Quick question; what do you do (or did you do) for a career?

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I think there's a saying on this forum along the lines of "Pictures; or it didn't happen"

lol

My last gig before retirement.

most-interesting-man-in-the-world.jpg
 
I'm on the welfare. ;em

Will be a disabled vet in a couple months after 11.5 years in the USAF. Fell from a roof about a year ago and broke my back. 3 blown discs, 2 crushed vertebrae. Uncle Sam said I was of no use to anyone, so out the door.

Dunno what I'll be doing next. Most of the things I enjoy I can't do for a living because of my back.

That is awful! Like I said above, my mom was hit by a drunk driver, she had a lot of spinal injuries. She has radiated vertebrae replaced in her neck. All these years later she still has good and bad days. I feel for you man, back pain is no joke, especially at your severity. You are still an asset to us, even if Uncle Sam doesn't think so :( Try to think positive thoughts (I know that can be hard when you are in excruciating pain) and good things will come to you. Not sure what you did for the USAF but with that sort if time in, you'd think they'd offer you something like flight scheduling or inventory/supply management where you wouldn't have to do any heavy lifting. I don't have any connections out in Alaska but maybe someone here can help! Chin up! :)
 
Did just about everything till 25 then got into real estate investing/rehabbing. Been semi retired since 33, am now 56. Spent a lot of winters in the South pacific since 1989.. Now i enjoy the cold weather with the help of 4 woodstoves at 4 different locations. No regrets.
 
I'm on the welfare. ;em
Will be a disabled vet in a couple months after 11.5 years in the USAF. Fell from a roof about a year ago and broke my back. 3 blown discs, 2 crushed vertebrae. Uncle Sam said I was of no use to anyone, so out the door.
Dunno what I'll be doing next. Most of the things I enjoy I can't do for a living because of my back.
Enjoy life as best you can, make lemonade from those lemons,here on hearth we dont know how to quit.
 
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2W071, Munitions. Anything from running a forklift, driving a tractor trailer to pulling apart missiles, throwing bombs together, etc. Some days just mowing grass or plowing snow. Pretty much anything that goes boom or bang minus nukes we deal with in some form or fashion.

In "the old days" they would put the "invalids" at a desk job, but with all the budget cuts and a smaller military they want only people that are 100%.


That is awful! Like I said above, my mom was hit by a drunk driver, she had a lot of spinal injuries. She has radiated vertebrae replaced in her neck. All these years later she still has good and bad days. I feel for you man, back pain is no joke, especially at your severity. You are still an asset to us, even if Uncle Sam doesn't think so :( Try to think positive thoughts (I know that can be hard when you are in excruciating pain) and good things will come to you. Not sure what you did for the USAF but with that sort if time in, you'd think they'd offer you something like flight scheduling or inventory/supply management where you wouldn't have to do any heavy lifting. I don't have any connections out in Alaska but maybe someone here can help! Chin up! :)
 
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I'm on the welfare. ;em

Will be a disabled vet in a couple months after 11.5 years in the USAF. Fell from a roof about a year ago and broke my back. 3 blown discs, 2 crushed vertebrae. Uncle Sam said I was of no use to anyone, so out the door.

Dunno what I'll be doing next. Most of the things I enjoy I can't do for a living because of my back.

That's definitely a bummer. You must be thankful just to be alive. Did this put an end to the Lotus racing?
 
I've been farming for 18 years. Currently my wife and I are running a managed grazing dairy, beef herd, hay, and row crops.
 
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Did just about everything till 25 then got into real estate investing/rehabbing. Been semi retired since 33, am now 56. Spent a lot of winters in the South pacific since 1989.. Now i enjoy the cold weather with the help of 4 woodstoves at 4 different locations. No regrets.
My Wife and I bought and sold a few houses and condos, and resold at a profit.....wasn't our intention, but we were able to buy cheap, fixem' up a little and sell a few years later (hot realestate market).....was easy to do being no kids.....and the market was right....did pretty well and put all the monies away in investments till we retire....last sale/ purchase was in 2007 in the house we are in now, gonna be here awhile with a down market, but it's a great house in a great neighborhood.
 
