What do you do for a living

Retired in 2016, started out for 15 years as a produce clerk for JEWEL Foods, one year as a welder in a fab shop, SILBRICO Corp, then 28 years in public works, bottom to top for the village of OAK LAWN WATER DEPARTMENT, where I grew up and lived. Glad to be retired, now I work only for my wife !! Just like Cheech,,," HEY BABY IM A LOVE MA-CHINE AND I DONT WORK FOR NOBODY BUT YOU" HAHA, Mitch.

 

I have to say those flintlocks are gorgeous.

 

High Test, those muzzle loaders are art work, my Father,years ago was building his own cap and ball 50 cal rifles and pistols, which my Brother now have even though he has no clue on the sentimental value of them. Beautiful work. Mitch

 

Thanks again guys.

 

Did you grow a beard, Don?

 

I sat in a cubicle and wrote computer software for 45 years. It’s a miracle that bad software hasn’t destroyed the planet. I always wanted to be a machinist/welder/... . I’d like to find a shop that will let me work for them for free.

 

...Only when I'm working "under the covers". The ladies love it.

 

Open all night, free delivery's after 2:00 AM.

 

been a union carpenter for over 31 years, built just about every kind of structure you can name. has been a very satisfying career and i really enjoy driving past houses, bridges, churches, stores and etc. that ive built over the years and see that their still standing and looking good. going to retire in April. i'm on my last job now. was very fortunate to have alot of good teachers ( a few not so good! ) now i try to do the same for the young pups that i encounter on the job. but mostly what NOT to do ! it's time to get out of this gig though, construction work will beat you up physically and it's something you don't notice when you are young but really catches up with you after about age 55. most mornings i spin the "wheel of pain" to see what is going to hurt today. im fortunate to have a great retirement pension and have all bills paid off so will be comfortable not working and have more time to tinker on cars.. also i cant wait to be one of the guys heading out with the boat to a lake to fish on a beautiful weekday morning when everyone else is headed to work. that used to make me soooo pissed to see when i had to go to work..... hell, i might just hook up the boat and park up at the gas station just to piss the other guys off .

 

I am a reformed school teacher turned coal miner. My current title is dragline operator, almost 4000 tons of knuckle-busting fun. I enjoy my job and am proud of what I do...uncovering coal to be delivered to the plant to produce affordable electricity . Despite the eyesore an open pit is, once the coal is out and my fellow workers are done, no one is the wiser that a mile long, 90 foot deep pit was there.

 

Reading this made me even more depressed than I was before reading this!

I had an intestinal problem throughout high school, and afterwards, so it was hard for me to get and hold a meaningful job. I started with a short stint at a body-shop but the body man was more interested in slapping the bondo on cars, hitting it with 360 grit, a quick thick coat of primer, and then sending it to me saying it was ready for wet sanding just so that he could go outside and get high.

After that, about a year of interior auto detailing until the owner got sent back to prison and sold to a rich-boy who wanted to cut corners just to make more money. The business went downhill fast.

Then I did mystery shopping/ merchandising/ads in the grocery stores and shopping carts, and tried selling various things because I could work around my intestinal problem. Sold pepper spray and stun guns until Wal-Mart starting selling pepper spray for what I was buying it for so my sales stopped. Sold car shirts locally and on Ebay until the guy I was getting them from got on Ebay and my sales eventually stopped.

When my condition was better I worked with a friend as a helper in his custom upholstery shop for about 6 years until I totaled my truck. After that wreck I fell into depression and burn out so I went back to mystery shopping/merchandising, and trailer checks at our movie theater.

I tried working at a place crushing candy for ice cream add-ins but the boss's pet, whom I'd never seen before, had it in for me from the moment I walked into the building and somehow got the boss to not call me back to work even though I was the first person on the work floor, worked as hard if not harder than the others, and was the last person off the work floor because 10-15 minutes before break or end of shift they started heading for the door leaving me to do my job and theirs.

A short stint of painting airplanes, but that didn't last long due to mismanagement causing them to close up shop. You know things are run bad when you are digging through the trash and looking for usable sandpaper.

I painted houses for about 7 years with my sisters boyfriend, and still did some mystery shopping and movie theater jobs, until there was just too much drama between him and my sister and he tried to burn me for some money I loaned him to do a job out of town.

