There comes a point in most working weeks when a person starts wondering what else is out there. Sometimes it is a carefully considered career decision. Sometimes it's because somebody has reheated something unforgivable in the staff microwave.

Either way, Glastonbury and Street have a mixed bag of vacancies at the moment, including driving work, flexible cleaning jobs and some particularly well-paid opportunities in optics. There is something here for the actively job hunting, the quietly curious and anyone who has recently found themselves staring out of the office window for slightly too long.

Driving, deliveries and life behind the wheel

Starting in Glastonbury, there is a permanent Driver Rep vacancy paying £35,000 a year. It is a full-time driving role, although there is rather more to it than simply pointing the bonnet in the right direction. Drivers visit pre-arranged customers, take measurements, show samples and carry out surveys. There is no cold calling or canvassing, which should come as a relief to anyone who enjoys talking to people but not quite enough to start knocking on strangers' doors uninvited.

In Wells, meanwhile, NewsTeam Group needs a Morning Delivery Driver, with the current advert listing £89.69 a day. It is self-employed work delivering newspapers and magazines to homes and businesses, so this one is aimed firmly at morning people — or at least people capable of functioning while everyone else is still trying to remember where they put their slippers.

There are two heavier options over in Shepton Mallet. A HGV Class 2 Driver is wanted for immediate starts, with weekday work advertised at £16.50 an hour. If you have the licence and would rather spend Monday morning in a cab than sitting through a meeting about Monday mornings, it could be worth a look.

There is also an HGV Class 1 Driver vacancy in Shepton Mallet, again advertising immediate starts. Weekday day shifts are listed at £16.50 an hour, rising to £17.50 an hour for nights, with holiday pay handled separately. Not conventional office hours, admittedly, but nobody has ever been stuck behind a printer toner meeting at 2am.

Spanners, factories and people who can actually fix things

Over in Castle Cary, Mars Petcare is looking for a Multi-Skilled Engineer, and this is one of the more substantial packages in the pile.

Pay is listed at £45,000 to £50,600 including shift allowance, depending on experience, plus a £2,500 welcome bonus and performance bonus. It is a 32-hour-a-week role combining weekend day and night shifts with one weekday shift.

You will need proper mechanical and electrical engineering experience, with the job covering planned maintenance, fault finding, breakdowns and keeping the Castle Cary production lines doing what production lines are supposed to do. Benefits include private healthcare, pension contributions, training, free parking and an employee shop. There is also free coffee, tea and fruit, which is presumably the least they can do when some of your working days begin or end at 10pm.

Shepton Mallet has a permanent Workshop HGV Engineer role offering day shifts and a basic salary of up to £46,500 plus overtime. Training on new products and further courses are part of the package, so there is scope to add to your qualifications while spending considerably less time pretending to understand what someone means by "circling back".

There is also a Senior Process Development Technologist vacancy in the Shepton Mallet area, paying up to £44,000 plus benefits. This is food manufacturing territory, taking new products from the idea stage through to commercial production. In other words, somebody has to work out how "this tastes nice" becomes "we can make several thousand of these without the factory grinding to a halt".

And in Bruton, an experienced Site Manager is being sought for planned maintenance work. The advert offers up to £230 a day on a long-term temporary basis. It is one for somebody comfortable managing contractors, schedules, safety and the inevitable moment when somebody announces that the thing due on site at 8am is apparently still somewhere near Bristol.

Management, forecasting and serious spreadsheet territory

If your preferred machinery is Microsoft Excel, there are options for you too.

A Demand Manager is wanted in Shepton Mallet, paying £45,000 to £50,000 and working Monday to Friday. It is a newly created role covering customer demand planning and forecasting, with 33 days' holiday and a collection of other benefits. Being newly created does at least mean there is no predecessor whose mysterious spreadsheet you are expected to understand by lunchtime.

Also in Shepton Mallet, there is a permanent Service Manager role paying £34,505 a year for 37.5 hours a week. The post involves leading local support services and managing teams working with people who need practical, consistent support. It is a proper people-management role, rather than the sort where "leadership" means forwarding everyone an email with "Thoughts?" written above it.

Over in Wells, a specialist infrastructure services business needs a Contracts Manager to cover Somerset. The salary is around £50,000 plus a vehicle and benefits, with responsibility for contracts and operational teams across the county. If you can keep budgets, deadlines, people and actual physical work pointing in roughly the same direction, this may be your sort of thing.

Also in Wells, an accountancy practice is recruiting a Senior Accountant on a permanent basis, with the current vacancy advertising £50,000 a year. The work includes finalising accounts for sole traders, companies and partnerships, VAT returns, personal and corporation tax, management accounts and advising clients on their financial performance. Previous practice experience is essential, Excel competence is expected and Xero or QuickBooks experience is an advantage. Basically, one for somebody who can open a large spreadsheet without feeling an immediate need to go and put the kettle on.