I'm on the welfare. ;em Will be a disabled vet in a couple months after 11.5 years in the USAF. Fell from a roof about a year ago and broke my back. 3 blown discs, 2 crushed vertebrae. Uncle Sam said I was of no use to anyone, so out the door. Dunno what I'll be doing next. Most of the things I enjoy I can't do for a living because of my back​
That is absolutely terrible. I hope things get better for ya Nate.
 
Sorry guys didn't mean to turn this into a "woe is me" thread ;em Thanks for the comments though, some days it's kinda depressing thinking about it and it really does help to have people that truly are concerned.

I'll get a bit of $$ each month from VA disability. Not enough to live off of, but every bit helps. Right now plans are to use a VA Voc Rehab program to go back to school. For what... honestly I'm not sure yet.
 
Sorry guys didn't mean to turn this into a "woe is me" thread ;em Thanks for the comments though, some days it's kinda depressing thinking about it and it really does help to have people that truly are concerned.

I'll get a bit of $$ each month from VA disability. Not enough to live off of, but every bit helps. Right now plans are to use a VA Voc Rehab program to go back to school. For what... honestly I'm not sure yet.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but what about a psycologist or counselor? There is such a need for them right now for our troops coming home with PTSD. My sister is interning at a non profit working with autistic kids, nd loves it, but is considering getting a special certification to work with adults, specifically for PTSD because that's where the jobs are right now :)
 
Started out in HS as a farmhand/groundskeeper on a very nice piece of property. Organic small grains and hay. Custom ground animal feeds. Grew up on a 3000+ acre beef farm (pretty big for these parts) with roughly 150-200 calving females each year. Did 4-H sheep and feeder pigs (sheep were year-round breeders, pigs were summertime only) and was very sucessful at our county fair, several Grand/Reserve champion animals. even more if you count my brother in.

Went to college, 1 year, for Computer Information Systems (loved computers as a hobby when I was a teen). Never finished, don't want to. Remember this was just after the dot-bomb bust and the job market was crowded with new techno weenies like myself. Starting wages were not pretty.

Went back to my old job as a groundskeeper for a summer, and heard about a possible opening at a local Deere dealership for a service tech. Was pretty handy with keeping our grounds equipment going so why not? Started as a service tech, both in the shop and on the road, mostly residential lawn and garden equipment. Moved into sales, did 800K my first year, 1 mil gross sales my 2nd before I went back to the shop, this time as the diesel/commercial equipment tech. After nearly 5 years there I switched to a Kubota/Komatsu dealer's light equipment shop, playing with mini-excavators, skid steers, compact tractors, and whatever smaller stuff came my way. Bottom dropped out of the economy not long after I started there and 6 months in, they started swinging the axe.

Laid off for the first time, looking for something, my old job at the Deere dealer called and offered to let me fill in for a tech that was overseas for several weeks. Their 2-cycle equipment had become rediculously backlogged and they needed help since it was mid-spring. Gig was supposed to last 3 weeks to a month but 10 days in (as I had just brought the backlog to zero) they said thanks, you're done after this week. :mad:

Good and PO'd (I was now ineligible to collect the unemployment ins from the Kubota dealer, and hadn't been employed long enough to collect from the Deere dealer) I was back on the hunt. My mother called and said she knew a golf superintendent had a few slots opening up for the summer. I called and the super asked "are you good help or just help?" ;lol. I knew nothing about golf course work other than how to mow grass (and only rough at that). He said I was vastly overqualified but if I wanted the job it was mine. They paid $9 an hour (I just came off a $16/hr job with full benefits, ouch, <>) but something was better than nothing at that point. Over the course of my career there I not only did grounds/greens work, I filled in when they were forced to let their mechanic go.

Began interviewing for my current position a few months after I started working for the course (with full disclosure and the super understood completely). Maintenance mechanic at a facility that applies thermal barrier coatings (ceramic) to turbine blades destined for the hot section of a jet engine. That's been paying the bills ever since. I've also decided that perhaps working for a faceless, often soulless corporate entity isn't my idea of a good time. So I'm testing the self-employment waters by running my small engine repair service out of my garage. I'm small-time, I have a few reliable customers. Enough that I'm learning how to run the business efficiently. It's all legit despite not making big enough numbers for the IRS to notice :oops: but I don't want trouble, I want something I can really make a go with. I'll be pushing to grow the business a bit more this year and see where it goes. Have a buddy whom I've been working with off and on for the last 8-9 years now, doing the same thing I am. We've talked about joining forces when the stars align. Here's hoping. ;)

