What is your occupation/background?

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 5:58 pm

Darn, I looked over my old post, I am with the same hospital system, but we were required by a larger healthcare system. And I am not a Clinical Applications Manager, in charge of a nice size staff with a track to get the Directors position when my current boss retires in a few years.

Now older, and doing tons more management, and dealing with people across a larger geographical area.

But nothing too exciting, really. I think I am very boring.

Grundbegriff · Post by **Grundbegriff** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:09 pm

Grundbegriff wrote:I work for a huge IT company. I develop software systems (desktop and web apps for data entry, data warehouse reporting, and decision support) that military analysts use to assess/refine supply chains to various theaters of engagement.

My academic training is in comparative literature and art history. I started programming in the early 80s, back when computers had no hard drives and we saved onto cassette tapes.

Get off my lawn.

I work for a small IT company. I develop software systems (desktop and web apps for data entry, data warehouse reporting, and decision support) that military analysts use to assess readiness.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 7:41 pm

Scuzz wrote:Part Owner and Head Paper Pusher of a union commercial construction company........

I have a BA in Radio-Television.......

Well I am still doing this. But things have been slow and I haven't seen a paycheck in about 18 months. I still get my health insurance covered though ($1,600 a month). Last Feb-July I worked a second job to help make ends meet. Those 15 hour days were a little tough.

We are looking at probably closing down by next spring. We have maybe 2 jobs out there to get us that far and hopefully they will pay off some of the debt.

Madmarcus · Post by **Madmarcus** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:33 pm

Trained as an engineer but I've taught high school science since 1999.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:43 pm

Scuzz wrote: We are looking at probably closing down by next spring. We have maybe 2 jobs out there to get us that far and hopefully they will pay off some of the debt.

I'm keeping a pulse going in Curio City mainly to pay off debt. Hoping to struggle back up to zero after xmas. After that, I'll continue to sell off inventory for as long as it brings in more money than it costs me to get rid of it.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Fri Sep 22, 2017 11:27 pm

This thread was so long ago that I had four different roles with the company I started with and just got laid off two weeks ago. Seven years flies by!

RMC · Post by **RMC** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 6:09 am

Kelric wrote:This thread was so long ago that I had four different roles with the company I started with and just got laid off two weeks ago. Seven years flies by!

Ouch sorry to hear about the layoff. Hopefully something will be coming your way soon. We just had to 'right-size' again at the health system I work for. Never an easy time.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:15 am

I guess I never posted in this originally:

I'm currently a postdoc at the University of St. Louis studying the quantitative genetics and effects of temperature of male calls and female responses in treehoppers that use vibrational communication. Just started here in July and my contract can be up to three years. The hope is to find a permanent academic job before those three years are up....

Prior to my current job, I was at a marine laboratory in St. Augustine, Florida as a postdoc for two years working on ctenophore reproductive behavior. That was my first postdoc after graduating from the department of Biology at UF studying horseshoe crab and insect sexy time.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 12:47 pm

Guess I never posted in this thread originally. I'm a Urologist. Getting towards the end of my residency program currently. I like what I do, I like doing surgery, and it's a good stable job with plenty of demand and only growing. My only complaint is the lack of free time in residency. But that will end.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 12:56 pm

My friend went into Urology; she said it was one of the few specialized fields where you both got paid well but also could have a semi-regular life (i.e. normalish hours, very few middle-of-the-night calls, etc.). I guess all that does have to wait until after residency, though.

Chrisoc13 · Post by **Chrisoc13** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:06 pm

Ralph-Wiggum wrote:My friend went into Urology; she said it was one of the few specialized fields where you both got paid well but also could have a semi-regular life (i.e. normalish hours, very few middle-of-the-night calls, etc.). I guess all that does have to wait until after residency, though.

Honestly my residency program isn't that bad. They really try to give us a good quality of life. I work less hours than most residents, and there are some nice perks. But yeah Urology is a good surgery sub-specialty field for all of those reasons. And it's only growing. Call can be really bad, but it can also be really light. I take call on average every 4th night now and it can go from zero calls all night to me never leaving the hospital. It's just a crapshoot. Since we take call at home between normal 12-14 hour work days it can be brutal on a bad night. But that gets better out of residency, since I don't want to be at a big academic center a lot of those things get sent to the big hospitals so if I am at a smaller hospital my call will be a lot better. Plus at a small hospital I can have a hospitalist admit my patients overnight instead of me having to come in and admit them like I do now

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:17 pm

Still an estate planning attorney who handles trusts, probate, family businesses and charitable planning. Switched law firms last week after 17 years at the same single office firm.

