What Did You, Do You Do, For A Living?

[flyingarmadillo]

Mesa Verde. I've also worked full time on the Rio Grande in Texas and Lake Roosevelt in Washington. Before that I worked temporary seasonal jobs at Yellowstone, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Joshua Tree, and Flathead Lake (state park) in Montana.

 

I worked seasonal at Dinosaur for a couple of summers. And was part of one of the Toyota programs with the local school system, the university and then NPS in Carlsbad.

[surfpup]

Mesa Verde.

 

 

Cliff House one of our favorite places we've ever been, and believe it or not, the restaurant there at the lodge is really a good one!

 

Gotta agree with you guys. We camped a few days in Mesa Verde last time we visited RMNP. That's some great summer weather right there, and Cliff Palace is just mind boggling. But my favorite experience was a winter visit some years before - had the place nearly to ourselves - maybe saw two other people. Exploring the Sun Temple late in the day on a quiet winter afternoon by yourself is quite an experience.

[Riffster]

Group Health Insurance Underwriting for close to 20 years.

 

Surety Bonds Underwriter the 5 years prior to that.

 

I spent 2 or 3 years in various accounting positions before then, I have a Bachelors Degree in Accounting but I have never been to crazy about being an accountant in the strict sense.

[badbluesplayer]

This is great!

[badbluesplayer]

... surveyor assistant.

Left a little... right a little...

[Rosemarie]

I used to work at a music store as a Sheet Music Clerk until I went to Grad School for Special Education. Upon Graduation, I became an Inclusive Classroom teacher at an Early Intervention Center. I was fired after my Probationary Period due to multiple absences due to my eye condition (which they were aware of upon my hiring and told me it would not be a problem. ). Since then, I have had multiple eye surgeries to save the little bit of vision I have and just never tried looking again (I still see 2 Specialists every two months), so I am a Housewife.

[rct]

I worked seasonal at Dinosaur for a couple of summers. And was part of one of the Toyota programs with the local school system, the university and then NPS in Carlsbad.

 

Went to Dinosaur when the main building was closed for reinforcements several years ago. Made it a point to make it back there, 2014 found us going from MILFwaukee to Yellowstone down to Jackson for a few then down 191 again. Stopped at Dinosaur for two days to see the building. Best thing we've ever done that was just so good. I love that thing, I want to do that again! Up the Trail Ridge again, stayed at the Stanley finally, then along Thompson River where all that 2013 flooding was along Big Thompson Canyon Road. Awesome trip that was.

 

rct (no relation)

[rct]

Send me a message next time you're out here. I live in the park.

 

I will. Lucky m%#^^&@!@@

 

rct

[Cougar]

I have my Masters in Geology. I've spent 20+ years in the oil business, 10 in environmental and alternative energy (nuke, wind), and 7 as a research scientist working for a university.

 

Were you teaching any courses? My wife's the one with the impressive gig in this household - she's been a structural engineering prof for the last 20+ years. Unlike many professors, she dosn't consult much, but she did work with the owner of the electroslag welding process that was used in the Wilshire Grand Tower under construction in L.A.

 

Me, I guess my first job was with the Peace Corps back in the early 1970s. Teaching high school in Kenya (and taking 3 mo/yr vacations traveling around). What a trip! I tried teaching in SoCal after I got back, but later drifted into legal information management with SoCal Edison. I rose in the ranks before getting, imo, wrongfully terminated then I worked as a closed-caption editor for 10 years. I finally got a great job in a small law office after meeting this chick online, marrying her, and moving to where she lived. I do a lot of the research and writing, and we've got some pretty high-profile cases, e.g., google Darrien Hunt, Kristine Biggs Johnson, Roger and Pam Mortenson... Typically we represent people who have been injured (or the family of someone killed) due to someone else's negligence or fault. Of course, fault is typically contested. It's always a battle. I've backed out to a few days a week in "semi-retirement." Of course, the boss still tries to get in 5 days of work out of me. :(

[Digger]

I used to work at a music store as a Sheet Music Clerk until I went to Grad School for Special Education. Upon Graduation, I became an Inclusive Classroom teacher at an Early Intervention Center. I was fired after my Probationary Period due to multiple absences due to my eye condition (which they were aware of upon my hiring and told me it would not be a problem. ). Since then, I have had multiple eye surgeries to save the little bit of vision I have and just never tried looking again (I still see 2 Specialists every two months), so I am a Housewife.

 

 

'Tis no shame in being a housewife! One of the most important professions in this big world.

 

I have to say that I'm thrilled where this thread is taking us! What an interesting group we are.

 

Any more?

