Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge What do you do for a living!

Sparked by Deon's thread " we rebuild things " I thought this would be cool. It would be nice to understand the thought processes and motivations that go along with some of these threads, as well as get to know people we may never actually cross paths with.

Add Pics please!

I don't have any handy but I will return!

Clay

I'm a union carpenter. I don't rebuild things, I do it right the first time.

I'll bite

Age 9 - caddy

Age 11 - drove Ford LCG tractors pulling 20' wide gang mowers at the golf course down the road. CT labor laws allowed 11 year olds to drive tractors under the guise of agricultural law. With the exception of the bartender, the course owner had an entire workforce under the age of 17 - kind of a child labor camp if you will. Great job. Loved it. Kind of like Caddy Shack on power equipment. When not on the tractor, I would spend my free time at the single bay Esso garage / gas station next door, pumping gas, washing windshields and doing mechanic's helper work. Pay scale - one soda and one candy bar per day. Another job I miss.

Age 15 - Did some roofing and painting for a while, then scored a job as a caretaker on rural estate for some folks who owned a hotel chain. They were gone most of the time, darn it!

Age 18 - Apprentice toolmaker. Enjoyed that. Got to use traditional non-automated machine tools.

Age 20 - Tractor trailer driver. Also liked that - the sound of the turbo and intercooler in harmony with the sound of the torque & horsepower doing their thing on a long grade - uh huh.
My brother and I were 3rd generation truckers, succeeding my Father. We bought him out at over 3 times the value of the company by funding in full his & our Mom's retirement years. Not complaining, just don't like people to assume I had anything handed to me, not that there's anything wrong with that. I would surmise in the abstract that a small family owned trucking business is somewhat similar to a small family owned dairy farm, in that it's a 24/7 operation, only our cows were made of metal. We hauled around 5,000 shipments per year, primarily petroleum and dry bulk limestone, with flat bed work to fill in for the seasonal petroleum traffic. I drove for 15 years, then did managerial work and every thing else that goes on in a small business, for 15 years. In November of 07, our insurance renewal came in at double the price of the previous year. That was the straw that broke the Camel's back, and we decided at around 30 years each, we'd had enough of other people's hands in our pockets. Brother is selling petroleum and electricity, and I work as an estate caretaker for a guy who was a key player on Wall Street. He has been in the news now & then about that, but I won't reveal who it is, out of respect & loyalty to the job and my employer. I love the job. I'm outdoors now all day long. The pay isn't as good, but there is close to zero stress as compared to riding herd on 80,000 lb truckload quantities of gasoline and fuel oil at 9,000 & 7,500 US gallons per load.

I have my feelers out for other work that may pay better and especially offer health insurance, but so far no luck. I have no degree, for at age 18, I already knew all there was to be known. When people with graduate degrees are applying for minimum wage jobs, things get a little askew in the job market for those of us without a sheepskin.

Still - I'm thankful & grateful for what I have,
(although my knees and joints would beg to differ.)

I'm BATMAN...



During the day, I teach computer programming, Web Design, and Business law (maybe that's where I get some of my cynisism in law... )

Technically I'm a "residential care officer" for a state government department... realistically I look after people who tend to dribble more than they talk. The majority of my work time is spent drinking coffee, sitting in a recliner, watching tv, and getting over-paid. The rest of my time is usually spent either doing things for people that we'd really rather they did for themselves, or trying to stop my clients hurting or killing themselves, other clients, members of the public, or me.

Hmm ok, maybe I'm not over-paid.

For 30 some years I was an engineer. I designed the worlds best (at the time anyway) streaming tape drive for Kennedy Co, the first programmable ISDN monitor/simulator and (as far as I know) the only pure software Bit Error Rate tester and the first ISDN simulator capable of running 64 logical links for Tekelec.
Before I retired from Sempra Energy, I developed a fully automated system that monitored the state of some 3 dozen communication systems and restarted them if needed. If the link to one was down, it would automatically page the person on duty. When the old com system was replaced, I developed a new one that monitored ping time to the new com systems.

Now, I'm retired from all that and I sell tools at Lowes.

In the far past, I mowed lawn and pulled weeds for movie money. When I was 11, I sorted eggs during summer vacation.
At 12, I became a berry picker.
At 13, I also drove a Ford 9N tractor pulling an incredibly dangerous hay bailer. Someone once tossed in a pitchfork of hay at the wrong time and the bailer tossed the fork halfway across the field.
I worked in a TV shop after school, then an auto shop.
In the army, I was a truck mechanic.
The summer after I got out, I drove a log truck.
I went through several short term jobs at small companies that would work a single contract, then chuck everyone until they got another contract. I did sheet metal work, machine work and a few other things.
Went to work at an adding machine company adjusting and repairing machines, then transfered to the machine shop inspecting parts and helping setup punch presses.

