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The army paid for my undergrad degree so I did four years after graduating. I just got out last year and was recently hired (and haven't started yet) for a risk advisory job with ernst & young. Before college it was just part time summer gigs of no real importance.
I studied music in university, worked in the music industry for about a year until I realized all the horror stories were true, then started running independent/foreign film cinemas, then ran a couple international film festivals and am currently spending a year in my hometown dealing with family illness stuff and working a particularly soul crushing HR job for a huge corporation.
From 1970 to 85 i was a barber and then started with the Gas Utility in New Orleans. While there I started as a dispatcher then went to the Cathodic Protection dept.,[ we kept a small amount of DC current on the steel main and services to prevent corrosion], Then leak survey [patroled city with infrared to detect methane gases] and back to C|P. All these jobs were fairly easy but after Katrina everyone had to work. In New Orleans most of the gas meters are under the house and all had to be shut off to empty the water out of the gas mains and services. You can imagine after 2 weeks how rusted the shutoff valves would be.
So I retired.
Long winded, but that's what I did.
THANK YOU and your family for your serviceQuote:
Originally Posted by TwistedOak
I started as a teenager part time in a sporting good retail store, where I worked about 5 years before heading off to university. I studied, but didn't graduate in, anthropology and languages, of which I currently speak 4 with passable fluency (English, Spanish, French, Italian). After that, I worked for a while in Geographic Information Systems, digitizing the first digital street network of Canada, then I got a job working at a resort in Cozumel, Mexico, as a member of the entertainment staff. I was in Mexico off and on for seven years, working my way through supervisor and assistant director and then director of entertainment in a few different hotels. I went from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen, then back to Canada, then on to Manzanillo on the west coast.
After entertainment, I got into a management training program and became the guest services manager, then left hotels to work in sales for a tourism marketing company startup in Los Cabos. That went on for under a year, then we packed the young family off to Margarita Island in Venezuela for a year, to help with another vacation rental startup, also in the marketing side. All that hopping around was enough, so we decided to return to Canada, where I got into a marketing and consumer insights company, first in client service and now as director of marketing. A lot of different things, but a lot of fun!
Interesting stuff here! I've been in law enforcement in Los Angeles County for the past 23 years. From 1988-1999, I was a Deputy Sheriff with the LA County Sheriff's Department and worked in a number of assignments, primarily field operations (aka patrol). In 1999, I finally got tired of the shift work, rotating days off, missing holidays, etc and took a lateral transfer to the LA County District Attorney's Bureau of Investigation. Still get to do police work, but the stress level is way down, plus I have holidays and most weekends off, don't wear a uniform, etc. It's a good gig.
Since 1986, I've been in the Reserve component of some branch of the US military. 1986-1992, Army Nat'l Guard; 92-98, Inactive Reserve; 2001-Present, US Coast Guard Reserve (which got me a free trip to Kuwait/Iraq in '03). Done lots of travel with the USCG. Have to say Chicago and NOLA are tied for first for my favorite TAD assignment.
Between February and July, most of my spare time is taken up with my son's baseball league. Assisting w/ coaching, running the scorebaords during games, etc
And there you have it.
Nice thread!
I'm in the military. Up to date 23 years behind and enough ahead. Back then i graduated from the college, did my conscription year and was about to go to university to study history. However, my girlfriend back then (nowadays my wife) had just started at the university i thought i better go to work for few years. Just not to put us too tight on money.
I worked few years doing this and that, but after few years i joined the army. I do not know why. My father and grandfather both have been working as regulars and i always thought it is not a place for me.
I served about 10 years in Jaeger regiments, Started as a coastal jaeger but after few years i went into transports. Mostly with trucks/afv's/apc's and various vehicle based weapon systems. At those times i also got qualified as vehicle technician.
After about 10 years i got a transfer from army to navy. I was a staff sergeant back then. Got into naval academy and qualified as a watch keeping engineer. Ever since i've been working on a navy ships, mostly with engine/technical teams and some with weapon systems & rescue teams as well. Our ranking system is a bit different but i think mine equals NCO/Chief Warrant Officer.
I've been three times on foreign deployment. Hope i will never have to go again.
I still do not know what i will do when i grow up.
First off let me thank those that served in the US Miltary! I started working at 13 in an auto body shop, prepping cars for paint and cleaning up. The owner became quite the mentor to me taking me fishing, hunting, and woods bumming. Great guy. I have washed dishes, dug ditches and worked retail. I was USN AD for 5 years (96-01) with the Seabees. Went all over the world doing construction. Great bunch of guys (bunch of rabble outlaws, but they are my kind of people!). Did 6 years in the Air Force Res. (3 of which were active stateside) pushing gear and goodies for the GWOT. I have run CNC waterjet and plasma equipment. I have operated heavy equipment/dumptrucks. Right now I work for my rich uncle.....
My work life began when I was a young teenager and a lot of it overlaps. I did farm hand work for local farmers. Bucking hay, driving fence post, etc. This was seasonal work so I filled in the gaps doing Scrimshaw for my dads knife customers. That quickly turned in to a job with a decent repeat customer base. I pretty much worked my way through college with my scrimshaw work. I also had a few other jobs back then. I was a photographer for Sears in Cape Girardeau, Mo. I worked in a factory in Desloge, Mo that reconditioned and sharpened drill bits. It was about this time that I transitioned from scrimshaw to metal engraving. I graduated with my BA and started teaching in a small K-12 school while working on my graduate degree in the evenings and summer. I spent three years there and then moved to a larger school and taught High School art classes. After three years there I decided I hated politics and bureaucracy in the work place and quit. I started engraving full time for a living. I figured I would either sink or swim but had to give it a shot. That first year I almost doubled my previous teaching salary. It has turned out to be a good move. I get up most mornings looking forward to getting to work.
Ray
When I was a youngin my Pa always used to say God helps those who help themselves and I took that advice to heart and devoted my life to helping myself to others things. At first mostly smash and grab things then I traveled to Colombia and graduated from the school of a thousand bells as an expert pick-pocket which I did for several years and then worked with a crew doing residential burglaries and home invasions until we got caught by some crazed homeowner who had fully automatic weapons stashed in every room of his house and he got the drop on us. Then a few years in State Prison and after that and being well educated by the experts there I spent most of the time just traveling the country robbing banks. I made a pretty good living and retired years ago and am just enjoying the good life now.