What do you guys do for a living?

[Rogan Josh]

It is sometimes useful when discussing OT issues to know who you are talking to and specifically what their job is. It can be very embarrasing to try to explaine DNA to a molecular biologist or macroeconomics to Roland .

So what do you all do for a living? If you are a student, what is your area of study?

Also, just for my own nosiness, how did you get into your present job and why did you choose to do it?

Edit: sorry - forgot my own. I am a particle physicist. I think I got into it because I was interested in fundamental physics, and wanted to understand how the world works. I went straight from uni into grad studies and into academia. Most of my time is spent trying to figure out why my program isn't working or trying to find an inconsistent minus sign, so it is much like any other desk job, only worse pay. On the other hand there are days when the light bulb switches on and you truely understand something which you didn't get before (and maybe no-one ever did) and that is kind of nice.

[General Ludd]

Mooch.

[Kassiopeia]

Abhorrently bad jokes have been my cup of tea for the past weeks.

[drake]

Its bad form to start such a discussion and not lead by example RJ. You should be the first to share. Anyway....

I am a web designer/programmer who only works maybe 10 hours a week, but still gets paid full time salary. Rest of the time I'm on some forum, or chatting or some other misc. BS.

I got in the business because I like art and graphic design. And the challenges that programming problems bring. I got the job by posting resume on either headhunter.net or monster.com (dont remember which), and they called me based on portfolio and resume. Had the job lined up almost 2 months before graduation.

Will be looking for a more active job eventually. Not being busy sounds great to some whos days are filled with work, but trust me, it gets kinda boring sometimes.

[Colon™]

AFAIK isn't Roland an economist by profession but a jurist.

[edit]I'm studying trade BTW.

[Bosh]

Student
Will be doing office "work" for the econ and history departments this summer and making falafels at the syrian place on main street.

[Zopperoni]

Student in Business Administration. I work part-time in security, it combines well with doing my study since the work is farking boring

[Tiamat]

Hmmm.....well being a mom is my first and most important job. But I suppose you meant the one I get paid for.

Professional Secretary/Receptionist. Maybe I should correct that or be more specific. I've been a Legal Secretary, Secretary to the Associate Commissioner of the Texas Department of Helth, Secretary to the State Treasurer of Texas as well as worked for eight Orthopedic Surgeons.

**whew** and now in the fall I will be going back to college to finish my degree program.

[rah]

IT Director (king geek)
I still do application development and programming when I'm not fighting red tape or snoozing in meetings

RAH

[Tolls]

Senior Technical Something-Or-Other....I'm not very good with titles.

Formerly working in defense, on warship command systems...now watching my share option thingamajigs dropping for AOL-Time Warner.

I work for Turner Broadcasting, not so much CNN, more Cartoon Network...

...and we STILL don't get free cable.

[SlowwHand]

I'm an undercover agent for the F.B.I. ; currently investigating an internet moderator known to be merciless, as well as his ferret molesting brother.




When not involved in this crime prevention field, I'm into Manufacturing Production Planning.

[- Groucho -]

I'm a capital markets associate at a Wall Street law firm. I sort of backed up into it - I wanted to be an academic, but my fiancee didn't like the sound of being a nomad while looking for tenure so I went to law school instead. The funny thing is we ended up becoming nomads anyway, as I moved to New York last year from Vancouver.

[Immortal Wombat]

Stude.

But for money I work at a garden centre as a till supervisor, supervising some very attractive young ladies, and sorting all their problems.

edit: till-related problems.

[orange]

Professional Slacker

[Asher]

I'm a student and I start work at a summer job at a world-famous high-end computer manufacturer May 1st.

[dunk]

I write documents, change them when someone doesn't like the landscape orientation of one of the pages. Then I fill the empty boxes in with a black ball-point pen and initial and date it all.

Then I write reports stating that I filled everything in and it was all initialed and dated.

Sometimes I get to watch people clean manufacturing equipment.

Sometimes I get to push buttons.

But most of the time, I simply flip pages in the documents around.

I also contribute to the high cost of pharmaceutical products through my greedy employers.

Engineering students... STAY AWAY FROM PHARMACEUTICALS!!!! You have been warned.

[MrFun]

I am an undergraduate student at St. Ambrose University and I am going for a BA in History.

I plan to immediately go to graduate school after this, but not sure where. I plan to get my PhD, and work as an underpaid professor, and teach undergraduate college students U.S. history.

My special area of interest, and the area I am most knowledgeable about, is U.S. history from 1850's through the 1880's.

I still have a lot more reading to do in regards to good secondary sources, and primary sources. I got a list of books I have read, and books I plan to read.