EDIT: I never did really give up the golf course work. Liked it enough that I stayed on for weekends/holidays. Only required about 3 hrs a day and I did it because I enjoyed it, not for money. During the summer of 2011 I worked the spring/summer/fall for 6 hr days after coming off my night shift at my regular job. (I was on the course 7 days a week, often put in 25-30 hr timesheets on top of my regular job's 40.) While it was actually fun, I will not do that again unless absolutely necessary. Very hard on the body, even a young one. This year I only helped out with their peak needs (tournaments and aeration, weekends after the college kids went back to school.) and next year will most likely be the same.
 
Custodian for a small vocational school, great bennies low pay.
Building Energy Specialist, I audit 2 school districts for their energy use.(Cenergistic.com)
On Saturdays I do carpentry work for a friend who has a construction co.
 
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Sorry guys didn't mean to turn this into a "woe is me" thread ;em Thanks for the comments though, some days it's kinda depressing thinking about it and it really does help to have people that truly are concerned.

I'll get a bit of $$ each month from VA disability. Not enough to live off of, but every bit helps. Right now plans are to use a VA Voc Rehab program to go back to school. For what... honestly I'm not sure yet.
Just move to Canada. We are looking for people who want to work. I am sure there would be something in the Yukon for ya ;) That is a terrible situation and it pisses me off to see someone dedicate their life to a job like that and then get tossed to the can...F&*^%^
 
After high school I was a heavy equip operator (gravel pit) for a year before going into the Navy for a 4 yr stint. Got out and after that have been a computer dude ever since. IT manager for my company. We have 13 stores across 3 states and I do it all. Wiring, networking, MS servers, IBM mainframe, training....everything.
For side work I am BrotherBarts pimp.
 
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Started working on my friends farm (horses, hogs, beef, and row crops) when I was about 12. Worked on the farm here and there and there till I was about 16. Bailed hay, shovel chit, drove equipment, fed, etc.

I detasselled corn for two summers when I was 14-16.

Started working at a green-house when I was about 14...did that for a couple years then got "promoted" to the landscape crew. Started out on the landscape crew as chief string trimmer and wheel barrow operator. After a couple years, I think I was 17, I was still working for the same guy but had my own crew working for me. Did that until the summer I graduated high school.

I got an internship for a large on-line media retailer after high school doing everything from sorting mail to wrenching on machines to writing computer code. I interned there every summer through college. After I graduated they offered me a full time job as a system admin for their warehouse management system. Company sold out a couple years later and I left on my own terms before I got laid off.

Picked up a job at a big box retail distribution center as a department supervisor. That turned into PC repair, network installation and support, software support. That turned into basically industrial engineering. That turned into a brief sting slinging computer code and tech resourcing some projects. That turned into my current job that includes process development, system specification, testing, and training for distribution operations projects. I'm the ops guy who knows technology...or am I the tech guy who knows how to run a DC? Either way...I've been with this company for about 7 years now.

Not sure where I'll end up next. A lot of days I just want to get back to the farm or mowing grass and planting trees. Maybe I will someday. For now making firewood, gardening, and landscaping my own place cures most of that itch.
 
I'm the ops guy who knows technology...or am I the tech guy who knows how to run a DC?

That's me pretty much too. I've decided I'm the first. An ops guy that knows technology. I've gone back to school to study business management. Specifically, my major is Operations and Supply Chain Management.

-SF
 
Hey guys

I was just curious what everyone does/did for a living?

Since I asked the question I should be the one to answer: I am a police officer/investigator.

What about you?

Andrew

Try to avoid answering questions from police officer/investigator
 
Hey guys

I was just curious what everyone does/did for a living?

Since I asked the question I should be the one to answer: I am a police officer/investigator.

What about you?

Andrew

You're going to hate me, Chef. In addition to being a diehard Boston Bruins fan, I was a newspaper reporter for a long time. I now work in the corporate world as an editor, but I'll always be a reporter in my mind. It runs in my family and was a labor of love. Had to get out about 10 years ago once we had kids. The money blows.
 
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