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What do you do?


Stannis Eats No Peaches

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I'm a medical doctor ( or a physician as you US folk call it). Couldn't imagine doing anything else as every day is a little bit of everything from being stressful to being a lot of fun.  I also have a public health degree in Health Policy, which I *hope* I can use for some non-clinical projects later on in my career.

Currently just trying to keep my head above water for the second wave and hoping/ trying to convince people to take covid seriously.

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I drive a light rail passenger train.  I will never get rich doing this but it does place me pretty solidly in the middle class.  I enjoy my job very much.  I feel pretty great about the idea that I was interested in it...pursued it...got it...and actually liked it.  I have had jobs I hated and it really isn't worth the negativity.  I like my job and it pays me a reasonable wage and provides decent benefits.  I think I could do worse.

I may be more suited to a job like this as I have always loved public transit.  I have been riding transit for my entire life and still find it really great that buses and trains roll around town taking people here and there.  Any city I visit I will undoubtedly spend time on their transit system.  When I was a little kid it was like magic or sci-fi or whatever my little brain imagined.  I also like trains though not as much as some I have met.  Trains have a cool anachronistic thing going on.  Buses are cool, too, but are more art deco in vibe.

I also like driving the train itself.  There is a sort of peace that comes with it.  The cab is my personal space for the day and I can leave my problems...whatever they may be...outside and just roll along my tracks.  It's very calming.

Some negatives would be the cab is small in most cars and you don't move your legs much at all.  When I started I had 'leg claustrophobia' where I would feel anxiety about moving my legs.  Particularly in the smallest cars where movement is close to nil.  Those cars are pretty old, though, and are on their way out.  The newer cars have massive cabs.  The job is also solitary as you spend most of your day alone in the cab thinking deep thoughts.  I often miss the more social aspects of jobs I have had in the past.    

4 hours ago, Leap said:

2. Touching on that last point, it's not really an ethical career. Putting aside the air miles I've already used a few years in, we aren't really on track for an automated, just, semi-utopian society. And I don't buy in to the "more jobs will be created" stuff. Some short- and medium-term jobs, yes, but ultimately there is a finite range of human capacity to do tasks. Computers are catching up.

Leap...automation is a direct threat to my job.  I think about it often.  I liked your post because I like the idea of having people...like yourself...in that field who understand there is a human element to automation.   

Also, automation is a really cool field.  The technology and application of such.  It's AI...the machines might kill us but they are still really neat.  It is literally working toward the future.  I hope you find some enjoyment in it.  

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I am newly retired now but I worked as a millwright for almost 40 years. In Ontario, Canada, we have a program that allows someone with 8000 hours of work experience / trade school education/ registered apprenticeship to write an exam for a Millwright licence. I can weld, machine parts, troubleshoot and repair just about any type of industrial equipment. I have never been out of work during all this time through numerous economic downturns. I have worked on automated machinery and robots and I have found that the more stuff is automated, the more need there is for people who can solve the problems that automated machinery succumb to. Engineers are fallible and the tools and machinery they design come with problems that need to be solved before they can work as they are supposed to work. As the person who builds the machines it was my job to point out issues and suggest solutions.

The work can be quite physical at times, dirty at times, and challenging at times but it is rarely boring as every day gives you new stuff to repair and new problems to solve. 

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I have a University degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. It's not something I dreamed of doing and is something I stumbled into.

Nearing the end of high school I had no idea what I'd like to study and I started eliminating what I wouldn't like to study and ultimately reduced the list to architecture, civil engineering and electrical engineering. Funny thing is that all three of those colleges in Belgrade University are in the same building and I like to joke that I picked electrical engineering because it was on the ground floor. Then I thought I'd study Communications and/or Electronics, but later on got ranked for Computer Sciences and just went with it. After graduation, I got the first job I applied for and it was in mobile app development and I stuck with that until today.

