What does everyone do for a living?

[kkokkolis]

Finally, an article about what I do for a living that you can read and understand.




https://www.thefix.com/crisis-plagued-greece-heroes-treat-scapegoats

[moonweasel]

[Kev D]

I thought I'd posted on here before but I must be mistaken.

I'm a control engineer by trade. Both Electrician and Instrument Tech and trained fully in both, though always did more electrical than instrument.  The steel mill I worked at was mothballed in Dec 2015 so I moved to a different department in March 2016 to become to DSEAR Engineer for the entire steelworks.  Huge learning curve over the last year but I'm getting there. I don't feel out of my depth now, but still a long long way to go before I'll consider myself fully competent.

[Aloha]

Finally, an article about what I do for a living that you can read and understand.




https://www.thefix.com/crisis-plagued-greece-heroes-treat-scapegoats

   Those who seek help are lucky you've decided to stay all things considered. 

[carboncopy101]

Electronics Engineer by degree. I specialize in control systems, robotics, aircrafts. I do a lot of mechanical work for an ee. lol. I do designs, fabrication, tests. Funny thing though, i'm studying to be a lawyer. haha 

[Mechanickal]

I'm an Alarm Tech and PLC programmer by training, and employed as alarm tech.

In general I install Intrusion detection systems, CCTV systems, Fire alarms, gate openers, videophones and acces control systems.
Furthermore I perform service on these systems when they're malfunctioning

Also some maintenance every now and then, although that is usualy performed by employees who're not trusted/skilled enough (yet) to do anything else. Which leaves me with more time to do the things I like better.

[redmond]

I am a hospital Lab Operations Director. Proudly herding OCD Lab Techs and Phlebotomists for 40+ years.

[Sea Monster]

My reply 7 years ago -

« Reply #41 on: January 22, 2010, 10:26:17 PM »
I like to say I'm happily unemployed and living the life of a jolly pirate king, raiding lorry stops for petrol and candy bars, but in truth I'm an oppressed manwife, driving my she-husband to work in the mornings, doing washing & looking after kids.

Haha, oh how times have changed.

Arguably for the better in this instance...

[MusicMen]

My reply 7 years ago -

« Reply #41 on: January 22, 2010, 10:26:17 PM »
I like to say I'm happily unemployed and living the life of a jolly pirate king, raiding lorry stops for petrol and candy bars, but in truth I'm an oppressed manwife, driving my she-husband to work in the mornings, doing washing & looking after kids.

Haha, oh how times have changed.

Arguably for the better in this instance...

Please do go on . . .
 

[Sea Monster]

Please do go on . . .

Well, I managed to ditch the ball and chain and the billy lids.

I can neither confirm nor deny if I am in fact the Dread Pirate Roberts 


(I would say I am at best a privateer, but it's a step in the right direction  )

[MusicMen]

Please do go on . . .

Well, I managed to ditch the ball and chain and the billy lids.

Had to look up "billy lids". Good luck with the visits.

I can neither confirm nor deny if I am in fact the Dread Pirate Roberts 

(I would say I am at best a privateer, but it's a step in the right direction  )

Good luck with the new venture! 

[lister]

I am an Electronic Engineer (I don't know how to describe it in terms of anglo/american education system but I speSmurfpillsed in automation with a bit of robotics and medical technology in a 4.5 year program) by education and terminally bored by profession. 

[AlephZero]

Master Data SpeSmurfpillst, also known as the keyboard monkey 

Most of my work is spare parts database maintenance, I don't have any official education unfortunately, I dropped off at every school after high school 

Sad story for someone who was dreaming of a programming job...


