What is your job?

tcole1983

This is pretty far off topic, but curious what kinds of jobs people have or had and if you liked it or not. Share if you want.

I am a geologist and although I enjoyed school, real world jobs are nothing like school and I have found it difficult to enjoy my work. Lots of travel and overnights to non-glamorous places. Pay has been sub-par and usually hard work. Anything from lots of physical labor to sitting at a computer for weeks frying my brain over data sets or reports. I haven't works in natural resources which is where I would probably liked to be, but jobs are so volatile in that sector...like oil.

I am 10+ years into my career and I just can't think I can sustain it for another 20-30 years without it killing me mentally and physically.

*Note I am not a lazy person. I frequently work 10 or 12 hour days, at night and on weekends.*


Anyone else?

ggbutcher

Engineer. The software variety. Has enabled me to work a variety of projects from power plants to missiles, upon which I currently work. Contrary to popular belief (including by a lot of engineers) engineering is 20% tech and 80% facilitating human communication. It's the latter that enables us to build large, complex things that no one person could build themselves. When I realized that, work actually became fun.

Spent 20 years and a couple of hours in the US Air Force. When I enlisted, I wanted to be a photographer, but no slots were open at the time. Three years later slots opened, but I was still on a commitment for my first job. So, I've piddled at it hobby-wise since. Work has occasionally and indirectly touched on imaging, mostly infrared sensing. Oh, and when things would break, they'd usually ask me to take the diagnostic pictures because mine weren't blurry and dark...

WestEndFoto

Bean counter.

WestEndFoto

tcole1983 said:

This is pretty far off topic, but curious what kinds of jobs people have or had and if you liked it or not. Share if you want.



I am a geologist and although I enjoyed school, real world jobs are nothing like school and I have found it difficult to enjoy my work. Lots of travel and overnights to non-glamorous places. Pay has been sub-par and usually hard work. Anything from lots of physical labor to sitting at a computer for weeks frying my brain over data sets or reports. I haven't works in natural resources which is where I would probably liked to be, but jobs are so volatile in that sector...like oil.



I am 10+ years into my career and I just can't think I can sustain it for another 20-30 years without it killing me mentally and physically.



*Note I am not a lazy person. I frequently work 10 or 12 hour days, at night and on weekends.*





Anyone else?

tcole1983, you don't have any complaints that I have not seen a hundred times. The simple solution is to identify what you like doing that can make you money and find a new job. Don't worry about pay too much. If you like doing it, the pay will come later. I know it is easy to say that the simple solution is to find a new job, but it is simple because it is the only solution. And who knows, it is most likely in your chosen field and may even be at the same company.

NSXTypeR

I'm a medical student in the NY area... or a professional student if you look at it another way.

So I've been in school for a consecutive 21 years now.

All I know is, I'm trained to take exams well so far.

Honestly, sometimes I feel like with the way the healthcare field is going, it may be quite stressful for me in the future. I'd like to say it'd be easy to change fields, but with how far I am along with graduate school, I'm sort of at the point of no return. Also, I'm not exactly sure what I would be doing if I wasn't in medical school. I'm tired of school, but not the job, so I'm not exactly at the same point of tcole1983, but I can see that happening in the future to me.

When I am at the hospital, I do get a lot of enjoyment out of treating people and talking to patients, so I'd like to say I'd be satisfied with the job, just possibly dissatisfied with the system. But I'll worry about that when I start looking for jobs and stuff.

jimmyboy

Retired carpenter

jimo

Retired not once but twice. First time from the military, second as a computer technician.

paulr

Keeping my better half Happy.

cbg

Retired systems engineer and retired USAF (11 years active, 11 years reserves) spent my entire career supporting the military and federal government @ggbutcher you are absolutely correct about engineering - communications is key and critical.

Gjesdal

I often tell people that ask that I've got 3 jobs, working full time as the ICT-manager for my local municipality and part time jobs as Cinema projectionist and photographer. Few ask me follow up questions about IT job

Capt_Spaulding

University faculty member in a medium sized, incredibly ambitious regional state University. I love just about all parts of my job, except 1) grading and 2) administrators. I chaired my department for 5 (of the worst of my life) years.

On the plus side, I love working with students and have several research collaborators across the country that are great to work with.

