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[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I was wondering what everyone here does and what jobs people want?

So just talk about your dream jobs, jobs you currently do, things you do at work (doesn't have to be your job just stuff you do there (practical jokes, experience with co workers, etc)).

I'll start

I'm 16 and a half and I do not have a job (or a drivers livens :/ ) yet so I can't supply any job experiences but I do some 'unique' house hold chores since I live in the middle of nowhere USA. I can talk about that if anyone is interested. The jobs I'm interested in are nuclear and aerospace. Basicaly the majority of jobs in those fields. Probably going to go to college for nuclear reactor operator then join the navy as my career.

How about you guys? ((Before someone yells at me for gender crap, where I come from guys means everyone and is not a gender specific term so sorry if that offends anyone but it's the word we normally use where I live))

[nenjin]

I'm 35. I work tech support for a smaller (20-ish person) company. We create and manage inventory tracking and point of sale software for the Heavy Truck Parts, Automotive and Motorcycle industries. We've since morphed the software to do sample analysis for large food and beverage production facilities as well. (Basically the program is a place for their quality control managers input sample data taken from the line and analyze it, trying to identify a problem in production before it becomes a major issue and forces a multi-million dollar recall.)

My days are spent answering phones, explaining our sometimes complex software to customers, advising them on the best way to do something they need to do for their business using the software, taking bug reports, reproducing bugs, installing the server backend and software, traveling to different companies in person to set them up and train them, fixing their printers, troubleshooting their network, sweeping their computers for viruses.....and several times a year they send me off to live Heavy Truck Parts auctions, where I get the joy of clerking bids for 10 to 14 hours. And getting yelled at when the internet drops off or our servers choke and die.

My dream job has typically been "idea guy" for a video game dev studio. In truth, my ideal job is being independently wealthy and unemployed. Because work blows and I'd rather get satisfaction from other places in life than grinding away in a 9 to 5.

[Zrk2]

Right now I'm a lab assistant at my university. I am (long term) working on designing the shielding for a neutron source, short term I am sorting papers to help my supervisor with the accreditation process.

My dream job? Archaeologist maybe. I don't suppose we have any out there to tell me how it is?

[Baffler]

Right now I'm a biochemistry student employed by a local temp agency that places me in jobs at warehouses and factories and whatnot over the summer, basically one off jobs that are usually of a physical nature. My dream is to own just enough rental properties and strip mall space to hire someone to manage them for me and still have a comfortable income for myself, because even though I liked everything about some of the jobs I've had I still would rather not have to do them.

[Itnetlolor]

These days, being 30, I do freelance graphic design work; though it's kinda barren, but really, I wanted to do game design (or more vaguely, make games in general). My lack of math skill, and my limited patience with anything past trigonometry (and programming), kinda prevent me from moving forward any further. So I'm limited to being an "ideas" guy, if possible in those fields. Alternatively, I also wanted to be an inventor since my single-digit days.

But before that, during my school days, I wanted to be an adventurer or a mercenary; a gun for hire, soldier of fortune, going to exotic locations (with alien geometries in some cases) doing the kinds of missions nobody else wants to do, or lack the balls to do (and be paid generously for it; or take down the backer unwilling to pay and back-stab me instead, and loot them afterwards anyway (I would make for a fun Fallout or RPG character)). Like raiding a cult, before an elder god is summoned (and hell, just for kicks, let them finish their ritual and hang the god's head above the mantle of my fireplace when I'm finished with them and the elder god; or doing a suicide run into enemy territory, delivering as much (collateral) damage as possible, and thinning the herds out that cause trouble (preferably with a multi-ton walking machine of death, riddled with PPC cannons and the like. That, or a starfighter); somehow surviving, and drinking and telling tales of my victories to anyone interested; alternatively, being a pirate, looting all kinds of things and disrupting the normal ways of life, and knocking a few high-class people down a few pegs, and humbling total assholes that walk all over anybody because they can. So basically, a thug for hire. Of course, the levels I had in mind make it seem like a Saturday Morning Cartoon meets an arcade game. Given how much reality demands to remain real, and my idea of a good time borders on making me a terrorist on constant watch (building the biggest explosive possible always sounds fun), not to mention being ignorantly unrealistic, I guess playing games will have to do instead; or dreaming environments were that's legal/possible, and taking on the jobs over there.