I'm now in a large multi-state law firm with an Ohio headquarters. It's a bigger platform where I'm replacing a few Chicago attorneys who left the firm instead of winding down for retirement. It only took a few days to realize my practice is much more sophisticated, so I just have to right the ship and start selling to become a hero. And bring in a litigator.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:32 pm

Isgrimnur wrote:Me, I'm currently an application programmer working with web code on the front end and a proprietary middle tier. Our clients are banks, and most of them are pretty big.

I lasted 4.5 years there before it became obvious that I was not one of the golden children, and would not be getting much in the way of recognition. Took a contract job doing the same for a year, four months unemployed when I was not renewed, then landed my current job.

Today is my 4th anniversary at my credit union. I started as programmer, made it to senior developer, and wen the AVP of the core system quit, the more senior programmer and I took his job duties as a split to myself as Programming Manager and him as Manager, Core Systems. He gets to manage all the hardware and system stuff while I muck about in code. His requires substantially more night and weekend work.

With the help of our SVP, I got us through one acquisition merger, and we are in the midst of a second one. I have one minion. Upon the successful completion of this merger, I will be bucking for an AVP title and another minion.

I’m currently working on my Master’s degree with an anticipated graduation date of Dec 2018. Tuition reimbursement rules will likely keep me there until Dec 2019. After that, it’s time for some serious thinking about the state of affairs.

Eightball · Post by **Eightball** » Sun Sep 24, 2017 8:06 pm

Interesting that I never posted in this thread originally; was curious what I'd say all those years ago.

I'm in-house counsel for a small international medical device company, with my primary role being the attorney responsible for the sales and marketing organizations globally. My job is ensuring that what we say and do is compliant with the laws and regulations around advertising and promotion. Or as I tell my kids, I push paper around a desk a lot and shout no at people. It's kind of like being a parent to the commercial folks

I left my prior job (big pharma) about a year ago; was doing that job for 8 years. Essentially I'm doing my old bosses job for my current company.

Sectoid · Post by **Sectoid** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 8:34 am

Some of my friends call me Forrest Gump because of all the different jobs I've had.
I have been:
A Vet Tech
A DJ at a strip club
The head of Vending at Montclair State University - I was in charge of all the vending machines on campus. I actually had my own office and parking space while attending the school.
A hustler (billiards) - I also worked at a pool hall
A Customer Service Rep - at JVC, Verizon, Campmor, and IDT (when they offered dial-up)
A Cable Guy - Cablevision
A professional photographer/retoucher - which also entailed producing photographer shows/shoots
A Video Game Reviewer
An MC for panels at Comic Cons
A salesman, press rep, and celebrity-tamer for the same Comic Cons
A Business and Financial Consultant - the only job that actually uses my degree
A forklift operator (When I was 10. My Mom worked at a scrap yard as a book keeper.)
A manager of a video store
A web designer for 501(c)(3) organizations - charity work is tax deductible
A social media director and consultant

Currently I am a Packaging Engineer.

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:25 am

msteelers wrote:Currently I'm working in the sports department of a couple local radio stations. I mostly do play-by-play for local high school sports, but I also sit in during the morning shows and any other random event when needed. Ok, well technically they pay me to be a salesperson... but I only do that so that I have the opportunity to do all of this other stuff and build my resume.

I'm still with the same radio stations, but I'm no longer a salesperson. They moved me pretty quickly to board op for our evening shows in addition to my sports play-by-play duties, and had me host a weekly show about high school sports. I did that for about a year and a half, and then was promoted to co-host of the morning show. Two years later I was promoted to the big chair, hosting the morning show. I don't have an official title with the small mom/pop company that runs the stations, but they've called me on-air both the Sports Director and the News Director, so that's what's on my resume. I still do play-by-play in addition to the morning show.

