What do you do, and how did you end up there?

In Highschool I had a few part time jobs in warehouses and in a Corvette resto shop, then went to college for ME. I was told that I was too bright for Votec and should lok at Engineering inspite of my awful math grades. After a year and a half of bad grades I stopped wasting money and went to "work" for a Nascar North team making about a dollar an hour ad having more fun than should be allowed by law, and more than was allowed in Maine and some parts of New Hampshire.

When the money there dried up I had to get a real job and went to an auto parts store anbout 3 months before it went under. one of our customers hired my to drive a tow truck and help in the body shop. I did that for about 5 years and when my dad lost his job we both went to take the NYC bus operator test. He ended up geting a job driving for Long Island bus first where he still is and I got called to NYC in the summer of 2000. It's a good job with decent pay and benefits but the hours can suck. I was thinking of leaving when a test came out to be promoted to dispatcher. I scored 51st out of about 1500 and got the job. I've been doing that now for almost 5 years and am happy with it. I work outside most days in one of the greatest cities in the world, interact with people from all over the world, and the days are busy enough that they never feel like they drag on.

Graduated into the last crap job market, back in '02. Had met my wife in college, stuck close to where she got a job. Couldn't find a job in advertising (my education- why did I do that? Who can say...), wound up working in a customer service role for a fertilizer company, dealing with lots of logistics, moving stuff from place to place, monitoring stock levels, etc. From there got promoted into a material control role with the same company, managed production of contract manufacturers. From there, went into actual purchasing- buying technology hardware/software for a bank. By the time I left there 4 years later I was managing that area- quit when some clown got hired in over me who had no idea what was going on. Now I'm a purchasing manager for an outpatient surgery company, again managing remote sites and basically advising the on-site management what to buy, building efficiency, cutting costs, negotiating deals with suppliers, etc.

I'm totally a corporate bean counter.

Sometimes it's not the most exciting, but the company I work for right now is awesome, pay is fine, and I never dread going to work. When you boil it all down, who could ask for anything more?

Grad school in historical archaeology. I originally went to college at a conservatory school for music theory and composition, but didn't make the cut. My grades were good but I just didn't have the talent. I made a switch to anthropology and realized it was more interesting anyway. After I went to a field school, I decided archaeology was awesome so I went into that for grad school.

At this point i'm done with classes and I'm working on my thesis. I'm also a TA so I don't spend all of the time cooped up in a windowless lab staring at broken pottery. Just most of it.

I went to college straight out HS and graduated in four years with a BA in US History with a minor in Religeous Studies. During college I worked retail in retail in a Cigar and Pipe store and as a Barista and also worked part time as a Range officer at the local outdoor gun range until it got closed down. Senior year I got my FFL and started my own business selling guns out of my CRX at gun shows. The gun business didn't pan out after most of my inventory was water damaged when my apartment caught fire just before I graduated. After I graduated I kept my Barista job for a few years. Went to work for a major Armoured car company as an ATM tech. Got to drive an armoured van full of money, carry a gun and work on AYM machines. Left that job after three or four years to move back home because I missed the mountains and I had soured on coastal living. Got on with a local Executive Search firm as a cold call recruiter.The company was great and the people were some of the best I have ever worked with. It was hell, I spent 8-10 hours a day cold calling people and trying to convince them that they should relocate. The possibility of moving up and making serious money kept me there for several years, but a week after 9/11 I was layed off due to my lack of interest in really being a "headhunter". I guess it was obvious that I didn't like the work. Bounced around for a few years doing alot of nothing and finally got a job as a Wilderness Counselor/teacher for a camps for "at risk" youth. It was amazing. Lived in the woods for three years in tent working with kids that needed my help. Spent 21 days canoeing down the length of the Suwanee River. Worked and trained at three different camps in two states in my time there. I left a week after my three year anniversay to go back to school. The average stay as a counselor is less than a year although they ask you to try to stay a full 2 years. Went to the local Tech school for Automotive Systems Tech. Before I graduated and took a job at the local School bus garage to fullfill my co-op for school. Stayed on with the School bus garage and that was four years ago. Two years ago I started teaching a night class at the same school I graduated from and hope to one of these days become a full time instructor in Automotive. Some where along the way I met an amazing young woman and a the ripe old age of 40 I am finally getting married and even contempating starting a family. It only took me 20 years as an adult to finally figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Now I just need to make it happen before I have to retire.

nderwater wrote:

wlkelley3 wrote: I work in field support and field representative on future projects. I travel to field new equipment to army units, usually before they deploy and involved in prototype equipment.