My ideal job: minimal work, maximum fun, and getting paid for it (or money (preferably) not being an object, some acknowledgement and fair treatment), whatever suits my interests for the time being. Freelancing in general is a step towards all of the above. Basically, I want to be paid for doing whatever the hell I want, sans any potential criminal record I could rack up from it.

Unfortunately, Reality itself (square-cubed law (and other physics-based laws, which especially inhibit magic), the law (in general, including 10 commandments), magic not being real, politics, society, perma-death, being required to build things first before doing whatever with them, limited resources, etc.) is still my mortal enemy for maximum fun to be achieved. If only there was a way to break Reality, dreams (including nightmares (especially if can be harnessed)) can be realized. Oh well, back to the grind.

* Itnetlolor continues fruitlessly scanning his freelance job feed.

[Biowraith]

Short version: I'm a clerical assistant who over the years has inherited a bunch of slightly more interesting and challenging duties on top of the regular mind numbing stuff.  Also I have good conditions re: freedom, leave, and lack of stress.  I don't so much have a dream job as just want to further alter the ratio of challenging:boring duties in my current job.

Long version:

I work at the local council as a 'support assistant', which is basically a clerical assistant.  The department I work in is responsible for the repair and maintenance of the council's non-domestic properties (schools, libraries, leisure centres, community halls, that sort of thing).  They're also responsible for projects to build new buildings of that type.

I've been in the job something like 8-9 years, during which time I've worked in a few teams within the department - originally I was in a team that was responsible for appointing consultants (architects, quantity surveyors, CDM coordinators, and so forth), then I was providing support to our asbestos team, then working on an emergency repairs helpdesk, then providing admin support to the guy that runs all our maintenance contracts. 

These days I continue to provide support to that last guy while also working closely with the team leader for the repairs helpdesk.  And since we got a new financial system last year, I've been landed with a *lot* of invoicing work.

Generally my day involves a lot of logging maintenance visits, inputting jobs and orders, processing invoices, and doing vaguely complicated things with spreadsheets.  I have some contact with external contractors, usually either to help them resolve unpaid invoices or requesting missing certification.  Although it's not strictly part of my job description, I also do a fair bit of report writing using Crystal and Discoverer, for internal statistics and KPIs and also sometimes for external FOI requests - the team that's actually meant to do that are in another department so it's generally faster and easier for our managers to just ask me to do it.  I've also developed a reputation for my IT literacy (which by internet standards isn't anything special, but by office drone standards is apparently impressive) and my problem solving skills, so again unofficially I'm quite often called on by colleagues to help figure stuff out (why am I getting this error message?  how do I get my spreadsheet to do X?  they're saying the invoice isn't paid but it says on my screen that it is what's going on?  is there a faster way I can do this? we need someone to figure out if this process/system will work for us etc etc).  The official duties are all pretty boring (soul destroying, even), but I kinda enjoy a lot of the stuff I do in a less official capacity. 

Also, while the duties and pay aren't great the conditions are pretty good: ~30 days of leave that I can basically take whenever I want, flexitime with no 'core' hours so I can more or less pick my start/finish times and change them on a whim (if I start to feel fed up on a given day I can just up and go home, so long as I maintain a positive time balance overall), and I'm largely unmanaged/unsupervised and left to my own devices - managers may come to me with tasks and queries, but nobody really monitors my workload or job performance or anything like that.  So I get a lot of freedom and relatively little stress.  And no requirement to work overtime or otherwise take my work home with me. 


As for my dream job, eh, I'm not really sure I have one.  I guess if I could just increase the sorta-interesting unofficial duties of my current job and decrease the tedious ones, that'd be good enough for me.  So more fancy Crystal report creation, more complicated spreadsheets, and more figuring out processes and troubleshooting problems for colleagues, with less/none of the endless logging and filing. And no minute taking.  God I hate minute taking.  It'd be nice if I were paid accordingly too - I've not met anyone else at my pay grade that'd be able to learn all the stuff I do.

(as a kid I wanted to be either an astronaut or 'an inventor', while in high school I assumed I'd be a programmer of some sort, but now that all seems like way too much time and effort)

[Levi]

I am a computer programmer.

I want to retire.  Its weird, but I just really enjoy being lazy and not doing anything.  I want to get a stretch of land in the forest away from people, put a yurt on it get two dogs and just have fun by myself all day every day.  All my money is being invested and saved for this purpose.  I am probably 10 to 15 years away from being able to do this.

[Tawa]

I intend to become a criminal defense lawyer.

