What do you do for a job?

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mtn :

Yes, it's definitely a tough profession. I think it's important that I say that I work for one of the large corporations, but one of the things that keeps me there is the freedom to make treatment recommendations that are the best for the patient, then tailor them to fit.
 

Sometimes that means that I will tell the owner that it's best that they not spend money at my location, but go to someone else. There's not a lot of places I could work where I would get away with that. We put the patient first.
 

 

My cousin worked for one of those practices - it was a small practice, she was one of 4 vets there. Then megacorp bought them. For about 5-8 years, it wasn't much different, because the original owner was still running the practice. Then he retired. She lasted another 4 months there before finding a new job. 

EDIT: I should also mention that my cousin grew up with her father owning a practice; now her brother owns that practice. She's not involved there because it is 200 miles away.

iansane said:

Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to mtn :

We put the patient first.
 

I know this really applies to almost every industry or vendor-consumer interaction but I just wish this was more common. It's incredibly hard to find a vet that even pretends like they care. I got lucky for a number of years with my last canine sidekick but I later found out that he was part owner and that gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted. I also can understand (coming from mostly retail) how employees get burned out caring about everyone when the pet owners/customers can be so... toxic.

I can't speak to your personal experiences but the Vets I know (and I know a lot of them, as my wife's one) care a LOT about the animals they provide care for. Floating Doc is right about the suicide rate and mental health issues - it's very difficult to provide care for animals. Keep in mind there's no insurance and every test expense needs to be negotiated and justified, and often the final expense is a fraction of what the same procedure would be in human med. 

Some owners accuse vets of being in it to get rich, which is really laughable. Nobody goes into vet med because it's a way to make money (it really isn't). They're in it because they love animals - most vets get into their career hundreds of thousands in debt and don't even end up making as much as a nurse would (and I should know). 

Sorry for the rant. Most of the vets I know truly care a lot about their work, if anything too much for their own good.

I think the corporate buyout is what happened to our last Vet. 

They were really, really good and then a bunch of staff changed and they got really awful really fast. The last straw was a bad experience with our new dog when we brought her there to be spayed.

We found a new Vet. He's the stereotype, blunt, frank, old-school country Vet but you can tell he really loves the animals. He probably spent half an hour playing with our dog when we took her to see him. We're very happy and we're going to stay with him as long as he's in business.

My official title is Logistic Management Specialist. It's a catch-all title. I'm a Army civilian. Work in the Army Aviation Command supporting CH-47 Chinook helicopters. I also happen to be retired army and was a Chinook Flight Engineer and Technical Inspector. I do some logistics work, assist the soldiers with troubleshooting and interpreting procedures, issue and train new equipment and oversee some contractors that do direct support and training to the soldiers. Work with our engineering support on how things are used in the field. Work with other departments to ensure the soldiers needs are met with their part of support. Maintenance manuals, tooling and other support equipment. Since Covid hit I've been working from home, going into the office a couple times a month for stuff I can't do from home. Can't really complain (no one would listen anyway), haven't missed a paycheck but sometimes my site supervisor (aka SWMBO) gets irritated at me being in her way (sometimes vice-versa). And travel has slowed to a crawl.

For something like 2-3 years more, then I retire again and play with my toys and do what SWMBO wants me to do. In my off time I'm grandpa extraordinaire.  Just finished restoring an old kick-type scooter with my 9-yo grandson that belonged to his mom when she was his age. He loves riding it around the neighborhood. Next will be a bicycle just because I have a few of them stored and would make a good learning experience. He has bicycles already. Maybe by the time I retire he'll be interested in helping me restore my 63 MG Midget. He wants to be an engineer when he grows up. Gotta train him on how things work and to consider maintenance when he designs things.

I do archtichtural visualization and rendering. I was a draftsman for a while using a program called Revit, then people started forgetting how to use their imaginations and wondered what things would look like. So, I taught myself how to make relatively realistic renderings for other architects, builders, interior designers to help sell jobs...or to at least help make desicions. 

