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[YaBish]

Summer job is kinda weird. I work as a contractor for a bounce house delivery company. I drive around setting up bounce houses, then I take em down at night. Hours and pay are pretty good comparative to some other small jobs I've had.

But when college starts up again in the fall, I'll be starting a new position as a tour guide for prospective students, and a paid research assistant position.

Plus I do graphic design commission work on the side, though I'm focusing more on personal work at the moment.

 

[Kayo Police]

I work for Miller/Coors, help with deliveries at grocery stores and a few c-stores.

Pros: I get a company car to drive around, How long my day is reliant on how many cases/stops I have that day. I'm on a mostly grocery route so I only have on average 5-7 stops. Because of that I don't have to brave the crap weather in Texas much.

Cons: Your long days are long. Longest day I've had was 18 hours straight. Receivers are either your best friend or your worst nightmare. As someone who goes to the gym before work, I get annoyed at just how much lifting and moving around cases we do. My company is super strict about dress code. I was forced to dye my hair back to it's natural color and another time received a written for wearing my hair in a manbun.

 

[Arkhanor]

I'm an Android developer at a brazilian Startup. But I'm also a Game developer (while working on my personal projects).

 

["God's Beard!"]

Not to mention a famed professional documenter of Italian Meals.

One thing that hasn't changed is that I still spend way too much money on food.

 

[Ingeniero]

Construction Superintendent at a big construction company in South America.
Currently working at high voltage transmission line project.

Pay is good and the shift is OK (9 days in, 5 days off).
The days are very long tho (~13 hours/day).

 

[bemusedchunk]

Systems Administrator for a local University.

Pros: Pay is great. Job can be very easy and don't have a lot of work to really do. Bennies are good too. Where I want to be in my career.

Cons: Commute sucks. It's usually just a little over an our. I also have to make work for myself, which is tough for me.

 

[Markitron]

R&D Polymer Chemist

 

[Pantaghana]

Constructor at the projects and construction department in a shipyard.

The good:
Plenty of room for advancement
I like mechanical engineering and this has plenty of it
Pay is alright

The bad:
Due to several developmental and communication issues, my current project is in development hell and fixing the mess is out of my hands, my only option is to sit at my workstation until the higher ups resolve the issues and give me the documentation and resources needed for me to to do my job. While waiting I've read all of the GoT books. Seriously.
The building I'm in is falling apart, the toilets don't have seats and people have to bring their own toilet paper. I wish I was fucking kidding.
45+ minute commute in each direction.

 

[maxcriden]

[QUOTE="God's Beard!";237702972]One thing that hasn't changed is that I still spend way too much money on food.[/QUOTE]

Ha! Well, since you are a bonafide illustrator, I think it would be only fair if you illustrate your famed meal for GAF's benefit.

 

[protomouse]

DevOps engineer at a company that delivers software and services primarily in the automotive aftermarket industry. My primary responsibility is to continually build a software service platform, as well as ensure that our software developers can get their stuff into the cloud reliably and smoothly. I also coordinate a contracted 24/7 operations support team.

Pros:
+ I get to work with really neat technology. Go, Docker, Elasticsearch, tons of AWS services.
+ I get to work on open source software.
+ I'm responsible for systems at scale.
+ Short commute by bike.

Cons:
- We're under-staffed. No one can really cover for me, and I've additionally had to straddle a software developer position for the past 6 months.

 

[Thing on a Spring]

As of two weeks ago, I now manage the air testing division of an asbestos consultant company. 11 years with the firm. Lots of driving, pay ain't great but otherwise a great firm to work for. Very close to where I live (less than 5 mins drive), 25 days each year plus all bank holidays, flexible working hours and good people to work with. Downside is dealing with the dunderheads we encounter.

 

[MarmiteBadger]

Factory work? Would you recommend it as a long term thing, do you need any specific qualifications?

To be honest, it depends if the company pays well, offers opportunity to either move around in the company or a chance to go back to school (whether for job related or not). Even seeing if the company is union run or not can be a deciding factor if you want to work in fabrication.

But for me, it's all I know and I like it. I see other posters working in video games or as freelance artists. I would love to draw for some small video game / pen & paper rpg, but I don't know how to go about that stuff..