I've always been involved in the creative industry. I started as Graphic Designer then web designer, art director which took me in the path of my current passion... 3d animation. I've done work for TV, Film, Games I've written articles, tutorials and 1 book. I'm currently Lead 3D Animator helping the pharmaceutical industry explain diseases and how their drugs help treating them.

Like some of the others around here, I've been paid to do a lot of different things. Started out in gas stations and body shops as a kid, then worked at couple of factory jobs as an line assembler. Always did wood working and carpentry part time on the weekends and summers. Buonced around between one crummy job after another, until going into carpentry full time for a few years with my Uncle. Worked at a local Decal company, heard about Government school loans for College, worked my way to pay the rest of a 5 year degree, BA and Education certificate earned. Substiutued for 4 years, couldn't get a full time job close to here, back to the factory! Back into factory work, including a stint building bomb components and tank shells, finally landed a job as a full time high school instructor for one year, then got bumped out of my position by a returning National Guard guy.(I give up!) Went to full time carpentry with my own company 7 years ago, where we build and fix anything that has to do with a structure, including some light electrical and plumbing work. I know a lot about lots of stuff, and am an expert in nothing! Hobbies include fine woodworking, antique cars and motorcycles and hanging around with old guys, like around here. And finally, I design elevators in my spare time.

Hey Beans!

The search feature is a wonderous thing!

From the top? All Jobs? Really? I've been working since elementary school, so in rough chronological order (and only jobs that lasted more than a few days)...

Paper route (3 different papers)
Floor sweeper at a construction site
Fast Food drone (McDonald's mostly)
Residence Hall Desk Clerk (MSU)
Pizza delivery (Domino's in Helena & Denver)
Message Handler at US West (temp)
Nighttime Operator
Filing Clerk
Assistant Manager of Accounting for a temp agency
Network infrastructure and phone system maintenance (USDA)
Gas station clerk
Nighttime Docutech operator (Kinko's)
Graphic Designer (degree, and for 3 companies)
Web Designer/Developer (self-taught)
Fledgling Business Analyst (current)

In my career (since college) I'm probably one of the few people who started out in a creative field and migrated to a non-creative one. By and large it's by choice, but there's a bit of a "selling out" (keeping the benefits/401k/Pension/fat salary) element to it. But I still get to be creative in my free time.

Mostly heavy construction; including form carpenter, pile driver, crane/drill rig operator, welder.

Quote:

---

I'm a union carpenter. I don't rebuild things, I do it right the first time.

---

St. Louis is a union stronghold. Last time I worked there it was for a non-union company. We had exclusive equipment that none of the union operators had ever seen before, let alone run. Had to whip up a deal to finish the job there, so we hired a union crew to watch us, and we had to take token membership in several of the locals there. Luck of the draw that I was assigned to the laborers union.

I wish the unions were a bit stronger in the south though, work is getting scarce here and wages are creeping downward thanks to the influx of cheap labor.


PS: Construction types make the best bikers.

Owner of an orthopedic footwear and comfort shoe store. Yep, we actually measure feet, do a foot and gait analysis then custom fit customers. Get that at your local dept. store?

first , I delivered pizza
then I was a draftsman.
got tired of sittin at a desk so out to work with my hand.
close to 20 years ago now I was a car phone/ two way installer.when you actually had to install a car phone.
since 91 I have been a union electrician.

I'm a Manufacturing Engineer, which translates into layman as overglorified mechanic, purchaser, and paperwork aficianado!

But, as in my other post, right now, I'm working for a division of FAG Bearings (go ahead, I've heard them all!!!), a German bearing plant based in Schweinfurt, Germany. What is EXTREMELY IRONIC and humorous about this, is that Barden (my division) in Danbury got their start by reworking normal bearings to be precise enough for use in the guidance and stabilizing mechanisms in the Norden Bombsight. Without these bearings, the Norden would have been an overengineered magnifying glass and telescope. For those of you who are not history buffs, what makes this ironic, is that FAG is one of the oldest and well-known of the Bearing companies, and was a KEY supplier in bearings for the NAZI war machine. Everything from Messerschmidt Bf109's, to PAK 88 Anti-aircraft/tank cannons, to trains to Tiger I and II, to U-boats and V1 and V2 Rockets had FAG bearings in it. Any of you old Hogans heros fans will probably remember that practically every air raid that Hogan was helping was targeting the Ball Bearing plant in Schweinfurt. Well, that Ball Bearing plant was FAG-Kugelfischer. In our lobby, we have an old Norden in a glass case, and so whenever visitors from Germany come to visit us, the first thing that they see is the Bombsight used on B-17, B-24's, etc... that were used to try and wipe our parent company right off of the map.


