What does everyone do? (or did, if retired)

[ksouers]

Another programmer/analyst here, in the healthcare industry for the past 10 years. Also doing a little gratis web work on the side.

Started out as a machinist right out of high school in the 70s. In 1980s spent a couple years sailing on an oil tanker, engine room of course, with "real" steam engines
1982 started working in the computer department of the oil company I sailed for. Then owned and operated a small trucking company for 10 years. 1998 got back into computers thanks to Y2K.

Over the past few months I've realized I've totally forgotten almost everything I'd ever known about machining and engines. Some of it is coming back, albeit slowly.

 

[Kermit]

Information Technology Director at DHL Express. Retiring and moving to Austin, Tx in 5 months.

Chuck

I'll be seeing ya when I retire then. Austin is my destination if I don't end up six feet under before that.


5 months... be at least that many years for me. I'm so jealous,
Kermit

 

[Maryak]

EVERYTHING THAT I'M TOLD by SWMDBO

IMMEDIATELY IF NOT SOONER.

Retired Marine Engineer and Yachtie.

Best Regards
Bob

 

[spuddevans]

Except for this one:

http://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/index.php?topic=2523.0

Oops  :wall: :wall: didn't notice that one

But I just sprayed my laptop with orange when I read Marv's response.

"More, more" I say !!!


Tim

 

[tel]

I do the same stuff Marv does, except I also de-flower virgins and save maidens from being chucked into volcanoes.

 

[rickharris]

In reverse order:

Soon to be retired

Teacher
Software quality consultant
Automated system designer and programmer
Electronics engineer
Royal Air Force Electronics engineer

 

[itowbig]

well now im the milk man. was the tow man. milk man pays better and for less hours work.(this is always better) i haul milk products to diferent depots.
towed tractor trailer rigs before that (very demanding job & no glory what so ever)

 

[tel]

Seriously tho' - I've had a number of occupations since I started working.

Started off doing clerical work in an office
'graduated' to sales assistant in a hardware store
Worked on a dairy farm
worked for the railway - first as a fettler, later as a plant operator.
Fitter/machinist in a spring factory
Night shift foreman in a fabrication place
Carpenter
Storeman
Maintenance guy at a hospital
Dog food maker
Welder
Park Ranger

At that point the workforce chose to sling me out on me ear and I've been bumming around ever since (12 years) - never been better off than I am now ;D

 

[Kludge]

Let's see ... Data Comm Manager (Net Manager these days, I guess), programmer when fat fingering machine code into front panels was all the rage, mechanic on practically everything with a gas engine, a few Diesels and one or two turbojets, freight hauler, courier (Nothing like moving a few hundred thousand dollars in cash from one bank to another in an ex-police cruiser.), warehouse grunt, carpenter (lost that one in under a week - not one of my strong points), a few things I can neither confirm nor deny and some no one will EVER get me drunk enough to admit to. ;D

I'm sure there's more but I can't remember right now.

Best regards,

Kludge

 

[Jack]

I started at the age of sixteen working in a printing company during high school learning how to wipe up dripping oil. After that I worked for a police department actually running a press.
Then in the mid to late sixties I toured Southeast Asia printing and dropping propaganda leaflets on the bad guys. After returning to civilian life I worked in a printing company for over thirty years until I fell off of a large press and messed up my back, now I can't pick up anything heavier than a paycheck.
After I retired I was a courier, maintenance man, all around handy man in machine shop for a short time before becoming a full time caregiver for an ALS patient for a year and a half, (my wife of 38 years) now I make little round things out of BIG round things along with a lot of little chips in my basement.
Now that I am officially retired and on Social Security I don't do much of anything anymore except have fun and take life one day at a time, and yes I do stop to smell the cutting fluid with an occasional wiff of red layout dye.

Thanks for reading

Jack :bow: :bow: :bow:

 

[kf2qd]

I was a machinist for 10 years (CNC & Manual), Went back to college and taught machine tool practice for the 4 years i was there - got a degree in Computer Science and Electrical Technology (was a really great job, would love to do that again...), PLC programmer and controls for a few years, computer tech at several hospitals for 4 years, built, serviced, installed retrofitted CNC plasma cutters ( design work and programming PLCs, end user training), PLC programmer and controls designer for some automated welding equiptment for 4 years, Now i'm working for a company that remanufactures auto parts doing mostly clerical type work in engineering( but I get to live in South Texas where the snow and ice have a hard time finding me...)

 

[Stan]

Started as a Radio Mech in Army Signals during Korea. After discharge, took up TV tech trade. Moved into industry through the back door. They were just getting electronic instruments so I had to learn the pneumatic and hydraulic end with night classes for a lot of years. Then came solid state in a big way and so back to night classes.

Started my own business designing and building early automation with 7400 chips and then came the microprocessor and machine language.

Shortly after that my wife had a serious illness and I struggled on for a few years with home and shop but sold out in 1980 and became a full time caregiver. Bought a Commodore 64 that year and been playing with computers and machine tools ever since.

 

[Loose nut]

Stated out in the Canadian Navy after school, liked it a lot and would have went career but the wife became chronically ill and I had to get out.

Then a few years as a fabric cutter in a furniture factory, can we spell sweat shop.