Oh well 

[Ray S]

I always find it fascinating to read what others of a like persuasion(infatuation with anything sharp)do to support their addiction. I gather from reading the posts that most of you are considerably younger than me and your professions for the greater part in the tech industry.
Over the years I have had many occupations(mostly legal) including "news disseminator"(aka paperboy);"grounds & entrances maintenance(mowing lawns and shoveling driveways);"fossil fuels dispensation technician"(pumping petrol);and various other questionable practices in my youth.
After enlisting(rather than being drafted)in the Navy and serving as a preparer of weapons to be loaded onto various types of aircraft for nearly 4 years I returned to civilian life and worked as a machine operator in a ball bearing factory(my one and only experience with factory slavery) before starting back in my old profession of repairing automobiles in several body shops and my side job as a sign artist/pinstriper for a number of companies.
Finally realizing that repairing automobile bodies wasn't my destiny(I sucked at it)I went to work in the parts department of a dealership;eventually becoming the manager where I stayed for nearly twenty years off and on. In between hirings and firings from that I worked as a free lance sign painter and managed to make quite a good living from it.
Due to ongoing deterioration of my spine(and several operations to attempt to forestall it) I was forced to retire at the age of 50 whereupon I also divorced my first wife and soon afterwards married the woman I had first met while in the Navy in 1965.Some 25 years later she is still tolerating me although I do kind of cringe a bit when I screw up and she looks at me and says,"Well....you've gotta go to sleep SOMETIME!"
Anyway at 73 I'm still pinstriping and lettering race cars,trucks,motorcycles,airplanes and anything else that will sit still long enough. Here is a picture of a vintage race car I just finishing lettering and striping last week for a friend.

[MusicMen]

Wow! Really great looking work.      

[Mechanickal]

Oh, talking about age, I'm 26... and yes, I do feel young around these parts...

Good thing is my birth year SAK was more easy to obtain, in contrast to other members who have to search for ages... poor old(er) guys...

[Gerhard Gerber]

Ray wins again 
 

I've spent most of my career in IT except for a few months somewhere in the middle when I was a fishing guide with the emphasis on flyfishing for Tigerfish.

Due to a change in government in 1990 (when I was 15) I'm on the wrong end of the BEE pointy stick, unspoken persona non grata in my country of birth and the victim of many career-killing retrenchments.

When you take the jobs you can get there is no training and certification, I think my career died the first time I accepted a Service Delivery manager post for an IT company at a mine, people became my problem instead of tech.


Having said that.........

If I was allowed to keep my previous job which I really enjoyed, I never would've started making knives, something that now means the world to me.

I tried to make a go of the fishing guide thing, but better men than me couldn't either, and the Zambezi river has been decimated by Chinese supplied nets.  That would've given me 10 good years and left me stranded....

As far as IT is concerned, networks were always most fun for me, never had the opportunity or the money for training. 
Let's say I could retire at 65, I can't, but if I could that leaves about 25 years left to go.  I dare say Cisco won't be around in 20 years, same for all the old big tech companies:  FB and Google don't run on HP servers and Cisco networks......

All I can do is my job, wait and see what comes next 

[Aloha]

Chef by training but the career was eh.  I should have been a baker  .  What I do currently is unimportant as it is a means to presently pay my way and has been for the past 15 years thankfully.   I've been studying to do work in the mental heath field.  I love helping people and have volunteered over the years to those who struggle with a variety of issues.  I've always felt there were many paths for those who struggle and I'd love to provide something.   

[MadPlumbarian]

I guess I'll play, as you can guess a plumber, I started off back in high school, was in the union and even owned our business with my father in law, after he passed I closed down and went simple and worked for Lowe's, in the plumbing dept never the less. But then my medical over took me, being epileptic since I was like 2yrs old, I had a seizure the day after a everything perfect thanksgiving, on the way to work and ended up in a car accident. You should know something's not right if everything goes right on any thanksgiving! So since then I've been medically disabled, loaded on Rx in which I still can't control my seizures, I have no clue as to when there coming nor if I'm having them and normally have 5-15 a day, so I have to be around someone 24/7, normally the wife, she's also disabled, but more in a physical way, so she says together we make one perfect person, I got the body(yeah baby) with wacky brain, and she's got the perfect brain(grad top 10 of the USA) yet not so perfect body. But I like it
I guess that's why we've been together for almost 18yrs but that's it in a nutshell..
JR

[caninesapien]

Currently the office manager for a medium-ish university department. I help get international students over to the UK to improve their English level, progress to academic study, take their PhDs and so on.

