Describe your career

Welcome to my world. I was at Rutgers until the end of my Junior year, getting laid and having fun, until my Grandmother got sick, and since no one in my family can afford to put her in assistant care or a nursing home, I get to take care of her. That basically means I sit around all day waiting for her to die. I know that sounds harsh, but I'm drunk and that's just the truth. I'm going back to finish in January, when it's my Sisters turn to take care of the Grandma for a semester.

Basically, FUCK YOU, Grandma. Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope drunken InTheShadows hits his grandmother and kills her. I'd laugh.

Tell me how to get away with it.

I work for the Human Resources Department of the local branch of the National Health Service over here in the United Kingdom. I've been there about four years now and it's gotten to the point where our immense migration of staff has left me as the only guy with a working historical knowledge of several key departments, on top of that I only work part-time so I regularly come into the office to about a hundred email queries.

This year I started using the money from this hellish nightmare of a job to fund myself through University, so it's not all bad.

Yeah, I've been in Uni since September. Three year course, then some teacher training. I swear I'd hate my job so much if it didn't serve such a crucial purpose, it's like 20 hours of maddening mind numbing tedium a week to fund the fun I have studying History.

Also I work in the Public Sector, so my chances of getting a payrise are non-existent.

I work two jobs at the same industry, service and tourism. I started a year ago as a program instructor in the field of Outdoor & Environmental Education at one of the most renowned facilities in the nation and the primary provider for Outdoor/EE on the East Coast. For those of you who are like "Rath, what the fuck is Outdoor & Environmental Education," what it means that I teach a constantly rotating school groups throughout the year on a variety of topics including science, nature, and cultural history. The topics change depending on the season and I also facilitate team building exercises, ranging from ground exercises to climbing and "high elements."

My other job here started late last spring, when I was commissioned to do some video work for our 50th anniversary. That expanded into a job during the summer as Podcasting & Digital Media Coordinator, which involved filming/editing the shenanigans that went on during our summer and uploading them to YouTube, as well as teaching kids basic film and editing techniques. Since I've figured out how to do these videos at a professional and inexpensive level, I've been given more and more responsibilities in that arena.

My latest assignment is redoing one of the facility's promotional videos, for which I'm teaching myself Final Cut and bringing in a professional cinematographer (the one who worked on the film I shot in 2007). Unfortunately this, coupled with other responsibilities given to me this season (I'm programming a film series for our winter camp, which will either be a Stan Winston Memorial or a Modern Musical Retrospective, not to mention my continuing work with the marketing department here), have made it so I'm working two full-time jobs. It's been a stressful and agonizing past couple of months, but I'm grateful for the opportunities. They're ones I probably wouldn't get anywhere else.

I'm an assistant story editor on a small Canadian reality show. It's a pretty good deal, I got to fly to Nova Scotia and work there and enjoy the free cabin and catering for a week, and since then I've been working at the main office in Vancouver, which is pretty much the most chill job ever. I compile footage and find stuff for people and do character assemblies in Final Cut, but mostly I just fuck around on the internet and drink coffee.

The key to having a chill job and not letting your body break down is simply to take your health into your own hands. Make a conscious effort to go for walks or get exercise regularly in whatever way you enjoy, drink lots of water, eat healthy stuff and don't just pig out on junkfood and pop all day, and MOST IMPORTANTLY maintain your social life and make sure you get out of the house and interact with others every once in awhile. Also, maintain your personal hygiene, don't stop showering or brushing your teeth.

Follow all these simple rules and you too can enjoy a lazy job while still maintaining some integrity as a human being.

Interesting thread. I studied in a creative writing program in University, but as you can guess, that's not worth much coming out. It was fun and interesting, learning how to write for plays, films, fiction and so on. Great interesting classes.

So then I dropped out. I worked for about a year for BELL CANADA, a telecom company shilling their shit, which was unbearable. I figured since I was decent at writing, maybe I could try my hand at teaching english overseas? I thought about doing it for a year to get some new experience. I ended up in China for 2 and half years, and tomorrow morning I leave for a city in northern china for another year or two. I won't do this for the rest of my life, but I now know that a career in Education is what I'd like to do. It's been the most interesting rewarding time of my life, and not in the monetary sense (i get paid a good wage by chinese standard, but not a sustainable wage by canadian standard). I get satisfaction out of my work. I've met so many different and interesting people from all over the world (australians are weird).
The pressure on students to select a profession right out of high school is just too unrealistic. I hadn't even got laid yet and here I was supposed to have my career figured out.