Do you happen to know anything about the Comanche? Supposedly only two were ever completed, but I used to live next to NSA headquarters and have seen one in the air (painted flat black) after the program was officially cancelled in early 2004.

Know very little, didn't work on that. The prototyping and future projects I do involves the CH-47 Chinook helicopter.

I guess I'll try this.

I was one of those kids that watched Wings on Discovery Channel and built models as a young teenager. I loved airplanes, especially WWII planes. My step mother saw my crazy love for aviation and signed me up for a "discovery flight" at a local regional airport in Houston when I was 15. My father fronted me money for my flight lessons until I was 16 and started working at Taco Bell. I paid every dollar back and continued my flight lessons for a short time. I never got to soloing but I still loved aviation and joined the Civil Air Patrol for a short time while I was 16 or 17. I had planned on going into the Air Force to be around aircraft in some capacity.

Well, a friend of mine talked me into talking with his Marine Corps recruiter, which I wasn't very interested in but did anyways. I had not even considered the Marine Corps or really knew that there was a big part of the Marine Corps that was aviation based. I got convinced by the recruiter by him basically saying that if I was going to be in the military, why not be with the best, or badass, or something like that. I ended up signing up in my senior year. So I spent 5 years in the Marine Corps as an Air Separations and Cryogenic Equipment Technician (MOS 6075/6074) and also became a Primary Marksmanship Instructor/Range Coach (MOS 8531) at Camp Hanson in Okinawa, Japan as my secondary MOS. I also obtained a government commercial drivers license for up to 5 ton vehicles and 80 passenger buses. I also had an off base job working at Staples at night for a couple of the years I was stationed at MCAS Beaufort. I got out as a Corporal and looked at transferring to the Air Force but they weren't taking anyone with prior service that had a MOS that did not require re-training. So that was that.

After getting out in 2003, I briefly lived in Surfside Beach, SC and hated it. Then I moved to Atlanta, where I currently live, thinking that I needed to be at a big city but did not want to move back to Houston and the dreaded heat/humidity crap there. I have had a few different jobs since moving here; Selling new cars at a Ford dealer, working at Circuit City, a sales manager at Office Depot, security/barbacking at a uppity bar(still do it occasionally), and now a warehouse manager. I have also been going to a local tech school on and off for years trying to get an Associates in Automotive Technology and collecting my GI Bill money.

The warehouse manager job is for a company called Southern Cross Corporation and we specialize in gas leak detection surveying of gas lines. We have up to 400 techs in the field during the summer which I logistically support by shipping parts and supplies and replacing broken equipment. The pay is good enough to keep me there but less than what the average warehouse supervisor salary is for the area. I got in to this job because I am friends with the owner's(at the time) son.

Due to salary reasons and missing the military structure, I have been looking into government contracts overseas for the last 6 months. I am currently in the hiring process with DynCorp and am just waiting on my security background check to come back which could be another 3 or 4 weeks form what I am hearing. All of the other paperwork, including my passport application, has been filled out and submitted. This contract is for a "warehouse technician" in Afghanistan. I do not know where in Afghanistan but I am assuming Kandahar or Kabul(the big bases). The salary is 5 times my current salary, I have no wife, no kids, no mortgage, and a huge desire to go overseas even in a combat zone. I am hoping this happens because it will change my otherwise stagnant, boring life and give me a little bit of financial freedom in a couple of years.

Duke wrote:

fastEddie wrote: Was accepted at GMI with the goal of being an automotive engineer. Started out co-oping at an industrial engineering firm near my home town and through experiences at school and 1 quarter co-oping at GM I realized automotive engineers don't design cars, they design little bits and pieces that make up cars.