Have had a strange employment history: first job aged 15/6 was a handyman(boy?) for a local narrow gauge railway - this involved cleaning and inspecting the engines, cleaning the carriages, general maintenance and, most importantly, walking along the train track to clear up debris. One day I found a crisp £10 on the train tracks so I quickly diverted course to the nearest pub to finish off my shift in comfort.

After that I was a potato peeler, leisure centre security guard (!), music teacher, barman, and toilet salesman. As for the last one, well... someone's got to do it.

[MadPlumbarian]

Don't worry, I sold the toilets, showers, tubs and everything that made them work when working for Lowe's. So your right someones got to do it! ol..
JR

[4everYoung]

I work for one of the major railroads in the USA. I started out as an electrician troubleshooting and repairing locomotives. I've since moved into a desk job. Still troubleshooting but i get to stay a lot cleaner now days. Which is a plus. I also control the inbound and dispatch of locomotives from our shop facility, which supplies power to trains all over the system.
Formerly I was a John Deere master tech. Worked on commercial equipment. And eventually became the shop manager before leaving to go to the railroad.
I've also worked as a machinist and owned my own auto performance shop.
Most of my expertise is with mechanical and electrical diagnostics.

[MadPlumbarian]

I work for one of the major railroads in the USA. I started out as an electrician troubleshooting and repairing locomotives. I've since moved into a desk job. Still troubleshooting but i get to stay a lot cleaner now days. Which is a plus. I also control the inbound and dispatch of locomotives from our shop facility, which supplies power to trains all over the system.
Formerly I was a John Deere master tech. Worked on commercial equipment. And eventually became the shop manager before leaving to go to the railroad.
I've also worked as a machinist and owned my own auto performance shop.
Most of my expertise is with mechanical and electrical diagnostics.

I did machinery for about a week, my project was to make a ballpeen hammer, I soooo wish I still had that, well that and a lathe, I have a few projects I'd like to do..
JR

[Ron Who]

After finishing high school I worked for an accounting firm. I was good at it and made good money, but I thought it was boring. So I switched to a life insurance company to do their mathematics. I was good at it and made good money, but I thought it was boring. So I learned to program a computer all by myself (this was way back in the eighties). I was good at it and made good money, and it wasn´t as boring as my previous work. Still, at one moment I decided I had had enough of office work. I switched to warehouse jobs that were much more physical. I was good at it but no longer made good money. That took some getting used to. Then the crisis hit and I became unemployed. So I switched to gardening and that´s what I´m doing today. I´m good at it and like it very much, being outside the whole day. I´m a poor man now, but a happy man.

[Damsel]

I wrap fish and chips for a living. Thrilling stuff, huh?


Danielle

[detron]

After finishing high school I worked for an accounting firm. I was good at it and made good money, but I thought it was boring. So I switched to a life insurance company to do their mathematics. I was good at it and made good money, but I thought it was boring. So I learned to program a computer all by myself (this was way back in the eighties). I was good at it and made good money, and it wasn´t as boring as my previous work. Still, at one moment I decided I had had enough of office work. I switched to warehouse jobs that were much more physical. I was good at it but no longer made good money. That took some getting used to. Then the crisis hit and I became unemployed. So I switched to gardening and that´s what I´m doing today. I´m good at it and like it very much, being outside the whole day. I´m a poor man now, but a happy man.

then I would say you are not poor, just have less cash.
Happiness is worth more than money.

[Mechanickal]

After finishing high school I worked for an accounting firm. I was good at it and made good money, but I thought it was boring. So I switched to a life insurance company to do their mathematics. I was good at it and made good money, but I thought it was boring. So I learned to program a computer all by myself (this was way back in the eighties). I was good at it and made good money, and it wasn´t as boring as my previous work. Still, at one moment I decided I had had enough of office work. I switched to warehouse jobs that were much more physical. I was good at it but no longer made good money. That took some getting used to. Then the crisis hit and I became unemployed. So I switched to gardening and that´s what I´m doing today. I´m good at it and like it very much, being outside the whole day. I´m a poor man now, but a happy man.

then I would say you are not poor, just have less cash.
Happiness is worth more than money.

