Thread: What you do for a living?

I hate the question because i've not produced much of late (or ever). BUT since I had a great, one-hour, unscheduled interview today, i'm happy enough to talk about it. Basically under-employed my whole life.

Reverse chronological:

Interviewed at machine shop TODAY for process engineer position. Looks promising. This is the direction i should have taken as a young fella, but what can you tell a young fella?

Spent 7 weeks remodeling a home first of this year. Usually sell some firewood and also do some bushhogging/grading work with small tractor as i can. Jack of all, can do anything...sometimes with nothing. Doing follow up work on remodel tomorrow. (the artwork came, i have to hang it)

Bought up some razors and hones to try to make some scratch there...hard to decide which to sell and even harder landing honework.

Selling timber to pay bills, ran out of trees.

Setting up shop (still) to make bicycles to order, fitted racing road/cx/mountain bikes. underfunded. Have been riding my own stuff since 2009.

Started new business with new wife, blowing my "inheritance" when the real estate market dipped (bought the biz real property) and the biz flopped after wife left. Lot of lessons there. $$$ ones. 2005.

1998 Law degree, no desire to practice. Diagnosed ADD. didn't pass bar, and never re-took.
1991 College degree, no purpose for it but to go to law school.

Dumb punk kid before that...grew up in grocery store biz.

Originally Posted by Hirlau

Retired, assisting hockey & archery moms with chores around their houses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDkLSjsiqlM

David lee Roth was more entertaining, but thought, better keep G

Originally Posted by WadePatton

Interviewed at machine shop TODAY for process engineer position. Looks promising.

Good luck!!

Retired US Navy doc; currently enjoying being between jobs.

Originally Posted by Dzanda

Retired US Navy doc; currently enjoying being between jobs.

Former USN Corpseman,ran a morgue in Nam on a Hospital ship 66/67)

I started trying to make money outside of the home when I was about 8-9 by selling Greeting Cards out of Boys Life Magazine then shoveling walks of snow, pulling and hoeing weeds then started mowing lawns with a couple of friends when I was 11(the last year I did I made almost $300)! However I worked 7 days a week from 7am to whenever I finished which sometimes was 7-8pm!

When I was 13 my Aunt Ester (my grandmother's oldest sister) called and asked if I would work for them on their farm for the summer. There was no discussion of wages. I said 'Sure'!

I wouldn't trade that summer for love or money!! They taught me how to 'gig' for frogs and the lessons on the hard work in the fields I'll never forget!

Uncle Lloyd had a John Deer wheel tractor that was so old it didn't have an electric starting motor! It had a side mounted flywheel that was about 2 and a half feet in diameter! You turned the ignition key on, pulled the choke out and adjusted the throttle out a bit and opened two petcocks that were on opposite sides of the motor then pulled that big flywheel counter clockwise.

Some days the engine would start right up, other I'd pull on it for 20+ minutes and it wouldn't fire! I weighed less than 90#'s!!!

Then my uncle would come out of the house and give the flywheel a couple of tries then say: "Go get the Cat! We'll pull start the SOB"! I’m thinking; "why the Hell didn't we pull start the SOB 15 minutes ago!!!!

When it was time to go home Aunt Ester gave me a check for my summer's work. It was $100.

As I said, I wouldn't trade that summer job for love or money!

My first SS recorded job was in 1969 at 15 my oldest and best friend who was 4 years older than me was working at a restaurant as a bus boy while he was going to college and he needed a shoulder operation so he recommended me as a replacement I was hired.

During High School I worked the summers for Green Giant Co driving swathers then pea combines and then finally as a mechanic.

I went to WW Community College to learn Auto Body Repair and graduated with a Straight A average/I was the state and local president of VICA/competed in State Competitions winning both Auto Body Repair and Extemporaneous Speech. I competed at the National Level and won 2nd Place in Speech.

Working in the Auto Repair trade at the time was strickly 'commision' the shop time was $13 per hour with a 40/60 split which meant that I got 40% of the monies. There were months that I Netted $1000/that was in the mid 70's but there were months that I didn't even Gross $300!!

My first child was on the way and I needed some steady income!

I'd worked for a family run grocery store in my small town for a short period so I called the owner and was immediately re-hired! I work for them for 2 years and then moved on to working for a large corporate grocery chain and I've been with them for 35 years this coming May 27th at 1:00 PM. Not that I'm keeping time!

Born and Raised on the farm. when our crops were out my brothers and I would hire out to the other farmers in the area. At that point in time the average wage for farm hands was $2 and some times $2.50 a day. when was 14 went to work at the cotton gin for 75 cents an hour. at 16 I worked putting up grain bens at $4.10 an hour. That was 1966. In 69 went in the USAF and trained as a jet mechanic. In 73 after I left the AF I opened a service station at night and worked in a custom sheet metal shop in the day some where along the way learned welding and residential wiring and central heat and air and plumbing. in 82 went to work as a repair welder and heavy equipment mechanic at a steel mill after 31 years of that due to health reasons (survived cancer and many broken bones and 3 heart attacks I'm a failure at dying) I retired. Like one young man in this post I ran a little whisky when I was young. not the white kind but the bonded and I delivered to the local bootleggers. that was a point in time that every from the preacher to the judge would have a little taste but didn't tell anyone. anyway that brings me to now.

Mechanical engineer working at a chemical plant...it pays the bills.

At 42 I began a union apprenticeship to become an electrician (inside wireman). Got my license about a year and a half ago. Next up, a Master's license and a run at being an independent electrician--man in a van shop for a while, til I'm too busted up for tools, then I'll think about running other crews.

Before 42, semiprofessional student (BS Botany, MFA nonfiction writing, enrolled in something or other almost steadily from 1983 to 1999) and mid-level university administron. Loved being a database monkey when my jobs required that. Ran websites, servers, did a couple of stints as a high-level secretary. During one of those I got my mid-30s diagnosis of ADD. Made it hard to be a secretary, but turns out to be perfect for being an electrician. ADD isn't an inability to pay attention, it's a reluctance to shift your attention away from what truly interests you. Construction & electricity deeply interest me, so this "diagnosable condition" turns out to be a fantastic professional asset. I can make up control panels for weeks on end, never looking up. Love the body of practical skills I gained from the apprenticeship & subsequent work. Proud to have gotten a bunch of cobs outta my ass so I can hang with guys who do real work & have the callouses to prove it.

Bit more details than, im just a barber from earlier lol....

After high school in 97 I accepted a full ride scholarship to Berea College.
Did pre med for 2 years, had my first daughter, got married, withdrew from college while on the deans/presidents list.

Attended barber college for a year (40hrs a week for 1500 hrs) while working 40+ hrs a week while driving an hour and a half each way to school 5 days a week...

Got out of barber college in february 2000, worked in my first shop for approximately 2 years.

Left first shop with another barber that worked there who wanted to open a shop, worked for him approximately 6 years, he hired an apprentice barber, decided 9 months later to offer to sell me the business, the freshly licensed master barber showed up with money after he heard the owner id worked with/for 8 years wanted to sell and purchased the shop before I came up with the cash, yay.... ended up working for him for around 4 years. Had a falling out with a douchebag he hired repeqtedly and the owner wouldnt deal with it so I bailed out like I should have done back when he bought the shop out from under me when he had 0 clientele and I had tons.

Somewhere in there went through a divorce after 10 years, my kids live with me, uncontested divorce, got remarried almost 3 years ago to a woman with 2 kids of her own, 2 kids and a maid away from being the brady bunch now but am happy!

Opened my own shop 2 years ago in October, been going great, love my career!!!

Overall 15 ish years in barbering