What do you do for a living?

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ladycat said:
Wow, everyone here must be old fogeys, you're all retired!

I get paid to post on websites and their business Facebook pages.
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That sounds like it can be fun.
 
So here's another resume item; I was a disc jockey for almost 3 years in high school at a rock station about 20 miles outside of where I lived. I did a request and dedication show and wrote and produced commercials, intros and weather reports. I got the job when I was 15 because I implied to the station manager I was 18 and he never bothered to look into it any further. I was big for my age and had a deeper voice than my peers so it was an easy sell. I was fired after the station owner switched us to a new format (country music) and I heavily criticized the change on the air. They never figured out I was in High School. My parents thought I worked at a furniture store in the warehouse and doing deliveries, which I did on the nights I was not on the air.
 
I started out as an Army interrogator/translator (German and Chinese), and then after I got out, went to nursing school. I've spent the last 32+ years as a registered nurse, both at the bedside and in nursing management, civilian and military. For the last few years, I've been an infection preventionist for a rural healthcare association in Arizona. I've done a lot of teaching as well- first for a company called PESIHealthcare that sent me around the country doing seminars on Medical Surgical Nursing and Physical Assessment Skills, and then later, I also taught online for a university for a number of years in an RN to BSN program. I was editor of a nursing journal for a few years, too. Thanks to student loans, it will be a few years before I retire and try to fulfill another life dream of writing. It's OK that I have time before I retire, as I absolutely love nursing!
 
I am currently a Chemist at a Defense agency .. I just started but this is what I am trained for originally..much less demanding than my previous..... Just previously I have done mostly Nuke/Rad detection/locating/advising and also threat related Bio-analytics/detection/analysis/advice for a couple different defense agencies also as a civilian.... not sure if I ever will get into those areas again.
20 years Army.
A quarter century ago did some undercover work as a PI for a fortune 500 company.
 
Redbeard said:
I would never had guessed that in a million years. I don't even know what i would have thought you did for a living but i would have never guessed that. So when you go check out new properties during hunting season do you carry a rifle with you? You know just incase a crazy deer decides to attack you.
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During hunting season I use for sale hunting land to practice bugging out by foot. I generally wear tan clothes and branches on my head to blend in appropriately with my surroundings. I see no flaw in the this practice :)

Im actually pretty new to real estate. Only been doing it for a couple years now. Before that I drove big rigs, before that I was in nursing school, before that I worked in finance and before that I was in the military. The list goes on. Ive done everything from farming tobacco in the third world to working with scientific research equipment (mainly homogenizers). Ive found my home with real estate though. Especially large acreage tracts. I love it. Having varied life experience and a lot of hobbies is a bonus in sales. I find it easy to relate to a large customer base and develop relationships that last. Really is a blast. I meet a bunch of great folks and set my own schedule around family time and hobbies. Its got its ups and downs like any biz but it suits me.
 
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Grew up farming and learning to work on most anything we had that broke down. That has paid off well as time has went on. Got an AS in Electrical Engineering and have worked in industrial maintenance ever since. Currently work managing a group of instrument techs taking care of Environmental, Process, and Radiation monitoring equipment at a nuclear facility. I spend a large part of my time doing project management on new equipment we are tasked with installing and maintaining.
I also grow a great deal of the food we eat every year. I hope to join the retirees on here in 10 years if all goes well.
 
20 years of installing and upgrading phone systems. Drivingg truck now for 6 years. January got my own truck. Got my own authority in June and now have 2 trucks on the road.
 
