What do you do at your job?

[Billy-Klubb]

I make metal stick together by way of electrical arc and listen to a bunch of cry baby pterodactyl pants crying about every little damn thing. "It's too hot in the shop. It's too cold in the shop. Why should I have to clean my own work or try to do a good job? I farted and it smells bad so I better go home."

 

[CaptainDucman]

Plan extensively, preflight, check, double check, verify... takeoff

Stare out the window for hours at a time (to my middle school guidance counselor... who got the last laugh now biotch!)

Solve all the worlds problems with the help of other crew members

Work on BeerSmith

Yelp "Brewpubs" in far off places

Plan extensively, brief, land, clear customs/immigration

~26-72hrs later, rinse and repeat

 

[Billy-Klubb]

Plan extensively, preflight, check, double check, verify... takeoff

Stare out the window for hours at a time (to my middle school guidance counselor... who got the last laugh now biotch!)

Solve all the worlds problems with the help of other crew members

Work on BeerSmith

Yelp "Brewpubs" in far off places

Plan extensively, brief, land, clear customs/immigration

~26-72hrs later, rinse and repeat

many times i wanted to look up my high school counselor and administrator. martha floccers, I made and tested military ammunition, was assistant manager of a steel yard, built/designed methane vacuum systems/vapor recovery units/water transfer plants and a pipe welder as the assistant manager of that shop. who's a loser now, flocc faces? :rockin:

 

[SharonaZamboni]

I'm a second shift supervisor in a group home for developmentally disabled adults. They range in age from early thirties to late seventies. I cook their dinner (purée it for some people), feed them, clean up, give them pills, take them to doctor appointments (and the movies, and out to eat), help them in the bathroom, etc., etc. Some residents are more independent than others.
Pretty much do everything that you would need done if you couldn't use your arms, legs, or voice.
I develop and monitor progress of goals for learning/maintaining individuals' skills and supervise and train staff.
My favorite type of people are ones with behavior problems. It's challenging to figure out what's causing the behavior, and satisfying to be able to help them overcome their issues.

 

[arnobg]

FAA Air Traffic Control Specialist, 3 year anniversary next month and moving to the FedEx World Hub.

 

[TheCADJockey]

I control thousands of drawings and am tasked with making sure each of them, some being over ten years old, are formatted and structured exactly the same. Accuracy and attention to detail is imperative. Tolerances. Lines all over the place. Spelling errors are bad and a misplaced zero could mean something turns into a fireball and plunges into the ocean. Mil-spec's, material conditions, PCBD drawings. The other half is spent here, looking for a way to pass time.

 

[brrman]

Software Engineer for a medium sized national company (700+ people) that facilitates eligibility, claim and patient information between providers and health plans. The business rules can get REALLY complex, and then add in HIPAA rules...

But I enjoy it because it's challenging - nothing worse than a boring software job.

 

[nygel74]

Therapist.

 

[bschot]

The jobs you talk about don't have to be current, if you think it might interest us, add it. I and I'm sure others are more than happy to read about it.

Billy-Klubb, could you tell us about that military ammunition you worked on?

CaptainDucman, what do you fly? I'm a pilot, too (up to light twins.)



-Brian

 

[Ridire]

It's important to have a job that makes a difference, boys. That's why I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

 

[martyjhuebs]

I'm a U.S. Marine. I used to train Marines how to protect themselves In a chemical evironment but now I use modeling software to plot Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear incidents as well as radioactive and toxic industrial material releases within the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.

 

[Twins_Dad]

I write discharge permits for wastewater treatment plants, telling them how much or how little of what can or can't be in their effluent. You haven't lived until you have smelled the headworks of a treatment plant or a digester working away in the 110 degree CA heat.

 

[MonkeyBot]

I'm a software developer that works on software to program smart cards. All those fancy new credit cards you're getting with the chips in them? Not that new, I've been doing this for 15 years.

 

[pointcity-homebrew]

I preform research and testing in the area of high voltage. Most of the research we do is centered around lightning effects and protection systems. The testing we perform is for industry. Objects like bucket trucks for utilities, transmission devices, cabling etc. It is a fun job, great environment and secure.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm a U.S. Marine. I used to train Marines how to protect themselves In a chemical evironment but now I use modeling software to plot Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear incidents as well as radioactive and toxic industrial material releases within the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas.