After quitting as a house painter I fell into the caregiver role for my Dad who had Parkinsons and needed full time care at home. For 6+ years I did this along with the mystery shopping, trailer checks, and online surveys (because I could do those at night). After he passed I was going to get back into the workforce but fell back into the caregiver role for my Mom who started needed more help at home so I just kept doing mystery shopping and trailer checks. Then Covid-19 hit and the work outside the house slowed down and essentially stopped.

So whenever my role as caregiver for my Mom ends I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a living because of my age, currently 53yo, and lack of real work experience.

 

Machinist/welder in a precision machine/tool and die shop during the day. Setting up to start my own business after hours. Focusing on welding to start with. Have a 23'x20' shop behind my house with 3 phase power. It's taken a while (5 odd years bit by bit) but I'm finally nearly ready to take on work.

Starting off small and starting off semi specialised. I feel it would doom me to failure trying to be everything for everyone so will let things develop and grow as required.

 

My dad died when I was 14, went to work at a Texaco gas station for one of his buddies from WW2. They did everything from valve jobs to rebuilding starters and generators so that's what I learned. Went to work for a tire store after that and learned how to do alignments. Got hired at a Ford dealer worked there for 12 years till a work injury and back surgery put me down. Went to college at 31, got a degree in Lasers and Optics and then got hired by a start up company building semiconductor Lasers and photodetectors as a manufacturing engineer. Left there and went to work at Chrysler Corporation as a technical trainer and taught bumper to bumper for the technicians from the dealers. My territory was Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Alaska. Retired in 2017 and still playing with cars but wish I had more energy! Can still do everything but just, much, slower! I wish there was places like the gas station now where a young person could go and learn a trade and find out they liked to work on cars. There is a HUGE shortage of technicians and it is getting worse by the day, kids now don't want to get their hands dirty.

 

I grew up farming... starting at 11 years old I took jobs working on a dairy farm, hauling hay, and odd jobs for a retired Air Force Colonel all at the same time. Over time I moved to running a hay crew for a friend only, as it paid the best money. My dad was a Journeyman Repairman for Coca Cola at the time, and my junior year he showed up in a hayfield and informed me I was quitting, as I had a job starting at 6AM the next day as a casual for Coke. It pissed me off at the time as I was making good money and worked for a friend, but he wasn't asking. The job was a whole summer of backbreaking, but really good straight pay and all the OT you could muster.

During HS I had taken a two year program in drafting and design, and I planned to go to college to be an Engineer. I started doing just that by taking a full load plus some at college, and could not find a drafting job that would work around school. I ended up taking a job just off campus in a grocery store in the bakery making donuts. Six months doing overnights at a 24 hour store on a college campus... it was pretty fun, and super easy. The pay was crap though, and so was the turnover. One day I got a call wanting to interview me for a drafting position. The school I had attended referred me. I ended up taking that part time job (part time turned out to be 50ish hours to my boss). I have been with that company for 32 years.

I worked in drafting/engineering through every position, project management, technical sales, estimator, and am now sales manager and a VP in the company. It is a manufacturing company that serves the construction industry.

 

Dirty hands mess up cell phone screens.

 

Ain't that the truth....

 

Currently retired, but do some online sales of vintage auto. Did many things over the years including cook, janitor, dishwasher, welder, computer technician, school teacher and school district administrator. Glad to make my own schedule.
Fred

 

I am a machinist in the Natural Gas Industry and I have a small business building custom rifles and doing repair and restoration on prewar English shotguns
I served an apprenticeship to a German tool and die maker (slow machinist) starting when I was 15.
At 50 I’m still trying to learn new things. Currently in my 4th year on my rat rod. Hopefully it will be done this summer.


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Chopdtop,
Hang in there. You seem pretty nimble and able to reinvent yourself. Just keep your eyes open for opportunities now. Everyone here is going to groan a bit, but learn what you can about EVs. Someone will need to work on these and some auto skills carry over and others don't. Like it or not, they are coming.