Spent the last 27 years in a refinery/chem plant as a welder with a side in pipe fitting, boiler making and tin smithing as well as a few other things.

Mostly now my main occupation is waiting for retirement, can't wait.

 

[Philjoe5]

In loose chrono order, here’s how I filled 44 years:
Loaded freight
Installed industrial epoxy floor coatings
Served ice cream
Did lawn maintenance
Worked as a lab tech
Looked for explosive devices buried in the road using a metal detector
Legal clerked
Chemist in Torrington Bearings R&D
Chemist in the pharmaceutical, photographic and food industries
Instructor of chemistry in various colleges, universities
Full time self taught machinist, retired

I liked most of the work I did but amazingly I get the most satisfaction from the last entry. Probably because it is work that I alone am responsible for and it results in producing a physical object that pleases me.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[Propforward]

Oh yeah, I used to work in a fish and chip shop when I was a teenager, but think every male in the UK worked in a fish and chip shop - it was kind of a rite of passage. ;D

I know how to fry fish and make proper twice fried chips anyway!

 

[Orrin]

My last occupation before retirement was hydroelectric power plant operator. I got into the hydro business at the Fort Peck Dam in northeastern Montana, then spent 20 years at the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River in Eastern Washington. Fort Peck's capacity (at the time) was about 210 megaWatts from five units. Lower Granite's was 930 MW from six. For 23 years I helped keep your lights on.

Before hydro I was in the nuclear field: a reactor operator at EBRII (Experimental Breeder Reactor II) in Idaho; a reactor and experiment operator at ATR (Advanced Test Reactor) in Idaho; MM1(SS) in the US Navy (Machinist Mate First Class submariner) home ported out of Groton (New London), Connecticut. Our boat was the Abraham Lincoln SSBN 602, a nuke Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine that has now been recycled.

It has been a very interesting life, having done loads of different things and lived in many different places, meeting many interesting people along the way.

Now retired, I'm living the happiest years of my life.

Orrin

 

[DickDastardly40]

I may have replied in the other thread, I'll look afterwards.

I am currently serving in the Royal Navy as a Marine Engineer Artificer (now called Technician) with the rank of Warrant Officer class 2 after 25 years and am 42.

I oversea the maintenance and repairs of a variety of landing craft used by the Royal Marines for training their boat coxswains here:

http://maps.google.co.uk/?ie=UTF8&ll=50.712697,-2.021447&spn=0.001868,0.002151&t=h&z=18

I will be retiring late next year to pursue another career, possibly in the private yacht sector.

Al

 

[bentprop]

Marv,isn't imagination a wonderful thing! ;D
Hm,first job.greengrocer.then truck driver,bus driver,bakers assistant(I don't have the nerve to say "baker"),egg delivery driver,reach truck driver(indoor electric forklift),back to bus driver,redundant,tramcar restoration,and currently caregiver to my wife of 35 years.
from collecting diecast models to model trains, r/c track cars,to rc aircraft,to machining,and lately rc boats.Mainly because I want a boat to put a steam engine in.I'm also in the process of constructing a 5" gauge steam loco,but that's a long drawn out job.I might finish it in 10 years,if ever.

 

[Brass_Machine]

Not sure if i responded to the first post or not... so I will post in this one.

Currently, senior engineer in the IT field. The stuff I work with exists in cyberspace only. I am one of my company's VMware experts. It's interesting trying to describe what I do to someone who doesn't work in the IT segment. The servers I build/support and design are virtual...

I have been in IT for over 10 years and enjoy it very much. In previous existences of my life I have been:

A Deputy Sheriff (in the great state of Maine).
Owned a sea urchin dive boat business (in Maine again).
Tester for AT&T on prospective employee's customer service skills.
High profile private security.
Drove a bread truck for Country Kitchen (New Englander's will know that brand)

But, I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up!

Eric

 

[oldboatguy]

I can't hold a candle to Marv's career. My more modest one is as follows:
I worked as a draftsman for an engineering company after highschool while attending college on a scholarship. After a short time, I inadvertantly blew up the chemistry lab in college thus screwing up my draft deferment so I went downtown and enlisted in a MASH unit. I became a combat medic after training in Texas and the army declared me competent to commit minor surgery. The military fairy godmother department subsequently decided that I was qualified to be a drill seargent which I did for a while before escaping from uncle Sam's clutches at the end of my term of service.

I went back to work as a mechanical engineer for a 130 year old engineering company which provided fabricating and machining services to power generating stations and heavy industry. During my career there, I worked in designing coal handling and boiler startup equipment for units as large as 800 MW. I also did some fuel handling equipment for nuclear plants. Later I spent a lot of time in Hydro-electric turbine rehabilitation which was very fascinating since we rebuilt some stuff that Henry Ford & Tom Edison built.

About 20 years ago I founded my own company and obtained several patents for stuff we build for the recycling industry. I sold out a couple of years ago but am still working for that company since I actually enjoy the work. I am now the official "Old Guy"/sales engineer/retainer of the knowledge of where the skeletons are in the closet! I no longer travel world wide but do still cover North America at a rate of about 2000 miles a week.
During the 90's I did a lot of flying in small antique aircraft operating out of my friend's grass field. I got in a lot of sales trips this way. After 911, I stopped doing this since flying below the radar from grass field to grass field with no radio will get you shot down today!