NBC training. I remember that.

I did a ton of hazards analysis when I worked at a DOE facility that had nuclear materials. They sent me to several lengthy courses in Tennessee to learn about plume analysis and modeling. Pretty interesting at the time.

 

[bruteforce]

Data scientist at a national lab. Get every other friday off, 3 weeks of vacation, an extra week off at christmas, and no one cares if sometimes I get too caught up in research to notice that I've been there for 3 days straight and haven't slept.

 

[1977Brewer]

I supervise the facilities for one of the largest ceiling fan and lighting manufacturers in the world. We make nothing in the half million square feet of warehouse we own. 100% imported from China, India, and Italy. If it's not a computer or printer, it's my problem. 70 + forklifts, the phones and faxes, janitorial, plumbing, electrical, dock equipment, vending machines...all of it. My problems. I also get to stock the bars for our big trade show in Dallas twice a year, so I'm the company booze buyer as well.

For as much as I have on my plate, it's a chill job, and it pays fairly well.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Bean counter.
Depending on the time of year we're either doing personal income taxes, cost studies, internal audits, or taxes for co-ops.

Lately I've been redesigning some old tax models that were super cumbersome to use and nearly impossible to understand. They're a lot clearer and more automated now but it takes some work considering it takes 4 different models before a return is ready to go.

 

[hunter_le five]

I work for a bean farm.
I count the beans, and make sure they're all still there.
Well, mostly I manage those who do the actual tallying.
Sometimes I give beans to those we owe beans to.
I make sure no one is stealing our beans.
Every two weeks I divvy out some of the beans to employees, so they'll continue to show up and grow more beans.

That, and dick around on HBT.

Edit: dammit cheesy

 

[grevengrevs]

Nothing anymore. I retired last year. Before I retired I was active duty Air Force and the department supervisor for the Arab languages. Linguist all 20 years but most of the time was teaching others how to read, write, and speak Arabic and a few of the dialects.
Now, I make beer, bullets, and go to school.

 

[nDub]

Civil Engineer working as a "Sanitary" Engineer for a large city Utility Company. Mostly what I do is help maintain regulatory compliance for the large regional drinking water system as well as a handful of small water systems. We also have a biology/chemistry lab so I work in there sometimes. Best days are field days.

 

[BGBC]

One of my summer jobs back in college was working for a startup water treatment technology company. Part of their proprietary process required a certain chemical in pelletized form, but you could only buy it in powdered form. So part of my job was to help run the machines that would turn powder into pellet. Thankfully we only needed to run this production line 1-2 days per week, because that stuff was the worst.

Skin rashes anywhere I'd sweat through the cheap suits they provided (no AC in the space they rented out of course) and by the end of the summer my nose hairs were bleached blonde, even through a full face respirator. Good times.

 

[m00ps]

Im a fledgling engineer at a specialty chemicals plant. We make all kinds of additives to various consumer products like shampoo and toothpaste which I neither know anything about or am able to pronounce. We also make some sort of flocculating agent that is in most BMC beers in addition to Sam Adams and Sierra Nevada. Some of my more "organic" oriented friends have stopped drinking those after hearing about it

Fun fact: we are also one of two plants in the US that is allowed to have GHB (aka one of the date rape drugs) in its pure form. So theres a lot of security around the plant. Supposedly, the tank its in is unmarked and the location is only known to a select few. Cameras with DVR are on it 24/7

 

[TheCADJockey]

I've had a ridiculous amount of jobs due to changing college schedules. Some of the more interesting ones:

:: A soda-jerk at a local ice cream parlor. It was fun. I got to wear that stupid old fashioned paper hat too. The biggest perk was seeing the ear to ear smiles. Ice cream really does make people happy.

:: Archery director at a cub scout summer camp. This was pretty awesome. The kids frequented the rifle range more than archery, so I took a lot of naps and got to shoot my longbow for the majority of the day. Oh.. was also the bugler, which was not so great. There may have been a few times that breakfast was held up because I accidentally slept in.