Besides the radio station stuff, I work afternoons at my step-fathers machine shop. CNC milling machines and lathe is primarily what we work with. It's a dirty job, but I have a mortgage and radio doesn't pay extremely well. I also work part time with the St Lucie Mets, minor league affiliate of the New York Mets. I got to see the Tim Tebow effect firsthand, but I don't think I'm going to come back next year. The Mets are a frustrating organization to work for. They pay pretty well and the paychecks have saved my monthly budgets more than once, but I'm over the nonsense.

I also have started up a mobile DJ company with a friend of mine. Weddings are the majority of what we do, which still isn't much at this point. We set a goal to do 5 weddings this year, and we're on pace to finish the year with 6. Next year we want to expand to 12. We only have 1 booked for 2018 so far, but we have leads on a couple of others and we are going to be a vendor at a wedding show in a few weeks. The wedding show was scheduled for last month, but got wiped out by Irma. I'm hoping to get a few booked there so we can afford to do more wedding shows and keep building the business.

Rip · Post by **Rip** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:55 am

Sectoid wrote:Some of my friends call me Forrest Gump because of all the different jobs I've had.
I have been:
A Vet Tech
A DJ at a strip club
The head of Vending at Montclair State University - I was in charge of all the vending machines on campus. I actually had my own office and parking space while attending the school.
A hustler (billiards) - I also worked at a pool hall
A Customer Service Rep - at JVC, Verizon, Campmor, and IDT (when they offered dial-up)
A Cable Guy - Cablevision
A professional photographer/retoucher - which also entailed producing photographer shows/shoots
A Video Game Reviewer
An MC for panels at Comic Cons
A salesman, press rep, and celebrity-tamer for the same Comic Cons
A Business and Financial Consultant - the only job that actually uses my degree
A forklift operator (When I was 10. My Mom worked at a scrap yard as a book keeper.)
A manager of a video store
A web designer for 501(c)(3) organizations - charity work is tax deductible
A social media director and consultant

Currently I am a Packaging Engineer.

Could you have a look at my package? I would like it to be longer.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:08 am

msteelers wrote:The Mets are a frustrating organization to work for.

I'm not surprised.

Sectoid · Post by **Sectoid** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 12:39 pm

Rip wrote:
Sectoid wrote: Currently I am a Packaging Engineer.
Could you have a look at my package? I would like it to be longer.

I'm not a magician...yet.

Scuzz · Post by **Scuzz** » Mon Sep 25, 2017 5:12 pm

msteelers wrote:
msteelers wrote:Currently I'm working in the sports department of a couple local radio stations. I mostly do play-by-play for local high school sports, but I also sit in during the morning shows and any other random event when needed. Ok, well technically they pay me to be a salesperson... but I only do that so that I have the opportunity to do all of this other stuff and build my resume.
I'm still with the same radio stations, but I'm no longer a salesperson. They moved me pretty quickly to board op for our evening shows in addition to my sports play-by-play duties, and had me host a weekly show about high school sports. I did that for about a year and a half, and then was promoted to co-host of the morning show. Two years later I was promoted to the big chair, hosting the morning show. I don't have an official title with the small mom/pop company that runs the stations, but they've called me on-air both the Sports Director and the News Director, so that's what's on my resume. I still do play-by-play in addition to the morning show.

Besides the radio station stuff, I work afternoons at my step-fathers machine shop. CNC milling machines and lathe is primarily what we work with. It's a dirty job, but I have a mortgage and radio doesn't pay extremely well. I also work part time with the St Lucie Mets, minor league affiliate of the New York Mets. I got to see the Tim Tebow effect firsthand, but I don't think I'm going to come back next year. The Mets are a frustrating organization to work for. They pay pretty well and the paychecks have saved my monthly budgets more than once, but I'm over the nonsense.

I also have started up a mobile DJ company with a friend of mine. Weddings are the majority of what we do, which still isn't much at this point. We set a goal to do 5 weddings this year, and we're on pace to finish the year with 6. Next year we want to expand to 12. We only have 1 booked for 2018 so far, but we have leads on a couple of others and we are going to be a vendor at a wedding show in a few weeks. The wedding show was scheduled for last month, but got wiped out by Irma. I'm hoping to get a few booked there so we can afford to do more wedding shows and keep building the business.