Since I get bored easily, I probably have one of the longest job lists ever.
At 12-15 I was installing water softeners with my dad.
Worked retail sales as a late teen and through college. Musicland Records was the BEST!
Straight out of college, went to work in Store Management for Goodyear.
Got tired of their nonsense after three years and jumped to a new industry ... Cable TV! Managed a crew that sold brand new subscriptions until we ran the territory out.
Worked as the Frito-Lay guy (in the town were I live now, years later). Did that for three years.
Had a miserable sales job after that and mercifully the corporate office closed my branch.
That lead to .... going back to managing a Cable TV sales crew in a bigger franchaise. Three years later, we ran out of turf.
At that point I was so tired of putting up with corporate politics, etc. I decided that if I was going to ever chase professional acting work, that was the time to do it. Did that for 15 years here in Florida. A lot of corporate training and promotion films are shot here. With Disney and Universal and hour away there was lot of work. Small parts in big movies, big parts in small movies. Anyone that has seen most of the movies or kid shows from the 1990s has seen me. Did a lot of dinner and mystery theatre gigs, another Florida staple (we have tourists). Did that for 15 years and therefore did a lot of other things that supported it. I was the "gig economy" before there was one. I drove limo and small busses. I worked for four merchandising companies at the same time where you can pick most of the jobs you wanted to take on. Installed window film and moved into sales there until family politics got ugly. Had a small eBay business, too.

I got very involved with one merchandising company, doing books and magazines and ended up being the District Manager over the whole state of Florida. I had 45 people reporting to me, 80 hour weeks, I never slept and had to quit. Immediately slept 12 hours right after quitting. One of the best things I have ever done.

Now life has come full circle and I am back in the tire business. I work for the biggest wholesaler in the US and am tasked with all of their corporate accounts for half the state. I am 61. I don't see myself ever "retiring", but life will morph back into doing my own thing. Probably will go back to doing acting work. There is a lot of Senior Lifestyle gigs that shoot here in Florida .... retirement homes, medical care, adult diapers .....

 

Mechanic. I work at a small shop on some classic cars, hot rods, and peoples daily driver OT junk.

 

I’m a registered nurse. I got my first nursing license in 2010 and I’ve been working for the government since 2015. I’m pretty new here so I look forward to picking up whatever crumbs of knowledge and know-how you others drop.

 

Heavy equipment mechanic. Field service. Work for a construction company that does dirt, concrete, and general contacting work. We build a lot of "luxury" apartments, and storage units

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Started on the farm working for the old man. Moved to the city and was a nursery hand, field research technician for farming research, factory hand, truck driver, builders labourer, panel beaters assistant and so on. Been a Police Officer now for 40 years, state and federal. Should retire someday but still enjoying it.

 

Thanks for the service you chose to do for your community!

 

Corporate aviation - aerospace industry. I've been truly blessed and hasn't felt like I've worked a day in the last 42 years. I've been with my current employer for 26 years...we mfg. some righteous aircraft.

 

Retired,,,,but "wet painted" in 15 years,and the last 5 i did powder paint.

 

There are some very interesting stories here and it's nice to not read much griping.
Some of us fell into what we enjoyed doing, some did what they needed to survive.
Depending on your situation, no job is menial if it puts money into the household.
This thread shows that it takes all types to keep this crazy country of ours moving.
A tip of the hat to all of you.

 

I agree with you there. My dad taught me growing up it don't matter if you're the ceo or sweeping the floor, you do the very best work you're capable of doing. That's my mentality to this day, and it's served me well.

It seems to be a common theme among car guys. We may not be perfect on here, but no lack of work ethic with you guys.

 

This thread is running at the same time as CBS' show "Tough As Nails". It's
in its second season and interesting as hell, at least to me. Wednesday
evenings, 7:00 CST.

 

I'm coming up on 30 years in the entertainment industry as a freelance cinematographer. Did a little of everything corporate, commercials, TV shows, couple of low pay movies not worth speaking of... Never news, thank god.
One cool thing is, I was a part of the last group cinematographers that used to shoot on actual film, 16 and 35mm. Now we're all digital and film is just a rare thing now.
I get to see a lot of cool stuff and be in some cool locations from time to time. I been a room with 10 million fly's all around me (in a protected suit), been in a old atlas missile silo, did some cool military stuff for General Dynamics, Aviation stuff ( love those clean shops), Racing stuff, shot open heart surgery one time, I was the gaffer (lighting director) for Pink's All Out at one time (drag racing show).... the list keeps going.
I get to see and experience your places of work, stem to stern usually.

Now after finishing my first full restoration on a 46 truck, that's all I want to do now.