 

[aces-n-eights]

Right now my job is to breathe. I'm retired so as long as i inhale and exhale on a regular basis, they will continue to send me my retirement check.

My career was US Army. 20 years in the Corps of Engineers. I did some construction engineering and some combat engineering, but my main career path was topographic engineering - i was a map maker. Interesting work. My wife is also an Army retiree so we are happily double-dipping the retirement fund!

 

[BroomVikin]

I am a freelance utility and cameraman for ESPN and NBC in the NE area. Most of the stuff I do is just on NBCSN and the lower ESPN channels but I have worked on things like Monday Night Football before. Most of my job is running cables, we're there at least 6 hours before the show running thousands of feet of cable to cameras, monitors, mics, you name it. The fun part is that after the show, we have to coil it all back up and load it back in the truck!

During the show if I am a utility, I help a handheld cameraman manage the cable trailing behind him, it involves a lot of running in shows like football. If I am the cameraman, well I shoot video. I'll have my specific assignment, and anything else as dictated by the game. I basically just try as hard as I can to not be chewed out by the 2-3 people in the broadcast unit(s) that are trying to "tell the story".

I don't think people realize how many people(and how much money) it takes to put on shows like that. Regular old college football is going to have at least 5 cameramen, 2 utilities, 1 audio mixes and at least 2 assists, 2 replay operators, a graphics operator, director, technical director, AT LEAST one producer, 3 Broadcast Engineers(what I hope to be one day), a red hat(not sure what theyre real title is, they stop the game for TV time outs), a "Video" person(they make sure all the pictures look good and manage the iris levels of the cameras remotely from the truck), and of course all the talent, play/play color and probably a sideline reporter.

That isn't even including the people back at base, but that's probably only one or two people.

Sounds kind of similar to what I do. I'm a Technical Director for a "major cable news" channel. It's basically a glorified button pusher but there are lots of buttons and if I hit the wrong one people around the world see it. Essentially all of the cameras, remote events, reporters, live "beauty" shots, graphics machines, video playback servers, pretty much any video source comes through my video switcher. I then "switch" the live broadcast as it's happening. I'm lucky in that it still allows me to travel on occasion to do live events but doesn't keep me on the road for weeks on end away from my family (and my fermenter! );.

My office:

 

[SharonaZamboni]

It's important to have a job that makes a difference, boys. That's why I manually masturbate caged animals for artificial insemination.

I hope the pay is good.

 

[hunter_le five]

I hope the pay is good.

The satisfaction of a job well done is pay enough for him.

 

[Rhumbline]

Nothing anymore. I retired last year. Before I retired I was active duty Air Force and the department supervisor for the Arab languages. Linguist all 20 years but most of the time was teaching others how to read, write, and speak Arabic and a few of the dialects.
Now, I make beer, bullets, and go to school.

Were you in Monterey? I spent a lot of time there, Russian Linguist.

Now, I do construction planning & management. Riding herd on major and minor construction projects on our University's campuses. I also do the designs for small renovations, which is a ton of fun.

And I'm the Space Management guy. I track and manage how much space a department has and how they use it. I'm the guy who has to tell Suzy that no, she can't have an office bigger than the University President and if she wants a private bathroom I'm going to have to ask the Cabinet to approve it.

 

[schematix]

I'm not sure I can adequately convey how tickled I am that my cheap shampoo/conditioner is packaged in a way that involves a 'secret process'. I have zero doubt that it is a complex operation that requires many highly skilled people, but I really had just never considered it before. Cheers!

The secret process doesn't make your cheap shampoo/conditioner/bodywash/lotion/2n1/3n1 any better. Their trade secret is in the design of what is essentially an inline blending system. It just makes it so they can mix it faster and thus cheaper.

Typically the blending process is done in large purpose built blending tanks. It takes a few hours to mix a batch. Plus the floor space of a mixing tank, plus the cost to purchase the mixing tank. The entire blending system they have is about the size of a large desk. The actual mixing area is about the size of an apple. Pretty nifty. Wish I could tell you more.