So, what's your day job?

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Ok people, this is a thread about what you do in your day job, Has nothing to do with what we need to do with muslims or any other political mess. Please keep that in the political forum. I retired from teaching career tech printing for 38 years, I now take care of apartments and do lawn work on the side.
 
Politics and religion can destroy our unity........I rarely talk about either. This thread has been great so far.......I appreciate being able to read about what you guys do........it's very interesting to me.

I thought I was a real smart guy when I was a kid. Every summer I helped my older brother frame houses. By the time I was 14 I was making more per hour than guys twice my age that worked in the local plants. So when summer was over, and school started, I'd pick a fight and get suspended. That way I could spend another week or so working. It turned into a bad habit......and I ended up quitting school in the 8th grade.

I got hurt in a bad car wreck when I was 16.......and couldn't work for a few months. During that time I got my GED, and started the Automotive Technology Program at CCTC. At the time, I was the youngest student in the school.

The school is located in Central North Carolina and that is smack dab in the middle of NASCAR country. One of the instructors was good friends with a man named Tom Usury. Tom built a lot of top tier race engine engines in a little cinder block shop. When I met Tom, I realized that I was anything but smart. Tom was so full of real knowledge that it was scary.......the man was a genius. He was kind enough to allow the second year students in the program that were interested in performance engines go to his shop and help out a little. I was one of the very interested ones......

I was also a work study student. That means I stayed after school and cleaned up the shops in exchange for a small amount of money.......that money allowed me to get back and forth to school without trying to hold down a job like many of the other students had to do. That also meant that I was there when the "after hour" projects of the instructors were being done. Looking back now I see how lucky I was to get the experiences that I got back then.

When I was done with school, I worked for a shop in Sanford, NC........the place ended up closing it's doors suddenly when the owner got sick. I needed to pay my rent, so I called my brother and went back to framing houses. That was the end of my automotive "career".
 
I'm a career firefighter and on my days off I work for a industrial rescue company doing confined space and high angle rescue as well as rope access.

And on my days off from my days off I beg my wife to let me go cut wood...which I'm not having much luck considering there is a 2year old at home and another one due in a month.
 
Lots of people with lots of cool jobs. Would be cool to try something different for a while but I have too much time invested here for a career change. LOL. Thought being a heavy equipment operator would be a cool job.
 
I went to Dunwoody technical college for automotive after high school then was in the auto industry for about 10 years. I really didn't like it, seems no matter how good of work you do and try to treat people fairly auto techs always seem to be looked down upon and thought of as crooks. So not a good feeling and not a fun job, at least not for me. And if I don't like doing something, I do something else. I drove truck for a few years, delivered propane a few years, then moved on to doing service work for the propane company. Now I found a job I enjoy and get a descent wage. I do all of the testing at a fire truck manufacturer. I run the pumps, foam systems, hydraulics, generators, aerials, I do the UL testing of them and get the trucks calibrated and working correctly before they are shipped worldwide to our customers. I've been doing it for 6 years now. Monday-friday 9 hour days. I get to play with fire trucks all day, not a bad gig.
 
The tough part about being a principal is that it is tough to see the fruits of your labor with kids which is why I NEED to cut wood. I bust my ass at school trying to support teachers and students and in the end I'm faced with a bunch of liability and my supervisors breathing down my neck every time someone under me makes a mistake.

Running saws takes me to another world where I can forget about bureaucrats and red tape. I get to make all the decisions with no policies forcing me to do something I don't agree with.
 
I'm a water/wastewater engineer. I design and manage the construction of water and wastewater treatment plants, sewer systems and water distribution systems, pump stations, etc.

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I am a field supervisor for a company that erects, maintains, and repairs hydroelectric turbines and generators. I was a field welder for 10 years for the same company before accepting an supervisor's position last year. It is definitely a rewarding career and I have had the opportunity to travel the country.
 
the last barn we built required a huge manure pit. (500 cubic yards of concrete in the bottom of it) There was a hill where the pit needed to be and since poop don't run up hill it had to be moved. We watched 3 large John Deere earthmovers and a big dozer run in circles 12 hours a day for about 3 weeks moving the hill. The earthmovers look like they would beat the snot out of you, sitting way out in front of the front axel, every bump gets amplified. It looks like fun for about the first half hour or so, after that, not so much. Those guys spent all day long getting flung around the cab hanging onto the steering wheel. You could see them bouncing around and pitching side to side. :bowdown: It makes my neck hurt just thinking about it.:crazy2:
The dozer operator had amazing skills. 30 years of experience certainly shows its worth on one of those.

I had a dozer/ backhoe that i did side jobs with for a few years and loved it. yep it beat you to death but i still loved every minute on that dozer and jump on one every chance i get. last couple years i was trucking we also did excavating and i spent plenty of time on a track hoe and dozer. i was absolutely horrible running the road grader though and pans just look boring.
 
I'm a Diesel Locomotive Mechanic.
I start the day with clean shiny tools an before long they look like this
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Here I have an injector from a 710ci two stroke cylinder and there is 16 cylinders on this particular engine. That's 11,360ci per engine to produce 4000hp
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Here is the hole it belongs in
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And here it is installed
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I do this for this company
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I play with poop, pee, blood, spit , snot, vaginal discharge, penis discharge, scabby puss discharge, and rotten infected human tissue.
Clinical Microbiologist - for the last 24 years.

The first 12 years of working for me was construction, worked in a truss crew - mostly rode the peak . Just woke up one day and got tired of beating nails, went back to school and don't regret one moment of it.

The best part of my job today is I get to inform Doctors what to do, although I am paid 1/100 of what they make.

Own 340 acres of farm and woods, and it keeps me busy and healthy, my day job IS my vacation.
 

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