 

[ForkNetwork]

Part-time games journalist. First job and a pretty enjoyable one, although doing news articles on PC things isnt as fun as covering console stuff.

 

[JLG-]

Supervisor at a coffee shop.

Pros: eh free food and coffee.

Cons: High stress, terrible work/life balance.

 

[Mexen]

No paper jam is safe around me.

 

[Gallbaro]

Boss.

35 Employees. Super majority owner.

 

[Biochet]

im a dentist, i fucking hate my job and blame myself everyday for not pursuing something i actually wanted to do.

im rich and young though, so its not all bad.

 

[ExMachina]

In-house graphic designer for a financial institution. I'm part of a team that creates training for our branch employees - so we make eLearning, interactive job aids, etc.

Pros:

Variety - I also provide designs for other branch operations needs, like executive presentations and conference materials.

We have our own professional-grade print shop in the building. Its like being a kid in a candy store as a designer.

Huge annual budget for toys equipment and resources.

Awesome benefits - Really generous health and retirement, opportunities for professional development, and a big yearly bonus.

Cons:

Our company culture moves super slowly. So we're always like 2 versions behind with our software, promotions take forever, etc.

Pay is average for my position, but a little low for the area I live in.

Commute and parking sucks. Too many people, not enough spots and traffic makes my 12 mile drive 45 mins or longer.



Overall I'm pretty happy where I am, it's a great company and my coworkers are really chill.

 

[Dr Campino]

Customer service for a national supplier of powder coatings, though the job is more like account management. It's basically 9-5 M-F, and the pay is much better than anything comparable in the area that I could find.

Still not the dream job, but I'll work on that one of these days.

 

[R&R]

Senior Administrative Position for an International Organization

Pros: good (tax-free) salary, decent benefits, sometimes get to live in nice places

Cons: workload can be hectic, most co-workers quite eccentric and weird, sometimes have to live in shitty/dangerous places

 

[Captain Tuttle]

I run a stone quarry

Pros: good pay, different every day, pretty intense atmosphere. Company pickup truck that I use as a personal vehicle.

Cons: basically on call 24/7 although I have 3 managers under me and we split it up. Work can be dangerous

 

[Toad.T]

I envy the professional lives of every single person in this thread, even (hell, especially) those who are supervisors for Sobeys or some such.

To any lurkers reading this thread and feeling bad about your lot in life, at least you don't push carts for 8 hours a day.

 

[red_sparrow]

I work as a Sale Assistant in a gaming store while also trying to study for a degree in Computer Engineering.

Pros: I work with one of my main interests (games). Also my coworkers are really friendly.

Cons: It's retail :I (the stories I could tell - tho I did manage to get a Mini Nes, so there's that). And it can get a bit overwhelming during Christmas or exams time.

 

[mambadragon]

Computer Engineer at a UARC. Hope to retire here.

 

[Arjen]

Mechanical Engineer at a company who designs and builds wastewater treatment plants. Love my job

 

[RdN]

I'm a Scrum Master for a mid size dev company.

Pros: lots of interpersonal relationships, rewarding, great pay.

Cons: can feel powerless when I see my team struggling and I'm unable to help.

 

[damien1928]

God damn this thread is making me feel shit about my life.

Working in retail in the same damn job for 11 years. Kept a roof over my wife and 2 kids heads so it's not all bad. But I do deal with a lot of shit.

Christmas and retail is a hard time.

Been working on a comedy script about the shop, nearly done, I don't think anything will happen with it but at least I tried.

 

[Spat_triate]

Senior motion designer at a large federal agency.

Pros - great benefits, flexible work schedule, good pay and I've worked with people absolutely committed to improving the lives of others.

Cons - bureaucracy slows most projects to a crawl, not much room for artistic expression, lack of upward mobility.

I plan to move on in a couple years...

 

[n0razi]

retired/landord

 

[Loxley]

Founder and lead artist of my own non-profit business that creates superhero portraits for kids living with chronic illnesses. I love it to death but make almost no money - which is sort of a problem since it's my full-time job. I'm looking for sponsors now so I can grow the business and actually pay my bills in the process.I do freelance work on the side to keep the business up and running. Non-profit work is extremely fulfilling but very straining, financially. Still, there's nothing else I'd rather be doing

So I guess:

Pros: Extremely fulfilling, I love what I do, allows me to be creative and put my art degree to good use.

