What are your jobs?

[Captain Shipton Bellinger]

In no particular order:

• Electronics Engineering in the RAF
• Pyrotechnist
• Computer maintenance/network installation
• Experimental Archæologist
• Web design/development
• Multimedia production
• Webmaster
• Print design/production
• Journal/magazine editor
• Pathological Laboratory technician

• Advertising/marketing material designer (which led me to *loath* marketing personnel, both individually and collectively)
• Steampunk Engineering

Some of these have been more full-time than others, and some have been more enjoyable, but all have gone toward earning a crust.


Edit: Missed out Path Lab Tech on first try. There are probably one or two others I have forgotten.

[J. Wilhelm]

In no particular order:

• Electronics Engineering in the RAF
• Pyrotechnist
• Computer maintenance/network installation
• Experimental Archæologist
• Web design/development
• Multimedia production
• Webmaster
• Print design/production
• Journal/magazine editor
• Advertising/marketing material designer (which led me to *loath* marketing personnel, both individually and collectively)
• Steampunk Engineering

Some of these have been more full-time than others, and some have been more enjoyable, but all have gone toward earning a crust.

Sounds like the type of jobs I'm looking for right here in the "Land of Dell"

[Captain Shipton Bellinger]

Sounds like the type of jobs I'm looking for right here in the "Land of Dell"

Perhaps I should add that I didn't do them all at the same time. 

One of my greatest regrets is that I am not sufficiently qualified in a field suitable which would justify me adding 'Mad Scientist' to the list. 'Mad Engineer' just doesn't have the same cachet.

[Wormster]

Trained as a mechanical engineer years ago, worked in the gas detection industry, traveled the world with theater and circus skills, worked in primary schools as a teaching assistant/network admin, flipped burgers in a grotty burger joint outside oxford station (sadly long gone), picked grapes in the mildura area, busked my way round europe, tried to be a telemarketer and failed, currntly working in a factory building archetctural lighting solutions.

[markf]

In the '80s worked as high school science/math/physics teacher and as a primate reseach biologist for my PhD, no $ in it even yrs after graduation, got a job with the Army in human resources, still work doing large scale organization design/organization effectiveness studies and designing jobs & analyzing compensation data.  The largest project I've been responsible for to date, while being 'volunteered' to the US State Dept on detail, was to create the civilian gov't struture and top ministerial jobs for the entire nation of Iraq following the ill-timed 'mission accomplished' speech in May 2003.  Doing work that directly impacts the lives of tens of millions of people and tens of billions of dollars give one a different perspective on many things, like the stupidity of bureaucracy and the wisdom of Dilbert. markf

[Maets]

Waow, I am in awe, are the metal sculptor pieces displayed in any museums at all?

Not that I know of.  About 60 gallerys carry my work from Maine to California, from Alaska to Florida.
Most of it is in gardens and homes of individuals.   Some business as well.

Thanks.

[Rockula]

I last worked as a civilian within the Metropolitan Police in London.

But...

I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. ...

My life is my own.

[markf]

I last worked as a civilian within the Metropolitan Police in London.
But...
I've resigned. I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. ...
My life is my own.

I've seen your ride, pretty cool. markf   http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/images/priscat2%20copy.jpg

[Professor Obsidian Blaze]

28 years a firefighter, currently working in the Community Safety Department, still loving it, but counting down the 1 year 11 months and 1 week till retirement.

Blaze

[ForestB]

Currently a domestic engineer and pursuer of offspring, but I just got started on learning a new skill (medical coding) to make me more employable in the working world. This means I could afford to buy glass for my kiln on a more regular basis to create nifty stuff...

[Birdnest]

My occupations are as follows (in order):

in San Diego
Lowly Architectural Drafter - 2 years
Civil/Structural Drafter and Apprentice Designer ... mainly bridges and roads - 5 years
Civil/Structural Senior Designer ... Schools, Parks, special problem projects, golf courses, bridges - 10 years

in Montana
Structural Designer/Surveyor ... railroad bridges and industrial buildings - 1 year
Senior Structural Designer for a small wonky timber Frame company - 2 years
Owner, Principal Structural Designer and computer systems tamer ... medium sized Timber Frame company - 14 years. (and we're still hanging on  )

Also moonlight building custom multimedia computers (PC and some Linux), web design, book formatting and other similar graphic arts endeavors ... and a bit of custom furniture and wood things here and there.  I've remodeled three houses and completely built one.  Quite a bit of experience in electrical and plumbing (usefull for building houses!!)