I've been interested in photography since the 60s and still have a stable of Minolta SRT and X-n bodies/Rokkor-X lenses, along with a TLR Rolliecord. My primary regret is not getting into the darkroom side with the Rollie. I devoured Adams' books and studied and became reasonably proficient with the Zone system, on the camera side at least. I'm still trying to translate that experience into an era of wide DR sensors and digital darkrooms.

Capt_Spaulding

@tcole- What do you work on that is not energy related?

DenverShooter

Capt_Spaulding said:

I'm still trying to translate that experience into an era of wide DR sensors and digital darkrooms.

I dragged out my Antique Sekonic L-608 from my medium format days and put a new radio transmitter in it and have been using it for strobe based portrait work and some landscape stuff. Very interesting. The Sekonic website has a bunch of videos (Lighting Recipes with Joe Brady) that show you how to run your camera on full manual with an external meter in difficult lighting and make the right decisions.

Its been a lot of fun.

Denver Shooter

tcole1983

@Capt_Spaulding I have worked in transportation, environmental and now mostly water related stuff.

Capt_Spaulding

Thanks tcole, I tend to forget the breadth of that field sometimes. I'd have thought that environmental and water problems might have some interesting problems to work on. I hope you find something you like sooner rather than later.

tganiats

University faculty on my way to (most likely) a job with the Feds very soon.

Main hobby is photography. Started with a little camera when I was five. Ran through a series of Nikon film cameras (through F3)...then started digital...have seen more than a little change! ;-)

Parke1953

My wife say's I'm a domestic engineer now. I've done the dishes already now I'm going to trim and cut the grass. LOL

paulr

Parke1953 said:

My wife say's I'm a domestic engineer now. I've done the dishes already now I'm going to trim and cut the grass. LOL

Domestic engineer Must put that on my CV

Parke1953

paulr,That's what I get for marrying a younger women. She is still working and I'm well a domestic engineer. LOL

tcole1983

Capt_Spaulding said:

Thanks tcole, I tend to forget the breadth of that field sometimes. I'd have thought that environmental and water problems might have some interesting problems to work on. I hope you find something you like sooner rather than later.

There is interesting work for sure in all places I have worked, but for one reason or another it just hasn't ever been great. You know in college you are making maps and looking at rock samples...I haven't looked at a rock sample since I left college. One of the main reasons I did it was in hope that I would work outside. I do work a lot in the field outside, but nothing what I was expecting. Like I said pay hasn't ever been great and it has pretty much always been fairly hard work. In transportation I was a cheap engineer. Right now I am going on a 3 week stint of being gone from home every weekday night for the 3 weeks. I was so worn out yesterday I had to make myself get off my bed at the hotel and go eat dinner at 8 at night. Anyway...enough complaining.

I mostly just wondered what people did and if they liked what they did. I have been on the hunt for a new gig recently and have been thinking heavily about getting out of geology all together since it overall hasn't made me too happy the last 10 years.

paulr

Parke1953 said:

paulr,That's what I get for marrying a younger women. She is still working and I'm well a domestic engineer. LOL

Nothing wrong with that I am coming up to 45 years of marriage and just keep saying "yes",That way I can buy what I want in camera gear without any pain.

Golf007sd

I have my own privet transportation company

Parke1953

paulr Buying gear work quite well for a while but has slowed up some. Just got done with the mowing and trimming the backyard should be worth some points.

Golfoofsd I have my own transportation company. I haul stuff all over and sometimes they offer to put fuel in my pickup. LOL

It's a tough job being retired but someone has to do it.
Going to La Crosse Wisconsin next week and hope to use some of the new gear I have.

retread

Trying to retire from farming. Just can't seem to get that done. Still have the cattle.

HockeyMan

I'm a software architect for a big ol bank. I support mobile and other emerging technologies. I work for the man, I play hockey to get out my stress and I really enjoy photography. I'm just not very good at it. If you ever saw a skier with expensive gear go down a bunny slope in a wedge, that's basically the analogy of me with my camera. But oh well!

I used to dabble in acting during my college years and mostly the wife and two kids keep me busy these days.

Pistnbroke

I am not going to tell you except ....13 weeks paid holiday a year ,11hrs a week before the overtime kicked in and retired at 45 with a lump sum and a pension......