[Rosemarie]

I should have gotten into art as I was into it from 2nd grade through the 12th and had a scholarship to a college in Illinois. But I was in the NHRA and thought I'd make a name for myself so I turned down the scholarship. My partner sold the car behind my back when I got married. So I had lots of temporary jobs, starting with McDonalds in high school, Hoiday Inn, and Campbell Soup when I graduated. I went to Iowa Western and learned Auto Mechanics in 6 months, " There's my Drag Racing Career. " then switched over to Welding, and passed all the older students and graduated in 6 months of a year welding course. They got me a job at Eaton Metals, but they closed the shop down after 8 months there. So I went back to Iowa Western and asked one of the teachers to show me how to weld aluminum. He did and I hired on at Frueoff Metals that built your many aluminum semi trucks. There I learned all types of different welding and was certified in stick, I could braze, sigma, submerged arc, steel wire, Heliarc, torch welding, ect. I've been certified many times in my carrier. I left there for Omaha Standard for 3 years and found out about Union Pacific Railroad. I was laid off there for over a year and did more side jobs. The most humbling was pulling weeds for a gal in her 3 lot home for $5.00 an hour and 8 to 10 hours a day. Never saw so many plants in my life. It was a never ending job. A friend asked me to come paint with him for a contractor so I did. We painted inside homes for Dodge Realator. We also did roofing for a friend. I was called back to UP and they closed the Omaha Shops down with 10 years and 4 months service there. That's when I got my brain tumor cancer and went through that from September 7, 1988 to January 1, 1990. At that time I was hired on at Burlington Northeren in Lincoln, Jan. 24, 1990. I worked there one year and was hit with another year lay off. I went back to painting again for a different contractor who did more apartments, and commercial buildings. They had me do lots of staining as well. I also did some home exterior construction of homes then was called back to BN. After about 3 years in I was hit with my last Railroad lay off. I tried Nebraska Job Sevice but didn't like the job they found me after I tried it out so I went to Atchison Kansas, and worked on the Rail Gang for BN as a laborer for two weeks. When we were done there I was hired on at Stacys Car Wash as a Equipment Manager. Then later there the BN called me back and merged with the Santa Fee. I finished my career there with a total of 34 years and 4 months combined UP and BNSF. I've welded, cut up and scrapped cars, worked in the wood Mill, thousand ton press, forklifts, fab shop, hazmat, derailments, sand blasted and steel blasting, heavy wrecks, built new cars from scratch, Petibone driver, worked inside as well as outside. Did just about everything between the two railroads. I was so glad to have retired from it and it has a pretty good pension. In which my wife collects half of mine this year as well as her own. But at 67 she will roll over to social security.

 

NHRA? Boy, would my husband LOVE to talk to you! He has been into drag racing for as long as I've known him - if not longer! He races our 72 Nova at Cecil County Dragway in Maryland and at Atco Raceway in NJ (our home track).

['Scales]

'Tis no shame in being a housewife! One of the most important professions in this big world

 

Yep, my wife has done that for many years. We had to fill out paperwork recently and it's now "Home Duties" which sounds more like home detention to me. The price of liberation I suppose.

[Flight959]

Love hearing about other folks journey's...

 

I left school, which I really hated. I am not in the least bit academic and found school a struggle. I didn't do well in my final exams so I then went onto college to redo my final year of school. I always thought messing about was more important than learning. I failed again with below average results.

 

I then spent a few years doing various "school holiday" type job's.

 

In 2000 I joined the police. I started in a busy South London Borough where I worked on an emergency response team for 2 yrs before spending a year on a squad primarily dealing with street robbery. In 2003 I then completed firearms training where I went on to provide armed protection for various people including, two Prime Ministers, 3 Home Secretary's, The Sultan of Brunei and one American President. I have worked in some very exclusive places and met some real decent folk as well as some utter a$$holes...

 

I did that for 5 yrs before my kids came along.

 

I then moved on and I have now started 5 yrs training as a Forensic Collision Investigator dealing with Fatal/Life changing collisions.

 

I have seen the very best people have to offer and the very worst.

 

I have a keen interest in Photography and I have even had some success running a small business.

 

I am very fortunate to have some good friends on this forum who continue to encourage me and point me in the right direction..

 

For those and others around me I am forever thankful!!

 

Regards

 

Simon

[SmokeyGhost]

I have been very, very fortunate in my working life as a former Federal public servant of many years.

 

I left when I could no longer stand the BS and it was in my family's financial interest to do so. Since then, I have done a few jobs for a friend who is a builder so I learnt a few new skills but do not consider myself all that able in that regard.

 

Other retired public servants I avoid as if they have the plague as I find their whinging about how tough they are doing extraordinarily irritating. No way are they doing it tough in comparison with many other retired people.

