What is your REAL job?

rcspaceflight

creator of virtual planes
I think I commented earlier about going through a career change. I'm actually glad to see this thread getting attention again. It's interesting to see the wide variety of jobs everyone has. :)

I recently got a job as a CNA at a nursing home. Which is something I used to do and didn't really think I would get back into. But when looking at my career options, it was either easily get a CNA job, or fight for an entry level unskilled job. I think I made the right choice. It was rather obvious.
 

Freaky_1

old headcase
Farmer turned mechanic turned crop duster turned truck driver turned Navy crew chief turned USAF crew chief turned truck driver turned part time A&P for some awesome individuals in Georgia turned mechanic turned shop mgt who just started making plans to sell out and buy some land to add to the farm...... hmmm life's a goofy hoola hoop from my perspective.

Frank
 

FishingMEDIC

Junior Member
I am a full time EMT for a small(ish) company in SE Texas. We did 911 only up until a few months ago, started doing transfers with 1 of our rigs. Primarily 911 though.


Part time EMT for Peninsula EMS down in Crystal Beach, Tx


A Volunteer firefighter with Seabrook, Tx Fire Dept.


And a proud papa of this knucklehead


And I LOVE fishing!! saltwater / surf fishing. I primarily target sharks / red drum / black drum


 

SGrog

New member
Im a Construction Management student in Minnesota with a minor in Geology, and hope to work in commercial construction post graduation!
 

Tactical Ex

Senior Member
Currently I am a Network Administrator, Software Analyst, QA Lead and Web developer but I only get paid 25% the salary for each job ...
 

cranialrectosis

Faster than a speeding face plant!
Mentor
I am a DBA and software developer for the largest cable company in the US where I have been employed for the past 19 years. I build databases and applications (Oracle, SQL Server, C#, VBA) to interface with an ancient (70s) multi-billion dollar COBOL mainframe billing and logistics system. I also own my own private business on the side to help fund our (mine and my wifes') retirement.

While I never went to school (I SUK at school and am self taught) for computers, I build my own computers and my job is a hobby that I turned into a profession. I landed here by accident as I was suspended from my job as a technician due to a car accident on an icy day. The crash was not my fault so the suspention was for a 3 day routine investigation. They stuck me in front of a computer for three days to give me something to do and I revolutionized how they dispatched techs by building a custom Access (97) database to analyze the routes.

Except for the hook in the finger I totally envy fishingmedic. :)
 

Tactical Ex

Senior Member
I am a DBA and software developer for the largest cable company in the US where I have been employed for the past 19 years. I build databases and applications (Oracle, SQL Server, C#, VBA) to interface with an ancient (70s) multi-billion dollar COBOL mainframe billing and logistics system. I also own my own private business on the side to help fund our (mine and my wifes') retirement.

While I never went to school (I SUK at school and am self taught) for computers, I build my own computers and my job is a hobby that I turned into a profession. I landed here by accident as I was suspended from my job as a technician due to a car accident on an icy day. The crash was not my fault so the suspention was for a 3 day routine investigation. They stuck me in front of a computer for three days to give me something to do and I revolutionized how they dispatched techs by building a custom Access (97) database to analyze the routes.

Except for the hook in the finger I totally envy fishingmedic. :)

I can relate to the story, I was working as an engraver when the CFO spilled water on the Order Import machine. My station was by the door and when he placed the smoking tower by the door with the intention of throwing it away I said I could fix it and a soon after the machine was back doing it's job I found myself in a new position.
 

jhitesma

Some guy in the desert
Mentor
Currently I am a Network Administrator, Software Analyst, QA Lead and Web developer but I only get paid 25% the salary for each job ...

Sounds pretty much like my job. I've never bothered with business cards because the only thing I can think to put on them would be "Hacker" but that doesn't portray the level of professionalism we strive for ;)

I actually studied commercial photography in college but with a specialization (it's almost like a mini-second-major that's required in the visual communication program I was in) in networking - but due to changes in administration at the school I never got to take even one networking course (head of viscom who was super supportive of my plans retired my sophomore year and his replacement felt my plans were ridiculous.) Due to a motorcycle accident my Junior year I wound up spending 6 years in college and leaving fed up and with no degree. When I started they were teaching "Multimedia" as how to hook up 4 slide projectors timed to a soundtrack...and if you got really fancy maybe add a filmstrip in as well. I was already building websites at the time ('93) since I had a high school friend who graduated a year before me and wound up at UIUC where he lucked into becoming friends with Marc Andressen - so I was getting pre-release builds of what would later become netscape/mozilla before anyone knew this whole web thing was coming. My freshman year I actually had the first web page at the entire college when they got their first web server up and going. Yet by my junior year they were finally starting to teach modern multimedia (Interactive CD's build with director) but their idea of web design was to just build something pretty in photoshop and smack an imagemap on top of it. I was already building full interactive sites with perl backends connecting to databases so I wasn't very impressed. I did take the director class and that's a whole post in itself about how backwards they were teaching that tech.

