What do you do for a living?

LartenCrepsley

janitor for a very dirty business. wont say more as it may break tos

Morozov

used to be a waste hauler trash compactor technician: daily job was to diagnose/repair failures in 480V / 230V mechanical/hydraulic systems.....while standing knee deep in garbage.

hated it so I learned tech...which was just a hobby I had for years.

Now I'm a build technician with a contractor working for a major pharma company. Spend most of my day building and imaging hardware for network teams and end users.

smells so much better

Lisa

I homeschool my three children.

Lysette

ContraTempo wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

Ok, I hire scientific staff, that is a bit different there. If they do not know who and what they are, have no idea how they could be of use to me and failed in their own business because they misjudged the effort required or whatever, why would I want to hire them?- they showed already, that they did not do their homework beforehand, I do not need this kind of people.

Edit: or to say it more clearly - I run a business, not a charity - whatever they have experienced in their life is not my problem, it is their's. I have a responsibility to my other staff, I have to provide work and make them happy, and I can just do that, if I hire the best I possibly can. I have to be successful in order to do that, I need really good staff, not wannabes.

See, that's the thing, there are many different careers out there and how it works in one won't be how it works in another. Plus location matters a lot. What might work in UK would be laughed at in India or South Africa. Ya, I won't ever be a genetics researcher because I needed to have special qualities and be on the career path for that early on. But I also won't be an Olympic athlete, a special forces operative, an astronaut, or a super model for the same reasons. So that eliminates 5 out of about a billion possible careers. The path ahead of you is only closed if you see it that way. Consider how diverse this thread shows our gaming companions to be.

Well, you are right with that methods which work in europe do not work the same in south africa - we made this experience with farm workers. As europeans we found it shameful to pay them that low wages and gave them a good raise and thought, this would make them and their families happy - it didn't, on the contrary, it caused misery.

The other day they did not show up to work, bought drugs and went to bars and were not seen by their families for days. Their families suffered. It took us a while to find out, why that is, and why they behave that way. Reasoning is - if someone has more than someone else and cannot affort to pay for security, he and his family is actually becoming a target to crime. It is dangerous to be not the average poor person in South Africa without enough money to pay for proper security.

So we had to lower the wages again and instead we give incentives - like schooling during work hours (paid of course), some cannot read or write, we hired teachers to make their life better in this regards. I am still feeling european and we do not want to pay that low wages, but it is not a good idea to raise those here either, it just makes them miserable. There is a huge difference between high level jobs and that of farm workers. A raise is not the same beneficial for both sides as in europe. No farm worker feels inclined here to work more or better just because of a raise. They rather have more spare time instead.

Edit: to be fair, our intention with raising wages was not just a "social" one, we actually wanted to "steal" all the good workers from competitors by having far better wages than anyone else in the region. But as you see, this tactic did not work out, due to the different mentality these people have and due to much higher crime rates in south africa, which makes everyone who is not average or able to pay for security a target.

RandallFlagg

Retired Developer- Built custom pension software for unions and corp's--good lord did I hate the end users and my last day before I sold the company I chucked my cell phone and have never looked back. And no to this day I flat out refuse to buy a cell phone and only grudgingly give out my email.

Lysette

RandallFlagg wrote: »

Retired Developer- Built custom pension software for unions and corp's--good lord did I hate the end users and my last day before I sold the company I chucked my cell phone and have never looked back. And no to this day I flat out refuse to buy a cell phone and only grudgingly give out my email.

Lol, just like my partner - she says "it's pure luxury NOT to be reachable" - she had to be reachable for a long time in her life, 24/7.

sirrmattus

Full time designer in the oil & gas industry. Currently praying for oil prices to go up.

filthymushroom

I'm a Business Engineering student. Working on my thesis right now... Almost.... done.....

flying_ace2

Registered nurse working as a consultant for a pharmaceutical company. No, I cannot/will not get you free drugs.......

DenMoria

Compliance and automation technologies.

Warraxx

I'm a non-paid quality control tester for Zos....

ContraTempo

Warraxx wrote: »

I'm a non-paid quality control tester for Zos....

Aren't we all?

Ionan

Lysette wrote: »

ContraTempo wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

Ok, I hire scientific staff, that is a bit different there. If they do not know who and what they are, have no idea how they could be of use to me and failed in their own business because they misjudged the effort required or whatever, why would I want to hire them?- they showed already, that they did not do their homework beforehand, I do not need this kind of people.

Edit: or to say it more clearly - I run a business, not a charity - whatever they have experienced in their life is not my problem, it is their's. I have a responsibility to my other staff, I have to provide work and make them happy, and I can just do that, if I hire the best I possibly can. I have to be successful in order to do that, I need really good staff, not wannabes.

