Where Do You Work?

[Bravo Company]

Salutations,

While looking through the thread about the highest level of math you've taken I noticed a ton of people that posted on the first few pages have degrees in physics or engineering. This made me wonder what kind of interesting jobs the people of the Escapist may possess. So where do you work? Also, did you go to college for a degree pertaining to your current field of work or have you ended up finding a job in a different field other than what you studied for?

As for myself, I'll be graduating high school in a few months, so I don't have a steady job. I've done miscellaneous jobs for short amounts of time but nothing steady.

 

[scorptatious]

I work as a porter at my local bowling alley. It's essentially janitorial work while at the same time picking up dead balls stuck in the lanes. You'd think the guard rails would prevent that sort of thing. >_>

Didn't require any high level education obviously. Gotta start somewhere though.

I'm currently not in college at the moment, but I'll admit, I kinda have somewhat of an interest in psychology. There's just something about the way the human mind works that fascinates me. Cognitive dissonance, Freud's theories, the ideal self, ect.

Right now though, I'm trying to focus on becoming independent of my folks.

[small] Also, I'm kinda lazy and don't want to deal with all the general ed. stuff right now. [/small]

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm a proofreader at city hall. I've always been keen on correcting people's errors, so getting paid for it was the logical next step.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I'm a stock boy a supermarket. It's okay. I sort of like the camaraderie with my coworkers, they aren't geniuses but they're pretty fun people to talk to every time we run into each other. Management is pretty relaxed about everything too. Work is work, I wouldn't be there if they wouldn't pay me, but it doesn't trash on my self worth or send me home feeling like I never want to wake up after I go to sleep. Working on carts sucks real bad though, exposed to the elements all day, by myself, trying to meet a quota that an average of 300+ people are trying to undo for the whole duration.

Didn't require notable schooling. Never have I been asked to anything worse than addition and subtraction. Question didn't even come up in an interview. A good amount of people there, I'm not sure they finished high school. I'm working on getting a degree in pharmacology, but, you know, 7+ years of pharmacology alone.

Problem is that the management of the store isn't great. The store originally was a pretty paltry size, but they moved to a location the size of your average WalMart and they still treat the place like it's a medium sized store. Because of how my schedule works between school and music, I'm always on the closing shift, and the closing shift takes way too long because of how effing big the store is and how long it takes the grand total of three of us on stock (usually less, if someone called off) to clean and partially restock what we're meant to do. They want us out by an hour and a half after the customers are gone, I can count on one hand the amount of times that's actually happened. The management still bungles up their state-required examinations and only start worrying after they failed or almost failed a test.

And dat minimum wage doe. If it weren't for the need of money and how much I enjoy everyone I work with, I might've left.

 

[Elfgore]

GM Clerk and Garden Center employee at a regional supermarket. I'm attending school as a history major, either going for archivist or teacher and this helps pay for food and gas. I get along very well with my co-workers, but I do have some issues with a manager. But other than that, it's not that bad of a job.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Sales Manager at an Aluminium Fabrication shop. I mainly just manage the warehouse and sell aluminium to people all day.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I'm a sales assistant in a retail shop eventhought I got a degree in computer graphic related from Uni. I didn't regret it as I made some real friends from that course. The job itself is alright especially now that the supervisor has been promoted to manager so it's now back to the pleasent work enviornment I used to liked (the previous manager was awful to work for so thankfully she had to go back to the other shop she used to work in the next town over).

 

[eatenbyagrue]

English teacher at a private school. I also train the school's debate club, am a co-adviser for one of the 4th year (in the Philippine educational system, you only do 4 years of high school) sections, and do various odd jobs for other teachers (mostly with tech stuff and correcting essays, since English is my first language).

 

[Kyrian007]

For the last dozen years I've been a radio producer/engineer. For the first half of that time it was for live local sporting events. Several different minor league teams in a variety of sports, plus I was the lead producer for a Div I NCAA School's athletics (a mid-major, but a pretty big/fairly well known one.) Then 5-6 years later I was given a spot producing a morning drive news/talk show. Frankly I liked the sports much better, but the pay is better and the hours steady even if its 3rd shift. But it also means I anchor the overnight newscasts, and do have a small on-air presence on the morning show even though I never got into this wanting to be on-the-air. I HATE listening to myself even though everyone always tells me I sound good. But it's different news stories every day, so it's kind of interesting.

Of course it's news, so I have to deal with idiots all the time. Mostly ignorant listeners; conservatives who accuse us of liberal bias, liberals who accuse us of a conservative bias (morons who just hear what they WANT to hear and have a persecution complex so "everyone is against them.") I swear; liberal fishwrap, conservative radio, FOX, and MSNBC have all given legitimate news such a black eye that the only news source people trust anymore is the one telling them (NOT the truth) but what they WANT to hear. All we do is cover the police blotter, local business, and local and state government; but depending on what actually happens (you know, what we do cover) we're accused of being liberal communists or right-wing pro-business mouthpieces. Sometimes in back-to-back phone calls. I know it gives me a lousy outlook on humanity... but GOD I hear from stupid people.

The only plus side is I am NOT expected in ANY way to be nice to callers. I am allowed to cut any of them off by saying "thanks for listening, (click.) If they call back angry... I'm allowed to just hang up and block the number. It is SUPER fun to just block people for the smallest of reasons. Then they call on a friend or neighbor's phone or a cell. I usually say "thanks, now I can block this number (click.) Priceless.

 

[eatenbyagrue]

I HATE listening to myself even though everyone always tells me I sound good.

Actually, I don't know anyone who loves the sound of their own voice and isn't annoying. Even the people I know who sing immaculately hate it when I say I like their voice.

