Just curious, what do you guys actually do for a living?
Scrolling through comments here, you can tell there’s a huge mix of people, some clearly technical, some more creative, some who sound like they’ve been in the working world for decades, others who feel like students or early in their career.
No particular reason for asking, just genuinely curious what kind of professions make up this community. Feel free to keep it as vague or specific as you’re comfortable with.
Drop your profession below, and if you want, one thing about it people usually don’t expect.
Space shuttle door gunner. It’s a surprisingly easy lateral move from my old job as a submarine screen window repairman.
Hey I’m a billionaire space cowboy. We probably know the same guys. Do you Bob, from accounting? He’s a putz.
That you, Maurice?
Former rock star, now retired, living on my private island, occasional public speaker, industry leader consultant when bored.
Just kidding. IT of course.
Damnnn , I was two seconds away from asking you how you broke into the rock star industry 🤓
“AROO!! AROO!! AROO!!”
No, not really. I’m an English teacher & childcare provider.
Used to work in IT, but preschoolers are generally easier to please.
Graham crackers and juice vs id10t errors. Lol
I have no idea what is called in English. I just work at a car park. Just above minimal wage, it pays my bills, finances my hobbies, is stable and once I’m out of the door at the end of my shift it is not my problem anymore.
Parking lot attendant, unless you drive the cars too, in which case valet parker.
I’m a cashier. Are you proud of me mom and dad?
We are. Love, mum 💐💛
Why would that be a bad job? You provide a service to the community, that is better than a lot of other, so called prestigious, jobs. You didn’t make the world a worse place at the end of your day. So a lot better than many others.
For one thing, the pay is shit. For another, it’s at a gas station/convenenience store (corner shop) so I indirectly work for the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel industry sure makes the world a worse place.
OK, respect for taking responsibility, but I don’t consider cashier at a gas station to be a job responsible for climate change. At a certain point we all have to participate in the system to not starve. That is by design. So again: don’t beat yourself up too much about it. Vote, demonstrate, but cashier is not a job I see one should be ashamed for.
nothing wrong with that, one of the chain “bougie eco grocery stores” chronically have cashiers understaff, recently heard they cutting the budget and rotating through employee like paper. just to put you at ease, there are people that dont have jobs now and constantly complaining about finances for some reason(they refuse to take any jobs, aka cherry picking). alot of stories/posts about this on other platforms.
I used to teach, now I wait tables. I’ve also been a computer tech, event security, summer camp counselor, and lay minister.
I’m thinking about switching it up again. Maybe electrician?
Electrician gang rise up
Get amped!
My profession is whatever job I can get with a HS diploma. Right now it’s a crane operator, I climb 1-3 stories to troubleshoot problems for a warehouse in 34f or -15f. Actually not bad, coworkers on my shift are pretty cool, pay is good, benefits not bad. Just allot to learn with the program and system they use. Still in training, wish my luck keeping this job till I get a college degree or trade.
Mood. Over the last 8 years I’ve been: a server, retail worker, a cashier, a barista, a cake decorator, a software designer, currently I’m a dishwasher.
Almost there same haha. Retail, cashier, order filler for warehouse, restaurant cook, more retail, brewer, even more retail, plastic molder and now cranes.
That sounds like so much to me! I’ve only ever been a warehouse worker at ups for 5 years straight now. Only job I’ve ever had. Job hopping sounds exhausting
I just want to add that dishwashing has been my best experience. I work at a gay bar and everyone is super nice and I’ve made a lot of friends since starting. Surprisingly it pays a living wage but there’s not a ton of hours because they want to keep people off of insurance, which makes sense (they are a small business). I’ve also barbacked on weekends and holidays. I’m also learning to prep cook so I can work more hours. I’m trying to keep one job that can pay me more, than two jobs splitting my time and I get paid half as much. I know FedEx has a union does UPS have one too?
Fedex does not have a union, you are killing me right now. Yes, we have a union. I’m actively involved.
Ok lol thanks for informing me I was wrong. FedEx has union, UPS has shit.
I’m a crane technician, I work for myself repairing all kinds of cranes apart from towers.
Crane operation in Australia is a great profession that i have seen carry many people into retirement.
Why wouldn’t you stick with it? A good crane operator can keep a job site running so smooth. The only downside is no one notices until the primary operator is out sick and someone who isn’t as good is operating that day.
