What does everyone do for work?

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What does everyone do for work?

Post by Specially Cork »

Just wondering this.

You may remember I moved to China to teach English. I ended up there for 10 years. I came back and started teaching online but gave up after the money was too inconsistent.

I now work for a software company about 20 minutes walk from my house in a dual role as the head of training, and also as a business analyst for one of our development teams. Genuinely a dream role where I spend half of time managing my own calendar and using my previous teaching skills and understanding of a software product to explain shit to people globally, and then the other half defining and prioritising future updates and improvements. Learning a shit done of stuff and I think software and IT is where I belong really. Also have access to a massive database and managed to teach myself SQL on the fly which is pretty cool.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by |darc| »

A few years back I was working from home and doing remote tech support, but the work environment -- even though it was virtual -- became toxic, so I left. A year later everyone got laid off and their positions outsourced so...

I spent 3 years working for my father's company (air conditioning installation and repair and some handyman/home renovation work too). Doing physical labor has its pros and cons, it was nice having the contrast of exercise after being behind a desk 24/7 before. But ultimately it's not work that stimulates me mentally, so I knew I wouldn't want to be there very long, and I developed a minor hiatal hernia that made certain aspects of that type of job difficult.

My girlfriend has a career where she works very long hours, and we'd infrequently see each other under that arrangement, so she encouraged me to quit and do freelance IT work so I can set my own schedule. I have a few clients I support, but I don't know if I really want to build a business long term from this. It's mostly extra income for me, as her job pays well enough to cover the bills, and I am pretty much a "househusband" doing all of the chores since she works long hours. I also sometimes get a hold of broken electronics for cheap, fix them up, and resell too. Basically lots of odd jobs.

In the mean time I'm thinking of taking some online courses in programming so I can find a path to a career for myself.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

I did a mix of IT and random jobs (restaurants, warehouses, convenience stores, etc) til around 2015. Near the end, I managed to hit some "oil" in terms of IT work. The money was great, but the workload was intense. I usually drove 150 miles a day - many times 200 miles+.
All that got me burned out and sick of IT, so I decided to leave it for toolmaking. That went well. Machining is fun and the skillset you absorb from proper toolmaking is incredibly versatile in application, but most machine shop jobs beat the ever-loving shit out of you physically for mediocre pay while you're learning it.
5 years later and now I'm looking to getting back into IT again on a more serious note.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by S. Thompson »

Software development, but not the fun kind - lately, it's web applications and business-oriented stuff. I've had the chance to develop a few "games" for trade shows and such, but they were pretty basic affairs.

I make a small amount of money off my music as well; ideally, I'd like to make more off of that and move away from the 9-5 type role. It's probably one of the most competitive industries out there today though in terms of actually making a living from it. It's also horribly fickle and superficial, so I should probably just try to keep it as a side-thing - otherwise, I'm likely to hate it.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by BlueCrab »

For the past few years, I've been teaching at the university I'm attending while I finish up with my Ph.D. in Computer Science, specifically I've been teaching the required upper-level CS undergraduate course on Operating Systems.

One of these days I'll finish with my Ph.D. and get a real job, but this arrangement works for now.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

BlueCrab wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:15 pm For the past few years, I've been teaching at the university I'm attending while I finish up with my Ph.D. in Computer Science, specifically I've been teaching the required upper-level CS undergraduate course on Operating Systems.

One of these days I'll finish with my Ph.D. and get a real job, but this arrangement works for now.
Is the PhD life as harsh as it's made out to be or is it all just a matter of being prepared for it?
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by BlueCrab »

Eviltaco64X wrote: Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:33 am
BlueCrab wrote: Mon Feb 10, 2020 5:15 pm For the past few years, I've been teaching at the university I'm attending while I finish up with my Ph.D. in Computer Science, specifically I've been teaching the required upper-level CS undergraduate course on Operating Systems.

