What do we do for a living?

Good lord, what haven't I done!

When I was barely squeaking by in college, my folks essentially said "We're not gonna pay for you to barely pass, party, and whatever else you're doing - pay for it yourself!" When I couldn't afford it, I joined the Army National Guard to help fund my college education. Suddenly, with my own money on the line, my grades improved markedly to the point where I graduated Cum Laude! After college, took a break from the academic world (I wanted to get a real job. The Army taught me that hands on experience is better than else. So, I graduated, found a job at a stock brokerage house in their records dept. Moved my way up that chain, passed the Series 63 and Series 7, then the stock market crashed. Figured that might be a good time to leave the financial world and decided to go back to school for graduate work.

To pay for school this time, I took a job at TWA as a ramp rat on the afternoon shift (3-11). Did that for 2 years when my grandparents were diagnosed with ALS and Alzheimers. So, I took a break after the M.A. to assist in their care. At the time I met a hot girl and moved to Ohio to date her instead of returning to grad school. While waiting for in-state tuition rates, per residency requirements, I took a job at AT&T helpdesk. Never went to school for CIS or anything but taught myself how to tear down, build computers, and started working my way "up" the IT ladder. Build tech, network tech, exchange administrator, systems administrator, website administrator, IT director, etc.

When working as an IT director for a small private firm (and managing their web presence, saw how crappy the images were on their site and said "I could take better pictures than that) and got into photography. On the side of the management position, I started a photography business which I loved! That led to teaching others how to use cameras, photo editing software (Photoshop at the time, then followed by Aperture and Lightroom).

Got sick of being in management and all the hours it took up (which limited my time in photography) so actually left management to get back into the trenches to training (since my original goal was to teach - why not teach tech. From there I taught systems installations and utilization for multimedia streaming systems. I had much more free time to do my photography bit, so spent a fair amount of time traveling and teaching at workshops and seminars freelance.

At the same time as I was doing that, my CCH expired, and I needed to take a refresher course. When I went to the 2 day class, the instructor was horrible, and I said to myself "I could teach the class better than that", so I went and got my NRA Instructor certification. I had an incredibly lucrative couple of years right after Obama was elected where I was teaching:

  • Firearms Safety Courses
  • Photography Workshops, seminars and conferences
  • Multimedia streaming systems installation and usage

My wife (that hot girl I'd met while taking care of my grandparents) missed her family and wanted to move back to Ohio. I said I'd moveif she could find me a job paying $X (meaning a boatload, because I'd be leaving a lot of revenue streams). She found it, so we went back to Ohio (I know - who would go to Ohio willingly twice?!?!) for a lucrative salary as an IT Project Manager, which included training as a secondary job duty. Never saw the classroom, and after 2 years there my boss said he wanted me to move into a team supervisor position. I passed, asking instead if I could just keep my current job and work remotely. My wife was not as enthralled with Ohio after returning, and we both wanted to be back in Colorado.

After working remote for 9 months, saw the handwriting on the wall that they wanted me to open a satellite office in Colorado, and I reiterated my non-interest in management. Ultimately, decided that working for that company was not what I wanted despite the salary, so gave my two weeks notice and took a few months off to find the perfect job. Found one!

Now, I am at my current job as a Sr. Technical Trainer in the telecommunications world teaching telco providers about the company hardware, setup, deployment, troubleshooting and administration. Still in the onboarding phase as I've only been there 9 months, but get to work from home, teach a week or two a month, and travel as needed to customer sites. As such, have not really had time to devote to photography and firearms instruction yet, but once I am up to speed, those certainly will come back into the picture! :)

Okay, so maybe that was more than what people wanted in this thread, but I am taking the week off to finish some home renovations, and I don't do well without a bit of surf time and the morning java, so here I sit for another 10-15 minutes before I tackle the tile flooring in the basement! LOL
 
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Oh yeah, when I lived in SC, I started a photography forum using phpbb as the platform, got a few moderators on board, and ran that for about 5 years...been a moderator on several other photography and gun enthusiast forums as well, but that's kind of outside the scope of what we "do" for a living! LOL
 
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What all have I done? Well not a lot. Been in the army for 6 years doing telecommunications(hate it) my original job was working on fiber optic cables but as with the army you never keep your one job I've worked with satellites and now working helpdesk (the part I hate). I've got 15 months left in then don't really know what I'll be doing. Trying to get into law enforcement back home in nowhere arkansas. Oh and I'm currently just sitting on my ass for 30 days recovering from shoulder surgery.
 
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I was in the U.S Army for 6 years, 1st Squadron 4th US Cavalry in Schweinfurt, Germany. After that I went back home to Illinois and joined the 1st Battalion 131st Infantry, Illinois National Guard. I moved on from Military service, and entered the steel industry. I woked at a steel mill in Streator, Illinois called Plymouth Tube. We made 9mm gun barells, GM steering columns, coolant lines for the space shuttle. Their brand of alloy steel was called ProMolle. They eventually moved to Mexico, laying everyone off in the process, that was a wasted 7 years. From there I move to Clinton, Iowa and start working for another steel mill called IPSCO (International Pipe & Steel Co.). We made pipe and pipe casings for deep sea and fracking rig oil drilling. I spent the majority of my time there running an electronic restistance welder. IPSCO is a Russian company. When all the trouble broke out in the Ukraine, they really backed out of their American intrests and closed 4 IPSCO steel mills in the U.S. One of the such being the Camanche, Iowa location. Another wasted 10 years. Now, I work for Nestle Purina, in Clinton, Iowa. I run a high speed packaging line, 104 bags per minute. We make all Pro Plan, ONE, Fancy Feast & Beneful Purina brand pet food. If anyone on here uses Purina brand, there as a 70% chance it came from the Clinton facility. I have been with Nestle for just about 2 years now, so I have a waaaaaays to go.
 