I quite like what I'm doing but it's in no way my true calling or whatever. It's interesting and/or fun most of the time, I'm not bad at it and it pays rather well, so I'm not considering changing it any time soon.

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I'm a full-stack software engineer.  Went to school for math and computer science, got my first job as a business analyst, second job as a QA Engineer, and am currently working at my 3rd employer in a fortune 50 company as a lead trying to get a principal engineer role.

As far as what my job entails, it's a little bit of everything when it comes to IT.  I do database administration with SQL, I do CI/CD and process automation with various scripting languages, I write back-end services in Kotlin/Java/Spring/Micronaut, I write front-end code in ReactJs, have dabbled in mobile development with both Android and React Native, and I spend a lot of time reviewing code and coaching.

I absolutely love my job and feel incredibly fortunate that I live in this time where not only is this a highly sought after skill, but now is one where I can work remotely and watch my kids grow up.

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I've done a lot of different things, been really lucky in life.

Retired at 45, now I just focus on my art and writing, and being a solid girl dad [and TA I guess, girls are doing distant learning this year and I get the honor] When the creativity isn't bouncing I research things I'm interested in. 

I'm also involved with local activism, donating to political et charitable organizations, gofundmes and whatever shit moves me, or, against that which outrages me. Got a few people [two being relatively persistent] that are trying to convince me to get into politics but naw, that's not my bag.

Like I said, over all I'm very fortunate.

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I'm a senior policy analyst for a private, for-profit consulting firm. I do a lot of different things depending on the contract: program evaluation, original research, literature reviews, report writing, data analysis, policy analysis, training and technical assistance (doing lots of webinars these days), rules development, and so on.

Most of the work is for the US federal government, sometimes there's some state work. Once in a while there's international work, and that's always fun. 

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I'm a research scientist who is also a weird hybrid of a physicist and a chemist (as I never tire of telling my colleagues, chemistry is a subset of physics, which always goes down real well). Apart from traditional R&D stuff, in recent years I have helped in carbon mitigation and other sustainability related efforts.

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I retired as a professor of psychology at the end of August. I am still teaching one online class this fall as an adjunct and have the title of Professor Emeritus. I will not be teaching anything in the winter term which starts right after Thanksgiving, and at that point I will really feel like I'm retired.

I also write my column on names and naming for the Omaha World-Herald every other week. That takes me between six and eight hours a week to research and write, but they pay me so little it's barely worth mentioning in terms of "employment". 

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2 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

@Liffguard - are you still doing what you were doing a long time ago, but have gotten promoted and such? Just curiosity.

Nah I've been out of the military for a few years now. It became very apparent very quickly after I'd joined that it was not the career for me.

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What do I do for a living? I am an astrophysicist, specifically working the field of exoplanets. I receive a stipend from my university as I am working on my PhD (~2 years to go). I absolutely love it. What can I say, space is awesome and physics is fun. That being said, I don't particularly see myself staying in academia.

Other things I am passionate about may want to pursue: science communication (I just launched a small astronomy-focused "brand" for myself on a bunch of different platforms) and writing novels (I've written 8 to date, not a one has been picked up yet though I've gotten close a couple times).

Things I have done in the past for a living: Naval officer (nuclear surface warfare) and management consulting for the DoD (snooze)

7 hours ago, IheartIheartTesla said:

I'm a research scientist who is also a weird hybrid of a physicist and a chemist (as I never tire of telling my colleagues, chemistry is a subset of physics, which always goes down real well). Apart from traditional R&D stuff, in recent years I have helped in carbon mitigation and other sustainability related efforts.

Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/435/

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I'm a microbiologist / biochemist by trade. Have been working in research labs for more than a decade now. Started with a very strong protein biochemistry focus, largely looking at metal uptake systems in bacteria. Have increasingly moved away from that and am now working in more of a traditional microbiology laboratory - we're focused on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), our big current project is AMR surveillance sampling wastewater from local nursing homes (hence the mid-year jaunt into covid wastewater). Still get to purify a bit of protein and run some biochemical assays here and there, but these days I spend most of my time trying to corral the PhD / masters degree students, as well as doing all the various lab admin / management tasks to keep everything ticking over.

