What do or did you do for a living

Where do I start? Grew up in the grocery business - family-run neighborhood grocery store. Art school/universities resulting in two degrees in painting and drawing. Majority of the years as an ADmin at a major University overseeing the production of custom designed classroom teaching materials. That went out the window when computer graphics became available to everyine. Ran convenience store for awhile. Retired. Back to work as a giver of surveys over the phone. Retired. Clercked at a fabrice store on and off for a number of years. Finally retired when I hit 80. Still active as a fabric artist tho.

I am 77 yoa. I retired at 63 from a life of designing and prototyping new products. With an Asperger's lack of personality, read "in your face": I got the chance to work for many different companies...till the contract was over!
Other sales jobs, some I would blush to name and labor in between the contracts usually kept the larder from being empty.

I have found it necessary to find new and interesting things to do and accomplish since I retired.Dresden, Randydancer, and son got me interested in the straight razor.

~Richard

On September 29th I'll have worked 30 years and one day as a Hydrologic Technician for the US Geological Survey. The past 26 years have been spent studying (studying; ha! I'm the guy out on the boat collecting the data) salinity and suspended-sediment concentrations in San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta. I'm 56 years old and will never work for money again (at least I think so).
My wife loves her job and plans to work another 10 years. I'm anticipating building resentment unless I come up with a more concrete plan other than riding my bicycle across the country.
(Just realized I'll need to change my picture here in 25 days!).

US Army (Infantry/Mortars), 1971-76
Vo-Tech school (electronics), 1976-78
Electronic technician (microwave R&D/defense satellites), 1978-1979
Emigrated to Israel, 1/1980

Studied in yeshiva, 1980-82
Computer typesetter, 1982-86
Technical writer, 1984-88
Unix/Linux systems administrator, 1988-2004 (Tel-Aviv University and commercial R&D)

Returned to US, 6/2004

Linux systems administrator, 2004-2012 (academic and commercial, then University of AK (Fairbanks)

Returned to South Florida and retired in 2012

Well, I dropped out of high school and started pounding nails. Became a licensed residential builder by 20 years old.
Framed houses for about 15 years. Made good money when the housing industry was booming. Then retired from that and went to farming full time. Was raised on a farm and have been running equipment since I was 12. Still farming and hoping to be able to keep doing that for at least a few more years. With the markets it's getting more and more difficult to make ends meet. I farm 900 acres of corn and soy beans with about 40 acres of hay.

Electrician, plumber, carpenter, concrete worker, roofer, worked in meat dept (cleaning up after the butchers) at grocery store, auto parts delivery, factory worker, whatever it took to make a living but my vocation was photographic offset lithography (offset press operator) and letterpress operator. Been retired for 5 years and spend time woodworking, working on straight razors and hanging out with grandson.

Jiminy Cricket!
You guys have done some awesome things!

A mans work will change him, so when I read these, it's quite impressive to say the least.
Also puts things in perspective, as I'm a fairly young buck, makes me think that I gotta get it going! Accomplish more things, been kind of lagging.

This is a great thread! :)

I worked in the printing trade most of my work life. The last 18 years of work I was a Vocational instructor in a New York State prison for 16 to 21 year olds. Locked in a room with 14 inmates for 3 hours twice a day.

Grew up working in my parent’s corner grocery store until a large supermarket moved in across the street and forced my folks to retire. Graduated in math and computer science and then taught high school math and computers for 30-ish years.

Got involved in textbook publishing and had a gig as a high school and middle school math book author for several years after which I retired. Taught potential math teachers at a Faculty of Education part-time for a couple of years after retiring from the classroom. Now I act as an independent sales person for a company that has published online resources for math teachers to learn more about the math they are trying to teach and to provide them with effective teaching tools.

Still a geek/nerd after all these years.

Apprenticed at 18 as auto eng. Stayed in the game about 10 years. Decided I'd rather be in a band so started a few,played blues harp & did vocals. That was probably another chunk of 10 years then got bored & left the scene. My only claim to fame was my piano player Jeff went on to the Wiggles :p
Boring period ensued being a storeman & driving cabs. Ill health drove me to study aspects of naturopathy. Moved to the Snowy Mts. & practiced homoeopathy & kinesiology for 13 years. Came back to Sydney 2003 when mum got sick with the big "C" & back to packing boxes a couple of years. Since then retired & now full time caring for my Dad. Wonder where all those years went sometimes.