This! I was also really interested in automotive engineering until I met one at a party I attended with my parents. I asked him what his job was like and he said he had been working for the last 2 months on the trunk hinge for some new Cadillac model. He was proud that he had cut something like 79 cents off the per-piece cost. I realized that was not the career for me.

I was one until I realized that. An old guy I worked with before he retired was the engineer behind the GM TBI. Until the bean counters and EPA got their say, it became one of the crappiest EFIs on the planet. Its the same as automotive design. A good friend of mine designed the Avalanche.... and he apologizes for it all the time. He designed a kick-ass truck... and you see what we got.

curtis73 wrote:

Duke wrote:

fastEddie wrote: Was accepted at GMI with the goal of being an automotive engineer. Started out co-oping at an industrial engineering firm near my home town and through experiences at school and 1 quarter co-oping at GM I realized automotive engineers don't design cars, they design little bits and pieces that make up cars.

This! I was also really interested in automotive engineering until I met one at a party I attended with my parents. I asked him what his job was like and he said he had been working for the last 2 months on the trunk hinge for some new Cadillac model. He was proud that he had cut something like 79 cents off the per-piece cost. I realized that was not the career for me.

I was one until I realized that. An old guy I worked with before he retired was the engineer behind the GM TBI. Until the bean counters and EPA got their say, it became one of the crappiest EFIs on the planet. Its the same as automotive design. A good friend of mine designed the Avalanche.... and he apologizes for it all the time. He designed a kick-ass truck... and you see what we got.

Ugh, that TBI, or as I always called it toilet bowl injection, and the Avalanche... yuck. Could you imagine if there was TBI on an Avalanche? Think about that one for a minute.

Graduated highschool thinking I'd get into automotive service.Tried automotive service for a year while going to community college. Worked catering on weekends and nights. Got into autocross and loved it. I found GRM.

Flunked out of community college, worked for Great Dane Trailers for a year. Went back to college, got an Associates of Business Management. Got a paid internship in local government as an assistant in Planning/Zoning.

That job dried up, worked construction. More catering. Started University. Worked catering. Worker a summer as a maintenance worker and camp counselor for a YMCA wilderness camp. LOVED IT. Paid crap.

Finished University. Tried getting into County Planning. Failed. Got a internship and subsequent job as a contractor for a land trust doing trail and recreational planning. Developed low cost mapping and remote sensing techniques that allowed the organization to better plan and market its goals to the community. Connected land trust with local cycling groups for a long term partnership to use its land. Developed trail and recreational plans for those property that would allow for multi-use recreation.

Land Trust would only keep me a contractor, no benefits. Needed benefits, left for Erie, PA.

Worked multiple jobs for 6 months in this new town including catering, automotive service, education, and finally in County Government.

I now do reviews of subdivision and land development plans, work on agricultural preservation, and dabble in recreational access and cycling advocacy. I spend all of my time indoors, in a cubicle.

I want my next job to combine my background with local government and park/camp maintenance and trail planning to provide the public with the open space their tax dollars paid for. There is so much land in this country that we do no use because of fear of liability. There are too many kids who have not been camping. There are too many bean counters and engineers in government who believe money is the only solution, and that a park or open space must have a paved path, pavilion, or parking lot for people to enjoy it.

College professor. Teaching mechanical engineering technology at my local community college.

My Dad was a steam engine mechanic on the British railways and later, on Canadian National Railroad. He encouraged me to be involved in mechanical things and, especially, to learn to be a "draughtsman". When I was 14, I had a bad case of Rheumatic Fever, causing me to miss a year of high school. When I recovered, my music teacher (I was a band geek) made me aware of a program for poor kids who had missed school due to illness called "Upward Bound" (I wasn't sure if I was sick enough but I knew we were poor enough).

Anyway, I spend two Summers at Trenton State College in the Upward Bound program. I was able to make up my lost high school credits and was also exposed to the Trenton State industrial technology / "shop" programs, including their "draughting" program (which my Dad loved).

