[Closed] What do you do and do you enjoy it?

Catering Manager in a special need school .

Loving it , very rewarding . money is ok and get all school holidays off .

But finishing on friday after nearly 2 years .

Moving back home to France . Not sure what I will do there .

Engineering Dept of a large aquaculture company. Basically a traveling mechanic that works on all sorts of machinery. No 2 days are the same & it's challenging.

It's rather enjoyable.

Chocolatier, sort of fell into it 9 odd years ago when I could no longer work as a mtb guide/skills coach, minimum wage though and I work as much as I physically can before my legs stop working (spinal injury) which for the past few years has been 20hrs max week, the only upside to working is I can go in to work when I want and finish when I want whilst wearing my headphones all day to drown out out the inane shite that the girls I work with listen to.

I'm a teacher. It's tough but I love it.

Machine shop manager, like the job but not as much as I used to.
Other people who have little or zero skills taking all the profit and doing very little or nothing in return sort of demoralises your efforts.
I guess most other jobs have similar issues.

I said before I work for stresco, as a dept manager, just survived the last cull of managers possibly a reprieve until Dave Lewis wants to save more pennies. Hate the job but have no idea what I want to do when I grow up, 40 next year and I have 24 years service, all from a part time job!

I worry about when / if I get made redundant, bumped into an old work colleague today, years ago he used to be my boss, then both on the same level, he lost his job in November he is a broken man, no swagger or confidence all gone, I don't want that.

You work @ inhouse somafunk? Sampled some on Sat, nice 😀

Me? Served my time as a motor mech in the '70s. Quite a few 'firsts'. First apprentice to attend a Rover training school(auto gearbox) PDI and drove first Range Rover in town+factory course on engine/gearboxes. Moved to a Ford garage and attended the launch of the first Fiesta

then moved on to become a factory fitter(ICI), still there 38yrs later 😯
Job title has changed to 'technician' and may be changing again! The job has been varied over the years, there used to be 5 plants and over a thousand workers, now less than 3 hundred and only 2 plants.
Interesting times ahead with possible mergers in the offing or a possible sale.
Never a dull moment......
Worked shifts for many years which allowed me to do lots of stuff at kids primary school, pa, school board, start a swimming club, train as a swimming teacher and RLSS tutor. Helped out with special needs swimming classes. Founder member of local special needs swimming club.
MBLA.
Bikability trainer.
Founding member of local Go-Ride club
Had a wee bit of input into D&G Stanes along with others 😀

I work in a bank which makes me a banker! It's alright.

Yeah, I work upstairs so to speak handmaking all the products (they are far better when made fresh and eaten within 24hrs as chocolate starts to oxidise rather quickly). I was Claire's first employee when she started the business in her kitchen/shed and I seem to still be here 9 years later in the fancy new factory...dunno quite how that happened as I only went to help out with her first commercial order but sort of fell into it. The pay is poor but to be honest it's prob the only job/employment I could do locally as I can work for as little or as much as I can dependant on how I feel that day and if I want/need a day or week off then it's no problem so I can't really complain.

Oh and I get to eat/take home as much as I like, which to be honest is none at all for myself but handy for birthdays/Xmas presents.

😀

Currently doing bike hire; booking, handing over, cleaning and maintaining the bikes (after every hire so that's a lot of cleaning - no wonder my own bikes get neglected). Answering folks queries about potential routes and tours - some one day, some multi-day.

And taxi/bike transport; mainly to/from Inverness and John o'Groats but covering much of the Highlands from Oban to Durness and occasionally further afield.

Love it. Folk are mostly relaxed and on holiday, get a good bit of chat on the way to JoG as folk are very excited but almost none on the return trip as folk are either knackered or in a post-climactic slump. I get to drive around the Highlands, enjoying the scenery and passing on stuff I know/answering questions. All in all, I'm really happy with it. I didn't think 10, or even 5, years ago I'd be a Velotech qualified bike mechanic and a licensed taxi driver. Just goes to show the surprises that life can throw up.

Nurse. NHS.

Hate it.

Can't see a way out without huge pay drop. Got family to support.