The only reason why is because of moving, don’t like the state (USA) I’m in and want my son to have a better education. I was nervous and being hard on myself that I wasnt doing a good job, but boss man told me I was doing a good job and heard nothing but good things. Have to learn other departments for the company eventually.
Yeah i get that, im in the process of moving now because we don’t want our son growing up where we are living now.
It’s not a great place
i was looking at rad tech, which at least in my area makes at least equal to some grad program/degrees, without the unncessary blood, sweat, time and money of going through 4 years+ grad school. for stem which is “high” for bio /health related field(except for nursing and MDs)
I knew a guy I worked with that was doing this, he said he went to school, but maybe they just paid for his schooling/training. Said he had to go to different places for it.
Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but good to know in case something happens.
interesting did he go to Community college, because those have multi-year waitlists. 1-6+years, some people mentioned they got a degree rather than wait that long, or go to the expensive route, only 4 year universities teach this, only certain ones do. but it can be many times more than CC, like 10-20x more.
Maybe? He just said this company was working with him. Perhaps he knew someone that was helping him
IT support for a non-profit. We are a small IT dept so I do everything from installing printers to managing our network. I’ve been at this job for 20yrs. But worked in IT for 25ish.
I did IT support for a non-profit too. I felt they tend to glom onto the clue until you’re used up and then move onto the next savior. Needless to say, I haven’t done charity work in a number of years.
WOW… A very interesting career life !!!
Environmental health officer, aka health inspector.
Most people don’t know who we are, but we play a huge role in the background on education and prevention for public health issues like food safety, communicable diseases (gastro, outbreaks, pandemic, tattooing, beauty parlours, mosquitoes, rodents, flu, covid, etc.), health of the environment (soil, air, water),… We are a jack of all trades kind of profession.
What’s the nastiest case involving a resaurant you’ve ever seen?
Oh boy… I’ve got a few. There is always one that comes to mind, but I’ve had somewhere I just get the creeps when I walk in, and it’s confirmed crawling with cockroaches: In the walls, ceiling panels, floors, under benches, under the ticket machine (RIP), but surprisingly not actually IN food… That I could see. But I’ve always been during the day with people getting food all the time, so it was probably too risky for the cockroaches to get the food.
The one: I walked in, and things get worse and worse. First: Bag of chicken on the floor beside the oven with boiling stock to the left. To the right, someone cutting up cooked meat. Down the back: Back door is wide open. I also get the familiar cockroach feeling.
I turn back to the left and the chicken has gone in to the stock. The person uses a skimmer to skim off the herbs, spices, fats off the top of the stock, and the strainer goes in to the bin… And back in to the stock.
I look back to the right, someone is taking out the rubbish. Ties the dirty bag, drags it out the back door. Comes back, rinses hands for 2 seconds, goes back to cutting meat. No soap.
Cool room is filthy (walls, floors, containers), smells rotten, it’s too warm. I find cockroach nests inside the cool room, and outside of it.
I walk outside the back door to take a breather, and I find rats in the overflowing rubbish bins. Walk back in to the front area (small display case) and it’s warm.
I shut the place for almost 3 weeks. The owner had no idea, I’m sure he got his kids to do the training I ordered him to do because there was no way he could have gotten 98% when I asked him to demonstrated the skills. They tried to move to another Council area, but we gave the EHOs a heads up.
Worst ever.
Oh yeah that all sounds super nasty 🤢🤮
Such is life of an EHO. But you do get some amazing places where you think it’s an absolute dive, but the kitchen is spotless. If not… I have videos and photos that live rent free in my head forever now.
I’m a professional do-nothinger!
I have a nonsense job title which doesn’t describe what I do, so on linked in I self title as a digital accessibility specialist. Prior to getting into this field, I was a physical therapist (technically I maintain my license so I still am, but feels weird to claim when I’m not practicing)
Curious, with ur PT background, how do you handle stress or old thoughts that resurface? Trying to figure out how I can work on that for myself…
I’ve had a cumulative 6-ish years of weekly therapy (over three bouts, with 5 different therapists)
What was your setting? Why did you leave? I’m school-based. Considering leaving - kids are fun but admin sucks and schools are getting more and more chaotic. I’d keep my license to pick up prn hours if needed.