[insert lawyer joke]

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

My sister went to college for zoology because she wanted to work with big cats at zoos, one semester away from graduating and she drops and joins the navy as an electrical worker. I don't know why she made the transition but she seems a lot more happy about being in the navy than she was in college so I guess that worked out for her.

I intend to become a criminal defense lawyer.

[insert lawyer joke]

Anything specific inspire you to want to do that? I know hearing stories in the sad thread sure don't make it seem like a good field.

[Tawa]

I intend to become a criminal defense lawyer.

[insert lawyer joke]

Anything specific inspire you to want to do that? I know hearing stories in the sad thread sure don't make it seem like a good field.

It pays well, seems interesting enough, and the Juris Doctor that I'll get from the education required would help me get more earnings anyway.

I am well aware that most of the job is not yelling at people in courtrooms.

[nenjin]

I want to retire.  Its weird, but I just really enjoy being lazy and not doing anything.

Nope, I hear you loud and clear. I enjoy waking up and going "what do I want to do" not "what do I have to do?" The only part I didn't like about long term unemployment was being broke and the sense of being worthless for being broke. Otherwise it was rad.

Right now I just don't like the stress my job puts on me sometimes. Really long and complicated process chains, being frontline tech support having to answer questions on that stuff, always having to learn something in a hurry. Competence is always a pressure point around here, and it's never ending. As soon as you're competent in one thing, something new is going to come along.

[Zrk2]

Also, while the duties and pay aren't great the conditions are pretty good: ~30 days of leave that I can basically take whenever I want, flexitime with no 'core' hours so I can more or less pick my start/finish times and change them on a whim (if I start to feel fed up on a given day I can just up and go home, so long as I maintain a positive time balance overall), and I'm largely unmanaged/unsupervised and left to my own devices - managers may come to me with tasks and queries, but nobody really monitors my workload or job performance or anything like that.  So I get a lot of freedom and relatively little stress.  And no requirement to work overtime or otherwise take my work home with me.

This here is the trick. Find a job that doesn't make you want to kill yourself, and then make it awesome. Helps if your coworkers are cool.

I want to retire.  Its weird, but I just really enjoy being lazy and not doing anything.  I want to get a stretch of land in the forest away from people, put a yurt on it get two dogs and just have fun by myself all day every day.  All my money is being invested and saved for this purpose.  I am probably 10 to 15 years away from being able to do this.

I would like to some day get a piece of land a little out into the country where I can do stupid things like build Roman roads in the traditional fashion, and collect many rusty cars and whatnot, but your plan runs a close second.

I am well aware that most of the job is not yelling at people in courtrooms.

And it's a damn shame.

EDIT:

I want to retire.  Its weird, but I just really enjoy being lazy and not doing anything.

Nope, I hear you loud and clear. I enjoy waking up and going "what do I want to do" not "what do I have to do?" The only part I didn't like about long term unemployment was being broke and the sense of being worthless for being broke. Otherwise it was rad.

Right now I just don't like the stress my job puts on me sometimes. Really long and complicated process chains, being frontline tech support having to answer questions on that stuff, always having to learn something in a hurry. Competence is always a pressure point around here, and it's never ending. As soon as you're competent in one thing, something new is going to come along.

Have you considered becoming the Wally?

[scrdest]

Right now I'm a biochemistry student

Heh between you, me, Sheb and some other people I don't want to name because I'm not 100% sure they are and I don't want to make an ass out of myself, I think we should start a Bay12 Life Wizzerds Club.

[TempAcc]

I'm 25 years old and an actual freelance lawyer :v, altough I do have a few "associates" (not as in we're an actual lawyer firm, we just kind of work togheder in certain cases).

[Itnetlolor]

After having worked a few 9-5 jobs, then finally working freelance, have you ever had a weird guilty feeling that you shouldn't be doing nothing, even though there's nothing wrong with it (especially because you wanted to take a day off)? Probably the most annoying feeling I've gotten since I've started. Anyone else have this issue?

Then again, maybe it's just a force of habit thing that I must always be working regardless. So many free days wasted because "I MUST ALWAYS BE BUSY" keeps running in my head like a compulsion; with, of course, a side-effect of feeling worthless when nothing's been done at all (idling out, whereas I could have been even working on some backlogs). Of course, these days I'm working harder looking for work, than any actual work being done. Thank goodness I have some games to fill in my time as I seek work. For the sake of others, I wish I could be more creative during my downtime, but I have yet to be motivated to do something of the sort to fill in the time more properly.