Currently lying awake with anxiety knowing I've got 12 hours in the hole tomorrow.

Worked in Subcontract Engineering for 30 yrs. started off doing project work and automation for the supply companies for Nissan. Robot weld cells etc. Loved it great bunch of lads great times. Long hours etc. On call for breakdowns 24hrs. Then shifted to oil and gas. More money but very boring production work. Now estimating jobs for the Aerospace industry. Quite interesting but equally frustrating. Looking like most people to get a better work life balance. (Ps. Very frustrated by the quality of training for apprentices and the ability of them when they leave college.)

I tell people I do IT support as it sounds cleverer but really I do customer service wearing a slightly more complicated hat than, say, a waiter or bar tender. Speaking to random folk and helping them out, making at least a slight positive difference to their day is great, but I'm well over the misguided management - it's frustrating, some genuinely genius ideas, but also some real ducks. At the minute, the bright spark idea is to set targets for time spent on the phone - so, what's the number for the speaking clock, again...?

Looking around, if anyone's in need of a customer service bloke - and I don't sit listening to the speaking clock all day, BTW.

Build missile guidance systems, also bits for drones and satellites and at the other end of the scale life support systems for subs, tanks and planes.

I am a Caretaker/Odd Job man in a small business unit. 6-2 Mon to Fri. Money's not great but it's the best/most laid-back job I've ever had and I can cycle here in 7 mins. I suppose I'm lucky that I've always had jobs that I've enjoyed. Used to test PVC compounds for an extrusion company and before that, tested construction materials for motorway builds - that was a good job for a single man.
I'm happy...

I'm guessing that Kilo works with/for CEOP. Very, very difficult and completely essential job. During my safeguarding time I've been involved with horrible cases of abuse that have stayed with me ever since. Doing that on a daily basis must be very, very challenging. Big respect and thanks.

Engineering technician in a university with niches in materials and testing.
On paper, a good job but the reality is not so nice. Lack of career advancement opportunities, teams cut so lean that we just about manage basic, mundane, functionality instead of all the interesting work we could be doing and some colleagues/internal clients who are really awkward sods have me seeking opportunities elsewhere.

Rope access technician/ops manager for a small rope access company. Probably a 70-30 split between office work and hanging from a rope but there's enough of the latter to keep it interesting & enough of the former for me to not be out there with the lads when the weather turns!
Currently expanding my role into H&S, will most likely mean dropping some of the time I spend on the ropes but tbh turning 40 this year it's quite nice not to have to be doing hard physical work all the time.
I enjoy it, certainly not what I ever thought I'd do & the management side can be frustrating sometimes but overall it's pretty rewarding, get paid pretty well & can be fairly flexible with my working hours/days. Boss is a mountain biker too so understands if I need to slope off for a few hours on a sunny afternoon for a 'meeting'...

Tyre manufacturer.
Manager of the manager managers.
Engineer by study, generally disrespected by Salespeople until the point where I bit the bullet and became one. Now I just set strategy, chase up folks and protect my team from more senior folks who know very little about what we do except the sales KPI's.

Not feeling very inspired by it......

Teach FE and some HE. Like the classroom/ workshop bits and love helping students turn project ideas to a product, unfortunately I'm also supposed to be social worker/ parent/ administrator.

Ps. Very frustrated by the quality of training for apprentices and the ability of them when they leave college.)

To be fair so are we, massive arguments every year in this but untill education is not graded on results....

I run a publishing business in London. Privately owned with big targets but I'm really enjoying it and have a great team - probably first job that's really challenging me. V. little travel involved which allowed me to do 12k km on the bike last year - all good!

Same/similar as maxtorque, except i'm on the OEM side.

And more of a focus on consumption than tyre smoking acceleration.
But still interesting.

Renewable energy lawyer. Used to love it when people were behind the industry and there was a lot of new stuff going on and before the evil Tory Govt decided it had been too successful. These days it's increasingly just people moving money around. Some of the stuff going on with large scale batteries is quite interesting.