I'm an 8th grade English teacher that spends a lot of time lecturing about the various topics that I have for the students, then I give them their assignment to do. I have to get up at 6:45 in the morning for the 30 minute drive, but thats the worst thing about my work day. I get nights and weekends off, and I've been off since yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The job can be stressful, but damn if it's not worth it once the paycheck comes in. I also like to talk a lot, so the lecturing comes natural to me.

I'm a lecturer in video production 101 at a college in outer London and a cameraman/editor for a small production company.

On a rare job we'll do a music video or corporate demo - but mostly it's conferences in London, weddings and gigs. Lowest end of the scale - but there's massive demand for it to be done well, and we're artistically very conscious of our work - it's not about just shooting and cutting any old crap together. More importantly, we never need to advertise since word-of-mouth is so good.

I love my work, it affords me time to watch films with someone who opened my eyes to the likes of Carpenter and De Palma - directors who I used to have zero respect for. It's helped me develop an acute eye for composition, lighting and each day I learn something new.

More importantly, it gets me out of the house where I feel least productive and in with a select group of people who teach me so much stuff that I feel i'm missing something when i'm not there.

That's the production company, anyway. The college is shit, students couldn't care less and it's depressing to see them wasting time.

I'm an architectural technician, which means I develop and draw all the pretty plans for building. I'm lucky to do this from preliminary status, to sell the building, to execution. On-site inspections, surveys and so on. It's mainly as desk job, but at least I can go out often depending on the construction phase. We mainly do high-rises and bigass condos.

Not a bad job at all, but I'm lucky to be in a smaller, more stable firm in the city. 5 years in the same place in my profession is rare, as the flux of employees goes with projects and the economy, but I want to get out of the private sector and go into the para-public sector. More stable.

Yeah, its all about basic personal upkeep. At first when you're in a situation where you have an easy/work from home job you usually get drunk with power and let everything go. This is a mistake! Avoid the temptation to let go of your regular sleep schedule and stay up until 7am every day, avoid the temptation to live on junk food and watch a zillion hours of TV a day, avoid the temptation to become a weird smelly hermit most of all, just go OUTSIDE on a regular basis and you'll be fine.

Join a gym. Even if you're not into exercise, it's a great way to break up the day - keep it on a schedule and just do a little rowing and running.

That way you'll get out and about, see some interesting-looking people and your body will become less tolerant of crap food.

Heaven forbid that I'm actually in my career now, but I'm still stuck as the clerk for my family's convenience store. It's been 2 years now. Sad, I know. But as WG says, it's a matter of discipline.

I'm surrounded by easy access to junk food for half the day. I've had a computer here now for a while which is cool because I can access CHUD all day, but has the potential to constantly keep me on my butt. And for a while, I let myself go a little without even realizing it. Only in the past several months have I actively decided to eat better and keep fit and it's been working.

Because most of my time is locked up in this store (I only get Sundays off and as you can see, I'm here on Thanksgiving as well... we don't close!!!), I've come to appreciate the ...

[TIME GAP!]

And in fact, a dude just tried to take 2 cans of beer straight out of the store ("Happy Thanksgiving, dawg!") so I pursued. The guy's saying out loud that he bought it and refuses to give them up. I grabbed his shirt and requested the cans back but he struggled back saying that I "couldn't do this!" I think his elbow hit me in the cheek. Knocked my glasses off. But I refused to let go of his sweatshirt so he eventually gave those up. He got 2 beers. I got his hat and sweatshirt (now in the trash can). That's a fair trade, right? Heheh.

Sorry about the tangent. Just wanted to put that down when it was fresh in my mind.