Funny, the animosity is still there too....

Well, anyhooooo, my specific project is a precision ball bearing line that is making bearings for CAT, Toyota Truck (HINO), and soon, maybe Ford F250 and F350 trucks with turbo-diesels. Just as is popular in racing, engine makers have seen that ball bearings make a WORLD of difference in turbo performance and durability, and so we are leading a project with one of the biggest turbo manufacturers in the world to get all turbodiesels switched over to meet new emissions standards and fuel efficiency as well. Obviously, the project hasn't been a trumpeting success because of the belly-up nature of the auto industry right now, and because some customers are just slow in adopting the new technology, but it is the trend you will see across the board in the next couple years (Europe is going full-bore to this concept being made by our sister plant in Plymouth England). SO, as usual, that's me job in a nutshell, delivered in a short, succinct fashion...


And of course, there is still my second job, which is, come ****** or highwater, moving to CO, but that's another sad story...

Paramedic for the last 10 years. Don't ask me why because I could go on for ages about it but it beats doing a "normal" job.

Other than that I joined the army at 16 straight from school and did 15 years.

The worst bit was leaving the army and having a 3 month period where I was bored stupid so I did some agency work - in a pork factory, seed storage depot, an industrial laundry and warehouse.

I can certainly say those jobs were an eye opener to civilian life after not really knowing what it was like to work in "civvy street".

I was always wondering why they never polished their shoes.

I drive a forklift in a lumber yard, stacking sticks. Not a union job, but the company I work for treats me good. When the economy picks up I'm planning to get indoors into sales, then into retirement. My unpaid job, as a ham radio operator, is to back up the city communications when the s*** hits the fan, like during the snow and ice last winter. I've worked as a dump truck driver, operator, electronic tech, pool table installer, drywaller, and some others. My real passion is golf though, if I could make a living at that it'd be one sweet life.

Current occupation is looking for a job, and playing in my part time band...

Spent 20 years with Sony Electronics selling to Broadcast Television Stations, Networks, and Recording Studios.

Dying here... Bored to death and need to get back into the thick of things!

In order :

Agronomist
Formulations Chemist
Lineman
Tree Surgeon/Arborist
Dump Truck Driver/Owner
Tanning Salon Owner
Back In the Truck , Doggonnit

Kindofa wierd mix , but it's OK , I suppose . Being yer own boss is great and sucky sometimes .

Sure, what the heck:
Dad's TV repair shop-10 (1957)
Car wash @14, by hand(rusty '59 cadillacs the worst!)
Food Fair cashier-HS
DuPont Xray film plant- operator
US Navy Electrician A school
NSA DaNang RVN -shore duty- Hit with mortar-'68 Tet offensive- PH
Tripler Army Hosp. Oahu, St Albans Hospital, Queens NY-surgeries
USS Sunbird, Submarine rescue ship, Groton, Conn. EM-2
Res. and Comm Additions /remodeling-4 years
General Electric Co. Industrial Field Engineering, later Sales and Marketing-10 years
Owner-Superior Electric Motor Repair-Rewinding, machining 6years
General Superintendent, Maintenance and Operations, MCUA-450 MGD county wastewater treatment plant-22 years- 95 men in my group.
Retiring in August, Lord willin'.

FWIW- No union guy, but as a boss over the years I found that if you want construction done right, get the union boys on the job, pay 'um, and forgaddaboutit.

Hmmm. Lessee..
Did the paper route, cut grass, raked leaves, shoveled snow thing as a yute. Worked on a farm for a while. Manual labor. Worked at a chain of drive-ins during my teens. Got to wear those stylish white w/red lettering cotton coveralls and knock on fogged up windows asking for change for some charity. You have any idea how hard it is to run in 50 lb. coveralls? In the dark? Wearing white, thinking you can escape?
Worked in a few gas stations.
Drove a truck delivering ice and Co2 to bars and sports venues. Had a sidekick who was like one of Sandmann's clients. I bought him lunch everyday and taught him how to have a sense of humor and wipe his mouth off every so often. Thus, he didn't kill me. Whooee, was that dude strong!!
Ran the stockroom for an SS Kresge store. Cleaned up at a drycleaners. Waxed floors overnight in a Sears store. (Did those 3 at the same time for about nine months - til I slept through an entire weekend and realized I was a bit over-extended.
Joined the USAF (Res) and became an Aircraft Maintence Technician (grease monkey). They made me head grease monkey and I got SSGT stripes before telling them to shove it. SSGT was unheard of for a 1 tour reservist in those days.
The SS Kresge store filled my job while I was away for basic and training in Texas, so when I came back, they found me the same job (running the stockroom) in a different store in a "less desireable" area. I worked there for 2 years till a manager and accountant from a different store were stabbed and robbed in broad daylight in the middle of the shopping center. Enough for me to leave.
Got a job at a Cat dealership as a clerk in the heavy equipment shop. Worked through many different positions and titles till they "gave" me the job of shop foreman in second shift. Nobody else wants this job, so I've been doing it ever since. 35 years at dealership - 26 formanizing on night shift.