Green woodwork & pole lathe / woodland crafts teacher, working with special educational needs groups mostly. I love the craft, and am very lucky to be 'pro' and make a living out of it. On the downside, it's no longer my hobby and passion; I very much want to shut the doors on it at the end of the day.

Aerospace Research Engineer looking at Design Optimisation and Additive Manufacturing- 2nd career after IT management. I'm paid less, but I like my job a lot more.

I have parts I designed on spacecraft, aircraft, submarines and helicopters. Quite satisfying.

I got to see an A380 get jacked up off it's landing gear last week...scary....then they retracted the gear....terrifying!

Agricultural banker for a small bank at the moment. Enjoy it. From next month, corporate banker for a very large bank. Hope I enjoy it...

I got to see an A380 get jacked up off it's landing gear last week...scary....then they retracted the gear....terrifying!

Yeah! I mean, like, that sounds cool and everything, but last week I saw a dude totally remove Tray 3 from the photocopier.
It was totally just lying there, disembodied on the carpet!...... Mind Blown 😉

Same/similar as maxtorque, except i'm on the OEM side.

And more of a focus on consumption than tyre smoking acceleration.

Same offer/threat applies then 🙂

After 32yrs self employed, I now Work part time in a Halfords Bikehut...I like it.

It was totally just lying there, disembodied on the carpet!...... Mind Blown

Programme manager delivering on site/RTB calibration/metrology solutions to one of the largest aerospace companies in the world, like ever.

I enjoy it, still get my hands dirty which is cool, have 'expertise' (giggles) in particular special processes which is nice. Work away from home an awful lot which is cack.

I got to see an A380 get jacked up off it's landing gear last week...scary....then they retracted the gear....terrifying!

Working in Singapore last year I was walking across an MRO site where they were doing the same with a KC135. Security guard came running over shouting all the way trying to get our attention, when he caught up he asked if we were Liverpool fans. Conversation finished with him pointing at us and saying "you know they say you never walk alone".

Really interesting range of ways to earn a living on here. I'm actually finding it quite an inspiring thread - it's good to know so many people have the right (IMO anyway) philosophy with work/money/quality of life even if they're not necessarily where they want to be in that respect at the moment.

Painter and decorator and disability adaptions. Happy with it. Have worked as A roadie, stagehand, deckhand, seafood chef, army recruitment, I.T. , barman, Home Office caseworker,bingo caller, banker not all in that order. Lots of jobs as spent lot of time travelling abroad. Going back to college was odd at 37ish but got my certs sorted out. All turned out well seen as I lived out of a bag for 10 years

Semi-retired scientist, love the challenges of discovering new things about the world, though after 20 years the process is a bit same old same old, even with location/topic changes. Still get a buzz from publishing papers, presenting new advances, making a contribution. Don't miss the bureaucracy, admin and internal report writing though.

Work for a small Civils and Groundworks company as Estimator, qs, buyer, contracts manager, jack of all trades.

Love it. Interesting work, great people to work with and gets me out of the office.

Mechanical Tech offshore. I work on a very old platform (40 years since first oil this year) and we actually get to repair things unlike a lot of places which either get vendors out or replace old with new, this is the bit I like.
Not really liking the industry anymore going back before the pay offs and cuts but I work 3 weeks away and 3 at home which is all I'm really doing it for now as I think I'd struggle going back to a 9-5 workshop job after all these years.

But who knows you never know what's around the corner

I am a Head of Science in a secondary school. I used to be SLT but hated all the meetings, and just wanted to be back in the classroom, with a bit of management! I love teaching, and thinking all day about Science education. I really don't enjoy all of the other stuff, and the inability to find staff!

Building Control Surveyor - Local Authority

Job kind of found me, I'd planned to work in motorsport, but have been around the building trade all my life. It doesn't really excite me in itself any more, if it ever did, though making the very best of it and doing the best job I possibly can keep me motivated enough. Plenty of leave, good salary for the area, flexi time, boss leaves me alone, customers are generall happy, I get good feedback. I can work from home or a satellite office 10 mins away, haven't been to 'the office' this week. *edit - working for a LA is like swimming in custard at times, worst bit of the job is council wide policies, intended to kerb spending in departments tipping money down the drain, when we're fee earning, and lots of stuff they foist on us is largely irrelevant.