(Lady A ... I was going to be a sound engineer ... I changed my mind often, sometimes pissing off people who thought they knew better of my goals and dreams than I)

[Agent.Fang]

Many years of having a strong interest in jewery-making and chain maille, as well as an overactive imagination and drawing skills. Also, a strong love of indigenous culture and my Lakota heritage plays a huge part in my creations.

Aside from that, I am currently a student of Accounting (which is applied to my steampunk persona).

[Dr. Madd]

I work in injection molding.. Sad.

[Ray Hexx]

US Army (Military Police)
Commercial diver - Specifically rig demolition
Firefighter
Operator - Polypropylene Unit

Oh... And a totally worthless degree in english

Throw some car repair/parts sales in there when I was a teenager and that's me...

Be safe, Ray

[Matthias Gladstone]

1st Year Naval Architecture/Marine Engineering Student, and just started as a Volunteer Stoker/Apprentice Engineer aboard the Steamships Barking and Vic 96
Most of my "Steampunk" skills come from years of model making; we get tought very little in the way of practical skills at University; i've been here a year, and i've only used machine tools once.
-matt

[Lt. Thomas Corvidae]

Was a studio art major in college with no real concentration, but focusing on Sculpture, Photography and Drawing. Now I work as an Art Handler in a Antiques and Fine Arts gallery, that deals mostly with American Colonial furniture and art, but have seen some cool Civil War stuff come through. Sad to say that I have not made as many projects as I have thought up...

[Max Von Hellbent]

For the last 20-some odd years I have been an automotive mechanic working on cars in the LA and Orange County area and an A&P mechanic working on aircraft in Palm Springs. Currently I am an instructor teaching Aircraft Technology in Los Angeles (Inglewood) and LOVING it.

[Mécanicien de Vapeur]

For the last 19-odd years I've been a schedule compiler for a large transport undertaking in London  , devising devious rosters for train drivers and station staff. The 18 months prior to that I drove trains in the tunnels under London (until I grew tired of shiftwork and the suicidal) and before that I spent 3 and a bit years as a court clerk/admin bod at the Royal Courts of Justice, also in London.

None of which really added anything to my steampunk skills... most of those have come via my hobby of modelling trains, plane and stuff.

[Gregor]

For me it's a bit weird and sometimes a bit spooky.

My day job is a Network/Systems admin (Actually really just a one-man IT department) for a title insurance company with 8 offices in 7 counties.  I'm responsible for everything from building/maintaining the servers and workstations to programming the thermostats, to maintaining the 500 gallon aquarium at the main office.  I run network wiring, phone wiring, and even am called in to fix the occasional broken toilet flusher.  (Quite often I find myself pondering exactly how the task at hand fits my job description... Not that I was ever given a job description or even a title.)

My skills, however, have been acquired through experiences mainly outside of work.  I'm fairly proficient at all of the following:

Computer programming
Basic Electronic circuit design
Microcontroller programming
electrical wiring
Woodworking,
Metalworking
Welding
Plumbing
Painting
Basic Chemistry
Cooking
Mechanical repair

The list goes on.  One particular talent I have is replication.  If I see a particular mechanism, tool, whatever, that catches my eye but is out of my price range, I can generally spend about 5 minutes looking it over and then go home and replicate it.

I read constantly.  Both fiction and non fiction books, online resources etc.  Sometimes I'll be working on a project and trying to figure out how to do something and my brain will make these huge leaps and connect bits of information that I picked up who knows where and suddenly I "just know" how to do something.  But at the same time I also have a lot of weird dreams where I manage to learn skills that actually work when I try them in reality.

I get asked at least once or twice a week "How did you know how to do that?".  My answer is usually "I just know.  I wish I could explain it."

