Soo, what do you do for a living? (Would you recommend it?)

[Malkavian]

What do I do?
I sit on my couch and play video games, while pretending to the state that I am studying.

How much do I make?
10800 us dollars a year.

Would I recommend it?
No. I am dying inside.

Is it stable?
Yes. Up every morning at 10, turn on computer. 3 lunch breaks. Stay at screen 'till 1 am. Sleep. Repeat.
As for jobsecurity, it depends on your local system. I've done this for one and a half year now.

Embarassing work stories?
Oh man, you have no idea. Like, this one time, I was cooking spaghetti, and it wasn't until I was ready to eat that I realized I was out of parmesan cheese. What a day, oh boy.

Spoiler

I am taking up school again this summer, don't worry

 

[Don Savik]

I'm 19, turning 20 this year (going to be one of the most miserable days in my entire life) and I am doing nothing. No job, no school, nuthing. I was in the Navy for a year after highschool and got kicked out, so other than that, no work experience. Do I recommend it? Hardly. In fact, Its just a by-product of my shyness. Being a social pariah is not a fun thing to be, but hey, leaves plenty of room for video games.

and thoughts of homicide......

I mean..videogames....

 

[ace_of_something]

So, yeah. What job do you have? Part-time, full-time, whatever.

I'm a full time detective in 'crimes against property' division in a sheriff's dept with a county that's population is about half a million. I'm also a part-time professor of criminal justice/psychology depts. I'll discuss the detective bit though. Crimes against property is investigating specifically, robbery, burglary, fraud. That sort of thing. About 50% of my time is spent on robberies because those always end up on the news and if they go unsolved public relations end up being hurt because of it. The rest of my time is an even mix of everything else. As 'the young guy' (I'm almost 32) I tend to take lead on a lot of the fraud cases because they involve computers.

Do you enjoy it?

Yes, very much so incidentally I have 3 brothers who are also detectives in different parts of the USA. So it might be a family trait. I get to help and protect the community I'm in, and even when the job gets repetitive every day is still unique. Be forewarned though no where will hire you as a detective you have to earn it.

How much do you make yearly?

In the united states the median salary for a detective is about 45,000 USD a year. I'm not sure if this counts overtime or not but I suspect it doesn't knowing what my brothers and I make. The low end, say if your department is very small is like 28,000 USD a year.
(if you're not willing to work more than 40 hours a week don't bother with law enforcement you won't get all the sweet promotions)

Would you recommend your field to someone you don't hate?

You have to have a lot of specialized skills mostly:
Communication skills/Sociability: Despite what TV shows us most detectives are not scientists, those are different people. Talking to people is most of what your job is you have to be able to at least fake empathy and respectability with the most vile people you'll ever meet.
Endurance: In cases that end up on the news... well I've worked an 70+ hour week here and there. Not to mention interviews and interrogations take typically between 30min-2 hours. 2+ is not uncommon at all either.
Organization: Also unlike TV a detective does not work one single case at a time, nothing would ever get done like that. My case load is usually about 4 open cases at a time mine is a little low because I'm the 'junior' detective.
Intuition: It sucks but intuition is a very difficult skill to teach/learn it can be but only so much.
Patience: It can take a LONG time to become a detective I haven't heard of any department that allows you to hire in to a detective position. You've got to be a cop first.
Psychical Fitness: It's true most departments don't care about your fitness after you've been hired and through the academy but letting it fall off can mean the difference between an arrest and a guy escaping and going on a spree. Detectives are especially prone to becoming out of shape due to the long hours at a desk.
Jogging and sprinting are a must.

Is it stable?

There will always be crime. Keep in mind detectives and police work 24/7 every day of the year. Also, women who are capable tend to be hired more easily. Cuz less women apply and women make EXCELLENT detectives in my opinion as they tend to have better communication skills.

My best subjects are Socials and English. Unfortunately, the jobs in those fields usually pay low and are few.

Most police/detectives. If they have a college degree (get one I got promoted super fast because of it) Is usually in English, Law, or Some sort of social science. Mine is in criminal justice my masters is in sociology.

BEING AN ADULT SOUNDS HARD.

Don't use credit cards unless your tires explode or something. Think "If I can't pay for this all right now I can't buy it" The exceptions being cars and houses.

Embarrassing work stories? I transferred precincts to be a detective so the building was new to me.
Hrrmmm The first time I had to go to a the cold case storage the other detectives told me it was in the sub basement. The sub basement had tons of loosing filing cabinets that appeared to be organized by a paper filing system. It took about 10 minutes before I realized they were just being stored and most of the documents in the cabinets were records awaiting incineration.
They all thought it was pretty funny. Until one day I came in early and set all the screen savers to be 'the blue screen of death' with a passcode to unlock. So they all had to do a manual shut down or luck in to hitting B2.

 

[Mebulous]

Before I was disabled I was a machinist running four and five axis vertical mills.

 

[Mafoobula]

Well, let's see... for a few years, I was a chef. Lot of stress, hours weren't always too great, but when we weren't rushing things, it was a very fun environment, and no matter who you are, you have friends in the kitchen. Also, when you take culinary arts courses in college, you learn a looooot of things that impress your friends and family, not to mention, you know, eating well all the time.
If you enjoy cooking, by all means, look into it. In any case, I think you, anyone, really, can benefit personally from taking a few select classes. Dessert classes, gourmet cooking... meat analysis was tons of fun. Do some looking around at a nearby technical college, it's great fun.