Motorsport doesn't pay very well at all unless you're very good, or get a bit lucky, and even then, chances are it's not very secure, and you can get treated like crap. Working in it has also killed it as a hobby for several people I know, so I may be better off out if it, earning as much or more than I could in it, having more spare time to actually do it as a hobby and not getting totally put off spending my weekends under/in cars.

[quote="core"]Motorsport doesn't pay very well at all unless you're very good, or get a bit luckyI've done a few short (3-6mo) contract stints with motorsports related work, usually fairly lucrative, even if only on the overtime. Still have a few acquaintances who have been in and out of the business over the years.

Those who went in and managed to move up quickly (two) are still there, get seen on the telly occasionally and earn "significant" salaries, they also work 50-60 hours most weeks..... Everyone else just seems to spend time hopping between contracts.
You can generally get more money designing gear knobs for Opel.

I design software. Mainly web apps but also some hybrid/native mobile stuff.

I currently work within the startup scene in the geospatial sector. It's really interesting, and it's great learning about the technologies that makes software work. No two projects are the same.

I enjoy it.

specialist consultant/contractor doing all the weird/wonderful/bloody niche stuff that most other folks in our sector wont touch. Its varied, sometimes frustrating at times "interesting" (particularly some of the overseas stuff when there has been emergency evacs of our team due to rapidly deteriorating political situations, ebola, having to work in red zones with additional armed escorts and such like) after 20 years the amount of travel, particularly on UK roads is getting sodding dull though

I own a bike shop. Am I the first on this thread to say that?

I do enjoy it, some of the time. I made the jump and set up my own business, on my own in 2008 and it's grown steadily (but not consistently) since then.

I started it because I've grown up riding bikes and playing with Lego as well as helping my dad with a couple of not-very-reliable classic cars, so I've always been interested in how things work and how to fix them. After a degree in Physiology (which is basically that, but for humans) I temped in various jobs for a couple of years before realising that a) the area I lived in (SE15) needed a bike shop and b) I'd quite like to be the person in charge of that shop.

I worked for a couple of other shops for a few years, gained qualifications and experience, studied hard, learned from others' (and my) mistakes and eventually took my meagre savings, borrowed a fair chunk of my amazing parents' savings (and they definitely worked long and hard for it, council worker dad and mum who did admin in a GP practice) and opened my own shop.

I still spend some of my time mechanicking, mainly building wheels, but I've got two full-time mechanics and a part-time one who do most of the hands-on work. Even though it was that that got me into this and that which I'd prefer doing if I had the chance. I spend a lot of the rest of the time doing shop admin and trying to keep the business running (and occasionally looking on here when procrastinating or eating lunch).

Because it's my business, when it's surviving I'm OK with how it's doing and I can enjoy it, sometimes. When we get good reviews or praise, or just when we sort out really difficult problems or hear of our reputation spreading for the top-level jobs, it makes me very proud. We've worked hard to build expertise and although we're not yet Sheldon Brown / Lennard Zinn-level experts, we know our stuff, we're always learning and we're good at what we do. And that's definitely something to take pride in and enjoy.

One thing it certainly doesn't make me is rich, regardless of what else you may read on here. We're proud to be a London Living Wage employer; I don't know how many other bike shops could say that, certainly not many. Apart from my wage - I'm literally working below the minimum wage. Yes, it's my business, so if it ever makes much profit that I don't immediately put back into making the business better, it could pay me some dividends. But at the moment it definitely isn't.

When it's struggling, it's incredibly stressful. When I'm shuffling money from one account to another to try and pay bills and make sure my staff get paid, always before I do, and accounts to some suppliers are overdue while other customers want us to order in expensive stuff and compete with online shops on price and the money simply isn't there in the bank accounts, that is definitely the opposite of enjoyment. As much as some posters on here think that mechanics are all incompetent monkeys, or that everyone who owns a bike shop does a Scrooge McDuck with their piles of cash, that's simply not true.