I managed to graduate high school at 16 and went back to Trenton State while working part-time as a plumber and roofer.I got an Industrial Technology degree and teaching cert and was teaching high school auto shop / metal shop at age 21. Later, went back to grad school where I was encouraged to get an MET degree and look at community college teaching. Which is exactly what I did. Now teaching 41 years. I currently teach CAD "draughting", prototyping, CNC programming plus statistics and some math courses. I'm also the SAE adviser for our dept and a long-time tech mentor for our local FIRST Robotics team.

In 2005, the president instituted an effort to shut down the Upward Bound program. But the effort was rebuffed by non-partisan data indicating that it was one of the most successful federal educational programs ever.
Upward Bound today

I went to Upward Bound summer of 2004, mostly because that's where my girlfriend was going. Not for HS credit, more for the hell of it.

Small world.

Well, let's see...delivered newspapers in high school (that's surprisingly lucrative). Started working for a local auto parts store that then went under. Went to another. Then worked as an estimator for the Toyota dealer. Quit that when they hired a new manager who was a real assclown. Did carpentry and drywall for a friend of mine who was turning an old house into apartments (I had no idea WTF I was doing). Then, back to auto parts. Got laid off. Went to work for a dealership in parts and stayed for 6+ years until I got myself fired. Unemployed. Took a job at another auto parts chain store to pay the bills and it was run by a manic-depressive psycho who'd throw tailpipes at you if you cluttered his counter space. Escaped that to work at the VW dealer, the most poorly run franchise in my area. It finally sunk in that this career path wasn't going to get me anywhere and applied for a job delivering water, which I didn't get, and one as an independent auto damage estimator, which I did get. Long hours, low pay, no benefits...did my time until I could get hired for the same job by a 'real' independent. After a few years moved on to a Big Insurer. 6+ years there, got tired of their bullcrap, went to another, smaller insurer. Loved my job. Several years later they merged and fired all the estimators. Got a decent severance but didn't want to run it out. Through connections I got hired at the lizard and have been there since. It's about half a fun job and half covering your ass. I'm growing weary of the increasing number of idiot 'customers' and the corporate stupidity (see the thread on 'Rate Me A 10" surveys) and am looking for an alternative for my next 20 years of employment but have no idea what I'd like to do...the current job sort of unfortunately pays too well, so I'm looking at taking a big salary hit for most things that appeal to me. Paying for racing right now is more important than dealing with the BS. At some point I expect that will change. I'll just keep my ears and eyes open until the next great thing shows itself. Overall, though, not bad for a guy with just a HS diploma.

When I was 15 I wanted to get a job so I could save for a car. Figured cars were becoming computer controlled so I should learn something about computers. Got a job at a local computer store. That wound up paying for the car, and an engine for it too. Also paid for most of my college tuition and payments on the car that replaced my high school ride.

The computer store closed in the early '90's. Worked that summer (while still taking classes) doing blacktop work for my (now) father-in-law. Then I got a call from another computer shop looking for a tech. That job finished paying for college and had a full time position waiting for me when I graduated.

My degree is in Communications and I minored in video production. Didn't pursue the video field when there weren't any paying jobs available and had the computer gig waiting for me. But the Com degree has more than paid for itself.

Stuck it out at that computer shop longer than I should have. After a couple years moved into corporate IT. Pay was better, and worked at some good places. Was at the last place for 11 years. Didn't always enjoy the work, but liked the people I worked with. The company closed our facility last year. That job ended about 2 weeks shy of the 25th anniversary of my first computer job at 15.

I was burnt out on IT and the corporate environment. Back in '04 I started a hobby business doing what I referred to as an "automotive consulting business" for people working on muscle car era Mopars. Did that to keep sane from the corporate stuff. Was inspired after a nonsense corporate team building event. I'm sure that wasn't the goal of the team building thing, but it made me think back on what I really wanted to be when I grew up. Being a cube dweller and going to corporate team building events wasn't it.

So as the corporate life was closing I decided to take two giant leaps. One was to leave the IT world behind. The second was to take the part time hobby business and make that my new career.