Of course it's news, so I have to deal with idiots all the time. Mostly ignorant listeners; conservatives who accuse us of liberal bias, liberals who accuse us of a conservative bias (morons who just hear what they WANT to hear and have a persecution complex so "everyone is against them.") I swear; liberal fishwrap, conservative radio, FOX, and MSNBC have all given legitimate news such a black eye that the only news source people trust anymore is the one telling them (NOT the truth) but what they WANT to hear. All we do is cover the police blotter, local business, and local and state government; but depending on what actually happens (you know, what we do cover) we're accused of being liberal communists or right-wing pro-business mouthpieces. Sometimes in back-to-back phone calls. I know it gives me a lousy outlook on humanity... but GOD I hear from stupid people.

The only plus side is I am NOT expected in ANY way to be nice to callers. I am allowed to cut any of them off by saying "thanks for listening, (click.) If they call back angry... I'm allowed to just hang up and block the number. It is SUPER fun to just block people for the smallest of reasons. Then they call on a friend or neighbor's phone or a cell. I usually say "thanks, now I can block this number (click.) Priceless.

I always thought you weren't allowed to be rude to callers, mainly 'cause I never heard it happen on the local radio.

 

[Kyrian007]

Actually, I don't know anyone who loves the sound of their own voice and isn't annoying. Even the people I know who sing immaculately hate it when I say I like their voice.

I don't hate the compliments, most of them know better than I do what sounds good.

I always thought you weren't allowed to be rude to callers, mainly 'cause I never heard it happen on the local radio.

No, I don't put callers on the air unless I'm 100% in control of what they are saying. I record and re-edit any phone segment before it airs. I've never been rude to a caller on the air unless it was a pre-scripted comedy-type bit. No the rudeness and blocking never hits the air, I just do it because callers are mostly stupid and I get bored sometimes.

 

[iseko]

I am sort of a consultant. I am currently 'on loan' doing research for a tissue bank. Developing tests that are supposed to be implemented for routine screening. Not contaminants or anything. They produce decelluralized allografts for certain tissues. There is proof of concept but no real definitive prediction method for how well it will work in other patients. Allografts always have a degree of variability to them. Pretty much all I can say. Confidentiality and shit.

 

[Eiseth]

I'm currently working at the patology department in one of Scandinavias largest hospitales. More specifically the molecular patologi lab. It's very interesting work that barely anyone knows anything about. I'm actually a high school drop out, but I use my free time to study and take all the required exams so that I can get into college. Should be done with in maybe 1.5 if everything works out the way I want. Then I'll probably end up studying biotechnology, biochemistry or molecular biology... Fun times ahead!

 

[shootthebandit]

Console Operator, not a very fun job. It's not a hard job, and the pay is actually pretty good for unskilled labor, but it's overwhelming at first. Took me a while to get used to the sheer volume of complaints and personal attacks I get daily.
People simply don't like getting petrol, and they like to tell you that constantly. They love to complain about the price of fuel especially.

Thank god I only have 1 more year left at Uni, fucking hate that job.

whats a console operator? Im guessing it means you work at a petrol station?

 

[Shymer]

I work in communications networking. I started in the industry before the web was born - convincing companies that e-mail was the future and fax was dead. That was before you could really put attachments on emails and when people had heard of telnet, FTP, USENET, gopher and WAIS.

This is related to my degree(s), mostly by accident rather than design. I spent most of my off-hours tinkering with the college computer networks, meeting interesting people online and my holidays selling electrical equipment in a shop. My first good job was based on those extra-curricular activities. My education was broadly in engineering (applied maths, materials, mechanics, fluid/thermo, electronics, logic and computers) - much of which is either irrelevant or dated. However I doubt I would have succeeded at work if I didn't have some kind of prowess in good quality abstract thinking.

Now I run a team of consultants designing communications solutions for companies in the UK.

 

[shootthebandit]

Im an aircraft mechanic, pretty much says everything you need to know. I fix planes, Its a good job and the pay is good

 

[Jandau]

I'm a librarian at a small university library.

I landed the job as a temporary thing after I got out of college two years ago (not much call for anthropology and linguistics degrees nowadays) and started working part time. I took a liking to the work and was pretty good at it, so after a year I got hired full time and am currently working towards a masters degree in library science.

It's nice, relaxed and peaceful work for the most part. Low stress, no overtime, no need to bring the work home with me, I can get days off if I need them, etc. Since we're a small team (3 of us in total) I get to try my hand at pretty much all aspects of work as a librarian. The pay is decent, especially for an entry-level job and will get better when I get my masters and progress academically. In fact, the only real downside is having to occasionally enforce discipline on a bunch of college kids, which makes me feel really old...

Furthermore, working as a librarian is a solid starting point to move into information science in general and I know several people who've made good careers in the field who started as librarians. Finally, it's a tangible, concrete trade that I can use to find a job if I ever decide to emigrate (an ever-growing possibility in my country).

All in all, a pretty sweet deal so far. 10/10, would bang...

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I'm working two jobs at the moment, a casual worker at a print shop and an Audio Visual Tech, both for a university.

The print shop is pretty laid back, unless there is an assignment due and all the students are running around like headless chickens, we don't have any editing programs on the PC's so they have to run to the computer labs and back if there is a mistake (and believe me they make lots of mistakes. It isn't so bad, the graphics design students from the uni and the college create some amazing work plus we get all sorts coming through because we are one of the cheaper print shops around.

The AV job is a little different, I'm on call for the afternoon and evening while checking the 100+ rooms we're in charge of as well as doing any repair jobs and minor upgrades. The uni looooves shoving new tech into lecture theaters and occasionally get called in to assist refitting a room with videoconferencing, audio/video capture, etc. I also have access to the larger theaters and occasionally use the projectors for movies, watching the odd match or a bit of gaming.