And then there is the serious end of the finance scale. Clarks in Street has advertised a Head of Commercial Finance, UK & Rest of Europe, a permanent senior leadership position working across its UK and European business. This is strategic commercial finance rather than disappearing into a back office with a calculator: the role works with senior leaders across retail, ecommerce, marketplaces and wholesale. The vacancy supplied for this round-up has since been marked expired, so check its status before getting too emotionally attached to the idea of having "Head of" on the email signature.

Eyes, glasses and keeping Street in focus

Street has a couple of particularly strong options for anyone working in optics.

A permanent Dispensing Optician Manager is wanted for Asda's optical service in Street. The role combines clinical work with running the optical team and making sure customers receive the right care. Asda's fixed-price model means there is no upselling between different lens types, which makes a refreshing change from modern retail, where buying almost anything can feel like negotiating the options list on a new car.

There is also an Optometrist opportunity in Street with a package advertised at up to £75,000. Basic salaries are listed at up to £65,000 depending on experience, with a potential £5,000 bonus, private health and medical cover, professional fees paid and 25 days' holiday plus bank holidays.

Full-time and part-time applicants are considered, testing times are 25 minutes and there is funding available for further clinical training. Which, salary aside, may be the rare job advert where "development opportunities" actually means somebody paying for useful qualifications rather than inviting you to a webinar.

Care, support and jobs that involve actual human beings

For something altogether different, Shepton Mallet and the surrounding area has a Day Care Host role available.

Hosts use their own homes to welcome friendship groups of four older people for up to two full days a week, depending on local need. The employer is looking for compassionate and adaptable people who enjoy company and are happy turning their home into a sociable space. Probably not ideal if your dining table is permanently covered in washing, paperwork and the box the Christmas decorations were supposed to go back into in January.

There is also a Floating Support Worker role with Discovery, supporting adults with learning disabilities and autism across services in North Somerset. The current role pays £15.54 an hour, with full and part-time work available, and a driver is essential because you will be travelling between services. It suits somebody who wants variety and doesn't mind their working week occurring in more than one postcode.

Cleaning up — literally

There are two new part-time vacancies with The Sleek Easy Clean, covering properties around Somerset.

The Holiday Let Cleaner role pays £12.71 to £15 an hour and mainly involves weekday work between 10am and 4pm, although some weekends are needed to fit around guest changeovers.

The job covers the whole holiday-let reset: kitchens, bathrooms, bedrooms, making beds, laundry, replacing guest supplies and spotting damage before the next arrival. It needs somebody reliable, quick and very particular about the difference between "looks clean from the doorway" and actually clean. Previous experience with holiday lets, hotels or guest houses is preferred, and reliable transport is important.

The advert closes on 31 August 2026, so this is one not to leave sitting in an open browser tab until Christmas.

The company is also recruiting a Cleaning Specialist, paying £12.75 to £15 an hour on a part-time, variable-hours basis.

This one has more variety. Work can include private homes, offices and commercial properties, holiday lets, Airbnb changeovers, end-of-tenancy jobs and deep cleans around Somerset. Previous cleaning experience is useful but not essential, as training can be provided, although a full UK driving licence is preferred because the work moves between locations.

Hours vary according to bookings and can include weekdays and weekends. In return, there is flexibility, the possibility of additional hours and the distinct satisfaction of leaving somewhere dramatically cleaner than you found it — which is more visible evidence of a day's work than many of us manage.

Applications for that role close on 12 September 2026.

And one where the pay is precisely £0

Finally, Castle Cary has a Shop Volunteer opening with Save the Children.

To be very clear, this is a voluntary, unpaid position, rather than a paid vacancy hiding behind cheerful wording.

Volunteers can help with sorting and pricing donations, serving customers, creating window displays and generally keeping the shop running. No previous retail experience is required and training is provided. Hours are flexible, with some volunteers doing a morning or afternoon each week and others offering more.

It could suit someone wanting experience, company, something useful to do locally or a way back into the workplace without immediately signing their life away to a 40-hour contract. Applicants must be over 18.

So there we are: cleaning holiday cottages, fixing factory machinery, driving lorries, managing services, forecasting demand, testing eyes, balancing accounts or volunteering on the high street.

Whether you are actively job hunting or simply conducting your weekly check that somewhere, theoretically, there is a workplace without that one colleague who microwaves fish, there are plenty more vacancies being added all the time.

Have a look through the Nub News jobs boards for Glastonbury and Street, Wells and Shepton Mallet for the latest jobs across this part of Somerset.