I've worked with children all of my life. Started out babysitting. Got married and had 5 kids. Homeschooled. Then I started an in home day care, but with academics. That way, our children could also be with me. That grew, hired an employee, but was tired of our house wear and tear. So, we found a commercial acre and a third for sale, and it was a mile from our house. We got permission from our planning and zoning to build (that was brutal), bought the land, designed the 4k ft building. built it, and opened for business. Used our savings. It's been good...open for 15 plus years, anywhere from 9-12 employees at a time. I do day to day director operations, and train our teachers to teach...reading, math, and science. We have students as young as 2, all the way through kindergarten during the day. But have our older big kids to age twelve, before and after school till 6 p.m., full time during the summer, and also during school out times, like today and the next two weeks. Big kids usually gain 1/2 grade of academics in the 10 weeks of summer they are with us.
But...I am ready to sell and retire. Husband has health problems, and we raise the twin grandkids that are 12 yrs old. Am ready to move to the farm after we sell and husband retires. He works in aerospace. Manages the engineers that fly satellites for the military. The lady that "visited" while we were open last week is sure that her husband and her and another silent investor will be getting bank financing in January. I will believe it when I see it. And...the big and...is also getting husband to retire. He is of age this coming summer, but really, really loves his job. Maybe he might consider consulting.
 
Varied work history. CSI before it was called that in '79, 80 then worked for a school for a correspondence course that the FBI used for forensics. In the 80's worked at several bowling centers--Winterhaven, FL, Houston, Syracuse. In the early 90's worked for State Health Dept. in Child Health and drove the Immunization bus doing record keeping. Later 90's and on worked at a couple of photo labs and than had a photography business for about 7 years. But honestly, my favorite "job" has been waitressing and bartending which I did after we started traveling out West. More fun and good money. As I said, varied.
 
Trained as a Refrigeration Electrician by the Navy while in the Marines; my first job as a civilian was for a gas utility co. as a service rep. Following a strike, I went on to small HVAC cos. as a mobile mechanic repairing A/C, reefers, freezers, heat pumps, gas & oil burners. It wasn't a bad trade depending on the company and it's owner. But I enjoy retirement now; being the chief cook and bottle washer (and most days sleeping late).
 
Very interesting to see everyone's careers. I see a common thread in a lot of your comments. Having or had a career as some type of engineer, designer, or repairman. I've always thought it interesting that the engineers, designers, repairmen, contractors of the world are by and large a very conservative bunch.

As for myself... I'm a general handyman working with my step dad. I've done many different things, went to college for auto tech and mechanical engineering tech. Have worked in manufacturing plants and on farms. Since I'm severely hard of hearing I get disability and work 20-30 hours a month for extra money. When tax time comes around I don't have much left. Currently working on buying tools and getting geared up better- I like Milwaukee tools. I'd like to get off disability but not until I am confident that I have the rig I need to succeed- a cargo van is in the plans for 2018.
 
I'm a railroader. My territory is the western 2/3 of the U.S. Currently I'm on a "gang" that replaces railroad ties but I have done just about everything relating to track maintenance. Before the railroad I ran industrial woodworking equipment for the country's 2nd largest window manufacturer, I was a plastic injection molding tech, a bartender, a cash register monkey, and I grew up on a farm so I know a bit about that too.
 
UncleJoe said:
As I approach my 6th decade around the sun, I'm still climbing trees for a living. Been doing it since '82. Certified as an Arborist in '96. Self employed since '98.

My mother thinks I'm nuts. :)

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Your standing on a tree that's falling over....... I agree with your mother. Your nuts!
 
Retired. I retired as soon as the mortgage was paid off.
I worked 25 years with the mental and physically developmentally delayed. ( handicapped plainly speaking)
It was a mentally and physically tiring job but I know I helped a lot of kids and young adults have a better life than some. It taught me patience, acceptance of others and it was good for my soul

Now I putter around the house and land doing what needs to be done and trying not to break anything in the process
 
I am forcibly retired very early as of 2008 when I came home from work and found my ex military husband with injuries, turtled in the back yard and unable to get up when I got home from work one day so I stayed home from then to look after DH. Also just for something a bit different at the same time I lost my job as a manager of a furniture shop that went belly up during the GFC due to no customers coming in.

Currently living on 1/2 an acre where we have extensive vegetable gardens, preserve our own produce and generally enjoying life together and saving to have our purpose built and designed home built. I still design my own range of homewares that I sell on the internet and sometimes supply other businesses shops with.