I'm not after sympathy. Everyone makes their own choices and I still get to work with bikes sometimes, even if I rarely get chance to ride them. However, like most people who run their own businesses, I got into it because I wanted to earn money doing the thing I'm good at, but I now spend most of my time doing the business-running side of things. Which is not as much fun.

Measurement geek (metrologist) working for a motorsport bearing manufacturer
Pays well enough, plenty of kit in the gauge room to play with so happy days.

Cladding fabricator in a small company, could be worse!

Wow a real variety of jobs, I thought everyone on here was an IT manager driving an Audi! Big respect to a few on here, doing jobs I would never be able to do.

As a few others have said I fell into my job and really don't enjoy it anymore. Working for the NHS is full of BS now and is just target driven with only a little interest in the actual patients. But with a family to support not sure how easy it is going to be to change now.

For the past 5 years I have had a bit of a dream to open a shoe shop, but no idea where to start with that

Please stop with the trade lingo and abbreviations.
Outside of your peer group people may not know what they mean,
I certainly don't.

I design aftermarket locks and security parts for commercial vehicles mainly vans.
I end up doing lots of things like stock counts and inspecting components that are manufactured by sub contractors too.
Its a pretty good company to work for and i'm pretty happy there.

Title is "Account Technology Strategist" for Microsoft.

What that means is that I advise/support a small number of very big customers in how they can best use Microsoft stuff to help their businesses be better. Most of the interesting discussions are CIO/CxO level when we're looking at how technology can help transform how they operate or what they do. The fun stuff is around Azure; machine learning, IoT, predictive analytics, cognitive services etc.

I'm rubbish at Excel though.

Enlighten me CIO/CxO

I SAID STOP THE TRADE LINGO 😈

Army officer, and yes I do enjoy it. I've had some amazing opportunities for which I'm very grateful. Most of my time currently is spent doing administration within a reserve regiment but any given day can range from a welfare case, medical issues, discipline, career management, event organisation etc etc etc. Hopefully the next step is an MSc before moving into technical projects. However, i reckon I'll be out before long as having a wife and child makes the prospect of going away for extended periods of time hard to deal with: I signed up for this, my wife didn't so it'll be soon time to get a proper job.

(Goes back to page 1 of the thread for inspiration!)

Unemployed. Pay is awful but time off is excellent! Lots of bike riding a major perk.

Enlighten me CIO/CxO

Chief Information (or Innovation) Officer, or others at a similar level. Americanisms for board members that's been adopted over here. Director of IT, Director of XX, Managing Director would be the UK names but pretty much every big company uses CEO (Chief Executive Officer), COO (Chief Operating Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer) etc

Not really trade lingo, just modern large business lingo.

If you want trade lingo... TSP, CSA, DSA, SSP, ATS, AE, TAM... and they're just internal job titles.

Inspiring thread.

I'm an IT project manager, replete with industry standard Audi. 😐

No don't enjoy it. I'm not really an IT project manager, or a manager, or 'anything' in an office. But it pays enormously well for what I actually do, I get away with doing a pretty bad job in a relativity easy place to work and I'm very autonomous. If I can manage to balance that with other life stuff I'll be ok (hence recently taken up volunteering).

Lots of food for thought here though. My latest 'project' is a 3 year career change plan.

Ok cheers for that, I know a TAM i occasionally have working nearby me crabbit old git who smokes a lot

Policeman. It's been varied, did a few years in Southampton, a couple in Nottingham, and have been in Scotland for the last ten years, including a couple of years in a little unsupervised station covering one of the UK's largest mountain areas - very different to being in the middle of a big city. Last five years have been in CID, where I'm a jack of all trades - drugs, rape, sexual offences, fraud, burglaries, unexplained deaths, mountain/water deaths, child pornography, serious violent crimes, missing persons, a whole range of things. Do I enjoy it? Sometimes it's hugely satisfying, sometimes I hate it, mostly it's somewhere in between, but frequently incredibly frustrating. I can't think of what else I'm qualified for - anyone need someone to drive fast and get in fights?

NHS - National Health Service.

Some great and interesting careers!