I originally wanted to get into sports radio and/or TV sports. I wanted to be Curt Gowdy (shows how old I am). But i realized early on that it didn't pay worth squat and I was going to have to be willing to move around a lot. So, while I got a degree in Boradcasting I never even considered using it.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 9:53 am

Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:15 am Prior to my current job, I was at a marine laboratory in St. Augustine, Florida as a postdoc for two years working on ctenophore reproductive behavior. That was my first postdoc after graduating from the department of Biology at UF studying horseshoe crab and insect sexy time.

Unless you've already posted there, you might be interested in this reddit thread.

Gryndyl · Post by **Gryndyl** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:34 am

I started out with a notion of getting a degree in journalism but petered out after 2 years. Switched over to massage therapist training but developed carpal tunnel. A load of student debt and no resulting marketable skills sent me on a long path of restaurant jobs, grocery jobs, convenience store jobs, bouncer jobs and mailroom jobs. Wandered off to Korea for a couple of years to teach English then came back and tried to help start a brewery. That fizzled out as well leaving me without a lot of viable paths forward other than going back into restaurants and convenience stores. So I edited a book that I'd written for nanowrimo and self-published it in hopes of getting at least a bit of grocery money to keep things going until the next crappy job rolled around.

Lo and behold, the book hit number one in the adventure/fantasy kindle category and earned as much for me in a couple of months as the entirety of what I'd saved during my 2 years in Korea. So now I write books. Instead of living paycheck to paycheck, now I live book to book. I've written four so far and am plodding away on the fifth. As soon as I get one written I have to jump right onto the next one in hopes of finishing it before the sales from the previous one drift down below the sustainable level. It's a bit like being Sisyphus with a sword of Damocles thrown in BUT it beats the shit out of making burritos.

And I have to say, when someone asks me what I do and I'm able to respond with "I'm an author," well, that's pretty damned cool in my book

Post by **ImLawBoy** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:45 am

Now stop posting here and get on with the next Dungeoneers book, damnit!

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:46 am

I was a bookseller for 16 years.
Then I was a PC game developer for 5 years.
Then I was an online retailer for 13 years.
There were a lot of odd jobs and some unemployed intervals in there. I probably posted that already.

Now I'm in my fourth career, as a freelance copy editor.

noxiousdog · Post by **noxiousdog** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:50 am

noxiousdog wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2010 11:46 am I'm an Oracle Database administrator. While technically we have hundreds of databases, I'm primarily responsible for 4 applications consuming about 11 terrabytes of data not including backups.

So about a decade later, I'm the database operations manager. We have platforms in AWS, Azure, private data centers, oil rigs, refineries, and who knows where else on nearly every RDBMS engine. Current count is about 11,000.

My primary responsibilities are around compliance, configuration management, licensing, and creating/enforcing the processes and procedures that allow my supplier managers and their teams to do the real work. In addition, since we are doing Agile I am a Service Owner with two products.

stimpy · Post by **stimpy** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:51 am

Took a graphics arts class in high school some 40 years ago that led to my first job in the printing industry.
Still in it.
I'm a one trick pony.

MHS · Post by **MHS** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 10:58 am

MHS wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2010 6:57 pm I'm the only trainer for a small software company that fills a niche market. We do mgmt information systems for state programs, basically helping them track the progress of their adult students in order to get federal funding. We're the only database for thirteen different states, meaning I travel to about 3/4 of those states anywhere from 2-8 times per year to conduct training.

Prior to that, I worked for the government doing job skills training such as resume' writing and interview techniques, as well as serving as their local IT person and teaching computer classes in MS Office. Before that I was an apartment manager (or residential property business consultant) and before that I worked in retail. I did the non-traditional route for school, so I didn't finish my BA (Psychology) until I was 31, and then went ABT on an MA in Organizational Psych.