However, I was not that great a student, neither was I too good with money. Being a chef was great fun, and it paid decently, but I had put myself in a situation where I needed to do something drastic, and in a short amount of time.
Thus it was, that in July of 2010, that I went into the Army recruitment office. That following November, I went from Wisconsin to Oklahoma to start basic training. Less than 6 months later, I was on my way to Afghanistan.
After my first full year as part of the US Army, I reflected on my situation, to figure out if I'd made the right choice, overall. My conclusion: Oh, hell yes. I've learned things that can't be learned in the civilian world, it's the steadiest paycheck you can get, and from day one, the best benefits you can get. I'm typing this, right now, on a $3,200 laptop, something that would've taken me years to save up for, if I were a civilian, and that's one hell of a plus in my book.
But would I recommend it? Welllll.... kinda? Like I said, job stability like no other, but it's obvious that certain risks come with the uniform. You would have to be very, very, very, very, very,very,very,veryveryvery veryveryvery particular in choosing your MOS. I wasn't too particular, and it was only pure luck that I got the "cool" platoon. I was pretty close to being in a platoon full of douche-nozzles.

 

[Pipotchi]

I work for London Underground, station side rather than driving a train though. I'm not saying which station though as it would be easy enough for people to come down to my place of work

I enjoy it, the money and perks are good and I am customer facing without the pressure of trying to sell them stuff

Embarrassing stories? Not so much embarrassing as the kind of stories that happen when you have occasionaly drunk/upset people in the proximaty of 100 tonnes locomotives

 

[targren]

From the time my dad brought home my first computer for my 4th birthday -- an old TI99/4A -- I wanted to be a computer programmer. I learned to read and do math on it immediately (and played actual games, too, of course). I started studying BASIC from a used college textbook when I was 7, and if there was something to do on the computer, I wanted to know how to do it (never did get the hang of 3D modelling...). I lived on the keyboard. I went to college for computer science and worked everything from helldesk jockey to sysadmin for a bubble-era ISP. And off-hours, I coded.

Fast forward thirty *mumble* years, and I'm a pro software developer for some years now.

And I can't stand computers anymore... Spending 50-60 hours a week coding definitely cuts into the desire to spend my free time programming.


TL;DR: Whatever you do, do NOT make your hobby into your career. You're going to need it for what we in the "Scary Devil Monastery" used to call "recovery."

 

[Wintermoot]

government welfare.
180 euro,s +20 pocket money from my parents.
but I,m planning to take a year of after high school and get a job as mailman.
I asked a friend who works as a mail man and he described it as "walking around with a bike packed with 50-60KG of mail" meh sounds better then fry chef at Mc.donalds.

 

[Yopaz]

Neuroscience sounds kind of cool ...

OK, I normally don't quote the original post, but this time I have to. If you don't like chemistry stay as far away from neuroscience as you can. It's a very interesting study with a lot of possibilities, but the chances are that you'll never get a job in the field. Also more importantly there's a lot of really complex chemistry that you have to go through in order to understand biology.I am currently studying biology and chemistry and I did pretty well in high school chemistry, but university chemistry is a whole different field compared to that. I would advice you to reconsider.

OT: As I said I'm a full time student with a student loan as my only income. I survive by living in a cheap apartment and I pick what food I eat with a steady balance between price and nutrition. I guess I enjoy what I do parts of the time while I hate it sometimes. This semester I study physics, biology, chemistry and biochemistry in order to get a broader view of my fields. I love learning, but there's a whole lot of work and it's a hard life so I'm not sure if I would recommend it. As for stability I can't say. I need to pass my subjects in order to get a loan, but I'm pretty sure I can get a job once I'm finished.

 

[requisitename]

So, yeah. What job do you have? Part-time, full-time, whatever.

Do you enjoy it?
How much do you make yearly?
Would you recommend your field to someone you don't hate?

I build websites. I have the skills to do everything I need to and so I make excellent money doing it (because I don't have to contract out for anything). I can't really give a figure because it varies from month-to-month and year-to-year, but it's always good at this point. It wasn't at entry level!

I would recommend it to people who have a high frustration tolerance and who really, really love working with details because it can be extremely frustrating sometimes and the details can be mind numbing. You also have to be able to work VERY well and on tight deadlines without supervision if you want to own your own business.. that's where I see a lot of people fall short. Also, people skills are important for dealing with clients, especially hard to please people.

I find it stable because I do tons of upkeep in addition to my new site clients, but I don't think it's all that stable overall.

I also occasionally work with a local computer repair and networking guy when he gets swamped, which I find fun but only because I don't do it every day. I enjoy the challenge of troubleshooting, especially.

I have no formal education in either of these areas.. everything I know, I've taught myself or learned by watching/picking the brains of people who know more than I do.

However, with all that said, I'm a full-time student. My end goal with that is to be an archivist or a history museum curator. It won't pay as well, but I think I'll enjoy it more because it'll be much less stressful.

 

[latenightapplepie]

BEING AN ADULT SOUNDS HARD.

So true. I'm struggling to finish an undergraduate degree because I have terrible willpower and little motivation.

Although I do have a job at a slightly upmarket burger joint that I'm reasonable good at. It hardly pays well though.

Spoiler: Again, the great Liz Lemon quote must be brought forth

 

[Aerodyamic]

My job is providing an essential of continued civilization: shelter.

I`m an industrial roofer, so I remove and re-install the roofs on industrial, commercial and residential flat roofs, but really, I`m just getting paid to work out, tan, break things and play with fire.

On the other hand, it`s a god-awful dirty job much of the time, most of the materials and chemicals I work with are carcinogenic, and most of the `civilized` western world is convinced that roofers are lowlife, criminal drug-addicts waiting for a chance to get drunk, steal your car and leer at their wives.

But the pay ain`t bad, and other than being hard on my already half-destroyed knees, I don`t mind my job, particularly.