Keep thinking I might go back and do a PhD at some stage. It's basically my fall back plan at this point if I can't find work between grants. It's kinda funny, most of the students I spend time with assume I have one. It took one PhD student I was heavily involved with (he's just finished) close to 2 years before I had to tell him to take the Dr off the front of my name for a presentation acknowledgement. 

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I work in investments.  Asset management for large institutional investors, like pension funds and endowments.  I’ve been in business and investment leadership roles for the last several years after working my way up as a content expert.

My undergrad was in actuarial and financial math.  I qualified as an actuary unusually quickly but shifted into the less traditional track of investment risk management instead and then never looked back.  I also did an MBA in finance and economics several years back.

I really enjoy investments as a profession. It’s so interesting to develop insights about economies and capital markets, and there’s a very explicit test of whether you’re right or wrong.  Always more to learn to stay ahead, and lots of positive social benefit from doing the job well for my investors. 

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I'm a mason, I mostly rebuild chimneys, build walls, fireplaces, patios, and once in awhile even houses, out of brick and stone.

My father was a mason and I labored for him after school and during the summer since I was about 13, and figured I could fall back on construction if nothing else worked out.  When I dropped out of college I started working as a mason full time and have been at it since.  I think this year is my 12th year of working totally for myself.  

I like that I get to work outside most of the time, and that each project is always a little bit different.  There's also a satisfaction of physically seeing the results of your work at the end of the day.

The pandemic made me reevaluate some of the jobs I take on.  Without being able to use N95 masks, I wasn't able to safely do any job that involved dry cutting and materials.  The dust generated from that is pretty nasty and can lead to silicosis.  

I'm going to try to never do those jobs again, even if I can get masks in the future.  Have been looking into pivoting a bit and doing chimney cleaning / sweeping to fill the gap that will be left if I start turning down jobs that require sry cutting, it's way easier on the body and less exposure to hazardous materials.

 

 

 

 

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29 minutes ago, larrytheimp said:

I'm a mason, I mostly rebuild chimneys, build walls, fireplaces, patios, and once in awhile even houses, out of brick and stone.

Which trouser leg is it that you guys roll up again? And how many pelfies would I need to send for you to teach me the secret handshake?

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I have a B.S. in Civil Engineering and am a registered Professional Engineer in California.  After briefly working as a land surveyor, I have spent the last couple decades working in environmental remediation.  Basically, removing contaminants and pollution from soils, groundwater and surface water at locations ranging from local gas stations and dry-cleaners, to commercial and industrial sites, to abandoned mining sites, to active and closed military bases, either by treating or encapsulating the contaminants in place or physically removing them and disposing of them properly.   

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I spent 26 (!) years working in semiconductor manufacturing, starting off as a manufacturing technician, working my way up through production control into process sustainment engineering, then planning and procurement, and ending as the Quality Lead for my company when Covid-19 hit and I was furloughed. I have no formal education; no BSc nor BEng. I had worked in the building and knew many of the shift managers and employees at my first gig. When I wanted a change they hired me into the wafer fab. I started off making chips for phones, spent some time in a few different startups and at one point was a shift engineer for a large DRAM and NAND manufacturer. My last company specialized in optical components.

About four or so years ago I decided I needed to get out of manufacturing and started working on professional certifications to make up for my lack of the aforementioned degrees (though I do have an associate degree in Computer Systems that I never did anything with back when Windows NT was a thing and another in Health Information Management that I started in 2009 at the start of a 16 month layoff). I started off as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and eventually earned ASQ Certified Quality Engineer and Certified Quality Auditor. It was a very good decision as the LSSGB led to my promotion as Quality Lead for almost four years, and ultimately let me pursue a position in a completely different field after I was furloughed in March. I now work for a public transportation agency in Regulatory Compliance. 

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