Now we have 24 states instead of 13 and I'm still the only trainer. We have fewer staff now than we did when I posted this despite serving almost twice as many states. I am permanently exhausted and burned out.

malchior · Post by **malchior** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 11:06 am

malchior wrote: ↑Fri Sep 22, 2017 4:23 pm I worked in Energy from my post in 2010 to about 2015 becoming the Manager of Security Architecture, Engineering, and Operations at that time. We had a big merger and I became tired of the politics so I moved onto a national consulting firm. I have a wacky title that doesn't mean anything to anyone outside the firm but effectively am a Manager. I focus on Cyber security at different levels but have not found a ready niche at the firm. They unfortunately rely on people fitting in nice boxes and I don't have a strong brand here. For instance someone who specializes in Data Loss Prevention. Or SOC Operations. I'm an excellent jack-of-all-trades type. Over the first year I evolved to be a key player as a fixer of broken projects. However due to turnover that institutional knowledge was lost and I've been stuck in an odd job for the last 4 months tooling away in Charlotte, NC. I am working for a client who is very, very, very clueless in many ways and the whole project is wasting my time. I'm hoping it ends soon and I can get to one of the big projects. I'll likely easily regain my fixer status on a big job. That'd be good. I've helped fix a few odd jobs in the last month so that should help. Turnover is looking less like it'll be a thing since we re-instituted a bonus this year and announced changes to make it better in the future.

It is funny reading this because I spent last year as a fixer. I got dropped into a project shortly after a project launch failed to achieve orbit and took it home. I then fixed another project at one of the biggest energy firms in the world (Global Fortune 5 level). I wrapped that up and picked up a project successfully delivering to one of the biggest banks in the world - in the same ballpark revenue wise. I then got spun back into O&G to lead several work streams from the beginning of the project for once early this year. That has been a very challenging project that has been consuming my time but I have had time to speak at a couple of conferences and participate in some workshops at some of our smaller clients. That is very rewarding work because they are often less mature and happy to see us. Versus our huge client who starts most days punching us in the face.

The job has been sorta tough on me physically though due to the travel. My typical week right now get on a plane at 7 AM in PHL and go to CLT. That requires me to get up at 3:30-4:00 AM to get ready/drive to the airport. Then work a full day Monday. Then I'm just bumming around until Thursday and then fly back home. I've found some local stuff to do including reffing scrimmages for a local roller derby team in Charlotte but mostly involves going to the gym. One super big project we have is 25 minutes from my house so I'm really hoping to finish up in Charlotte soon and get in there.

The travel has let up much since I last did this post. I have status (Gold/Platinum level) on 3 airlines right now so I'm still putting in serious miles/dollars. Especially internationally. That is still tough but it isn't week after week which makes it mostly manageable. That is until you are sitting in the lounge at CID, CVG, or MKE for 12 hours because of some crazy weather somewhere.

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 11:07 am

pr0ner wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2010 1:53 am Physicist by education, patent examiner by trade.

This still applies. I hit 17 years here next month.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 11:15 am

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:32 pm Today is my 4th anniversary at my credit union. I started as programmer, made it to senior developer, and wen the AVP of the core system quit, the more senior programmer and I took his job duties as a split to myself as Programming Manager and him as Manager, Core Systems. He gets to manage all the hardware and system stuff while I muck about in code. His requires substantially more night and weekend work.

With the help of our SVP, I got us through one acquisition merger, and we are in the midst of a second one. I have one minion. Upon the successful completion of this merger, I will be bucking for an AVP title and another minion.

I’m currently working on my Master’s degree with an anticipated graduation date of Dec 2018. Tuition reimbursement rules will likely keep me there until Dec 2019. After that, it’s time for some serious thinking about the state of affairs.

Second merger is well behind us, with occasional ticking time bombs emerging. AVP position acquired last summer, master's acquired on schedule, and tuition reimbursement clock is mid-January.

Boss tipped his hand on his retirement plans, and was hinting that my continued presence would be valued and might end up as his successor in a few years.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:07 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 11:15 amBoss tipped his hand on his retirement plans, and was hinting that my continued presence would be valued and might end up as his successor in a few years.

Which sounds great as long as his boss doesn't have a kid that's about to graduate college and will be looking for their first executive-level apprenticeship.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:19 pm

I don't think his boss's kid will be graduating HS before then.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:35 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2010 5:05 pm On topic,
first job was for my father in a family run lumber yard - a precursor to the Home Depots of the world

A clerk at a mall bookstore

Attended small college for chemical eningeering

Meter reader for a gas company during the summer while the real ones were on strike,

On a crew that laid gas pipeline for 1 month before getting a internship with an abrasives manufacturer in their research department (making new grinding wheel formulations)

Summer Camp counselor for 11-12 year old boys at a co-ed camp during the summer before grad school

Attended Notre Dame and got my Masters in Chemical Engineering by speeding up a program that solved Gibbs Free Energy equations to determine how liquids would separate. Last time I ever did anything remotely related to chemical engineering.

