sunrise to sunset. Do not shoot in a different order than the real one. Rarely do a second double – and then only if there is a technical problem or if I missed something. We have three cameras filming continuously. To keep the program fresh and authentic, I wanted to I have no script and not to create that feeling that was destroying so many TV production.

Discovery Channel: There is a certain professional that you recommend people try it?

Mike Rowe: Yes. I think we should at some time, to put an anti-shark suit and jump into the action frantic, just to feel first hand what it is to be grabbed and shook and dragged on the ocean floor. It’s a valuable experience. But really, every man would benefit if they do something uncomfortable. I know nobody wants to hear something today, because we are all convinced that the secret to happiness is to be installed convenient and pleasant and easy going life. But the truth is that unless you are willing to go out from time to time in personal comfort zone, you will not learn anything. You will not have stories that deserve to be told. And finally, the food will not be as tasty, the beer will not be as cold and bedroom adventures will suffer … So out of personal comfort zone, it always comes good!