One of these days I'll finish with my Ph.D. and get a real job, but this arrangement works for now.
Is the PhD life as harsh as it's made out to be or is it all just a matter of being prepared for it?
A lot of it seems to depend on what kind of adviser/mentor you end up having. I've heard plenty of horror stories from PhD students that end up with advisers that just constantly pile more and more crap on them and never let them complete their own research... And then, I've seen people who skate through with pretty much no resistance and seem to finish in no time at all...
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Eviltaco64X »

BlueCrab wrote: Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:50 am A lot of it seems to depend on what kind of adviser/mentor you end up having. I've heard plenty of horror stories from PhD students that end up with advisers that just constantly pile more and more crap on them and never let them complete their own research... And then, I've seen people who skate through with pretty much no resistance and seem to finish in no time at all...
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by not just souLLy now »

I've been a designer for about 15 years now (yikes), I used to do a broader range of stuff (branding, print, front-end dev etc.) but now I pretty much exclusively do UX/UI design. I still like it, it's varied work, I dig problem-solving, there's always new things to learn, and I've been doing it long enough for the imposter syndrome to have mostly disappeared. I only just started at the agency I am at now a few weeks ago, it seems good so far. It's always good when you're new to a business and you don't know all the petty dramas and politics yet and can just crack on.
Most of my non-working time and energy is spent on my two boys now though (5 years/4 months). The oldest is into videogames in a big way, he's nuts about Minecraft and Mario Odyssey and we let him watch a Lets play channel on Youtube. I've dug tons of my old consoles out of the attic and we're doing some history lessons. It's pretty magical watching him blown away by the same stuff I was.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Jeeba Jabba »

I change diapers and build lego houses.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by pixel »

I work in communications for the local city government, mostly designing PSAs and annual reports. I make popcorn on Fridays.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Wagh »

I work in the pharmaceutical data hosting business. It's very simple stuff but requires an inane amount of paperwork to comply with FDA and Euro regulations.

A few years ago I started working at a lottery hosting company, we ran Texas state lottery and I found had a knack for the ridiculous paperwork requirements and onerous subsection of subsection of a clause cult knowledge that it required and ran with it. They moved me up to management and to Colorado and I got do a few random projects like building a lottery system for the city of Beijing. The culture there wasn't great and I felt like I wasn't getting the money I was worth so I just handed everything to one of my employees and walked out one day.

Moved out to SF Bay and eventually got this job. It has all the hallmarks of the other job, minimal actual computer work with extensive paperwork but with an extremely small team. Not the most rewarding job mentally or what I had hopped for but it's nice to be "good" at something at least.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by ccb_v2 »

I leave for 5 years and come back to this neat post. Noice.... Well I started out as a powdered metal factory worker when college didn't pan out from my frat party DJ'ing addiction... I worked midnights and hated it so I quit going and ended up getting fired. Next I worked at a restaurant / bakery / produce / farm feed store for a bit before joining hte fast paced world of Customer Service as a tech support rep for the local cable ISP. Did that until the CEO was caught stealing company $$ to use for his own rich family and the place went under. I did billing disputes at Level 3 Comm, then appliance parts telesales through AP Wagner / Marcone with telemarketer work between those jobs. I then discovered Work@Home wonderment. Started out as a phone rep for a big greeting card company, then a phone rep who handled escalations and such, and then a team leader (that also does account manager stuff when compared to other programs) and have been here since. :D
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by cube_b3 »

Career Summary

Back when I joined this site the closest thing I had to a profession was journalism. I wrote for the national news paper, while I pursued a degree in psychology. Then somehow I ended up in America, a psychology degree in PK could've been super lucrative, America on the other hand pays crap in contrast. Grad school tuition fees could not be justified as I wouldn't be making enough money to put my kids through that grad school (I later realized America runs on loans and no price is justified by how much you earn, the American life is to just take loans).

Ultimately it wasn't money that made me quit. I enrolled to pursue my license in Chemical Dependency Counseling (LCDC), but unlike Pakistan, American professors/practitioners were more upfront about the reality of addiction and mental health in general. I won't be able to "fix" anyone only help them manage it and there would be a ton of relapse, you just need to have a thick skin and not take it personally. My ego couldn't handle that so I quit.

Enrolled in community college for a quick degree in Digital Media, graduated in 2016 and became a freelance digital marketer while working as a digital photographer full time. In 2019, I was hired as a director of marketing for a local company in San Antonio.

2009 - 2016: Journalist, Copywriter, Digital Marketer - Freelance Contractor
2016 - 2019: Portrait Photographer/Digital Artist
2019 - 2020: Director of Marketing - Local San Antonio chain of optometry clinics.