Process engineer for an automotive brake manufacturer

Resident engineer at the same company in charge of their plant prototyping area (not so glamorous - me and 2 techs)

Process engineer for a Biotech startup company that makes an instrument Big Pharma would use to screen compounds. Jack of all trades there, but mainly dealt with a disposable sample plate.

Quality engineer for a company that made printing plates - the things used to make books, magazines, posters and the like.

Currently a quality/product engineer responsible for films used to brighten anything that uses and LCD display. It never ceases to amaze me how many of these things are bought around the world - not that I'm complaining! It also amuses me that very, very few of the people I work with own any of the products that use our film - they're just too darn expensive.

I'm still doing the same work, although at a different site a bit further up the supply chain. I still don't own anything the films go into, but that's because I have OLED screens rather than LCD.

I am probably going through a midlife crisis because I'd really like to do something else, but the golden handcuffs make that type of decision difficult. I actually have a pension and if I were to stick around long enough to retire, it would be fairly substantial. I think I'd like to do something with computer programming, but haven't done any of that since college 25 years ago, so obtaining those skills would be difficult - and the money outlay even more so given kids starting college in 4 years. Being an adult wasn't supposed to be this hard...

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:47 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:35 pm I think I'd like to do something with computer programming, but haven't done any of that since college 25 years ago, so obtaining those skills would be difficult - and the money outlay even more so given kids starting college in 4 years. Being an adult wasn't supposed to be this hard...

Learning those skills is easy. There are ample resources published in books and online, plus a few people around here that would be willing to help. The hard part is committing to do it and spending the time.

YellowKing · Post by **YellowKing** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:58 pm

My last post was from 2010, and I had been at my job less than a year.

Here in 2019, I'm still at the same job but a lot has changed. I've had a promotion since then, coming in at a Systems Engineer II level up from a level 1. Not much change in responsibilities from what I was doing before, but I do have a few more "team lead" type opportunities and they expect a bit more out of you in terms of being where the buck stops.

I still absolutely love the job. Recently they allowed us to work from home twice a week, so that's what I'm doing Mondays and Tuesdays. Great for both productivity and morale. They've also stayed competitive with salaries by bringing in outside surveyors. I consider myself very lucky to wake up every morning not dreading going into work. My boss is awesome, my co-workers are great. The stress levels can be high when you're dealing with healthcare and people's lives, but it's also very rewarding.

I don't really foresee a situation in which I won't retire from here.

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 1:00 pm

msteelers wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:25 am
msteelers wrote:Currently I'm working in the sports department of a couple local radio stations. I mostly do play-by-play for local high school sports, but I also sit in during the morning shows and any other random event when needed. Ok, well technically they pay me to be a salesperson... but I only do that so that I have the opportunity to do all of this other stuff and build my resume.
I'm still with the same radio stations, but I'm no longer a salesperson. They moved me pretty quickly to board op for our evening shows in addition to my sports play-by-play duties, and had me host a weekly show about high school sports. I did that for about a year and a half, and then was promoted to co-host of the morning show. Two years later I was promoted to the big chair, hosting the morning show. I don't have an official title with the small mom/pop company that runs the stations, but they've called me on-air both the Sports Director and the News Director, so that's what's on my resume. I still do play-by-play in addition to the morning show.

Besides the radio station stuff, I work afternoons at my step-fathers machine shop. CNC milling machines and lathe is primarily what we work with. It's a dirty job, but I have a mortgage and radio doesn't pay extremely well. I also work part time with the St Lucie Mets, minor league affiliate of the New York Mets. I got to see the Tim Tebow effect firsthand, but I don't think I'm going to come back next year. The Mets are a frustrating organization to work for. They pay pretty well and the paychecks have saved my monthly budgets more than once, but I'm over the nonsense.