Cons: Difficult to market, even more difficult to get funding. I make less than $10,000 a year and live with my folks as a result. I also can't afford health insurance. Hopefully that'll change over the next year or two. I'm optimistic about it.

 

[Magwik]

Factory work? Would you recommend it as a long term thing, do you need any specific qualifications?

Most places are more than willing to train as the general populace avoids factory work like the plague
It's pretty good money short term (less than 10 years), but with the way things are advancing I would be cautious to have all eggs in the basket. Pay really depends on what you do and where you go, for me I'm making roughly $500 a week without overtime, and I'm only 20. However that comes at the expense of working shitty hours.

 

[Telosfortelos]

I'm a Site Reliability Engineer for a company that's both creative and technical.

Pros:
- I work for a great company. Super laid back, awesome geeky atmosphere. I play games with coworkers on lunch, common topics of conversation include esports, comics, geeky television, and books. There's no real dress code, and I'd look more out of place in slacks than a tshirt.
- I work with lots of interesting tech. I learn a lot, and I enjoy thinking about my work. I get to design solutions to problems, and I'm often working with tech at a scale that doesn't exist at many other companies.
- Pretty good pay! I'm from a poor chaotic, background, ashamedly I'm a college drop out, and I know I beat the odds to land where I have.

Cons:
- high stress. I'd have imposter syndrome no matter what I did for a living, but I often feel like I've been promoted (more than a couple of times) well above my qualifications. I don't have a development background, but programming is part of what I do. I feel like I carry the an immense, ever growing weight on my shoulders, and I'd probably feel at least as dissatisfied if I didn't feel that weight. These are personal problems I'd likely feel most places.
- I often wonder where I'd be if I hadn't been so fucked up during my college years.

 

[lem0n]

I work for Miller/Coors, help with deliveries at grocery stores and a few c-stores.

Pros: I get a company car to drive around, How long my day is reliant on how many cases/stops I have that day. I'm on a mostly grocery route so I only have on average 5-7 stops. Because of that I don't have to brave the crap weather in Texas much.

Cons: Your long days are long. Longest day I've had was 18 hours straight. Receivers are either your best friend or your worst nightmare. As someone who goes to the gym before work, I get annoyed at just how much lifting and moving around cases we do. My company is super strict about dress code. I was forced to dye my hair back to it's natural color and another time received a written for wearing my hair in a manbun.

What's up fellow beer merch/load worker. Bud here

 

[SmackDaddy]

Super fun to see how broad careers are here.

Animator/mograph artist at a game company

 

[MarmiteBadger]

Most places are more than willing to train as the general populace avoids factory work like the plague
It's pretty good money short term (less than 10 years), but with the way things are advancing I would be cautious to have all eggs in the basket. Pay really depends on what you do and where you go, for me I'm making roughly $500 a week without overtime, and I'm only 20. However that comes at the expense of working shitty hours.

This I agree with for the most part. The industry is changing, yes, we need people in factory jobs. But at the same time companies can find cheaper work across seas. If you can get it for the schooling, I would and then move on elsewhere.

 

[Forerunner]

Federal correctional officer

Pros: Pay, benefits, location, and job security.
Cons: Pretty much everything else, it's a fucking prison. However, it's not that bad. The facility I'm at is pretty chill, I feel sorry for people working USPs.

I don't plan on staying in corrections though. The shit changes you and not in a good way. However, it's a great job to get some experience and move on. I plan on transferring to another agency (FBI, DEA, ICE, ATF, or USMS).

 

[riotous]

Main Job: Consultant - Spend most of my time developing software; sometimes I'm the lead on a project which means a bit of project management and executive level presentations and the like, sometimes I'm not the lead but I'm always a senior dev. That means I perform coding tasks as well as develop patterns and frameworks and the like. Some contracts don't involve coding; they fall under the murky "Software Architect" role which involves a lot of diagramming, presentations, and playing politics with the full timers at the companies we contract out to. I prefer development but the architect gigs pay my company more money which means a bigger bonus as well as possible advancement as it's the path you take to become higher up the chain.