List of jobs I have had -
- Trained as a nurse.
- Studied via correspondence and got a diploma in business management and marketing whilst bringing up my children as a sole parent.
- Owned my own furniture and gift shop.
- Owned my own secondhand business or I think most call them pawn shops over in the States.
- Worked as a truck driver delivering 36 x 9' mobile homes to outback areas of Australia.
- Owned my own wrecking yard, car sales site and service station business which I leased.
- Worked in building hardware including in a saw mill at the back of a store cutting timber for renovators and builders orders, mixed paint, and worked in gardening sections, art sections and power tool sections in a number of different companies.
- Owned my own art gallery with my work and others work on consignment and also made and designed my own homewares to stock it with too.
- Worked in a butcher shop both as a cashier and behind a chicken deli counter.
- Was a data sales manager and trained staff in all areas of mobile phones, software, and accessories and set up equipment packages for large companies so they could network them. The tech guys in that dept set them up.
- Worked for another company in a giftware, discount variety and in their building hardware section.
- Lastly as a manager of a furniture shop.

You could say I have done a lot in a variety of fields but loved the variety and learning new skills.
 
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My first degree is in computer science. I spent several years as the sole female in a gas plant programming. I loved it! Worked a year in IT in a bank in '99 & hated it. Homeschooled our older kids k-12. 16 years as a pediatric nurse, mainly working with kids with tracheotomy/ventilator & various other "accessories". Most of the time I worked in a medically fragile group foster home which is where I met our adopted son. We have rental property & a construction company & dabble in real estate but currently my primary focus is homeschooling our 5 year old & taking care of our 4yo, 3yo, & 6mo old grandbabies (they don't spoil themselves). I'm involved in homeschool group leadership & mentoring. Kids are my love.
 
Been in IT all my life and done everything from operations and systems administration to software development to data center architecture.
 
Just a point of interest; I have not read politician or prostitute yet (oh wait, maybe those are the same job).
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I am a high school drop out and have been in construction my entire life on way or another. Since 98 I have been in pipeline and underground utilities and started my own company in 2008. In California I am a general engineering contractor and we do the underground utility work for commercial developments and distribution centers. Here in Idaho I am just an excavation contractor although i am not doing much work here. I have been buying rental homes and remodeling them over the last year. I've been thinking of my next chapter to either start building homes to sell or flipping older ones. Trying to get out of doing pipeline work as my body feels it every day.
 