Good Sir, are you ME!?!
  Except for the job, we seem to almost have the same resume. I have always worked as an electronics technologist, mostly in the computer industry. I currently modify monitors for harsh environment placement. One instance where Steampunk skills help me in actual work, manufacturing these products.  I don't do any IT stuff, but I do fix the toilets too. I call my job description 'Corporate Kitty Litter' at the company I have been at for 22 years.  I also have weird dreams and while I don't learn how to do something from them, I often get inspiration on solutions to vexing issues or on wonderful things to make for others. I would have to add though that I am also a 4th generation (and alas, the last gen) picker, merchant trader. My family curse is that I have to disperse the other 3 generations' worth of stuff in a calm and dignified manner.     Cheers - g

[Guinevere Meander]

hmmmm

I feel odd posting this now:

I grew up in a household with antiques and learned about "old" stuff from birth on and learned just by living it..!
Stupid me, never bothered to make a career of out it then,...duh!

I chose to get trained and educated as a pastry chef, dropped out a few weeks before the finals (yes, I was an immature teenager!)
...left for the great big city and followed a dream of 20+years of make-up and styling...learned from the bottom up with the worst and the best and didnt starve after that.
Fell in love, immigrated to the US and became a housewife (with a hobby!!)
Started to bake and decorate cakes again...fancy designs (cowboy-boots; stiching and all, caroussels; horses and rotating top with plates and tiles, rose-cakes with only molded rose petals as cover, etc). 

Got really sick and can't do any of this anymore on a professional basis (still for rare occasions for friends)...

So...Up, up and away to educate myself and train my voice to now make a living just by doing what comes naturally to me:
....talking.......!
Off to college for voice-coaching lessons for the next  semester....YEAH

[hasher]

Lets see.

Went to Universty and studied Theatrical design. Would up with a 2nd degree in Sociology. Never used them professionally.

Line Cook
Roofing Contractor
Asst Superintendant on a large construction project
and for the last 15 years Alarm Sales.

[Xenos]

Currently I am a dockworker in a big-box retail home improvement store.  I hate it with a passion (mostly because of the morons I'm forced to interact with-and THEN there's the other employees!).

Before that, I was a maintenance director for two seperate food service chains, before that I was a cart pusher for the same big-box retail home improvement store I'm at now, before that I worked in the Middle East for a good while doing...  things.  Before that I was an S&R First Responder with the USAF Aux.

God I miss those days.

None of it really playes into my steampunk whatever.  Maybe the time in the Middle East, because of the look/feel/etc.  I really think what does it for me is my desire to escape the normal, to break free of what people expect, and to just say "Feck the system, and while you're at it, FECK YOU!"...  figuratively speaking, of course.

In a nutshell, I enjoy steampunk mostly because I hate the real world with an unrestrained passion.

[Sir Nikolas Vendigroth]

Shiftless, lazy, unemployed, feckless, reckless, parasitic moocher on society's purse (No!) and sense of good taste and decency (Probably!) without even a remote prospect of gaining employment, be it gainful or otherwise, saddled with a crippling debt to pay for a degree in geology that's not worth the bog roll it's to be printed on, assuming I've managed to scrape together enough marks in my 3 long years to have made the time, effort and cost worth it. Not that I can afford to re-sit if needbe.

Christ, that was a long sentence.

In short I don't have a job, and I'm not likely to get one. And constantly being told that I just need to use the power of positive thinking and try harder doesn't help either.

Could be a professional griper, though, I've got that down for me. 

[Ezra Hogbin]

I'm a CCTV / security alarm technician.
Well, I used to be until they made me a manager, somehow I still class myself as a technician.....maybe that says something about me 

[Captain Braid]

Problem Solver.

At least that what everyone else seems to think I am. (and yes that has {and still does include} being expected to solve relationship problems.
Technically I am an IT Manager, for Backup/Data recovery resources, which means I spend 90% finding Files or Folders which have "Disappeared" (Clumsily deleted)

But I've been in IT for 40 years as well as being; Teacher, Photographer, Model Maker/Painter, Elected Councillor, Scout Leader, Facilities Manager, Building Services Manager, Interviewer, Trainer, Project Manager, Staff Manager and the guy with the shovel when it all goes wrong.