I've opened an old-school style speed shop catering to upgrading '60's & '70's domestic cars, specializing in Mopars. I'll work on the other domestics, and some domestics up into the late '80's early '90's. Basically if it can have a collector plate on it I'll bring it in the shop.

I'm not doing pro-touring over-the-top stuff. The core of the business is making the older cars people already have a little more enjoyable on today's roads. Fuel injection conversions, overdrive transmissions, suspension and brake upgrades without loosing the original character of the car. Not turning the car into another cookie cutter car.

Last week I took out a GRM Marketplace ad space. That was a little frightening, but in a cool exciting way. Another step on the new path. And it feels good too.

In reply to Rufledt:

Dumb question, but is there a decent career with decent pay in archeology? Especially one that doesn't require hours upon hours on your hands & knees in remote and inclement locations?

I've known a couple historians, and it seems they have turned to book publishing more than anything else.

I've always had a strong interest in history, archaeology, etc. but didn't think there was much of a career in it.

petegossett wrote: In reply to Rufledt: Dumb question, but is there a decent career with decent pay in archeology? Especially one that doesn't require hours upon hours on your hands & knees in remote and inclement locations? I've known a couple historians, and it seems they have turned to book publishing more than anything else. I've always had a strong interest in history, archaeology, etc. but didn't think there was much of a career in it.

As far as pay, I'll never be rich. Ever.

For jobs, there are more than most people think. Other than being a professor (my career goal) there are museum, parks service's, and contracting firms. Basically, whenever anything is built on public land/with public money, an archaeological survey has to be done because the archaeological record is considered public record (like birth certificates, etc...) and can't be destroyed by law. I've never worked in a firm myself, but my friends who have say people at the bottom do the digging, and people with higher degrees have a more steady job doing lab reports.

At a university (where I go/work right now) there is surprizingly little digging actually going on. We spend a month in the summer doing digging all day 5 days a week, and that's most years, not all. The rest is cleaning, cataloging, and other general processing. All of that has to happen before research and writing can happen, so most of the work is in a lab. It's March now and we're still not done with all the cataloging. There are even some ph.d's where i'm at that don't teach/dig at all, they just work in specialized labs.

I guess I got started early. My father was a ME and had a machine shop set up in the basement and a couple hot rods in the garage. So when I was ~12 I started "helping" him with his projects. When I turned 16 I got a part-time job pumping gas in a full service station. When I graduated high school I went to work for the next door neighbor in his machine shop and also started college to be an Industrial Arts teacher.

On college graduation I moved to MD to teach Middle School Industrial Arts. While teaching I got a Master Degree in Eduaction and an AA in Computer Science. After 18 years as a shop teacher I changed to teaching Introductory Computer classes in the middle school and also at the CC where I got my computer degree. And did that for 10 years untill I retired from teaching.

While I was teaching I had part-time/summer jobs in most of the construction fields, as a mechanic on cars and motorcycles, as a gunsmith, and also a few years in security and as a private investigator.

After I retired from teaching I worked as a programmer/analyst for a hardware wholesaler for 5 years. When that company was sold I went to work as a clerck in a hardware store untill I could full retire.

Rob_Mopar wrote: I've opened an old-school style speed shop catering to upgrading '60's & '70's domestic cars, specializing in Mopars. I'll work on the other domestics, and some domestics up into the late '80's early '90's. Basically if it can have a collector plate on it I'll bring it in the shop. I'm not doing pro-touring over-the-top stuff. The core of the business is making the older cars people already have a little more enjoyable on today's roads. Fuel injection conversions, overdrive transmissions, suspension and brake upgrades without loosing the original character of the car. Not turning the car into another cookie cutter car. Last week I took out a GRM Marketplace ad space. That was a little frightening, but in a cool exciting way. Another step on the new path. And it feels good too.

That's awesome! Good luck with it! With a lot of the old-timers from the pre-EFI days getting away from wrenching, there seems to be a market for a younger guy who can work on the older stuff.

