what do you do for a living???

[toolman]

Might have been asked before but who cares... I know not everyone is a professional or has a career, and might even be retired....but post up anyway what you used to do or what you are working for later on.

I'm a journeyman Tool and Die maker...hence the name.

In layman's terms I make the machines and tools that literally make everything. In specific terms I typically use steel (and other materials) and turn it into something that makes alot of something else. If you have ever seen the show "How it's made" you can see my handy-work. Engineers draw things and put them on paper and puter files....I turn those pictures into objects you can touch.

There is high chance that YOU have been in contact with something that has gone though something I had my hand in. I have built machines or tooling parts for just about every industry that makes things from cat scratchers to turbine engines. I've done so much for so many places only the real cool stuff or work that I was heavily involved in really stands out in my memory anymore.

I take alot of pride in my work and feel lucky to live in a area that has exposed me to the amount of knowledge and experience I have attained. I feel confident saying that from a mechanical standpoint there is nothing I cannot make given the proper tools. I was fortunate to be tutored by a guy that turned screws (props) for U-boats when he was a teen and has stuff he made up on the moon today.

It's not a glorious job, pay is decent (although has REALLY sucked since I got in the trade during the 90's until recently) I'm typically dirty and usually am around stuff that will kill or hurt you REAL bad all day long....but it's very satisfying and I learn stuff all the time.

[Mahui_II]

Im an idiot law student but am graduating in May and will be working at a law firm in Miami, Florida come fall.

[hoppin bob]

I'm a Central Office Equipment Installer for a major telecom. It's kind of confusing to explain. Most people don't even know they have driven past a Central Office or a remote a thousand times. Basically everything that goes over the phone lines or the fiber optic lines ends up at a Central Office via Cross connect boxes, ESA sites, remotes, and ORMs. I install the equipment that runs all that stuff. It's a fun job, pays well enough to have the wife stay at home, and you have to constantly learn new technologies to keep up with growth and demand. I have always enjoyed it. Been doin phone work for 17 years, it's what I plan to retire doing. If the greedy bastards don't steal my pension

[Sarge 1/68th Armor]

A lifetime ago, field service tech for a cable company under ground and overhead work. Then played with MBT all four positions. Moved around and landed in Vegas as a slot machine tech then Slot Manager in Taos. Ended up in Cedar City, UT making solid rocket engines got tired of that and became a HVAC tech until my body decided decided to almost paralyse my left leg whiched forced me to find this god forsaken gaming site and discover there are more people like me with no life either.

[Ready-FIRE-Aim]

. Then played with MBT all four positions whiched forced me to find this god forsaken gaming site and discover there are more people like me with no life either.

Are you trying to tell us there is a Kama Sutra for MBT's ?

[SimpleEpicness]

Are you trying to tell us there is a Kama Sutra for MBT's ?

That made my day.

I'm still a student at the moment, but I do have a job, and since it's so hard to find another job I can't exactly afford to quit working at this god forsaken post office.

[Beaver]

Utility Arborist / Arborist

[billythekid1]

On august the 12th 1991 i started an an apprenticeship in sheetmetal fabrication in the uk, mainly stainless steel fabrications for the food and beverage industry. The company i worked was called Wincanton engineering,it got bought out yrs later by Danrow and now is owned by Tetra Pack .They still make and developed new machinery and equipment for making cheese,beeer,fizzy drinks,alcohol etc etc.

I then went on to complete a national diploma in engineering where i learnt more about materials and coposition etc.. This i found interesting and could make me more money but i prefered to be more hands on..

In 2003 i moved to New Zealand where i started on sheetmetal again and loved it,I made a few light houses that are still in use around new zealand which i think is quite cool..I then in the same company went into the heavy fab side of things and started doing massive repairs on mining equipment gold mine stuff.Repairs on CAT dozeers diggers etc ..

11Yrs on im at a company called Milmeq. We build machinery out of stainless that basically turns animals into meet, slaughter house equipment. We build everything from the knocking box to the boning room..i was away 3 months this year installing one we built recently..What amazed me was the amount of stuff in the roof space hidden out the way that controls everything down stairs. Right now we are waiting for drawings to make a slaughter house in Mexico,australia (midfield meets) and somewhere in spain.. the Mexico slaughter house will be able to dispatch 300 plus beef and hour when at full speed..

[Sarge 1/68th Armor]

. Then played with MBT all four positions whiched forced me to find this god forsaken gaming site and discover there are more people like me with no life either.

Are you trying to tell us there is a Kama Sutra for MBT's ?

I was laughing before I even posted that...thanks for pointing it out!

[Ready-FIRE-Aim]

I'm sort of retired.

I'm fully retired from a 30 year career in construction industry labor relations. As a management representative I usually collaborated with international vice presidents of the union and did mid-level mediation work. Also did some front line negotiations and a bit of arbitration on occasion. In retirement I miss the challenges of that work, dearly miss my colleagues on both sides of the table, but don't miss the travel one bit. It was regularly 100 airplane trips or more a year for me. And please don't mistake my career as a management rep for being anti-labor. Quite the contrary. The folks that actually build stuff, be they union or not, are the foundation of our society and the economy. And for all those enquiring minds, yes, I still know a few people who know some people.

Now my dual, encore career is as a volunteer chairman of the board of a regional community health center and as the volunteer chairman of a regional economic development authority. I began these activities about 16 years ago while I was still fully employed in my labor job.