At 13 i was a child slave for my dad, cleaning up around a transmission shop. At 15 i was busing tables at PoFolks and slinging pizza for Pizza Hut, then Shakeys Pizza. At 16 i was a school bus maintenance mechanic. At 17 i started wrenching in a transmission shop, then in a general repair garage. At 18 i drove a tractor trailer for about six months, then it was full time in a transmission shop and a bit of moonlighting as a wrecker driver. Dabbled in management and sales, but quickly decided i was not a people person, so stuck with wrenching. I've been rebuilding transmissions full time for around twenty years. It pays the bills, but i'm totally bored with it, so now i'm also remanufacturing transmission valve bodies as a side venture.

Deon man, DRIVE IN'S !!!!! Holy Crap! A whole thread.....let's hear it....

didn't realize this was a life history so:
detassled corn, loaded chicken for the final ride, and other farm stuff from 79-82
Western IL Univ 82-83, Edison College, Ft. Myers, FL 84
US Navy-Great Lakes, Nuke Power School 85-86, Sub School and USS Augusta (SSN-710) as a Machinist Mate Aux from 87-91
Mercedes/VW/Audi/Alfa Romeo mechanic in Naples FL 91
back to Western IL to finish school 92-94
Manufacturing Engineer, Development Engineer at BOSCH in Anderson SC from 95-2006 (mostly stuff related to Antilock Brake and Traction Control Systems)

Barden/FAG Bearings, Danbury, CT 2006 to whenever the heck I move outta here....

Well starting at age 8

Lawn Mower(all lawns should be astroturf)
Burger Flipper (I still can't eat at Hardee's)
Field Hand(bucking bales/wielding a corn knife at weeds/cleanup after every kind of farm animal)
Linear Accelerator Technician (glorified pipe fitter, sound cool but wasn't)
Research Assistant (did anything the grad students required)
Instrumentation Engineer(10yrs of testing business/military jets...best job I ever had)
Aircraft Engineer/Manager(Electronic Controls for Aircraft)

SOAP BOX MOMENT: To the Idiots in congress and the Corporations with out any real business sense --- by maligning Biz Jets you have cost tens of thousands of people their jobs in an industry that still makes something in the USA and is the best in the world at it. Seems to me if you want to make an export an import just keep it up. Aircraft are a huge part, and I do mean huge, of the US's exports and isn't producing something tangible that generates real money to pump in to the economy a good thing?

OK I am done, just tired of seeing lawyers in congress, screw up business and then harp on how we keep shipping jobs overseas.

paper boy .market boy friut & veg stall (at 13 years) ( before school and after )

fitter welder apprenticeship (at 16 years) (at end fed up with welding )So changed to a

cabinet maker fitter (at 22 years) ( cleaner than welding )

Always wanted own business So brought fruit and veg market stall and became a full time barrow boy (at 37 years till now 52 years )

So its "3 pound for a £1 bana" and "get your lovely gums around my juicy plums darling".

Hmmmmm, nobody has said "I just graduated from high school and figuring out what to do when I grow up." Instead it's a whole string of interesting occupations, but "still figuring out what to do when I grow up". Gives a body like me hope, must be a common bond for the verticle twin brand

So, I worked on farm crews baling hay for a few summers. After school landed a job in a recreation area park and promptly bought a 76 Bonneville. Spent 3 years there, registering campers, patrolling campgrounds, asking the rowdier campers to pack their bags at 2 am, doing odd & end maintenance stuff. The last year there, some kids rolled by a car I had pulled over and called me a "pig". That struck me as an odd comment, since I rode a motorcycle and had pretty long hair at the time. The badge & gun must have put them off.

Took a LE job with the National Park Service in Canyonlands and patrolled the slickrock backcountry on foot and by 4WD for three seasons. One day the neighboring ranch manager stopped in the visitor center. Being a day off, I pulled up on the British Twin. He wondered "Who's the ****** hippie?"

