What Did/Do You Do?

[NW Redneck]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

As others have said, what a widely varied cast of characters we have here! And with all that diversity, all with a common love of boating. For me boating and the ocean were always in my blood, being born/raised and still living in a small town (technically it's a small city) on the southern coast of BC where every other driveway has a boat of some description in it. Fresh seafood/trout is just a given here! As far as job history it goes sort of like this:

Bottle return depot
'Rink rat' (roller/ice skating) and other events at local Rec Complex
Sawmill worker, loader/forklift operator
Commercial prawn fishing deckhand
Divemaster/SCUBA instructor/equipment tech
Part owner of Dive store
Various commercial diving jobs
Fish farm worker/diver
Got bent after losing my weight belt on a farm dive so re-trained as a gasfitter
HVAC installer/service tech/tin basher

Today: Still doing HVAC and starting a refrigeration apprenticeship.

This is a great thread! Still lots more members out there so post up!

 

[WIMUSKY]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

I searched myself, so I don't think I replied to this thread.............

The main ones.
Then: IT Operations Manager
Now: Mow lawns and plow snow........

Moved out of the big city to the woods......

 

[greenbush future]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Information Technologies Head hunter, provide IT consultants to all fortune 500 companies across the USA. I love putting the US back to work!!

 

[12vMan]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Lets see, Part time job at 15 cleaning up construction jobsites
Gas station at 17
18 - warehouse order puller for a telecommunications co
20 - promoted into inventory control, first analyst then planner
23 - moved up to northern Ca for a job that didn't pan out so got a job at a rental yard
23 - Hired on by U-Haul as an area field rep for SF Bay area to the Oregon Border
25 - Moved back to So CA and worked as receiver, stevedore, for a wholesale lumber & milling Co.
27 - Followed my Dad's footsteps and tried insurance at Prudential for a year
28 - Followed one of my hobbies and built custom cabinets and have been in the industry for over 25 years now, mostly remodeling kitchens and bathrooms on the in-house construction end, to providing and installing cabinets and counter tops to small contractors as well as developers of single and multi-family housing developments.

Boating has been in my blood since I can remember and I still enjoy each time on the water like it was my first. Many times I've wished I could have had 2 parallel careers

 

[ezbtr]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Maritime IT at the port, fix ship crane systems, and all other equip that sea containers go through

 

[lncoop]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Maritime IT at the port, fix ship crane systems, and all other equip that sea containers go through

Very cool ez.

 

[salty87]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

used to be a licensed stock broker. moved into financial operations management with a few national firms. got laid off before the housing market went belly up.

now i publish home improvement magazines....ever heard of TheHomeMag? this line of work is so much better than what i was doing before. thank you housing market fiasco and general market crash! lol

 

[aspeck]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Information Technologies Head hunter

What type of a license do you need to hunt heads and what is the season? :facepalm:

 

[hog88]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Born into Dairy Farming, college, Army and for the last 17 years worked in environmental remediation.

When I grow up, my dream would be to own a marina on some mountain (vacation) lake.

 

[Slide]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

I graduated from Purdue with my degree in aerospace engineering and now work as a repair engineer for GE Aviation. If you've been on a commercial airplane, I've been through the guts of that engine. Very interesting stuff - you would be amazed at the magnitude of some of the repairs we do (but when it comes to doing an extreme repair or scrapping a $750k part, you fix the damn part!)

 

[rt_hawley]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

A VERY diversified group but all with a common love of spending time on the water! I worked many different jobs as a teen; everything from washing dishes to packaging plant drone to DJ. The last 29 yrs I've been a Canadian military air force guy. Started as an enlisted guy doing administrative work (still type around 85 wpm - at the the time I never thought THAT would become handy...boy was I wrong!). I took my commission and became an air weapons controller (controlling air to air combat using a radar scope). From there I cross trained to air traffic controller and spent some time in the tower as a VFR guy. On 9/11 I was pegged to become the NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical warfare specialist) officer. I now deal specifically with training deploying troops on a variety of subjects including CBRN, small arms, etc. I also owned a DJ business on the side for years (finally sold it to my nephew). I've got six more years to go for my 35 yrs service and full pension benefits and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm somewhat of an amateur chef and along with a growing list of awesome recipes, I have a higher end Traegar smoker in the back yard that I've been having a lot of fun with. I'm seriously considering opening a food truck/trailer when I retire just to keep me occupied.