[connorkimbro]

I'm a bit more than half way through a bachelors degree in Political Philosophy, but i probably won't finish that. I'm about to graduate DLI after having completed the basic Korean course, i plan on finishing my bachelors in whatever, and then going for a Masters in Teaching English as a Second Language, and a PhD in linguistics. (these are my current goals)

As for what i get paid to do right now, i'm a US Army Soldier, and basically i listen to the "bad guy's" radio transmissions and interpret what they're saying.

[SlowwHand]

Could you do the same for me here, connor?

[faded glory]

I fix/redesign manufacturing flaws in industrial printing plates we produce.
I travel sometimes. If there is a problem they will send me. I look at it ; evaluate and compare it. Find the defect ;and report to HQ on how to avoid/fix it.

It doesnt pay much. But not very old; the money i make suits me well.

edit: I take lots of calls. Try to answer as many problems as I can. I also represent my company at trade shows. sometimes anyway.

[Velociryx]

Studied Economics with an eye toward joining the Peace Corps and going to Kenya when I graduated to help them set up businesses (I like a challenging environment). Got married, and the new wife wasn't too keen on the idea, so I wound up not going.

Ditched the new wife two years, and MANY dollars later, and wished like HELL I'd gone to Kenya after all....but by the time I was once again ready, the climate there, and my own desires had changed somewhat, so I stuck around the USof A.

Chanced into a computer job, found out I had a knack for it. Also found out it left me lots of time to design games and write...two of my passions.

So....I was hooked.

-=Vel=-
(reader's digest version...the full version has a great many bizzare details best told at three in the morning in a Waffle House booth after a night spent drinkin....c'mon down to SC and we'll do just that!)

[Gatekeeper]

I am a journalist — specifically, a copy editor.

My main responsibilities include story selection, placement on the page and/or Web site, headline writing, photo selection/sizing/placement. I also edit stories, write/edit cutlines and add deckheads, liftouts and pull quotes to stories (intended to convey key information and/or pull the reader into the story). So, basically, my job entails the complete design of the pages one sees in newspapers on a daily basis (there are, of course, differences from paper to paper ... not all copy editor duties are uniform in that sense).

It's a nice job, although it doesn't pay a super great salary (the longer you stay in the field, though, the better the pay gets). I enjoy the variety of the job, my co-workers (most of the time) and the fact that an average of 16,500 subscribers (more, if you include their families and friends and rack sales) read what I do the next day. The drawback to that is if you make a mistake — then 16,500 people (plus their families and friends and rack sales) see your screw up. That's incentive *not* to screw up.

And, no, I'm not a "superstar bigshot" journalist. You find those types in the big cities and centers of power. Washington, D.C., comes to mind immediately.

Gatekeeper

[Chris 62]

By profession, hardware design Engineer.

Also freelance writer.

After spending years getting a history masters, I quickly discovered it wasn't going to pay much, so I returned to school and recieved an AAS in Engineering and an AOS in Computer design theory.

All of this leads to my "fabulous salery", so good that I suppliment it with writing.

[Provost Harrison]

Not a lot at the moment, currently unemployed and seeking work. A biochemist by education.

[faded glory]

I dont have any college expierence. When i lived on Long island, I had a friend who got me a job at Javon. And they trained me. And then I went to a week long accelerated class to get my current job.

But no college here. Please say wether you went to college.

[faded glory]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Not a lot at the moment, currently unemployed and seeking work. A biochemist by education.

unemployed biochemist? sheesh come here and work for pfizer for 150k a year

[Starchild]

Highschool student, planning on studying Biochemistry in university. Work part time as a "sales associate" which basically means I'm assigned open to close shifts at the mall store, deal with customers, cash, and quasi-manageresque duties without manager type pay.

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

I've fallen into a strange corporate abyss. I turn up, pick at bits of administrative work that any school-leaver with a shred of common sense could do, and get paid paid about three times the going rate for it.

It's all a bit strange. One day I suspect they'll realise that I'm both ludicrously overqualified and overpaid, and start giving me the work they spent a small fortune training me to do. Or pay me off.

[Provost Harrison]

Interesting idea Faded Glory, but I wouldn't know how to go about emigrating, but it is an intriguing idea...

[Asher]

Originally posted by faded glory
unemployed biochemist? sheesh come here and work for pfizer for 150k a year

Provost's speciality is under-the-counter drugs (he's somewhat of a dealer). It's harder to find jobs like that. He's trying to make a new drugs that have the short-term effects of marijuana but none of the long-term effects.