Jump to content

What do you do?


Stannis Eats No Peaches

Recommended Posts

I work at a helicopter manufacturing plant. It’s a union job and I’ve been there for like 17 years, on 3rd shift mostly.

I have an electrical background I so started out as an electrician. I would install the instrument panels in Blackhawks and wire different things. But eventually transferred to the blade department where I’m at now. It’s a lot less interesting job but has way more job security, and weirdly more pay. 

I’m also surrounded by mostly Trump cultists so that hasn’t been fun at all. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, lacuna said:

I'm a freelance translator, and make (or scrape) a living doing subtitles for Netflix here in Norway.

I considered translation (there’s actually a bit of it in my current job), but was put off by the whole freelance thing. My impression was that you’d also need a master’s, so you couldn’t exactly try it out for a bit without committing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Stannis Eats No Peaches said:

I considered translation (there’s actually a bit of it in my current job), but was put off by the whole freelance thing. My impression was that you’d also need a master’s, so you couldn’t exactly try it out for a bit without committing.

Your opportunities would probably depend highly on on what language combination you would be able to translate and what kinds of texts. I occasionally translate myself, but I am basically only able to do literature. Cannot live off that ... I intend to develop myself in that direction too, though. Translating poetry is a fun challenge for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, Stannis Eats No Peaches said:

I considered translation (there’s actually a bit of it in my current job), but was put off by the whole freelance thing. My impression was that you’d also need a master’s, so you couldn’t exactly try it out for a bit without committing.

There are translation agencies out there, if fixed employment is a must. Don't know how it works in the UK, but as far as I know, a degree isn't a technical requirement here for a job in a translation agency. Most hirings are done on the back of a test translation. If it holds up, you're in with a shot. And if you know some fancy language on top of a more common one, your chances increase greatly. There are some jobs that require the "state approved translator accreditation exam" here, but most don't, and the exam itself is open to anyone. It's just that it is, shall we say, not a walk in the park.

I have a bachelor's degree. There's no real point for me in going for a master's, as the course (there's only one in Norway) only concerns itself with theory and history, nothing practical. Nor do I feel the need to get the accreditation exam, as that kind of work doesn't interest me much.

I prefer to splash about in the figurative shallow end of translation work, subtitling TV and movies. I like the variety, I set my own hours, I work from home (or indeed anywhere with internet), and as a huge introvert, that's a big plus. The pay isn't bad as such, at least not for Netflix work, but the feast/famine availability and lack of job security is a pain.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I move information from one excel spreadsheet to another excel spreadsheet and make a couple changes. I then email the new spreadsheet to someone else who makes their own changes. They email it back to me, I finish it up, then email it to a third party. I then start preparing the spreadsheets for the next day.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am loving hearing all the cool things y'all do! BAMFs. 

I do want to add that I don't want anyone to feel like their job isn't important. I was talking to a friend from high school the other day and she said she was so ashamed to still be a bartender when other people from our class were off doing XYZ cool things. But in my mind, there's nothing to be ashamed of! Gods bartenders are way more important than any work I did as a management consultant. So yeah, all workers are important!

4 hours ago, lacuna said:

I'm a freelance translator, and make (or scrape) a living doing subtitles for Netflix here in Norway.

Ooh that's so cool! One of my dream jobs when I was younger was being a translator. I learned Spanish in high school and minored in it in college (and am now taking a refresher course since I've lost a lot), attempted to learn Russian on my own (went horribly, I really struggle with a non-latin alphabet), and now in the age of Duolingo I learned basic French (which I've since forgotten) and am working on Irish. Languages to me feel almost like learning a secret code, but one that other people already know too! And I love how different languages can shape the process of thinking. Unfortunately, I realized I was never going to be good enough at any language to be a translator.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am a Project Manager for a construction subcontractor that specializes in building envelope. So the work involves managing contracts, design, engineering, procurement, manufacturing, and our contract work on site. We do projects all across North America, with a global supply chain. So before COVID there was a fair bit of travel.

My background in construction goes back to high school. After high school, I tried to go to University due to family pressure but that ended badly. I went back to construction and did my apprenticeship as a carpenter, primarily doing renovation work in people's homes. During that time, I did a little bit of everything, which has turned out to be invaluable experience. I tried to do some of my own projects during that time, but I struggled with the business side of it, and it was not a success. Eventually I decided to go to college and that is how I got into project management.

