Tell me about your job

[rong]

inspired by the do what you love thread and one of my favorite books Gig: Americans talk about their jobs

Tell me what you do for a living.  What do you like about it?  What do you not like about it?

I am an industrial electrician at an OSB mill.  I really like the troubleshooting and hands on element - I enjoy working with tools and solving problems.  I do some PLC programming and that - believe it or not - allows for some creativity.  It's really neat to see some equipment you installed come to life.  I recently installed some equipment and wrote a program to monitor and control our peak electrical demand and it has been saving us $50k+ per year.

I have a lot of freedom in my daily schedule - as long as I get my work list done and answer calls, I am meeting my job requirements.  So, when everything is running smoothly, I have a lot of free time.  We have a decent machine shop here and I have been learning how to weld and do metal fabrication.

The cons are that most people in the mill are not educated beyond highschool and most conversations with coworkers all revolve around a)people that I don't know b)hunting and/or fishing.

Another con is that most places in the mill are very loud, dirty, and hot.  Also, if it's 25 below outside and that level senor on top of the dry fuel silo fails (again  ), I have to go up there and fix it.  Luckily that doesn't happen too often.  There are multitudes of ways to die a horrible death here, but jobs that cannot be done safely do not have to be done.

The key to survival at this place is to realize that if management wants your opinion, they will give it to you.  If you can cope with that, then this is a great place to work.

[Cain]

I write articles about the Middle East, East China Sea and terrorism for a small but somewhat influential geopolitical forecasting group for money.

When they have money, that is.  They have fairly reasonable expectations and give decent deadlines, but they're not what you'd call a reliable source of income.

I'm hoping to get a second stream of income by playing video games and putting the results up on Youtube.  This is not easy, though if I can get around 500 views per video, I would be making enough money to cover my basics (rent), if I have done the sums right.  It's a bit of a crapshoot though, as it's a saturated market, Youtube don't make it easy for you, I'm not popular enough for a partnership yet and I'm not playing brand new or top tier popularity games.

On the plus side, both these jobs allow me to work from home and mostly on schedules I like.  I have all the necessary tools, so there are no costly overheads or similar.

[Left]

I babysit buildings.
ATM I work in an organ and tissue donation facility.
They do tissue recovery onsite; when training newbies I have learned to warn them there are dead people in the building up front.  Sometimes they won't stay because of this.
...Yes, there are stories of Weird Stuff. 
One of them: I'm told there have been several people reporting the sound of high heels clacking around in the back hallway, behind the med suite-a sound not attached to any visible pair of high heels. 
*Shrug* What do I know? I haven't heard them.
It's boring.  The only really scary part is when management changes what they want me to do without telling me, leaving me to trip over a rule.
 
...Despite my fears of getting fired; I honestly think I could handle a less boring assignment; but I want more money to deal with less boring.

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

Umm I just push buttons on a cash register. So excite.

[Left]

Umm I just push buttons on a cash register. So excite.

No entertainment value from the customers?   

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

Umm I just push buttons on a cash register. So excite.

No entertainment value from the customers?   

Eh they're fine. College students. Never jerks like real world customers.

[ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞]

I recently quit a job where I was a tech support supervisor for a leading computer company. I took calls that the front line techies couldn't handle and was a liaison between customers and the engineering team.

There was no end to the entertainment, and a lot of pleasure in troubleshooting complex software/hardware issues. But even after getting a raise, I wasn't making enough. Related: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/george-lucas-eric-schmidt-steve-jobs-go-jail.html

[Trivial]

I work for a fortune 500 company making sure clients' servers work and configure new ones to spec.  The way the company is going though, I don't know if it's going  to survive the next 2 years intact.  They hire and fire in bulk.  Quality of employee is a crap shoot and therefore we have such retarded policies made to babysit everything we do.  One request from a client requires so much paperwork before the work is ever done.  I'd have to say there's almost a 3:1 documentation to work ratio.  The accounts I am on are only seated in the US because it'd be illegal to have their data\employees overseas.  There are some accounts have moved over that I question as to why they can be located overseas.  It wouldn't worry me if the folks overseas were qualified, but they sometimes are right out of high school. 