See, that's the thing, there are many different careers out there and how it works in one won't be how it works in another. Plus location matters a lot. What might work in UK would be laughed at in India or South Africa. Ya, I won't ever be a genetics researcher because I needed to have special qualities and be on the career path for that early on. But I also won't be an Olympic athlete, a special forces operative, an astronaut, or a super model for the same reasons. So that eliminates 5 out of about a billion possible careers. The path ahead of you is only closed if you see it that way. Consider how diverse this thread shows our gaming companions to be.

Well, you are right with that methods which work in europe do not work the same in south africa - we made this experience with farm workers. As europeans we found it shameful to pay them that low wages and gave them a good raise and thought, this would make them and their families happy - it didn't, on the contrary, it caused misery.

The other day they did not show up to work, bought drugs and went to bars and were not seen by their families for days. Their families suffered. It took us a while to find out, why that is, and why they behave that way. Reasoning is - if someone has more than someone else and cannot affort to pay for security, he and his family is actually becoming a target to crime. It is dangerous to be not the average poor person in South Africa without enough money to pay for proper security.

So we had to lower the wages again and instead we give incentives - like schooling during work hours (paid of course), some cannot read or write, we hired teachers to make their life better in this regards. I am still feeling european and we do not want to pay that low wages, but it is not a good idea to raise those here either, it just makes them miserable. There is a huge difference between high level jobs and that of farm workers. A raise is not the same beneficial for both sides as in europe. No farm worker feels inclined here to work more or better just because of a raise. They rather have more spare time instead.

Edit: to be fair, our intention with raising wages was not just a "social" one, we actually wanted to "steal" all the good workers from competitors by having far better wages than anyone else in the region. But as you see, this tactic did not work out, due to the different mentality these people have and due to much higher crime rates in south africa, which makes everyone who is not average or able to pay for security a target.

I am an ignorant englishman in all of this, but doesn't the money go into a bank? Wouldn't only those people that flashed it about be in any kind of danger? There are certain areas of the UK where if you did flash your money about you wouldn't have it for long either. Also I want to say the novelty of having money wears off, I went through what those people did in your example as a kid when I got my first decent paying job, I blew it on experiences, probably from pent up steam from who knows how many hours studying just to get that money. I was out 5 nights a week at one point, crazy stuff but I wasn't alone in blowing off steam, we had money for the first time. - The novelty fades, for some it takes longer than others but doubtless it would for them too.

Dyynamic70

Architect. Specializing in custom estates and urban design these days, but have worked on all kinds of projects from ray domes in Greenland to commercial/retail/religious structures all over the USA

ButtersEP

I work with Point of Sale systems for Restaurant's, you could say I am POS guy.

leandro.800ub17_ESO

I work in IT (telecoms / network / systems)

sirrmattus

ButtersEP wrote: »

I work with Point of Sale systems for Restaurant's, you could say I am POS guy.

as long as you work, your are not POS

Lysette

Ionan wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

ContraTempo wrote: »

Lysette wrote: »

Ok, I hire scientific staff, that is a bit different there. If they do not know who and what they are, have no idea how they could be of use to me and failed in their own business because they misjudged the effort required or whatever, why would I want to hire them?- they showed already, that they did not do their homework beforehand, I do not need this kind of people.

Edit: or to say it more clearly - I run a business, not a charity - whatever they have experienced in their life is not my problem, it is their's. I have a responsibility to my other staff, I have to provide work and make them happy, and I can just do that, if I hire the best I possibly can. I have to be successful in order to do that, I need really good staff, not wannabes.

See, that's the thing, there are many different careers out there and how it works in one won't be how it works in another. Plus location matters a lot. What might work in UK would be laughed at in India or South Africa. Ya, I won't ever be a genetics researcher because I needed to have special qualities and be on the career path for that early on. But I also won't be an Olympic athlete, a special forces operative, an astronaut, or a super model for the same reasons. So that eliminates 5 out of about a billion possible careers. The path ahead of you is only closed if you see it that way. Consider how diverse this thread shows our gaming companions to be.

Well, you are right with that methods which work in europe do not work the same in south africa - we made this experience with farm workers. As europeans we found it shameful to pay them that low wages and gave them a good raise and thought, this would make them and their families happy - it didn't, on the contrary, it caused misery.

The other day they did not show up to work, bought drugs and went to bars and were not seen by their families for days. Their families suffered. It took us a while to find out, why that is, and why they behave that way. Reasoning is - if someone has more than someone else and cannot affort to pay for security, he and his family is actually becoming a target to crime. It is dangerous to be not the average poor person in South Africa without enough money to pay for proper security.