I graduated in "77. I tried to get a job at VW Westmoreland in the old Chrysler Newport plant ( Chrysler built the factory, but never built any cars there). NACP said application process was discriminatory and VW had to start over. I packed my bags & moved to Cleveland. I started in a machine shop in "78. I now run and program Wire EDM Machines. (Mitsubishi FX20K and 110C machines and Auto Cad software. I use Striker EDM software for programing). I am 52. I can see myself doing this for the rest of my career.

Ian F wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: I've opened an old-school style speed shop catering to upgrading '60's & '70's domestic cars, specializing in Mopars. I'll work on the other domestics, and some domestics up into the late '80's early '90's. Basically if it can have a collector plate on it I'll bring it in the shop. I'm not doing pro-touring over-the-top stuff. The core of the business is making the older cars people already have a little more enjoyable on today's roads. Fuel injection conversions, overdrive transmissions, suspension and brake upgrades without loosing the original character of the car. Not turning the car into another cookie cutter car. Last week I took out a GRM Marketplace ad space. That was a little frightening, but in a cool exciting way. Another step on the new path. And it feels good too.

That's awesome! Good luck with it! With a lot of the old-timers from the pre-EFI days getting away from wrenching, there seems to be a market for a younger guy who can work on the older stuff.

OH COME ON! it's not like I don't already have enough bad ideas rattling around in my head!

About 6 years ago, I finished my 5 year Industrial Design degree. I was also getting divorced. So I was writing for a motor scooter magazine, and wrote a book on the same subject while looking for full time work.

I then got in at a sign shop, paid some bills for a few months then did drafting and a bit of mechanical design at a company that makes power meter boxes. I had a lot of resumes out at that time, and the construction boom started to bust. When my current job was offered to me, I leapt into it and have been there 4.5 years now.

I now work for a design/build studio that does a lot of museum work. This is from a children's museum for an NFL team:

I design, I build. I run out CNC. I make clients happy and do a little bit of sales here and there. It's been a surreal and interesting journey.

BoostedBrandon wrote:

Ian F wrote:

Rob_Mopar wrote: I've opened an old-school style speed shop catering to upgrading '60's & '70's domestic cars, specializing in Mopars. I'll work on the other domestics, and some domestics up into the late '80's early '90's. Basically if it can have a collector plate on it I'll bring it in the shop. I'm not doing pro-touring over-the-top stuff. The core of the business is making the older cars people already have a little more enjoyable on today's roads. Fuel injection conversions, overdrive transmissions, suspension and brake upgrades without loosing the original character of the car. Not turning the car into another cookie cutter car. Last week I took out a GRM Marketplace ad space. That was a little frightening, but in a cool exciting way. Another step on the new path. And it feels good too.

That's awesome! Good luck with it! With a lot of the old-timers from the pre-EFI days getting away from wrenching, there seems to be a market for a younger guy who can work on the older stuff.

OH COME ON! it's not like I don't already have enough bad ideas rattling around in my head!

Not all of the voices in my head thought it was a good idea.

Thanks for the good luck wishes. It was one of those now or never moments. It's still all coming together and is going to be a long road, but hey I like to drive!

I will join the fun, although my exciting journey has just begun at the ripe age of 22.

Highschool went well, got good grades played a few sports and generally made it out ok.

First job at 15 painting fences and doing yardwork for 7.50 an hour. Which was mostly sucked up by petrol expenses.

Next i went to work for a golf course as a cart staff member and club cleaner. Made 3.50 plus amazing tips especially on the weekend. Another bonus was the free golf which I took advantage of often.

After three years of this I went off to college for my bachelors in Business Admin. and a minor in CIS. While here I worked at another golf course in the proshop for a couple years.

Eventually got a job at good o'l autozone. Almost three years of this and my patience with mankind ran out, as well as my time in college. Graduated this past august. I was recruited at a job fair in april for a service writer for a company owning four dealerships in delaware.

Here i sit one year later....really need a change in jobs, dealing with people and their problems and constant complaints is killing my attitude about everything.

But I will continue to smile everyday and the hunt continues for what i really want to do in life....which i still have yet to figure out.