ETA- I have a friend with CP who’s an OT. I think OT was so helpful to her as a kid that she was kind of enamored with it. Now, 5-10 years into working, she’s finding that the clinic is too physical for her. She’d like to get into accessibility work. How did you make the transition?
I was 90% in SNF and assisted living. I did a few contract rotations that took me to acute. I went through the medicare payment changes which really made clear how admin was just working to manipulate metrics to get paid more (and yet the rehab department was a “loss” because we were a different branch of the company, so staff never got raises, just cuts) rather than accepting recommendations from the treating team. Being in a SNF during the height of Covid (find a side story/complaint below) really finished my burn out.
I went to a coding boot camp, and then got recruited by a friend turned coworker. It’s a nice, niche field if you can get into it, but a LOT of it is government work, so how important they find accessibility varies with the election cycle. That said, it’s probably a good time to get in. I work under the rehabilitation act of 1973, but a recent-ish ruling based in Americans with Disabilities Act is requiring that State and local government entities with a total population of 50,000 or more also have a baseline level of digital accessibility. Spoiler, most are not ready.
Side story: Covid was announced a public emergency or whatever in March 2020. Our company offered us a “hazard bonus”, but didn’t specify that their small print was that there had to be diagnosed covid in the facility. They also didn’t announce that they were only offering the bonus for six months. So when our building had covid sweep through in December 2020 (before vaccines were available), I was told to be providing physical therapy (close contact with heavy breathing) to people who ended up dying the next day with no vaccines and no hazard bonus. They also decided that some staff was not essential, so I totally got paid physical therapist wages to mop rooms and change linens.
interesting how long did you go from coding bootcamp to getting a job in digital accessibility?
A little over two years. However, I wasn’t aiming for accessibility per se. It sort of ended up falling in my lap and being a really good match to use the skills I had collected as a physical therapist.
Is there any certification you needed, or the accessibility training was just rolled up in the bootcamp? We’ve been doing a lot of training at work here for it (education) and I feel like a mini expert at this point.
Need is a strong word. I was hired without any, but they had been looking for someone for a while and were a touch desperate. I’ve since earned both my JAWS certification and DHS trusted tester. I’ve been “in progress” for the IAAP core competencies for years.
That said I walked in with a (clinical) doctorate degree, years of transferable experience, and a personal reference.
Education and eLearning is a great way in.
Super interesting! Do you work for a government entity? Would that be the place to start looking at opportunities?
Schools have gone the same way. Admin only cares about how much we can bill Medicaid - none of the $ trickles down to us and there’s little/no concern for kids who are struggling.
I work for a company that has a government contract (actually they have multiple government contracts, only a few of them in accessibility), but I work super closely with the team that works directly for the government.
I am a caregiver for high functioning adults with special needs. The pay isn’t very good and there’s no benefits. I love my clients, they are hilarious and they like to tell me how awesome I am. I don’t let it get to my head because that’s one of the behaviors they do to get what they want or need.
Geographer, I make maps
Hey same! Kinda. What kind of maps do you do?
Basically land use. You?
Utilities. Kinda similar, but I wish I was on your side of the coin :)
Cool!
This sounds interesting. What kind of maps? How long have you been doing this? How have things changed over the course of your career?
Welcome to the IT help desk, im here because you broke something.
And I cosplay as a sysadmin at home for fun. Would like to make the jump professionally, but being able to turn work off at home and not be on-call is too important.
I used to be a scientist, lived the startup (hardware) dream, now thinking about next moves - world needs housing, right? Maybe reskill to civil engineering?
Surprising thing: hardware startups face so much upfront capital cost that they’re almost impossible these days, also, I’m starting to wonder if we maybe have enough Science/Tech and that investment could be better directed to short term material needs of people and the planet
I’m starting to wonder if we maybe have enough Science/Tech and that investment could be better directed to short term material needs of people and the planet
Depends on what type of science. I’m in Structural Biology, and I think medicine is so primitive that it’s a bit horrifying. Also we have all this protein design stuff and people just aren’t interested in using it to innovate.
I’ve been thinking of doing a one-man start up because the biotech job-market is non-existent, the NIH isn’t funding much, and I can’t seem to find a position. Any tips?
I’m currently an engineer at a hardware tech startup. It is crazy how much upfront capital is needed, even just to build non-form factor test devices.