We became fast friends and a year later he offered me a job cowboying on the outfit. The NPS was a bit too rigid in their thinking for me, so I jumped at the offer. Riding horses all day through the slick rock canyons wasn't exactly like riding a Bonneville through the slickrock canyons, but I managed not to get bucked off too often - it was the best thing I ever did. A lot of what I learned worthwhile, I learned on that place. One day the manager said "You don't want to be a $600/month cowboy the rest of your life".

I kinda knew that already, so I ended up at Utah State University the next 4 years, learning the technical side of cattle and sheep and rangelands what I'd seen from the ground. So I spent 3 summers on top of Cedar Mountain 30 miles outside of Cedar City collecting sheep manure and 3 winters analyzing sheep manure in Logan. Which after it was all said and done, thoroughly qualified me to move to Montana and do whatever it is I've been doing since 1989.

People seem mostly happy, so I'm mostly happy and it pays better than $600 month. Slightly tongue-in-cheek, but then life has always struck me as slightly tongue-in-cheek.

And I get to ride the British twin for work throughout NW Montana during the season .

Now for what I want to do when I grow up . Are there any grown-ups around here riding Triumph Twins??

jh

I'm seeing a trend here of geezers who started working at an early age...

Tain't so anymore

start over here next week.

http://www.rehablv.com/

Its a dirty job but someone has to do it.

Union Wrench, Crane inspector.

Started wrenching for a living while still in high school. Worked at dealerships for a while 'til I got tired of flat-rating.
Joined the Operating Engineers Union and started fixing the stuff that Deon rebuilds .
That worked into the inspection end of the biz. Still wrench most of the time though.

****** could fill a book with my career history

Paper boy
Milk delivery
sales assistant (newsagent)
left school
Trainee accountant
manufacturing jeweller (my favouritejob)
Debt collector
private Investigator
Debt collector
Administrator
Bar work
Back to Jewellery
IT became a geek.

been to college in between a few of these jobs.

Having built many homes here in PA where there was never a building inspector and in the days before OSHA or what ever the letters are!I always tried to do things the right way but I did work for a company at one time building condos. Those were the cheapest built houses I have ever seen. You could literally break into one with a sheet rock knife right through a wall. Stairs fell out from under a guy at one point.(I didn't work on that building) Point is when working for someone else you have to do what they tell you or lose your job. I spent the next 10 years or so building houses for myself. Then short stint in a junkyard, 6 years maybe,last 15 working for myself again in towing and repair. Now I might be working for Wal Mart of all places. Oil chnages and tires and such. Decent pay for the times (I'm just glad that I may have found work) good benefits and vacation. I started out in Jr High school working on a farm and took mechanics in Vo-tech and also at Lehigh University where I also worked in the motor pool there fixing the buses , patrol cars, and vans. Also various cushmans and stuff. Cruisers were fun I used to test drive them lights and siren! Great fun.

Professional lawn mower (11-14), bicycle assembly (15-16), pizza delivery (17-18), like Victor Kiam, I liked it so much, I bought the company . Sold it all in 1980 and took a couple of years off. Sold some Pest Control; new construction pre-treatment (termite) and played golf everyday. Been at USPS since 1985.

Ok...

Starting at about 13
Worked in a video arcade. Making change (lots of quarters), cleaning machines, serving hot dogs etc.

Moved to West Virginia
Mowed grass around oil fields.

Joined the USAF spent 6 years (and 4 more in active reserves) as a flight line and bench Avionics tech (Comm, Nav and Doppler) on C5s, C141s and C130s.

Left the service and went to work for Lanier Worldwide...
Fixed copiers and professional presentation equipment (3 gun projectors, LCD projectors etc.)for a couple of years.
Did tech support for commercial document imaging systems and started writing software utilities for them.

Wrote custom software for the transportation industry (trucking, rail, etc.) and health care. Became the technical manager of the custom software / systems integration group.

Left Lanier in 99..
Now I own half of a small company and I design mostly / write some custom software for life sciences, health care and public health (CDC) I am a sub-contractor to Northrop Grumman public health folks in Atlanta.

OK my life story.
Age 11 sweeping floors in a Civil Engineering company after school
Age 16 Draughtsman for same Engineering Company
After 8 years of night classes - Became a Civil Eng.Tech.& a Land Surveyor
Age 30 Left Civil Eng company and started my own Architectural / Engineering Company
Age 45 joined a building company as a director and took advantage of the building boom in Ireland.
Age 50 still alive

Offset Printing for the last 24 years... mostly the finishing side, binding books.

In early days, i was a stripper... laying film on flats to make plates.

<insert jokes here>

Now i just tell my boss the best way to get things done.