I also have started up a mobile DJ company with a friend of mine. Weddings are the majority of what we do, which still isn't much at this point. We set a goal to do 5 weddings this year, and we're on pace to finish the year with 6. Next year we want to expand to 12. We only have 1 booked for 2018 so far, but we have leads on a couple of others and we are going to be a vendor at a wedding show in a few weeks. The wedding show was scheduled for last month, but got wiped out by Irma. I'm hoping to get a few booked there so we can afford to do more wedding shows and keep building the business.

Let's see, I'm still working at the radio station but I dropped the machine shop and the Mets. The wedding DJ business has ramped up nicely. We missed our goal of 12 weddings in 2018. We only had 9. But we've been building our reputation in the industry, and have 21 events scheduled for 2019 and are adding more every week. We have 13 events scheduled for 2020 already too.

I also added trivia host to my resume. That's been a ton of fun. I go into bars/restaurants and run their trivia games. I started out about 18 months ago, and have gone from hosting one show a week to managing a team of other hosts and overseeing 7 events a week.

Most recently I started doing voice over work from home. I was hired by our local sheriff's office to help them start their podcast, and I took that money and rolled it into the equipment/setup needed to do the voice over stuff. I've done some commercials, PSAs, and some acting stuff. I'm recording my first audiobook now, and it's a lot more time consuming than I anticipated. The book is due on June 15th. I'm rapidly running out of time, but I should be able to get it done by then without too much issue.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 1:03 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 9:53 am
Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Sat Sep 23, 2017 9:15 am Prior to my current job, I was at a marine laboratory in St. Augustine, Florida as a postdoc for two years working on ctenophore reproductive behavior. That was my first postdoc after graduating from the department of Biology at UF studying horseshoe crab and insect sexy time.
Unless you've already posted there, you might be interested in this reddit thread.

Poor little crabby.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 1:04 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:47 pm
stessier wrote: ↑Thu Jun 06, 2019 12:35 pm I think I'd like to do something with computer programming, but haven't done any of that since college 25 years ago, so obtaining those skills would be difficult - and the money outlay even more so given kids starting college in 4 years. Being an adult wasn't supposed to be this hard...
Learning those skills is easy. There are ample resources published in books and online, plus a few people around here that would be willing to help. The hard part is committing to do it and spending the time.

For reference, here is the undergrad MIS program from the University of Arizona . There are a total of 9 classes + 1 lab for the entire program, so 28 credit hours out of a 120-hour program. The first class and lab are the Freshman intro class that I'm sure you wouldn't need to replicate. The other courses are:

Database Management Systems - SQL
Basic Operations Management
Using and Managing Information Systems
Business Data Communications - Networking
Data Structures and Algorithms - Java / C
Information Systems Analysis and Design
Two electives

So at most three of those courses would be hands-on with coding, scripting, etc. The rest are higher level stuff that are more the Management side of Management Information Systems.

Madmarcus · Post by **Madmarcus** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 6:53 pm

Madmarcus wrote: ↑Fri Sep 22, 2017 10:33 pm Trained as an engineer but I've taught high school science since 1999.

Still high school science but I've moved from a US public school to a Korean private school on the international school circuit. Teaching physics is a fairly sweet deal anyway but I've really liked the twist added by moving to teach internationally.

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Thu Jun 06, 2019 7:56 pm

Worked as a dishwasher during high school. Then I graduated and tried my hand at working as a security guard. I worked as a janitor full time in a hospital. I went to school and did a year as a student equipment clerk. After that job ended I went to work at a theatre while I finished community. During my time in university I worked at a carbide wear parts company doing marketing and sales.

When I graduated I went immediately to work in distribution as a warehouse guy. I worked at this job for 8 years.

During most of this I worked as an in home caregiver for mom.

Also not worth mentioning (but I will) is a job I had at Sears as an electronics salesman. This job didn't last long as I was fond of agressively outselling both my trainer and asst. manager.

Asst. manager walked past a bad smelling shabbily dressed painter on the way to the restroom. When he got back he discovered I had sold a $10,000 high def plasma to said gentleman. I was ordered to ring the set up under the manager. I refused and was fired ten minutes later.

Walked out with more money then I had ever made in my life, for three weeks work... Fun times!