The community health center is not a free clinic, but does provide primary health care to everyone regardless of means. Its the kind of stuff that gladdens my heart every day.

The economic development work involves supporting local businesses, assisting them with any growth plans, and recruiting new business to the region. In the latter category, I often have to negotiate performance agreements in exchange for economic incentives that might be offered. My career experience helps out a bit with that.

An adjunct responsibility of my economic development work, for more than ten years now, has been to assist my county government in its comprehensive planning mandate, a topic that seems to be of some interest within these forums. So let me state unequivocally, that I have never worked for, never taken any direction from, never ascribed to any policy of, nor ever meekly accepted any initiative of the United Nations.

Other than that, I'm just a kept man.

[billythekid1]

you forgot to add an avid rugby fan also jack

[Ready-FIRE-Aim]

I was afraid that would have made my post too long...

[C'mon Son]

I was an assistant manager for a EDM manufacturing company but just quit recently due to office political BS. Now I will be working as a field service tech for a competitor. I demoted myself so I will not need to deal with the "in" office BS anymore. Took a 7,000 paycut but now I'm hourly and hopefully pulling overtime will make it up.

[Sarge 1/68th Armor]

Big city boy. Steal hubcaps.

[toolman]

I was an assistant manager for a EDM manufacturing company but just quit recently due to office political BS. Now I will be working as a field service tech for a competitor. I demoted myself so I will not need to deal with the "in" office BS anymore. Took a 7,000 paycut but now I'm hourly and hopefully pulling overtime will make it up.

EDM=Electrical discharge machine. very cool machines that do some crazy precise work on steel/metal regardless of how hard the materiel is. +/- .0002 of a inch all day long.

truly a industrial innovation that is second only to computers/plc's to my industry over the last 50 years.

[Swanny-CG]

I do IT stuff at a defense contractor. We handle most of what we call "shared services," or stuff everyone in the company uses. We mostly do server-side stuff (another team handles the network side and another team handles security) like email, directory services, virtual/SAN management, etc.

[Nightstalker]

Worked on the B1B Lancer for 6 yrs as a crew chief which is the jack of all trades not just specialized in one area. That was the job that carried the most pride I have ever done and made me feel as if what I am doing actually made some difference. Even though it probably didn't.

Now I have the luxury of knowing that in the event you need to make a copy/print/scan of something and your machine screws up, which they always do, I will run over as fast as I can but never fast enough and fix your "this things is a POS" copier, printer, fax, scanner, all in one and save your company from nuclear melt down because your loaded paper wrong in the drawer.

[RickPetko]

Retired Air Traffic Controller. Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center.
Do you see the two data blocks that are about to merge ?
TURN AROUND AND WORK YOUR SECTOR RP !!!

[Nightstalker]

You look completely different from the picture of you in the plane.

Good thing you could not Alt Tab into DC from that PC

[RickPetko]

Ya there's only 8 Data blocks on the scope. It was late one evening around 10PM when that was taken. I look Tired back then. That's why they let us retire at 50, and force us out by 56.

[Killora]

Air traffic controllers get worked to death. They can't quit on the spot, they have to wait for a replacement (which could take months.) And they work insane hours.

That would be why they force you out at 56.

[billythekid1]

love ya ricky baby,,
glad to see your cheery face back bro.. now what happened to yuor face book?

[swodi]

grew up on a family farm/ranch, rodeo'd 15 years, softball since I can't remember, raced stock cars, dirt bikes, nationally ranked drag racing and water skiing - snow ski instructor/patrol - then moved to a software company in colorado springs for 13 years building designing and doing the technical part of sales for in international infrastructure software vendor... Close to 3000 flights and 9 years later with no real life (but a super Fun one ) I quit at 40yrs old to take a break...

I now play pool, poker, darts, craps.... if you're cute maybe a bit of blackjack.... if you're super cute - roulette...
~save the bowling for real ass's - two times to nationals (not lovely once there either time (() in bowling... but one of my favorite things to do...

I love to hunt most things legal - I'm native american and my mom lives on our rez with most of her family - I can appreciate jokes about cowboys n indians - I eat turkey on Thanksgiving and cuss it at the same time... :/ I was adopted by Germans when I was 2.... :/

Is this my fk'n facebook page....? Can't I copy/paste this from somewhere or something?

I got so sick of Wake in the beta and demo of 1942 that I was glitching all over the place by the time the actual game was released (wish I'd known Beav then, because I have a feeling he did that too!) but have loved bf since - still having fun with '42, dc, 3 - and looking forward to the new ones!

~edit: thanks to Stu for my most awesome sig pic - which I take much pride (as does my bank account) for being in Colorado - which has made it legal for any adult within the state to have up to 1oz of weed on them - as well as some finer points - but I take much pride (for 8 years now) in being part of helping make this possible... was much pain involved, that's why we started with the medical part of it

[bRiNK]

I'm a full-time pre-med student and part-time hacker . I also do a little work for Apple Inc. at a call center. I pretty much just tell people how to fix their Mac's.

[Dr.SunHud]

Currently Dell Service Tech. I drive all over central and north Florida repairing, installing computers for School districts, colleges, hospitals, and city and state government branches.

Previously I worked for Cobham, Lockheed, General Electric, Overhead door co, Rotorway International(just to name a few). I done all kinds of stuff, from wrenchin on cars, trucks, tractors, been a welder, steel fabricator, draftsman, Truck driver, carpenter, worked on drill rig for couple years. Did a lot of electro mechanical assembly work.