[OldCowboy]

Factory; USMC; street musician; bouncer; high school teacher; business owner; college professor; horse rancher. Been a cowboy off and on since I was a kid. Retired now and spend time with horses, dogs, guitars, wife, and daughters.

[dbrian66]

Factory; USMC; street musician; bouncer; high school teacher; business owner; college professor; horse rancher. Been a cowboy off and on since I was a kid. Retired now and spend time with horses, dogs, guitars, wife, and daughters.

 

That last part about spending time with horses, dogs, guitars, wife, and daughters, sound pretty darn good. Congrats to you!

[cookieman15061]

Swimming pool maintenance- my first real job at 17 and the greatest job ever. For a 17 yr old anyway.

 

Grocery store night crew- college during the day / working here at night. Didn't sleep much in those days.

 

Guitar player/ weekend warrior- started seriously playing in local bands during my college years. This continued through mid 90s.

 

Grocery store Mgr

 

Sales Territory Mgr- I've been in sales as some sort of manager for 2 companies for the last 30 years.

I gotta admit at 56 I'm burnt out. The national company I work for has changed immensely in the last 5 years. Our sales force is being cut again in the next few months and this coming Thursday I'll find out if I still have a job.

Maybe it is time to move on....

 

What will be will be.

[Mike_L]

First of all, Digger, very cool thread! Thanks for starting this.

 

It's very interesting to read the varied paths we've all walked over the years. At 55 years young, I consider myself blessed in that I've always managed to do what I love, hence, I haven't spent a whole lot of time "working".

 

My first real job was projectionist at a movie theater while still in high school. Immediately after graduation I embarked upon career number 1: The USAF where I started out as an Aircraft Crew Chief and finished up as a Flight Engineer. After 24+ years, a couple of wars, and a lot of B.S., I had enough and decided it was time for career number 2: Airline Pilot.

 

Had I known it was such a rocky road before hand, I might not have gone down this airline path. During 6 months of near-starvation wages as a flight instructor, I had enough flight hours to apply at a regional carrier. 3 1/2 years later I signed on with a major only to be furloughed 7 months later. After 15 months on the street, I gave up looking for a pilot job and went back to turning wrenches on airplanes. And wouldn't you know, a week later I landed a job interview and was hired by a freight outfit until getting recalled by my airline.

 

I've been back at my airline for 4 years now here on Guam and life's been good. While here I met the love of my life, a beautiful Japanese woman, and were coming up on 3 years of marriage. Thanks to her, I've seen Santana, Clapton, and Meyer in concert and I've discovered my love of guitars... though she does her best to control my GAS

 

I applied for a transfer recently and will be flying international out of San Francisco come April. We're looking to move to the Las Vegas area.

 

Livin' the dream,

Mike

 

 

 

[Digger]

First of all, Digger, very cool thread! Thanks for starting this.

 

It's very interesting to read the varied paths we've all walked over the years. At 55 years young, I consider myself blessed in that I've always managed to do what I love, hence, I haven't spent a whole lot of time "working".

 

My first real job was projectionist at a movie theater while still in high school. Immediately after graduation I embarked upon career number 1: The USAF where I started out as an Aircraft Crew Chief and finished up as a Flight Engineer. After 24+ years, a couple of wars, and a lot of B.S., I had enough and decided it was time for career number 2: Airline Pilot.

 

Had I known it was such a rocky road before hand, I might not have gone down this airline path. During 6 months of near-starvation wages as a flight instructor, I had enough flight hours to apply at a regional carrier. 3 1/2 years later I signed on with a major only to be furloughed 7 months later. After 15 months on the street, I gave up looking for a pilot job and went back to turning wrenches on airplanes. And wouldn't you know, a week later I landed a job interview and was hired by a freight outfit until getting recalled by my airline.

 

I've been back at my airline for 4 years now here on Guam and life's been good. While here I met the love of my life, a beautiful Japanese woman, and were coming up on 3 years of marriage. Thanks to her, I've seen Santana, Clapton, and Meyer in concert and I've discovered my love of guitars... though she does her best to control my GAS

 

I applied for a transfer recently and will be flying international out of San Francisco come April. We're looking to move to the Las Vegas area.

 

Livin' the dream,

Mike

 

 

Thanks MIke, the thread has only worked out so well because of of the excellent contributions from you guys.

 

Think of the collective experience contained within these pages!!

[Pin]

I've had several careers in my time.

 

I hated school and couldn't get out fast enough. Back then I was able to leave aged 15 so I did with no qualifications whatsoever.

 

I started working life in an accounts office adding up ledger entries hour in and out, day after day. I couldn't stand that for long so moved into more standard clerical work for a year or so. I then changed tack and became a wharehouseman moving stuff around and loading trucks. At least it built my muscles up. I started playing guitar when I was 17 and took lessons for a bit over a year.