You might even be the richest in that viewpoint!

[Mechanickal]

I guess I'll play, as you can guess a plumber, I started off back in high school, was in the union and even owned our business with my father in law, after he passed I closed down and went simple and worked for Lowe's, in the plumbing dept never the less. But then my medical over took me, being epileptic since I was like 2yrs old, I had a seizure the day after a everything perfect thanksgiving, on the way to work and ended up in a car accident. You should know something's not right if everything goes right on any thanksgiving! So since then I've been medically disabled, loaded on Rx in which I still can't control my seizures, I have no clue as to when there coming nor if I'm having them and normally have 5-15 a day, so I have to be around someone 24/7, normally the wife, she's also disabled, but more in a physical way, so she says together we make one perfect person, I got the body(yeah baby) with wacky brain, and she's got the perfect brain(grad top 10 of the USA) yet not so perfect body. But I like it
I guess that's why we've been together for almost 18yrs but that's it in a nutshell..
JR

Bumpy ride it seems...

Now I don't know who said this somewhere in human history, but:

"The measure of a man is not how often he get's knocked down, but how often they get up"

[MadPlumbarian]

I guess I'll play, as you can guess a plumber, I started off back in high school, was in the union and even owned our business with my father in law, after he passed I closed down and went simple and worked for Lowe's, in the plumbing dept never the less. But then my medical over took me, being epileptic since I was like 2yrs old, I had a seizure the day after a everything perfect thanksgiving, on the way to work and ended up in a car accident. You should know something's not right if everything goes right on any thanksgiving! So since then I've been medically disabled, loaded on Rx in which I still can't control my seizures, I have no clue as to when there coming nor if I'm having them and normally have 5-15 a day, so I have to be around someone 24/7, normally the wife, she's also disabled, but more in a physical way, so she says together we make one perfect person, I got the body(yeah baby) with wacky brain, and she's got the perfect brain(grad top 10 of the USA) yet not so perfect body. But I like it
I guess that's why we've been together for almost 18yrs but that's it in a nutshell..
JR

Bumpy ride it seems...

Now I don't know who said this somewhere in human history, but:

"The measure of a man is not how often he get's knocked down, but how often they get up"

Yes a very bumpy ride, and every time things start to smooth out it gets worse,, that quote does sound familiar? Kinda makes you think the movie "Rocky" lol..
JR

[Mechanickal]

I guess I'll play, as you can guess a plumber, I started off back in high school, was in the union and even owned our business with my father in law, after he passed I closed down and went simple and worked for Lowe's, in the plumbing dept never the less. But then my medical over took me, being epileptic since I was like 2yrs old, I had a seizure the day after a everything perfect thanksgiving, on the way to work and ended up in a car accident. You should know something's not right if everything goes right on any thanksgiving! So since then I've been medically disabled, loaded on Rx in which I still can't control my seizures, I have no clue as to when there coming nor if I'm having them and normally have 5-15 a day, so I have to be around someone 24/7, normally the wife, she's also disabled, but more in a physical way, so she says together we make one perfect person, I got the body(yeah baby) with wacky brain, and she's got the perfect brain(grad top 10 of the USA) yet not so perfect body. But I like it
I guess that's why we've been together for almost 18yrs but that's it in a nutshell..
JR

Bumpy ride it seems...

Now I don't know who said this somewhere in human history, but:

"The measure of a man is not how often he get's knocked down, but how often they get up"

Yes a very bumpy ride, and every time things start to smooth out it gets worse,, that quote does sound familiar? Kinda makes you think the movie "Rocky" lol..
JR

Really??

Haven't even seen those movies... or it was over 10 years ago...