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I was an I.T. geek for appx 30 years, my last position being at the Playboy headquarters in Chicago until we closed that building down in 2012. At that point, I decided to move back to California and retire! Once I got back out here, I became a partner in a local favorite restaurant chain called Board and Brew (Awesome sandwiches and beer!) and actually fully retired.
Now I spend my time playing in the ocean, and Jeeping around taking pictures of stuff and couldn't be more happy!
Let me know if you're ever in the Carlsbad/San Diego area, and lunch is on me!
 
I was an I.T. geek for appx 30 years, my last position being at the Playboy headquarters in Chicago until we closed that building down in 2012. At that point, I decided to move back to California and retire! Once I got back out here, I became a partner in a local favorite restaurant chain called Board and Brew (Awesome sandwiches and beer!) and actually fully retired.
Now I spend my time playing in the ocean, and Jeeping around taking pictures of stuff and couldn't be more happy!
Let me know if you're ever in the Carlsbad/San Diego area, and lunch is on me!

Sounds like a road trip is in order! :)
 
The Left Coast Pastrami sounds pretty incredible! So does the Roast Beef Spicy! And I love me some craft beers!

http://www.boardandbrew.com/menu/
Ohh, I love the pastrami, it just doesn't love me! ;)
Honestly, our stuff is really tasty - we roast our own beefs, make our own au jus, heck, we even make our own croutons for the salads!
Bread fresh every morning, and the sauce... my God, THE SAUCE, heh.

#ShamelessPlug
 
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I'm a civil engineer by education. Over the past 18 years I've worked on everything from buildings, to roads, to bridges, to airports (pre 9/11). I left engineering about a year ago to take a job as a maintenance manager for a local municipality. Myself and my counterpart currently manage 20 electricians, instrument techs, mechanics, painters and support staff for a waste water collection and treatment agency in the Bay Area. When I tell most people I work at a wastewater treatment plant I get the typical the "ick" response. Most people don't dream of working at a waste water treatment plant when they grow up. However; what I have found is that the work is fascinating. The biology, chemistry, and infrastructure and equipment to treat waste water is really interesting and quite complex. This keeps my job exciting and interesting. Plus the retirement is great (can retire at age 50) and it pays really well. When people ask me about the smell (they always ask), I just tell them it smells like money.
 
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Most people don't dream of working at a waste water treatment plant when they grow up. However; what I have found is that the work is fascinating. The biology, chemistry, and infrastructure and equipment to treat waste water is really interesting and quite complex. This keeps my job exciting and interesting. Plus the retirement is great (can retire at age 50) and it pays really well. When people ask me about the smell (they always ask), I just tell them it smells like money.

I agree, it is entirely fascinating to understand how they can take sewage water (filled with urine, feces, etc.) and somehow turn it back into clean water. I haven't even the faintest idea how it works, but I'm definitely intrigued!
 
I agree, it is entirely fascinating to understand how they can take sewage water (filled with urine, feces, etc.) and somehow turn it back into clean water. I haven't even the faintest idea how it works, but I'm definitely intrigued!

One of the coolest things we do is collect the methane gas that is creating from the anaerobic digestion process (breaking down of organic material in a tank devoid of oxygen). We then take that gas and run it through two large gas engines to create 1.6 megawatts of power. With both engines running we can create approximately 70% of the power we consume.

IMG_2858.JPG
 
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One of the coolest things we do is collect the methane gas that is creating from the anaerobic digestion process (breaking down of organic material in a tank devoid of oxygen). We then take that gas and run it through two large gas engines to create 1.6 megawatts of power. With both engines running we can create approximately 70% of the power we consume.

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That's amazing, I didn't even know that. It's very cool that they can create 70% of the power being consumed, makes it not as harsh on the environment. There's clearly a lot of science involved there because I'm not even sure how the process works.

Are those gas engines? They look like huge diesel engines.
 
That's amazing, I didn't even know that. It's very cool that they can create 70% of the power being consumed, makes it not as harsh on the environment. There's clearly a lot of science involved there because I'm not even sure how the process works.

Are those gas engines? They look like huge diesel engines.

These engines are considered gas co-generation engines. They are meant to parallel our local electrical utility provider (same concept as solar power). These are different than standby diesel engines/generators that run when the local electrical utility is off line. These engines run on methane gas only, natural gas only, or a blended mix of the two gases. Having two fuel sources is a nice option to have.
 
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I have a degree in Engineering. I work for a software company where I build/maintain Data Centers around the world. I was in Russia recently, ugg not a fan. I'm in Limerick Ireland now and will be in Qatar and South Africa next month into Sept.

Fav places are Germany (Octoberfest), Austria, Egypt, Italy, and Netherlands.

Not a fan of Russia, Romania, Turkey, and Brazil.
 
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