So we had to lower the wages again and instead we give incentives - like schooling during work hours (paid of course), some cannot read or write, we hired teachers to make their life better in this regards. I am still feeling european and we do not want to pay that low wages, but it is not a good idea to raise those here either, it just makes them miserable. There is a huge difference between high level jobs and that of farm workers. A raise is not the same beneficial for both sides as in europe. No farm worker feels inclined here to work more or better just because of a raise. They rather have more spare time instead.

Edit: to be fair, our intention with raising wages was not just a "social" one, we actually wanted to "steal" all the good workers from competitors by having far better wages than anyone else in the region. But as you see, this tactic did not work out, due to the different mentality these people have and due to much higher crime rates in south africa, which makes everyone who is not average or able to pay for security a target.

I am an ignorant englishman in all of this, but doesn't the money go into a bank? Wouldn't only those people that flashed it about be in any kind of danger? There are certain areas of the UK where if you did flash your money about you wouldn't have it for long either. Also I want to say the novelty of having money wears off, I went through what those people did in your example as a kid when I got my first decent paying job, I blew it on experiences, probably from pent up steam from who knows how many hours studying just to get that money. I was out 5 nights a week at one point, crazy stuff but I wasn't alone in blowing off steam, we had money for the first time. - The novelty fades, for some it takes longer than others but doubtless it would for them too.

This might be hard to understand for someone who does not live here, but by the same reason I pointed out above - security, be somewhat safe from crime - there is no real middle-class in south africa. You either earn enough money to pay for proper security or you are better off to be an average poor person - because everything inbetween has a higher risk to become a victim of crime. The rich protect themselves very well, they have own patrolling security, high-voltage fences, motion detection, surveillance cameras, fog-flooding units in the house - this all does not make them a target, criminals go for those where they can access stuff easily and where the risks are low - and so those are becoming victims, who are trying to be middle-class or better off than the poor ones. Crime is what holds this country back - well, that and corruption.

Edit: a bank, and farm workers - haha - these guys can often not even read, they are paid weekly in cash. Proper base level education is still a mess in south africa, no one really cares. High level education is very good on the other side, but that is backed up by money. Elementary schools often do not even have enough books for all of the kids. Well, it is getting better in the country side, but in cities that is still bad.

bbrown0770

3D GPS Heavy Construction Machine Control Manager
Build 3D models for GPS automated Bulldozers and other Heavy Construction equipment to run off of and keep the GPS electronics running

vamp_emily

Software developer

Dream job: International spy/trained assassin

katnip

Insurance Agent with Allstate.

thessera

I don't work , i am a student atm - studying 3D and Animation.
- I want to become a 3D artist - makeing 3D models for game and such XD

Nestor

I am a Sales/Design Engineer for a large Telecom Company. I design the networks that customers buy from us. I have been with this company for 11 years now.

AmakarGranaen

I do nothing.
It's the living that does FOR ME.

Divinius

Electrical Design Engineer. I work for a small company designing high-end passive electrical components. We sell to multiple markets, but I design a lot of the stuff for military, aerospace, and outer-space. There's stuff I designed that's on Mars right now.

Lysette

Divinius wrote: »

Electrical Design Engineer. I work for a small company designing high-end passive electrical components. We sell to multiple markets, but I design a lot of the stuff for military, aerospace, and outer-space. There's stuff I designed that's on Mars right now.

Now that is really cool. Not many can claim this.

nimander99

Run a franchise Penske location and data entry another 20 hours a week.

vamp_emily

thessera wrote: »

I don't work , i am a student atm - studying 3D and Animation.
- I want to become a 3D artist - makeing 3D models for game and such XD

I just started learning 3D modeling.

This is the only thing i have build using blender so far but I'm having fun learning the software during my lunch hour.
https://gyazo.com/d98e64cd9ca1b743f282cc3f6ce5e5d4

Good luck in school.

Divinius

Lysette wrote: »

Divinius wrote: »

Electrical Design Engineer. I work for a small company designing high-end passive electrical components. We sell to multiple markets, but I design a lot of the stuff for military, aerospace, and outer-space. There's stuff I designed that's on Mars right now.

Now that is really cool. Not many can claim this.

Well, it is only 2 components which are buried in a sub-system of a sub-system, of one of the many systems on the Curiosity Rover. But yes, it is pretty cool. I'm just glad they managed to land the thing on Mars without turning it into a charred pile of rubble. It would have been less impressive to say that I designed something that is now part of a burned lump on the surface of Mars.

Lysette

nimander99 wrote: »

Run a franchise Penske location and data entry another 20 hours a week.

I am not familiar with the name Penske - but what I can gather from the web, it is a truck rental business, is that what you meant?