I fell out of school into a sales job that I hated. After five years I quit , used my savings to get myself through college and ten uni (BSc and MRes). Spent almost the years working as either an environmental regulator (exciting job but crap pay), environment consultant (felt morally wrong charging the money we did to the MOD for no benefit), environment advisor (bio research laboratory who should tbh be shut down), environment manager for network rail (on the crossrail programme). Loved the company but not the role so became scheme project manager. Now I love the job, love the company, believe in what I am doing, see all the work I put iin being realised and can't wait to see the first electric train run on the tracks that my team installed.

Senior Zombie Maggot. (I got promoted today).

Supply Chain/Planning - never a dull moment!

Freelance engineer

I've built landfills, wind farms, hydros, major roads, ponds, power stations, housing estates, and now on an enormous concrete slab.

Variety and challenging. Love it.

Head of Maths in a secondary school.

Love teaching, hate all the crap (mostly target orientated) that dominates the profession now.

Barkm - I'll look you up when I get out so you can pass on some tips!

I manage three picture framing shops. Been working in the trade for 15+years and I genuinely enjoy it. The people I work for are superb and incredibly generous. The people I work with are great. Mostly art school graduates(so they can ,at times,be a bit eccentric), but keen and knowledgeable.
I really like my job. Previously I was a vacuum deposition tech which had some first class work jollies to interesting places, but was mostly about getting irritated with 'o' rings.
Anyway, off to Bologna tomorrow for the famaart.it trade show.

Self employed plasterer and yes. Working on an historic listed building in North Yorkshire at the moment

site engineer/manager
QSs ive worked with recently been fine, Clients and Architects on the other hand F my old boots. Current site has ONE drawing no details few levels, on the bright side we cant really do it wrong (until QS gets involved). It has been a breath of fresh air after teaching D & T for 12+ yrs was engineering before teaching. enjoying life again 😀 😀

Corporate financial strategy.

I actually got out of the corporate BS 5 years ago but am doing this as a favour for a mate. I am really not enjoying, organisation has a poor culture, ultra competitive which is tiring. And nobody goes out on the piss after work anymore. At least it's IT so I can have a beard. I reckon I can stick another six months before I bin it a go back to voluntary work

Landscape Architect specialising in Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA), Green Infrastructure Strategies and strategic landscape design for a smallish multi-discipline environmental planning consultancy. I also get to assist on ecology surveys which adds variety during spring/summer/autumn.

Yep, I like it; it can be technically challenging and now getting involved in writing landscape proofs of evidence for planning appeals, which is mind bending. (It is a career change from a short stint in IT during which a colleague first told me about stw all those years ago).

Main job is a manager in a Museum. Mostly great, and it’s something I honestly believe in and think is massively under-appreciated (our specific field – not necessarily all museums, per se), but there’s a silly amount of work, there’s no money in it (personally, nor for the organization), and I don’t get to spend enough time interacting with visitors.

I also “ush” at a local theatre, which is brilliant. It’s minimum wage stuff, but basically involves chatting with the customers and making sure they have a good evening. I also see bits of lots of plays, and whilst a lot aren’t to my taste, better a night at an open-air theatre than a night in front of the telly. The view's ok, too.

In my spare time I help out on father-in-law’s farm. Mostly at planting time (they don’t trust me with a knife for harvest). I love it, as it’s just a whole day spent on the back of a planter, in the fresh air, talking crap with the best of them. Downside is it’s voluntary (working for family) and eats into my annual leave from my other jobs.

All told, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Head of a small international school - depends on what day it is if I enjoy it or not, certainly has its moments.

I'm surprised there aren't more bike industry people here. Go on then, I'll make up the numbers! I run a very small bike guiding company. Before that I worked in optoelectronics which I didn't love. I love what I do now, if I won the lottery I would genuinely keep doing it, just with a cooler van. I guess nobody wants to hear me drone on about the upsides. The downsides? I work a lot, it's physically hard and I pretty much always ache. For a large part of the year I work 7 days a week and more than 12 hours a day. There is a surprising amount of office work and paperwork too. It can also be quite intense working so hard as part of a small team and us guides have to share rooms for weeks on end and work 12+ hour days. It's also never going to make me rich and I struggle with the fact that my lifestyle choice will affect my daughters financial security. Part of what I love is the variety. This week I was setting up a database for stuff, updating the website and filming a video. Next week I will be guiding in the mountains. The biking upsides are obvious and I can't imagine ever being able to do anything else now.

