Thread: What do or did you do for a living

Rebuilt my first Swiss clock at 8, my first engine at 15 and been into maintaining machinery ever since.
Studied aviation sciences in College and repaired jet aircraft and helicopters for a number of years. Then into injection molding, pharmaceuticals, food mfging, open pit limestone mining, automotive manufacturing, and most recently, or currently pig deconstruction..
Moved up the food chain career wise, even as I’ve wandered through some crazy diverse industries to gain mechanical perspective. As well as a good spectrum of humanities diversity. .
Still know only a pittance of what’s out there, and always interested in experiencing more.

I don’t even know what I do anymore. Nobody seems to know. My mother is always asking what exactly it is. I work telecom. The company I work for makes the web possible with a global network. When I started out it was all about long distance phone service. Oh boy was that special......and so boring. It’s still boring. I’ve worked around within the industry to land in a role that only someone who has been kicking around since long distance was a thing could do. I work as a supplier manager for the third party vendors we use. My day consists of trying to resolve every headache the rest of the company can dream up. Every six months there is another massive round of ulcer inducing layoffs. They say that if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. I’ve been busting my ass from day one and I will probably have been at work the day I die. On the bright side I had last Friday off. That was nice.

Great Thread
I'm a Forklift mechanic, and have been for 22yrs now. Before that I did electronics and hated it.

I have had a few jobs. I started commercial fishing when I was 14. I have bounced around at various things in the marine industry, I have worked as a joiner and doing finish carpentry in residential construction, guided sports fish. Currently I am working for the Canadian Coast Guard. I am a deckhand and a medic. They do give me a fancy job title. For the most part my job is stable, except the pay. I work at a search and rescue station on a shift rotation of 21 days on and 21 days off. It works for me for now.

I am now a self employed Engineered wood components designer. Mostly roof & floor trusses but occasionally I-joist systems as well.
It is a freelance gig that I kind of modelled myself after managing a roof truss plant for 12 years. Most of my teenage years forward were spent swinging a hammer.
I hold a Carpenters Licence and at the heart of it all that is what I am and how I've gotten to here. I love the challenge of what I do but still cant wait for retirement in about 6-8 years. I have too many things to build and working is getting in my way
Mike

After far too many years in school - including a couple of postgrad degrees that I've *finally* finished paying for 13 years after finishing my PhD!! - I taught history at a university for a couple of years. But that was the extent of what I had hoped would be an academic career. Like many other lines of work, the jobs just aren't there anymore.

So I took a job with the government doing research into the abuse of children at Indian Residential Schools. Had to stop that last year due to the toll it was taking on my mental health, but continue to work in a gov't job. I hate office work and never wanted to be a 9-5 kind of guy, but the pay is OK, the benefits good, and the security a welcome change. To keep myself sane, I like to make, fix, and restore things as well as writing and most anything else that involves creating something.

Also, along the way, some of the jobs have included working retail, labourer for a moving company (best motivation ever to do well at Uni!), YMCA director, college instructor, soccer coach, website creator, writer, editor, bakery assistant (NOT a good fit if you hate mornings), self-employed entrepreneur, security guard... In part due to my apparent inability to stop going to school, and in part due to spending most of my life not really knowing what the hell I wanted to do for a living, I've ended up doing quite a few things at least for a while.

Gasman, what a great idea for a thread. Thanks so much for starting it.

We sure seem to have a bunch of very different, but very interesting folks here. Just as I suspected.

I agree. I enjoy learning about what others do. We have a large community of folks here, and i thought it would be enteresting to find out what KIND of folks enjoy straight razor shaving. So many types of people in the world. Its looking like ANY kind of man enjoys this hobby no mater what his background is. From people who have done one thing all there lives, to people that have done many things and change there ocupation regularly.

BTW, i started as a laborer in a house recycle yard. Cleaning used bricks and stacking lumber. Worked at a grocery and liquor store stocking shelves. Then learned to drive truck at 16 hauling the field workers around and vegies. Got into automotive mechanics for a few years but went back to the truck. And a time for uncle sams army in the middle of it. So ive done a few things too. Studied actitecture in school and did one year of collage in that subject and found i just couldnt sit at a desk all day.

At 45yo, I'm in the middle of my professional path.
I'm a drug dealer ... but with license. Called pharmacist.
And I like it, cause in Italy (a little nice town in Ischia) It's a very nice job.
Half medician, half beauty shop, totally alchemic.

I knew it.
Someone had to be a drug dealer. Now if the Pimp will chime in. And what about the car thief.