What's Next
I would love to transition into UI/UX as I have a background in Psychology (any advice would be welcomed) but so far paying the bills through marketing. Specifically medical marketing. Designing websites and managing social media for Dentists, Shrinks and Optometrists.
Last edited by cube_b3 on Sun Oct 04, 2020 12:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Quzar »

Currently I work for Farelogix. It's a software company that provides a few different platforms for airline data services. I work entirely with an internal tool that designs 'rules' in XML to configure/script services offerings, discounts, etc. The position is dev-adjacent, I work under the dev team that works on the engine that processes those rules but my position involves no coding (the job offering was actually for someone with a background in philosophy, as it's primarily building logic trees). The position is almost entirely need-based, consulting with customers/internal groups when they can't get their rules to work correctly, or on if it's possible to do a new feature with our current options (most recently designing rules for automatic social distancing

I took the job because I stumbled upon it at the end of 2018 shortly after I had finished an MA in Religious Studies. I had been offered a few teaching positions (2 in K-12 and one at uni), and got into a philosophy PhD program (but with no funding -_-) but all my thesis advisors agreed that since I had "marketable skills" and my focus was on research I should just find a cushy tech job that would give me time to write (been working on an article, and polishing/expanding my thesis to see if it can become a book).
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by cube_b3 »

What kind of stuff do you write?
I like religion... just can't seem to find the time or motivation to prioritise studying.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by Quzar »

cube_b3 wrote: Wed Jun 17, 2020 2:19 pm What kind of stuff do you write?
I like religion... just can't seem to find the time or motivation to prioritise studying.
My study was primarily in Abrahamic Mysticism (Hekhalot/Merkabah/Kabbalah in Judaism, various Monastic practices in Christianity, and Sufism/Nur Nama traditions in Islam) and Hermenuetics (studies in text and methods for textual interpretation). My thesis was a cross-religion study looking at the usage of Self-Reference in 'sacred texts'. The main thrust of it is that I found self-reference to be something that happens fairly commonly in sacred texts where it's not something found often in other places, and when it appears there is a short list of ways in which it works. https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... cred_Texts

Right now I'm working on an article listing archeological and textual sources that indicate Jewish migration into the Caucasus and Iran. I leveraged Google Maps to plot out points for all the sources and have which led to some interesting insights. Just working now on how to export/report/integrate the google maps with an article easily.
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by dreamCloud »

Between the last time I visited here and today I did just about every job under the sun.

But for the past 5 years I've worked for a video game company in the US and enjoy it quite a bit. Even found a few DreamCast enthusiasts among my colleagues <3
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by BlueCrab »

I guess I could update my earlier post... I'm still working on my PhD, but I also accepted a software engineering position working with a company called Science Systems and Applications, Inc. My position is actually at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, working in the Terrestrial Information Systems group. So far I've been mostly working with back-end web stuff (in Perl), but there's plenty of other stuff that I can work on related to the upkeep of the systems used for maintaining, storing, and processing the huge amount of satellite data that the TIS group is responsible for. This is the first software design/development job I've had since I interned at Microsoft a long time ago, so I've been enjoying it a lot (even if it is a lot different than my research).
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Re: What does everyone do for work?

Post by JastrebJ21 »

Eviltaco64X wrote: Sat Feb 22, 2020 9:33 am Is the PhD life as harsh as it's made out to be or is it all just a matter of being prepared for it?
Based on my wife's experience, it depends on your tutor. She and a friend started their Ph.Ds at the same time, my wife finished 3 years late because she 1) worked full time (her friend worked part time) and 2) had a tutor who had N O T A S I N G L E C L U E about how a thesis is supposed to be written and constantly told her to erase and rewrite entire chapters, including sometimes snippets of her own thesis that she told the wife to include in her research.
The tutor even mixed up the object and subject of research TWICE; the first time, my wife had to explain to the dean of the faculty that she correctly identified the concepts in her first version but was told by the tutor to write it the other way around (go and try to make anyone believe that), and the second time, she messed it up DURING THE THESIS DEFENSE, which, at least, allowed my wife to gain back the trust of the dean, who got the proof that the pants-on-head stupid story he had been told was true.

So, if you get a tutor like that and work full time, the Ph.D life is hell. If you don't, you'll live through it.

But to come back to the main topic of the discussion, I'm an interpreter/translator/negotiator (hint : 2 of these 3 roles weren't in the contract) in an insurance firm, but recently, I ended up doing a presentation for the whole company about this Greek citizenship by investment program. At this point, I just know for whom I'm working, which is enough as the pay is, at least, not half bad.
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