If I stopped doing this, I would like to work someplace like the 901 Shop in FL, or with Keith at Flyin Miata. Motorsports are where my heart is.

In reply to JStrobel80 :

There are several of us architects here, and at least one other person in the rendering world.  Welcome aboard!

I always wanted to pretend to be an architect if that counts for anything 

Guess I should chime in - worked for 27 years as a geologist for the US Department of the Interior, both for the US Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management, analyzing everything from potential Mars lander sites to oil and gas development.  I retired in 1999.  Back in 1985 I submitted an article to a new magazine called Auto-X (now GRM).  That led to more than a hundred more over the next 25 years, including the chance to cover the Pikes Peak hillclimb for 19 years.  Pikes Peak gave me the opportunity to do articles for other US and  British car magazines, which led me into history-themed travel articles for several 4WD magazines, which led to my current area of concentration, history of the American West for Wild West magazine and several other historical journals and a couple of national awards.  It's been a wild ride, and I could never have done any of it without GRM and Tim and Margie.  The writing also allowed me to qualify for minimum Social Security (as a Federal Civil Service employee I didn't qualify through my regular job), which at least pays for medicare as well as plates and insurance for the 89 MR2 and 94 Corvette.  I'll always be a member of the GRM family.

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

I had no idea Civil Service people didn't qualify for SSI, that's horrible. 

I co-own and manage a small NAPA auto parts store.

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

To clarify, federal employees hired after the mid-1980s are under the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) , and do pay into SS and get benefits when they retire.  The Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) system was the retirement system in place for employees who hired on  before the mid-1980s, and we did not pay into the system.  For us CSRS people, we can qualify for SS  on the basis of outside earnings, but congress, in their infinite wisdom (?) passed a law that requires us "double-dippers", as they refer to us, to take a 2/3 cut in SS benefits.  This is called "offset".  Still better than nothing, pays for medicare and some extra.  Sucks, but that's the law.

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

That isn't exactly true anymore. There are 2 types of civil service retirement programs. Well, actually that isn't exactly true. There's the old system and the new system. The old system had it's own retirement program that was actually a bit better than SSI and didn't pay into SSI. Called CSRS. That program is obsolete now and most of the people on that system have retired. Those still working are way past retirement age. The current system, called FERS does pay into SSI and has a system similar to 401K called Thrift Saving Plan plus a retirement program that doesn't pay like CSRS but still something. My dad was CSRS and never received a SSI check, didn't have enough credits to qualify. I'm FERS and will draw SSI. In order to draw SSI you have to pay into SSI.

It changed around early 70's but military didn't used to pay SSI either. I enlisted mid-70's and have paid SSI my whole working life. Looking forward to 2-3 years from now when I will be receiving military retirement, civil service retirement, Thrift Savings payments, 401K payments and SSI. Shouldn't be much of a loss of income when I retire.

In reply to Jim Pettengill & wlkelley3:

Ah, ok. That makes sense. Thanks!

I'm officially no longer (at least currently) a crane operator. 

Decided to pull the plug on that dream and took a position at the local Subaru dealership as shop foreman / dispatcher. Consistent hours, decent pay, good benefits. 

birdmayne said:

I'm officially no longer (at least currently) a crane operator. 

shop foreman / dispatcher. Consistent hours, decent pay......

 

My two buddies from high school retired this year from the Chicago equipment union (local ???) and both ran cranes for over 35 years.  (Ages 58 & 59)

These guys made some decent cash and once one guys dad stopped into my work to buy some rubber hose and bragged his son made $175,000 the year previous.   I imagine there is upcoming a lot of cold days in those cranes.  

RevRico said:

lnlogauge said:

In reply to karplus2 :

I design equipment for indoor agriculture. Does that count? 

Engineering manager for a company in the cannabis industry. It's a weird job. 

So I'm curious, do you guys have in house testing facilities and greenhouses, or do you work with growers directly?