I go to school, work at a comic book shop, pitch comic ideas, and right now I'm getting paid to help someone ghostwrite a biography.

grad student/instructor I'm in the fine arts program at Herron School at Art in Indianapolis. it's a fine gig, I get paid decent and I have my own "office" space. the down side is that I get to teach your basic run of the mill entry level drawing classes from 9 am to 3:30.

I probably should have waited and assessed the situation before chipping in with my awesome admin jobs, it's no fun to be the only guy in the thread living an Orwellian nightmare of tedium.

I got a BFA (Bachelor of Fuck All) in theatre, MA in playwriting. Somehow that qualified me to work is social rehabilitation for people with enduring mental illness coming out of prison & medium security mental institutions, eventually becoming the assistant manager at the project.

Now I work with street involved (Read: mentally ill and drug addicted) people helping them to maintain their housing. Thing is, The government refers people to me and they're slow as fuck so I only ever have about 10 ciients and since I do home visits and can do my paperwork from home and they're always high and never show up for appointments, I only work about 20 hours a week, most of it from home playing video games and listening to wicked music.

I also have stupidly good health care and related benefits so, basically, i'm drunk all the time.

I'm a "Level 3 Processor" for a mortgage brokerage. Basically, I review all loans before they're submitted to an underwriter, and after they're approved I coordinate with the borrower to get any conditions the underwriter requests. In between all of that I put out fires, sniff out potential problem loans to fix, etc. It's a boring job to read to the description above, but I've got 5 years of working in the mortgage industry (mostly refinance, and no, I'm not one of the guys who destroyed the housing market and economy, I help out people in a lot of debt) as a loan officer and operations guy, so the level of familiarity makes it interesting. The pay is ok (hopefully getting better when the market improves a little) and my health benefits that kick in in December are ridiculously awesome.

I had been going to college as a Music Education major with the goal of becoming a high school band instructor, but ran out of money for college in my junior year. Funny, life.

Software Development Quality Assurance. I'm a consultant for a Microsoft development/support company, and my current gig has been at a MAJOR medical company for a year now. My team kicks major ass, and I recently got promoted and received a raise. Based on recent contract signings, I will be on this current gig through March or so, but we're in their paperwork (all but signed) through all of 2009.

I actually love my job. Prior to this, I was in banking. I was very good at my job, but I didn't care for it much. I'm actually thinking of doing a thread of banking advice for people (how to talk your way out of overdraft fees, etc...), but we'll see.

I am a partner in one of the most successful post-production sound houses in Canada. It's success has nothing to do with me, I got in at the right time. Basically, I started a small sound effects editing company to do freelance work for the film and TV industry. I worked for a number of companies/productions in Western Canada before my current business partners decided that it was better to buy out my company then keep hiring me. I took a pay cut but stability is worth it.

My basic job is to edit sound effects into movies or TV shows. I also do background work, walla and ADR. It's the last part that's the coolest part of my job. I've got to work with some seriously awesome people and have a great time doing it.

My other job is the creation of an animated project. We were about three months away from going to the computers to animate when our animator decided to up and get married to a trust fund baby. He's now living in Boston doing pick up gigs as an inker for Marvel and being a kept house husband. So, we're back to square one, looking for a new character designer and animator. The scripts are pretty cool, if I do say so myself, and we hope to be back in good shape by the end of next quarter.

I've had the last six months off looking after my beautiful daughter while doing very minimal work for the studio. But that comes to an end shortly as our money is drying up (damn economy!)

Bus Dev for a research analyst firm. Until last week I lived in fear that I'd be shit canned for not bringing in any new business. I'd be alone and homeless on the streets of San Francisco, just like all the homeless people I avoid every day I go to/from work. Then last week I actually brought in a large deal. So now I'm only half-afraid of getting shit canned.

I recently lost my part-time job at one of the world's largest defense contractors this past summer because my GPA was too low. I had a 2.9, needed a 3.0. That was disappointing.
So now I'm just a full-time student, studying electrical engineering, a year away from graduation. There are times when I question whether I can stand making a career out of it. There aren't many days where I feel excited or motivated about the material. But I think I'm fairly decent at it, the pay is good and I can't deny that I have the brain of an engineer. I'm just going down this track and seeing where it leads.

It's always beautiful when a new sysadmin is born! *sniff* Your IV of rye will be installed shortly ...