Winemaker, it has it's perks. But then I miss a lot of rides in the best part of the year due to vintage.

Civil servant, I investigate directors of liquidated limited companies. Prior to this I ran an engineering company which paid twice as much but was generally shit with massive hours. Work a 4 day week now with loads more time for family, riding etc. Actual work between varies between being semi interesting and dull, the main issue is the antiquated way certain areas of the organisation still work, oh and the need to be 'engaged'.

Web developer, mainly using Drupal.

Love it. Hate it.

Mind you, I'm just back from weekend in Reykjavik, speaking at an event in London this coming Saturday and then riding down to Seville on the company motorbike the following weekend for a week or so. Clients generally don't care where I work from so might as well make the most of it!

Rachel

Company motorbike?

NHS Community Nurse working with people with learning disabilities.

Hate it to the point of it making me ill. Most of my colleagues feel the same.

Love working with the people themselves but the patients and their families have taken a very distant back seat to a host of centrally imposed numberical targets.

I'm sure I will die much earlier from the stress of the job but until the mortgage is paid I'm stuck. Perhaps if I didn't care it would help.

Sat here now feeling sick as I know I have to go start work soon.

Police Officer. I didn't particularly plan it - I went to Sandhurst after university and was all set for a life-long Army career, but picked up a sizeable knee injury and was medically discharged a month before commissioning.

I've enjoyed my time in the Job - six years as a response bobby, with part time roles breaking down doors, doing public order work and operating in CBRN environments. I then joined Traffic which was huge fun, wafting around in various pokey Vauxhalls and latterly Volvos - lots of coffee and sarcasm, with the occasional terrifying and/or tragic pursuit or collision. I've had to pass numerous death messages which ripped families apart.

I was promoted a couple of years ago, and am about to reach the top pay grade for a Sergeant. I'm currently a Custody Officer, which is either spent chatting with chums and watching Netflix or working flat out managing some very high profile detainees and trying to prevent anyone dying. I can't leave the block, so don't see daylight for eight hours on end. I also work about a third of my shifts as nights. Our current shift pattern is very generous - we have mandatory meal breaks as part of our terms and conditions but we cannot just shut the suite and eat lunch, so we finish early - I effectively work a 34 hour week for a 40 hour wage.

My wife is also a Skipper although on maternity leave. We are planning our second wean, so we won't be going anywhere soon. Our five year plan is to sell up our home counties semi and buy a nice detached house in East Anglia mortgage free. We'll both have part time hobby jobs and be able to spend much more time at home.

I can't think of what else I'm qualified for - anyone need someone to drive fast and get in fights?

CI5? 😀

Research Technician in a molecular biology lab.

I started working as a TIG welder when I left school at 16, but hated every minute of it until in my early 20's I went back to college, then university to do a degree in Ecology. My undergrad project supervisor gave me my first tech job in his lab and over the last 20 years I've moved labs and retrained a few times till I'm now working in a lab that's doing cutting edge research into the genetic makeup of blood borne parasites causing diseases such as Malaria, African Sleeping Sickness and Leishmaniasis.

My actual work is now centered around extracting DNA / RNA from the parasites at different points in their life cycles, then processing the material so that it can be sequenced to see what proteins they are creating and expressing in the hope that this knowledge can lead to new treatments.

We also use the parasites to model how DNA replication starts, progresses and halts in cells. studying the various protein complexes that come together and interact during this process. A lot of our work focuses on the BRCA-1 and 2 genes and the mutations that can lead them to fail as tumor suppressants.

Can you guess that I love my job? The pay is appalling and I have a 2hr commute each way, but I get up in the morning and I find myself excited about the day ahead. I don't think you can beat that. I also get the privilege of working with some of the finest young scientist you've ever seen as they work through their Phd projects.

Sorry for the trade lingo!

C; 🙂