Before college I worked part time during school and then full time on breaks at a one hour photo place which also had a studio for portraiture. I stuck with that for a few breaks in college as well but had also been working with a large company on getting them on-line (UUCP on a timer back them) with e-mail and convinced them to build a website. So I ended up building an award winning site for them and started doing webdesign part time while at college (all before the school even had a single class on web design.) That job paid a lot better than the already well paying photo job so I started getting more serious about the web and less serious about photography. I had also worked in a photo lab on campus my first 3 years. We provided photo services for the med school so things had to be done to a VERY high quality but most of it was just stuff like making slides out of x-rays so they could be used for presentations. Occasionally we got to do really neat things like document a cadaver dissection, or document some crazy experiments - but a lot of it was just doing headshots and presentation materials. Unfortunately my Junior year when I had my motorcycle accident I got replaced by a computer - partly due to my own suggestions that the lab move that way (this would be 1996 and a high end mac with film printer and film scanner cost about the same as funding my position.)

After getting fed up with school (I had 6 requests to change my program from photo communication to photo illustration in my file signed off by the head of the department but it never actually got applied to my transcript so a lot of the credits I had earned couldn't even be applied towards graduation. After fighting up the chain of command from the department to the college to the school to the university bursar I finally gave up.) I started my own web design company but really hated doing design work and much preferred the backend stuff.

About that same time a friend of mine from high school who had taken an internship in AZ at a newspaper was invited by that newspaper to start their "new media" division and build them a website. He was promised a big budget for equipment and a staff of 3 others - but only got half the equipment and no staff. He still built their website and a number of sites for other local companies through them...but the paper wanted him to focus on cranking out template sites while he wanted to do custom work. So he left and started his own company (he left on good terms but when most of the clients he had worked with jumped ship from the paper to him those terms soured a bit.) So just as his company was getting started and he was needing technical services my own company was getting started and I was wanting to get away from design. I always loved the west so I jumped at the chance to move to AZ and have our two companies work together.

That worked quite well until about 4 or 5 years ago when we reached a point where he had built his company to the point he had 2 employees and an office - but mine was reaching the point where taxes were becoming a huge burden due to my lack of expenses. Since he was my main client accounting for 90% of my work I shut down my business and joined his as an employee.

So now I work in a 4 man shop and do pretty much everything except design. I keep our servers going, build our backend software, solve problems for us and our clients and just generally keep things running. So I get to wear a lot of hats and play a lot of rolls...but only get paid for about one of them.

But being a small 4 man shop run by a childhood friend there are perks. I get to work from home on Fridays, and my schedule is super flexible. I also just really enjoy the small team and the way that the job stays fresh with new challenges with every client. I just really wish we could get another technical person in here to handle some of the more mundane coding tasks...but there aren't a lot of people with those skills around here :(
 

FishingMEDIC

Junior Member
Except for the hook in the finger I totally envy fishingmedic. :)


It's fun, but the pay is crap. Thats why 99% of fire/ems have part time jobs. On the plus side, working 48 hrs a week at the full time, and 24 hrs a week at part time, i still have 4 days off a week :)

I have video of the hook removal! LOL, it was not fun!
 
Medic for a EMS service that operates on the old 24 hour Kelly firefighting shift system. 1 on, 1 off, 1 on, 1 off, 1 on, 4 off.

Hats off to you guys that can put the same bolt in the same hole 400 times a day at a factory without going crazy.
 

Winglet

Well-known member
ftpost.jpg

I fly these for a vocation. Dollar Tree foam for fun.:)
 
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Epitaph

Ebil Filleh Pega-Bat ^.^
Mentor
Real job? I wish! Mathmatical problem: too much time free, not enough money, and trapped in a country which right now has no way of turning time into money...
 

Tjhogg

Member
Manufacturing engineer and before that I was a CMM programmer and operator I still work with the CMM off and on mainly in laser scanning
 

Rasterize

Maker of skins and decals for foam board RC planes
Moderator
Mentor
Digital production printing consultant and trainer for Xerox to make a buck. Graphic art and RC for Fun.
 

Widkin

Member
R/D manager at a midsized company in the construction sector. Among many things, my work involves configuring and optimizing our CAD systems, something that's turned out to be a useful skill for scratch building.
 

Ground loop

Free Flight Indoorist
Im a 21 year old engineering student from Pa. So far I have been fumbling my way through school getting gen ed credits. I have a strong interest in all things mechanical especially if they are steam powered. I also have some background in analog electronics (but it is very basic) I am also obsessed with pipe organs. So hopefully all that will land me a job in a few years. Currently I am working for a friend from church who is a carpenter. Great fun!
 
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