[Trivial]

oh likes: Used to like troubleshooting, but now it's a pain.  Used to like a lot of the people there, but most have moved on
dislikes: 9 levels of management, disconnect between people that create policy and the people that implement it, the fact that they don't grant significant raises unless you state you're going to leave,  being on call... I could go on

Haven't found a new job yet, but I'm looking, along with everyone I know there, and I'll stab anyone that says "why don't you just quit," because fuck you I need money damnit.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'm a student. On some theoretical level I'm also a beadmaker, but honestly I haven't made beads for six months and I don't give a fuck.

So I study stuff and think and try to come up with ideas that will make for interesting research, and I write essays and shit.

[Ben Shapiro]

I charge people to watch me jack off to 4chan.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

I work in the video game Doom.  5000 gallon tanks of acid, radiation, and live steam...and kilns running at 1500C.  I am surrounded by crazy people.  I am unsure why I am still alive.  I run the maintenance department.  I sit at my desk and dream of big-ass asteroids slamming into the Earth.

[StandBackJack]

I work for The Man. 

Yeah, That man right over there.

Is he watching?

[East Coast Hustle]

Oh, me? What do I do?

I fucking FEED you filthy swine. And most of you goddamned ratfuck bastards can't even get that right. That single most (or second most, for some folks) basic biological drive. You fuckers do things in public that you would NEVER try at home. Say shit to your server that you would NEVER say to your wife.

Or maybe you would.

Maybe you're THAT kind of guy.

Either way I'd like to go back in time and slap the tits right off of your mom so you starve to death before you grow up to be one of those assholes who goes to a restaurant and then asks for something that's not even on the menu. Or sits there at the bar drinking one of our delicious Irish-style red ales and munching on some breaded and fried chicken wings and asks if we can make a gluten-free calzone. Or waits until after EVERYONE is finished with EVERYTHING to ask the server to split the bill into separate checks for a party of 12. Or makes a reservation on a busy night and shows up 20 minutes late. Or otherwise just generally does not know how to behave and/or how not to be a complete shitneck pain in everyone's balls when they go out to eat. And for fuck's sake don't be one of those cloaca-huffers who tries to treat the employees like they're your feudal serfs. News flash, asshole: there's at least a 50% chance I make more than you do, and the full-time servers all make more than I do. You're not special because you decided to spend $50 on food and beer just like about half of, oh, FUCKING EVERYONE does once a week or so. Whooptee fuck. Should I come to your house and tell you the fuck what next time I fly on a Boeing jet and my seat isn't all that comfortable? Fuck you. I hope you choke on that burger.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Oh, me? What do I do?

I fucking FEED you filthy swine. And most of you goddamned ratfuck bastards can't even get that right. That single most (or second most, for some folks) basic biological drive. You fuckers do things in public that you would NEVER try at home. Say shit to your server that you would NEVER say to your wife.

Or maybe you would.

Maybe you're THAT kind of guy.

Either way I'd like to go back in time and slap the tits right off of your mom so you starve to death before you grow up to be one of those assholes who goes to a restaurant and then asks for something that's not even on the menu. Or sits there at the bar drinking one of our delicious Irish-style red ales and munching on some breaded and fried chicken wings and asks if we can make a gluten-free calzone. Or waits until after EVERYONE is finished with EVERYTHING to ask the server to split the bill into separate checks for a party of 12. Or makes a reservation on a busy night and shows up 20 minutes late. Or otherwise just generally does not know how to behave and/or how not to be a complete shitneck pain in everyone's balls when they go out to eat. And for fuck's sake don't be one of those cloaca-huffers who tries to treat the employees like they're your feudal serfs. News flash, asshole: there's at least a 50% chance I make more than you do, and the full-time servers all make more than I do. You're not special because you decided to spend $50 on food and beer just like about half of, oh, FUCKING EVERYONE does once a week or so. Whooptee fuck. Should I come to your house and tell you the fuck what next time I fly on a Boeing jet and my seat isn't all that comfortable? Fuck you. I hope you choke on that burger.