 

During my second wharehouseman job stint I passed my driving test and started driving the firm's van. This progressed into full time van driver. During this period I was still learning guitar and also revisited education again and took several courses on different subjects.

 

The van job progressed into heavy trucks and I ended up working as a long distance truck driver. I continued my part-time education and the guitar and got into a couple of groups (mainly standard pop stuff) although I was always a fan of blues / rock. By this time I had embarked on an Open University degree and took science and philosophy subjects.

 

Then things changed dramatically. I had found a girlfriend was came from a very well educated family. They all had degrees and her father was a professor. She encouraged me to apply for full time "standard" university. I had never thought about it before. None of my family had been anywhere near bricks and mortar universities. Anyway, I did apply as a mature student aged 26 at the time and much to my utter shock I was accepted. So I started a new career as a full time student.

 

So I did philosophy at University College London and the did a Master of Science degree in Social Policy, Social Work and Psychology at the London School of Economics. I also completed my Open University degree. I also qualified as a social worker. During this period the guitar playing had fallen off and I embarked on psychoanalysis training. I ended up with three degrees and several Diplomas of various sorts mostly within psychotherapy and teaching.

 

So a new career ensued as a social worker (child care and mental health aspects) and I continued training as a psychoanalyst but ended having to pull out because of the cost. My relationship with the woman mentioned above had ended but in its place was a marriage and the cost of all that brings re running a home.

 

I have worked for several local authorities in England (mostly London) as a social worker and a NSPCC "special unit" which dealt with cases of severe domestic violence and (usually) injured children. I ended up as a senior training officer for a Local Authority. During these years I went back time to time to the guitar.

 

I have also qualified and worked as a "hypno-analyst" (using hypnosis combined with psychoanalysis)usually with people who suffered child maltreatment as children and sought "resolution" as adults but I have also worked with some children directly.

 

Back in 1998 I had started a training business part-time with a colleague and much to our surprise by 2001 we were so busy we gave up our jobs to go independent running a training and consultancy business in social care. This is the website:

 

www.osiris-training.co.uk

 

And I am still doing it. Mostly my work is training social workers but I also work as an independent social worker who is "commissioned in" to do independent reports for Court on very complex and difficult cases.

 

Still playing (or trying to play) guitar. One day I might succeed!

[merciful-evans]

Art Student for 2 years (1970-72)

Various jobs for 18 months or so.

 

Computer operator for 4 years (in the 70s)

(8 months break to travel USA coast to coast)

 

Aircraft industry. After returning from America, I wanted to get married so needed to get back into work swiftly. My dad put in a word for me at the aircraft factory (At that time in Weybridge).

 

Machinist (Milling) for 13 years (aircraft) I enjoyed this mostly. After 5 years I got to work on interesting stuff. Re-working parts that no longer had tooling lugs or any obvious way to correct them. Needed a creative solution most of the time.

 

Following that I went to NC machines that were shop programmable. I learned the Heidenhain NC languages & controls. No CAD system available on the workshop then, so had to use trigonometry to translate design drawings into machine coordinates. If the coordinates were not accurate within .002” the program wouldn’t run. All of that were doing this loved this kind of work.

 

Then:

Production Engineer 25 for years (aircraft) an ongoing…

After moving out of the workshop, I had actual CAD software for the first time. Still plenty of NC machine involvement.

 

It makes me smile when people criticise NC machining of guitar bodies. It’s actually better, not just faster. As long as the material selection process is good, so will the NC manufactured part.

I never machined any wood, but metalics. Aluminium, steels, titanium, phosphor bronze etc.

Don’t know when I will retire, as there is no retirement age these days. Suits me at the moment.

[Notes_Norton]

For most of my adult life I've been a professional musician.

 

I did have two 'day gigs' while testing the waters, seeing what it is to be normal, and deciding if the real world was a good place for me. Neither one worked out.

 

During both day jobs I still played music on the weekends. The music wasn't as satisfying, although other weekend warrior musicians were capable, time constraints keep the practice time down so the music wasn't as good as it could have been.

 

I guess being a musician is not what I do, it's what I am.

 

Insights and incites by Notes

[codename]

I , like many in my city work at the local steel plant . 28 years so far and at least 4 more to go. If it survives that long , not looking to good right now.

[Bulldog86902]

Am an Asda delivery driver lol,don't boooo me,,it's Walmarts fault,lol🙈

[jaxson50]

Since 2000 I have worked for the state department of environmental quality in the administration branch as a senior security officer providing security for the attorney general environmental enforcement office and public hearings and the employees of the agency. Working with federal and state agencies to develop emergency response plans for catastrophic events, from active shooter response to a asteroid strike. So far under my tenure no employee has been lost to anything but natural causes.