I am now getting to the point where I've worked in Project Management for as long as I worked as a carpenter.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

57 minutes ago, Lord of Oop North said:

I am a Project Manager for a construction subcontractor that specializes in building envelope. So the work involves managing contracts, design, engineering, procurement, manufacturing, and our contract work on site. We do projects all across North America, with a global supply chain. So before COVID there was a fair bit of travel.

My background in construction goes back to high school. After high school, I tried to go to University due to family pressure but that ended badly. I went back to construction and did my apprenticeship as a carpenter, primarily doing renovation work in people's homes. During that time, I did a little bit of everything, which has turned out to be invaluable experience. I tried to do some of my own projects during that time, but I struggled with the business side of it, and it was not a success. Eventually I decided to go to college and that is how I got into project management.

I am now getting to the point where I've worked in Project Management for as long as I worked as a carpenter.

 

I have wondered how all that was going for you during covidworld, loon. Good stuff. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, JEORDHl said:

I have wondered how all that was going for you during covidworld, loon. Good stuff. 

Yeah, it is going good. We are busier than we have ever been. We have a lot of projects booked for 2021-2022. One of my current projects (a hospital) runs to the end of 2022 for example. The real question will be what 2023+ looks like, as a fair bit of our work is commercial office construction. From what I understand, there is still a ton of bidding and pricing going on, but clients are holding on to bids for a long time without making decisions (understandable).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

I move information from one excel spreadsheet to another excel spreadsheet and make a couple changes. I then email the new spreadsheet to someone else who makes their own changes. They email it back to me, I finish it up, then email it to a third party. I then start preparing the spreadsheets for the next day.

Are you running the UK's Covid test and trace service?...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Which Tyler said:

Are you running the UK's Covid test and trace service?...

 

3 minutes ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Very close.

I work in the billing department for an American lab.

Covid testing is something the lab has started to do.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-54423988

 

Quote

The problem is that PHE's own developers picked an old file format to do this - known as XLS.

As a consequence, each template could handle only about 65,000 rows of data rather than the one million-plus rows that Excel is actually capable of.

And since each test result created several rows of data, in practice it meant that each template was limited to about 1,400 cases.

When that total was reached, further cases were simply left off.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've done a bunch of stuff down through the decades.  

Education?  I'm the guy that puts down 'some college' on the various forms (but the online tests seem to think I have a PHD - go figure)

Starkess: one project I mucked around with was trying to recreate Turnbull and Tarter's 'Habcat' catalog using photometric distances derived from the ASCC (basically Tycho on steroids).  Didn't do to terrible with the F and G stars, but the red giants absolutely killed the distances to the K stars. Been poking around a bit in Gaia past year or so.

Anyhow - worked in the fish plant as a kid because...that's what there was.  After that...a bit of oil field work and construction - until offered a 'temporary' mail job that lasted eleven freaking years (it beat going on unemployment each winter).  Mixed that up with everything from security guard work to construction to playing counter zombie in service world.  Even spent a few weeks running a power hose on the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup - until I slipped on a rock and nailed my boss, his boss, and another big wig twenty yards out with a water jet - those hoses put out 200 psi - blew the lightweights right off their feet.  

After that, I did another decade plus delivering pizza  Surprisingly, that brought in enough cash to buy land, build a house on it, and pay it all the way off in five years (then I tacked on a garage.)  Done a fair bit of hands on construction: garages, rebuilding mobile homes, greenhouses, leanto's...and a few houses from the foundation up - mostly an 'in the family' or 'helping out friends' type deal.  Sometimes, I think about building a cabin at the old homestead to test out some of this alternative energy stuff.

From there, I did a number of things...most notably a two year stint with a 'van service' that really should be a 'bus service,' but go figure.  Most of my riders were institutional's - people in rehab/halfway houses, or Alzheimer patients. 

Past decade or so, I've been a USPS Highway Contractor, delivering mail to 500 odd people along a rural road in all manner of weather.  This job has really started to suck the past year or so what with COVID 19, Amazon, and...contract issues.  Doubt I'll renew it.  Been doing some late night writing over the past ten years or so; might eventually get around to putting it on Amazon and relishing twenty or thirty sales.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, TheLastWolf said:

I'm just a stupid teen in high school (to be precise, it's non-american equivalent), old guys, but am I the youngest on this Forum? Just curious. To find if there are any more stupid teens

I mean, to determine that, you would kind of need to tell us how old you are exactly, no? ;)

But generally, there are/have been teenagers/high-schoolers on the board before, it is just that many don't come to General Chat, but instead stay north of the Wall (in the book forums) or Forum Games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...