I started working in an auto repair shop at 15. From there I was a dishwasher, short order cook and assistant manager of a steakhouse. I worked in restaurants until I graduated from high school. Because I was living on my own and working for a living I finished my senior year as a contract student - The first day of school I got all my assignments from all my teachers and then I handed them in. The last day of school I took my finals. Those were my only two days in school. After I graduated I started going to voc/tech for everything I could get. I took an auto mechanics class, graduated and was hired to teach the class the next year. (at 19)
When the contract ended I went to work in a small auto shop and learned a bit about auto transmissions. I went back to voc/tech at night after working and learned everything I could about auto transmissions. I started trying to make performance automatics and learned how to make them shift faster and hold more torque while lasting longer. I started building transmissions for street and the drag racers. I started my first business, "Paul's Street and Strip". I worked full time and then spent 6 to 8 hours working at home.
I switched from auto mechanics to powered industrial trucks and continued to work out of my home for myself. I worked each morning before my job started with an old guy who did all the unit repair work. When he retired I replaced him in the unit repair section. I was offered and took some classes on hydraulics, carburetors, and electrical (starters, generators and alternators). I found out that Holley carburetors were putting on tech classes and signed up. Later I was offered another class from Zenith and another from Century. I got great training and a lot of theory on gas and LPG carburetors. I took classes at the local voc/tech on electrical systems and took an introduction in electronics.
After three years I moved on to a different shop working on powered industrial trucks and got the promotion I was asking for. My first job there was rebuilding a transmission that was torn apart in a box. After that demonstration I was a journeyman mechanic at top wage. I took classes on electric powered drives and control systems and spent most of my time working in that area. I had added custom work on carburetors and distributors to Paul's street and Strip and did some custom work on a few drag boats. I learned that boats require a completely different approach to ignition and carburetion. I continued to work both jobs for a long time and then let my business go.
I started studying in a completely different area - religion. I studied the history of religion, ethics and practices and finally ended up with a masters degree and decided to get ordained. I received ordination in three different religions. At work I was teaching classes for the company on troubleshooting and repair of systems on the equipment and they sent me to school to learn how to certify operators of powered industrial trucks. I started doing more instruction and less hands on work which led me to my next personal business.
I started training and certifying operators and making a good living doing it. I quit my job and found that I had more time on my hands so I started Paul's street and Strip back up. I had learned how to make a profit and that a business license was a good thing to have on my side. Running two separate businesses turned out to be very profitable. I bought the equipment I needed to machine and modify transmission parts and started making a lot of money building performance transmissions. I also opened a shop and hired a couple of employees. Coming home from a class I gave to certify employees for a major firm I was sitting at a stop light when I was rear ended by a gal who was driving a borrowed car without insurance. My life changed!
I was taken to the hospital and had severe neck trauma and a broken tail bone with three ruptured discs. I saw my doctor and was put on muscle relaxers for the spasms and narcotics for the pain. After about two weeks I was getting MRIs and X-rays to assess my condition. I started losing the feeling in my right arm and went through tests for that but by the end of the tests I had loss the use of it completely. Another set of MRIs and I was scheduled for surgery. The collapsed disc had allowed the nerves to my arm to be pinched so they cut me open and chiseled out room for the nerve to return to normal. I was on anti-inflammatory meds, muscle relaxers and narcotics. I slowly regained feeling and use of my right arm but I was in constant pain. My doctor referred me to the pain clinic and after their evaluation they decided that this was going to be a life long problem. I was put on disability through Social Security and had to let both my businesses go. I sold Paul's Street and Strip but not the name to my employees. I had mortgage insurance that would make the payments but I had spent most of my savings and two 401Ks on medical bills. My doctor and I talked about the pain and we decided that we would follow the pain clinics advice an go on Methadone for long term pain management. I had been telling my doctor and neurologist that there was something wrong with my lungs for two years and finally was sent to have a chest X-ray. My right lung was not working at all! I was sent to a pulmonologist who ran some tests and found that I had 70% of my lung capacity with only one lung. I told him that I thought it had to do with nerve damage from the accident and he agreed. He sent a letter to the neurologist and then to the surgeon. Consulted with my doctor and scheduled another surgery. After surgery I had only about 30% movement in my right arm and no strength again. The surgeon told me that it was just minor trauma from the surgery and it would get better, I figured he had hit the nerve while he was working. I had a follow up in two weeks with the surgeon so I worked with my arm and breathing every day. The only thing that got in the way was the Methadone. I was either in pain and had to take additional narcotics or sitting on the couch slumped over and drooling. I went in for my follow up with full use of my right arm and feeling that my lungs were both working. The surgeon didn't believe I could recover that fast and had me X-rayed and found that the lung was working again. I was on Methadone for an additional two years and finally I weened myself off it. That is a very bad drug! I took two months gradually reducing the dosage a little each week. It takes three days for a change in dosage to take place and I used my breakout narcots when I was really in too much pain but I had to get off the Methadone. I went in to see my doctor and told her I was off the Methadone and explained why. I told her I needed a pain killer that I could take as I needed so I could function and start living my life again. she asked if I had any withdrawal symptoms and I told her I hadn't she was shocked! She suggested the Oxycotton or hydrocodone and I told he I wanted something that I could take a double dose of when I needed it or cut it in half when that was all I needed. We settled on Tylenol-Codeine 4. I managed my pain with that for a year and then switched to Tylenol-Codeine 3 and then to a non-narcotic that I occasionally take for pain now. In the past 12 years I have gone from financially comfortable to broke to comfortable again. I moved from Seattle to Eastern Washington at the continued requests of my children and own my home, have reliable cars, and made some new friends. I gained 60 pounds due mostly to inactivity and have lost about 25 of it. I am getting better each day and I am determined to get back to my old self. I have more weight to lose and some strength and flexibility to regain but I am determined to get it done. Many life experiences have taught me that nothing is truly impossible and I am a child of endless possibilities.
I am retired, on the board of a local non-profit and getting more active in my private life. My wife has been a stabilizing factor in all of this and I owe her my life and give her all my love.
 
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