 

[korygrandy]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Wow, 30yrs old and I've already had quite a few jobs. Being the natural "analyzer' that I am, and knowing I've been in the workforce since I was about 15, I've had roughly a job for every year in the workforce. Before I started working I would have never guessed this is how it would turn out.

Newspaper Boy, Popcorn boy, cart boy, medical debt collector (tough to collect debt for medical bills I didnt last long), Grain Technician (probed farmers grains for quality and sent them on to get barge-loaded), Die Press Operator, Car Audio Technician, Network Analyst/engineer, USAF (more LAN work), Framing Carpenter, Framing Lead Carpenter, Residential / Commercial glass installer, Window Installer, Owned my own window repairal business, Quality Specialist, Quality Analyst, Software Quality Assurance.

I've carved out a nice niche in my career with the software quality control. I find a lot of software defects prior to public release, as well as refine and create internal and external software development processes. I think I've finally found a career where I can jump industries and it won't hurt me one bit. I just went from non-standard car insurance industry, to digital online marketing...so yeah...lots of diversity over here.

Verry intereresting to see what keeps everyone's motors runnin!

 

[MTYPockets]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

After high school I played roller derby in the S.F. Bay Area while in college learning water and waste water treatment. After all that college I got a job running a small mutual water company in northern Calif. I change jobs for the big bucks and went to manage a county water district. Loved the job, hated the politics of the job. Should have stay with the small company. Went to the fire academy and became a fire fighter. Spent 14 years doing that and in my spare time started driving trucks. First for a fellow fire fighter that owned a trucking company, then bought my own. In '86 got hurt and was disabled out of fire service and started a trucking company that I had till 2001. Sold it and retired to Arkansas. Now do what I want when I want ....as long as she let's me!!

 

[ezbtr]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Very cool ez.

yeah I like it (usually), outdoors lots, latest tech, decent Levis, boots and casual shirt and I don't get bored or stuck inside in an office cube(yuk!) . They for the most part, treat me right, almost 5 years now. i did all the data center stuff, boring as hell - no more crazy travel all over US and Canada helps too.

 

[DaleT]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

Currently earning my keep as National Lab Manager for an ever expanding health and safety firm based in Chesterfield, MI. With seven US offices and 2 Canadian I'll be working my way across North America for the next few years. We sell, rent and repair all manner of equipment including confined space monitors, water quality instrumentation, fall protection devices, engineered gas monitoring systems and the SCBA all you firefighters wear (both Industrial and NFPA). I started there 10 years ago in the shipping department and worked through the ranks learning every job I could, which helped to land the job at a younger age than any of my predecessors.

Prior to this firm, I spent time doing pool maintenance, running a small full serve gas station and inspecting fleet vehicles for General Motors executives.

 

[TruckDrivingFool]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

The diversity that is bound by boating never surprises me since at one time no matter what you you've been a rookie trying to trailer/slip/dock a boat. So here's my story even though my ID gives the ending away.

Fast food and janitorial in high school on to mechanic in my step-dads shop after graduation. Flood of 93' killed business so I started driving for a courier company. Worked my way into straight trucks switched to delivering batteries. Worked my way into tractor trailers went to a company that was basically rent-a-driver. Really loved that job but hated management and missed being home. Switch to hauling groceries for a convenience store in 99 and still at it today. Keep telling my boss I'm just waiting for him to retire so I can have his job sitting around all day listening to drivers whine.

 

[yjanray]

Re: What Did/Do You Do?

I've been doing environmental consulting for the past 5 years. That includes soil and groundwater investigations and environmental site assessments for commercial real estate transactions. Also, I do asbestos and lead survey's, mold investigations, and general indoor air quality survey's. Its pretty boring actually!!! i just want to boat all the time for a job, or build boats. I had so much fun restoring my old boat....