Guy I used to grow for years ago out west is working with some small company making new LED grow lights, sounds like it's just him, the investor, and the scientist doing all the work, but I haven't been able to sit down and have a long talk about it with him yet. He's been running scores of test grows with different chip sets and wavelengths, trying to work out the changing spectrum as the "season" changes.

The wall they're hitting is similar to the wall faced by nutrient companies, where every strain likes things a little different, so trying to make a "perfect but universal" system is very resource and labor intensive. 

Sorry I missed this. 

We do in house testing with hemp, and work with growers for the real stuff. the LED market would be a rough one to get into. Too many chinese companies make them now, based off of whatever specs you want. Our units allow for modifying the perimeters based on what strain you're growing. Whether that's temperature, humidity, nutrients, light spectrum, and timing. Everything is fully enclosed, so no greenhouses. 

horticulturists like to overcomplicate everything. General factors work with growing for the most part, but they want to put their twist on it and call it different. 

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Ya, there's good money to be made if you have the work load. We simply don't. I've worked a measly 1,000 hrs this year so far, or less. I could take a dispatch in the Seattle area and be gone 6 days per week, but with my child custody battle hopefully coming to an end in the next two months, I can't afford to be gone all the time. 

For me, it's a matter of "Why take custody of my kids if I'm not around to raise them?" I could potentially stay union and be a dirt hand, but it's not my passion and again, the work load is very volatile. I'm disappointed to be going back to the dealership life, but I'll still be making above average pay and can be home at a consistent hour to be a good father. 

At the end of the day, I am grateful for having made the hard choice and made the sacrifices in order to pursue a dream of mine, which is running cranes. But, it's not panning out the way my family needs, and I'm willing to make the necessary changes. 

In reply to birdmayne :

I understand - we all make tough decisions.   

In all fairness when 2008 tanked the industry in Chicago the only work my Buddy found was in northern Alberta - Fort McMurray at a refinery. 

He'd be gone 3 weeks at a time x 12 hour days x little dorm room x long weekend home.   As a newly remarried guy it was a tough year but I image he did well with his hours.    

In reply to birdmayne :

I was talking to a younger guy that was going through a divorce with kids.  I told him my story of at the time 50/50 custody and he was asking me how I did it.  Seems his job started too early in the morning.  I told him that for my kid I'd change jobs because kids come first.  Good on you and you won't regret anything you do to make their lives better.

The engineering and like professions are strong in this thread, I guess that isn't really that surprising.

I'm not an engineer. I'm a Senior level Manager at one of the big 3 in the banking space.  I have a very large team under me.  Everyday they help us orchestrate billions of dollars in transactions. We are the glue that's used to make everything work. So, it's a constantly stressful, challenging and changing job.  I do my best to put the team in a good spot and give them stability in their roles.  Most days that means participating in 10-15 meetings while getting hundreds of emails and IMs. On any given day I'm helping our Dev teams with roadmaps and product design, digging through a stack trace with Support and Ops, or presenting our solution stack to clients and prospects.

If I ever get a different job, I'll probably be bored.

I work at the worlds leading graphics chip manufacturer. No, sorry, I can't get you a bleeding edge video card. I work on high speed memories for our CPU group. I'm a layout/mask designer (At the very basic level I draw everything that goes on the dies). I just moved into a management role, so I split my time between drawing, solving higher level technical issues and trying to keep everyone in my team busy. 

The most famous project I've worked on is the CPU for the Nintendo Switch.

In reply to CAinCA :

My kids are very excited about your job! They live their switches! 

I'll echo what I wrote in the old what do you do for a living thread that would pop up occasionally every couple years with,  "non of your damned business" but I'll follow that up with maintenance technician at a poly-iso foam board manufacturing facility. 

I'm retired from selling backup power systems for hospitals, data centers, etc. Mostly 2mW and up diesel generators and paralleling switchgear.

I sell cocaine and cocaine accessories.