I got the job because I've been doing software development since junior high (so 26 years, I'm old).. I'm one of the dot com boom "skipped college" people, so I rely on my resume which is fairly vast and includes a combination of development as well as some public speaking/training gigs.

Side Job: Various software projects. I've created and run forums, take on side contracts, etc. Current working on a website / app partly as a hobby with maybe the intention to turn it into something.

Pros: Love my job in general; love coding and technology in general and I usually manage to worm my way into the most "fun" aspects of any given project.

Cons: Career advancement will eventually take me away from coding and possibly even towards a bit of a "sales" kind of role. The "tech guy who shows up at clients and convinces them the company is tech savvy" kind of jazz. I know it's where I'm headed but it will take some effort to not go too far away from my precious coding.

 

[Kylarean]

Software Engineer

Went to school for Electronics and Engineering. Worked as a tech for a while until everything got cheap. Then worked in a factory driving a forklift, programming CNC machines, etc. Then I went to work for a local company as a developer. Only ever did development as a hobby before that. Been here for just over 17 years. Been thinking about moving on from development for a few months now.

 

[All Possible Ways]

I'm a particle physicist, doing a postdoc. While I'm doing something I love, with plenty of freedom to pursue my research, there's no job security (it's not even a "real job"), the pay is not so good, and the prospect of finding a permanent position is abysmal, since academia works like a pyramid scheme.

 

[Fracas]

I'm a reporter at the newspaper of a town of about 40,000 people. Graduated last May with a journalism degree and started here about a month ago. Worked at a warehouse in between.

 

[Jombie]

Fire safety / medic

Though I may be switching jobs soon.

Reading though these posts makes me laugh because I'm such a loser with no ambition in life.

 

[Soapbox Killer]

VOIP Support Engineer :

I work at the NOC of a smaller Telecom company.

 

[Thebox]

Emergency room charge RN. Pay is good, though I think we deserve more, geat job security as we are always short, pension and decent benifits. It can be rewarding at times but dealing with unruly, rude people and the possibility of getting assaulted along with life and death situations is highly stressful.

 

[Voidance]

I manage the a part of the small business loan portfolio at a community bank. I entered this role from a few jobs as a commercial loan analyst and underwriter.

Pros:
+ Great company culture.
+ Everyone, from the President on down, is accessible and friendly.
+ Benefits are pretty good, and we get a modest bonus correlated to the performance of the bank.
+ Good sense of career path. From here, I want to go into lending and start originating deals.
+ Commute is amazing -- about 2 miles from home which is about a 7 minute drive.

Cons:
- Pay is average and my role is hourly (with NO chance for overtime).
- Emphasis on tracking everything with spreadsheets.

Overall, I can't complain too much. I think I'm finally at a company I can tolerate long term and advance my career.

 

[v1lla21]

Federal correctional officer

Pros: Pay, benefits, location, and job security.
Cons: Pretty much everything else, it's a fucking prison. However, it's not that bad. The facility I'm at is pretty chill, I feel sorry for people working USPs.

I don’t plan on staying in corrections though. The shit changes you and not in a good way. However, it’s a great job to get some experience and move on. I plan on transferring to another agency (FBI, DEA, ICE, ATF, or USMS).

Cool. One of my previous supervisor's daughter was TSA for years and switched over to USMS.

 

[Crayons]

I just got a job as a host in a Japanese restaurant

 

[RoyaleDuke]

Unemployed, disabled writer who just put out his first book.

I don't really feel any different, and my life is still falling apart. :/

 

[geardo]

I'm a microbiologist at a very busy lab. I work afternoons and do a ten hour shift 4 days a week. This allows for no life obviously. The job sucks. It makes me hate science. I'll probably throw myself over the side at some point.

 

[lastplayed]

If you want help with small business advice, and you go to a bank website to find it, chances are I put it there. We have a number of US, Canadian and Australian bank clients.

We're also a virtual company spread around NZ, so I work from home. Good to average pay. I get by on my own.

 

[Forerunner]

Cool. One of my previous supervisor's daughter was TSA for years and switched over to USMS.

TSA is a good way to get into the system. I know a lot of people talk shit about it; however it’s a good foot in the door when it comes to the federal system. The one guy I got hired with was TSA, now he’s BOP and he wants to go ICE next.