Cheers

Edit: Forgot a summer of work as a laborer for construction company. Ended up pretty much doing plumbing work with the guy i was helping because they laid off everyone else. But that summer I learned alot about heard work and this was probably my favorite job thus far. Little down time and alot of sweating.

i am a self employed carpenter/remodeler.

i used to work my ass off for no $ for other people. i worked for a huge place whose name starts with a C and advertises everywhere. got fired because my mom was in sales for them and told off the boss since he was a coke addict and screwing the secretary and snorted one of her commission checks up his nose. then i went to work for another place that does the same stuff as C. that place was a joke, i was one of the only guys with a drivers license so i used to get stuck in the truck at the end of my normal day to do deliveries 2-8 states away. one day i got yelled at for something that was not my fault, so i screamed at the boss for 15 minutes and put in my 2 weeks. the next place i was a manager at, in charge of installations in 4 states. they had such a problem with general managers subbing stuff out that i was all over ohio, PA, and michigan doing other people's work or fixing their screw-ups. they folded and screwed me on my last $1500 they owed. from that moment i vowed never to work for anyone else.

so here i am, 11 years later, still in business, actually making some money now, have a great reputation for doing high quality work, and all my business comes from referrals. i do not advertise, no longer have a storefront, and am not even in the yellow pages. i figure if i'm going to work my ass off to make some butthead a bunch of money, i may as well be the butthead.

never ever ever will i work for someone else. i'm too much an alpha to take orders anyway. and i tend to have a problem with authority when someone else is the authority.

I make internets for NASA

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov

http://visibleearth.nasa.gov

and others...

I barely graduated high school. Low GPA, but high SAT score. I was a bit of an under achiever. Applied to several colleges, but only got into one. Thought that was a better choice than the Marines, and went there.

Started in college as a computer science major, but hated it. I could program, but I hated doing it. I did enjoy showing others how to do it, so after some farting around, I became a "Business Education" major. Learned how to learn kids things and how to use a Dictaphone. Only took me six years to get out.

Started teaching high school after graduation. Initially taught typing, various word processing courses, and a "life skills" course. After a while I became a "Work-based Learning Coordinator" and leveraged my computer background so I could teach AP Computer Science. Started the web development curriculum used in the county today. This went on for about four years.

Saw an ad on craigslist that NASA was looking for a web developer. I had always wanted to work for the agency since I was a little kid. Applied, got an interview, and let them know very clearly in the interview that I was under qualified for the job. They took a risk, I got the job...

.. a pretty cool one at that.

Been here about four years now and have learned a lot about my trade, and about earth sciences. I won't be doing this job forever, but I could work for the agency for a long time if I wanted. I'm still pretty passionate about education, so if I do go, it will be back to a place where I can help people learn a thing or two.

A long,long,long time ago, I lived in a neighborhood that was home to 5 figure 8 stock car drivers. My older brother built the cars for one of them and I used to help by stripping the chrome bands off of all the 50's Ford Victorias he used. Then I worked fo my heighbors garbage company, my other neighbors marine engine repair business and then after I finished HS, I went on to get my AAS degree in Criminal Justice. While getting my degree I worked as a security guard for a different College, but became bored with checking parking passes and id's. So I got a job working for a Fiat dealer as a parts manager. Over the course of 6 years I worked for Alfa then Porsche/Audi, got married, bought a house and had 2 sons. It was time to get a real job. Hooked up with UPS as a package car driver for 9 years, then moved up to the Feeder division and drove doubles all across the eastern seaboard. Had a few (2) more kids and retired after 25 years of service on July 4th 2008, my Independance Day. Dabbled in a few things, ran into a few legal issues and came to the fact I need to find something to do again. Found an ad on CL for a driver needed for a few weeks a year, went for the interview and started working for a Vintage Race Prep shop. Got to be real good friends with the owner of the majority of the cars we worked on and now I work for him as his personal transport driver and trackside support crew chief. And while I'm not running to the tracks, I work for him as a parts coordinator in his business so when I need off to go racing, he just emails me and we go.

Other than that nothing special...