To answer the thread: worked as a lead programmer on a bunch of major IT projects for Fortune 50 companies but stupidly decided to try middle management. Couldn't play the game well enough and went back to programming but gradually faded away due to health issues as the brain has slowly (literally) turned to mush.

Obvious career choice: business manager for a dental clinic this past year.

I closed-caption television shows (actually, mostly quality-control other's work) while I search for a public library job so I can use my kinda-new MLIS. Record stores and hippie co=ops before that. I was finding myself after college. or something.

I'm a recent Berkeley grad and my first job out of college was working for the Obama campaign in Vegas. By the end of that campaign, I had been promoted to the regional director of the Ride to the Polls program from mid-October through Election Day. I am currently an organizer for the Democratic Party and my next campaign gig seems to be with the Gavin Newsom gubernatorial campaign.

Organizing is, to me, really fun and rewarding. You never feel adrift in the job: you have a goal every minute of the day and you either meet it or you don't. The downside to the job--at this stage--is you work fucking insane hours (18-20 hours a day, seven days a week) and get paid very little for it ($30k a year). Outside of that, it's a wonderful field filled with extremely educated and interesting people.

You're not the only one, Spike. I used to work as a paralegal at a mid-sized law firm, which basically involved glorified secretary work for less pay than an actual secretary. At least you can sort of justify the hell you're trapped in by saying you work in an industry that (allegedly) helps the people who are unable to help themselves. That's certainly not the case for the legal profession.

Funny (but cool) how loving movies can bring such a diverse crowd together, isn't it. You all have some interesting stories to tell.

After years of doing music for art projects & playing in bands- both of which didn't earn me a dime- last year I finally got my act together, and started a music production company called 'McEnroes' with a longtime friend (yes, it's a tribute to John). To our own amazement, that's starting to work pretty well on the connections we already had, and we're ready to launch a website any day now and start courting some other, and bigger clients.
I'm more & more combining that with helping out the former manager of one of my previous bands to start up her own agency. And since that also seems to be on the verge of some abling growth, I hope to be able to ditch my bill-paying part time editing job at a local newspaper within the next few years.

I write for a daily newspaper, covering crime and local politics. Started in the sports department about four years ago and moved into general news two years ago. In fact, as I type this, I'm just back in the office after shooting pictures for the paper at various stores for Black Friday.

I'm a retired professional soldier who is still taken somewhat aback by the leisurely pace of civilian life. I think I'm doing ok, since I weaned myself from waking up at 0330 to go to work, but I still do 90 minutes of PT in the morning.

I've been debating on whether or not to get a consulting job or get into contract work, but I'm too busy enjoying myself. also, I really did not get along with most of the people I worked with.

I can understand InTheShadows frustration by having his grandmother stay with him. Not too long ago, I had a similar experience with my mother-in-law who fakes senility to get attention. Especially at 2 in the morning.

The last time it happened, I led her back to her room, sat her down on the bed, and told her that the next time I hear a noise coming from downstairs, I would kill whatever was making it. The attention-whoring stopped after that.

Suffice it is to say, that the soon-to-be ex wife was none too pleased.

Though I have a rich fantasy life, I actually work for an insurance company in New York City. It's been a great gig, particularly since four different managers in my company have been writing stellar reports on my performance. Yeah, I let them use my place from time to time for their extracurriculars, but that's a small price to pay to ride the express elevator to the top!

Just last week, I attracted the attention of my company's personnel director. The guy's got real juice, and I think he's going to take me to the next level. We'll see how things work out.

I hate you Frank. Your boring fantasy job sounds better than my real-life job.

Well, that's the way it crumbles--cookie-wise, that is.

And this is why we miss Frank when he's not around!

And thus does L.O.L. go up a few more notches in my book of coolness.

My Dad does the 'look how old I am' game in order to keep attention on himself. He's 82, but he's in great physical (and pretty good mental) condition. When he thinks that you're not watching, he's as spry as can be and does things without any problem. When he has your attention, it's another story. This drove my mother NUTS up until the time that she died, so now my siblings are stuck helping 'poor old Dad' who is JUST FINE.

eta: We all still love my Dad, though. Apart from the Attention-whoring, he really is a hell of a guy.

I worked in film volunteering and doing entry-level jobs in the industry...then took half a year of University and dropped out...then I did more of the same in film...and now I have a fairly tedious, dull position at a bank. But there isn't much work to be done and the pay is decent. I type this while my coworkers enjoy a rock-paper-scissors tournament in the other room...and prepare comments about the weather for lunch room conversation. I will probably end up returning to University to enroll in a Sociology course...though I've no idea yet what I want to pursue exactly, I have a knack for the subject...and direct some short films to see if I have any talent writing and directing. Or kill myself, should I for some odd reason live out this stagnant position longer. The only way that could happen, I surmise, would be to knock up a chick, but luckily I am not so successful with women.

i'm a Power Engineer (fancy title for building operator)

i run heating/cooling systems, air distribution systems, pool upkeep and maintenance

all for a fancy dancy hotel chain (hyatt)

its great, i have learned a lot about fixing stuff.

On the side i dj. usually for booze.

I work in film production here in New Orleans. Usually in the production office which means lots of ordering stuff, making runs to set or making sure runs are made to set, insuring everyone from the actors to the set PA's have what they need.

We are usually some of the first locals on a project and at the end we are the last ones here. I have literally locked the doors and turned in the keys for several different shows.

I have been doing this pretty consistently since moving back to New Orleans in June 2005. I have worked on everything from a Zatarain's commercial and low budget films to major studio shows. Also, I have had some great experiences such as asking/telling Brad Pitt to move out of the way to having my name on the race cars in the next Final Destination movie.

This is really all I want to do. Sure I would like to be more on the creative side, but I need to pay the bills. There are gaps between gigs, but sometimes that works well and I get to spend time with the family.

I love you.

I'm a reference librarian at an academic library. It's a 30 hour/week job. I spend 5-10 hours a week on the reference desk, answering questions in person, on the phone, and via IM; doing the type of work that most people think of when they hear "librarian." I spend the rest of my time designing web materials, attending meetings, helping to prepare for the move we're about to undertake (picture your college/university library. Now try and picture moving all of the books. In order.), and teaching library research classes, which, this semester, have ranged in topic from freshman comp to film history to Celtic studies to famous animals in history to library science.

It's a delightfully weird job and I hope to do it or something very much like it for the rest of my life.

You're gonna meet someone. You're gonna fall in love. She's going to attempt to kill herself. You've been warned.

Also...clean the racket before you make pasta.

As for me, I teach at a small college in Boston (English/Writing and electives like History and Film). A good portion of the students are from inner-city areas like Dorchester and Roxbury, although quite a few are from Southie, New Hampshire and other parts of rural New England. It's pretty amazing how well everyone gets along, despite their differences socially and economically. It can be challenging (they all have their defense up day one; nobody wants to study English/Writing even though they all know they need to work on it) but it can be tremendously rewarding work. I get along really well with my colleagues and the students and some days I leave home feeling really proud about what I do.

So when I was doing a research paper on Guido Mazzoni and I requested a journal based on one of his works, and never received it, I can blame you right?...right?

You'll have to talk to the people in Interlibrary Loan. I'm just the human encyclopedia.

I'm an editor/MX operator for TVNZ, the state broadcaster here in little ole' New Zealand.

Aside from cutting tracks with reporters for the daily news bulletins, I also work in the media exchange, a kind of control room where all the info coming in from reporters in the field and overseas is processed.

A really cool job, can have its moments of quiet where we all just sit around talking movies, followed by moments of insanity (usually in the lead up to the 6 o'clock news).

My deal ain't a career, it's a job. I handle accounting for a large part of the state government, and it sucks. I also go to college for a teaching degree.

Consequently, the accounting job will probably be better than teaching in the long run, but this job sucks dicks.

Jake and I may be teaching your kids some day.


...That's right.

Only 50% of that statement scares me.

Yeah. Jake eats babies for breakfast. In delicious BBQ sauce.

InTheShadows, on the other hand, will teach them how to post 900 times a month on a message board without ever attaining pertinence.

I'll take the baby eater.