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

Fascinating thread!

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

Parcel delivery driver?

Glaswegian Ice Cream Van?

Michael Knight?

Corporate IT Sales. In 29 days time I'll know if I've won 2 major opportunities. Not doing so means 9 months of hard work probably to earn my base/lowest salary in 10 years for two years on the bounce, amongst massive end of year pressure.

I do enjoy the day to day for the most part, but either way I'm considering a change in 2018.

And updating one of the good days, got told I picked up a process/plant in 6 weeks that it takes people 6 months to master. Got to love the good days and 4 site telecommunications with non native English speakers (not the Aussie ones) and come out talking sense

Custom knife maker and leather worker, have a look at ammonite knives on Facebook ... pay is slightly less than bugger all, until you get your name known in the right places (which is happening slowly) I really do enjoy it however... I work somewhere between 18 and 30 hrs a week and do daddy day care for he rest of it.

CI5

My hair's not quite curly enough.

Glaswegian Ice Cream Van?

Can't do the accent.

Michael Knight?

Again, haven't got the hair for it.

Parcel delivery driver?

I'm strong enough to chuck valuable and fragile parcels over gates and on to roofs, so I reckon that's the one.

DT Technician ... in a private school! I've done this job about 10 years now but in another private school and in a normal state school. I tried teaching, really liked being in the classroom teaching but all the other stuff put me off so I went back to being a technician - that was in the state school. Really poor pay in state schools for all the skills they want. The school I'm in now pays almost double what I was getting before plus I get about 16 weeks off a year paid, nice! But again it's not great pay for all the skills they need but the holidays keeps me sane.

I get to work on lots of different equipment and help the pupils with their project work. Day to day I can be using the metal lathe, wood lathe, sand casting, pewter casting, running CNC lathes and CNC routers, laser cutting, 3D printing, as well as all the usual hand tool work. I also have to maintain and service all the equipment. So it can be great fun and interesting work. Luckily I can forget about it all when I go home, the school has very high expectations on results so teachers are very stressed, tired and work long hours. I know it's like that in most schools but here it's A* all around or your job is at risk.

I enjoy it and can't imagine going back to full time work 😀

Radioactive Biochemist, love it.

currently working at the call center. quite fun when you come to understand how everything works and stop being afraid of people on the other end of the line. though i'd like to try something else in the long run

I'm a softfurnisher. Mainly making Roman blinds, curtains and cushions.
Many stwers have had stuff from me (thanks chaps).
Love the work as every job is different. Luckily my customers are recommendations, so very rarely get time wasters.
Money is not brilliant but the view from my attic workroom window is breathtaking, especially today with snow around and sun out.

Mainly making Roman blinds...

Haven't you missed the target market by a few thousand years?

(Yeah, I know - sorry!)

Pimpmaster jazz - I used to make Austrian blinds back in the day.

I'm a Programme Manager in a Social Care company (owned by local authority)

I help change things around so we can deliver better services for less money.

I like working 5 minutes from my house, I like generous public sector annual leave, short working week, flexi etc.

I get very frustrated on a regular basis, my job isn't particularly exciting and I don't feel all that fulfilled despite us providing important services. I guess I do feel like I make a difference and I don't mind coming to work, it is just not exciting.

I have young family and right now this gives me a work/life balance that I won't get anywhere else so content to sit it out.

When I was about 7, while playing on my mates Master System, we decided we'd make games when we got older. 30 years on I'm working at SEGA, making things with hedgehogs in, hmmm!

He didn't stick to the plan though, slacker.

making things with hedgehogs in, hmmm

Stews, Pies and Sandwiches? Are you Mr Stevens, Head of Catering?

Haven't you missed the target market by a few thousand years?

(Yeah, I know - sorry!)

Dammit!
I've spent the last few months sharpening my pointy stick

From the start? Mining Engineer. Photomicroscopist. Science subeditor. Graphic designer. Windsurfing school owner. Graphic designer. Creative Director. Photographer. Writer. Sail Tester. Magazine Editor. Tobacco smuggler in Havana. Newspaper production design, feature writer and photographer. Tech re writer.

Tech rewriter.

Predictive text. 😀 And yes I've enjoyed most of it, except the mining engineering. Fun making things go bang but not much call for that when you are basically just eternally reprocessing the tailings with ever more efficient techniques at an open cast mine. All a bit 70's really.

I am a tiny tiny cog in a massive corporate machine, and would struggle to define what it is I do. I think my generic title is Business Analyst or Data Analyst.

I do love what I do, in the same way that I love playing football management computer games. All the preparation, planning, modelling, data mining, controls, etc so that you can then sit back and see the guys on the pitch perform.

Pimpmaster jazz - I used to make Austrian blinds back in the day.

Better than making Austrians blind...

(I really am sorry. Really)

PE Teacher in a great school in Devon. Honestly feel like I'm living the dream(other than lottery win obviously!)

Materials Scientist. Took a bit of a leap of faith last summer, going from academic research in surface engineering to the world of fashion. I've been surprised at the scientific and manufacturing possibilities in fashion.

Last month, I was invited to speak for the industry at big materials conference next month, and I'm now on a national technical advisory board. Not bad for 28! These opportunities would have taken another 20-30 years to appear if I stayed in academia.

Sales and commercial partnerships in publishing/media. Love it. Hard work at times when I have to cross into project management or deal with clients messing me round, but learning to drop clients that aren't respectful of time/effort/profit and replace them with others who are. I love the autonomy and the fact that my effort and effectiveness directly affects my take home. That's a serious motivator!

Word arranger. It has its moments.

PerchyPanther - I take it you are a contractor QS rather than a PQS? I used to be a surveyor too but then moved into precon - it's way more exciting 😆

PerchyPanther - I take it you are a contractor QS rather than a PQS? I used to be a surveyor too but then moved into precon - it's way more exciting

Yep, contractors QS.

Everyday I get to experience the gut wrenching drama of human conflict through Quantity Surveying.

It looks a bit like this.....

Preparing to do Battle
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The thrill of Victory!
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The agony of Defeat!
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same as Siwhite and Greatape.
@ greatape- Physically attractive and wear winklepickers 8) 😛

Today, I was live-streaming an alpaca petting zoo. My CV has gone weird.

Pah - contractor QS peeps don't wear suits! More like corduroys and checked shirts. Do you arrive on site at 9.00am too?

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This is what I've done over the last year. Stressful as hell at times but I do love it when it turns out well.

Will you look at the state of that garden? And not even a bike in it!

The civil servants amongst us will know why tonight I am pissing myself with pride* with what I do.

[IMG] [/IMG]

*don't care if it's a sin, I'm proud...and I may be on the champers.

Same as Siwhite, Greatape and monkeysfeet.

25 years across all departments apart from armed units, had a blast wouldn't change anything but have decided enough is enough and it is now time to get my life back so I officially pick up my old trowels, spirit levels and bolsters and get back on the building. 50 the week before last so I can take early retirement 😆 cannot wait!!

Maintenance supervisor at a well known safari park. 1hr cycle commute on cycle routes and off road through woods. Every day a different weird and wonderful challenge! Fantastic 🙂

Head of Technology and Computing at a decent, but sometime challenging Secondary school.
We're in mid-Devon, so a lot of rural kids. But also sited in a small town with lots of unemployment, low paid jobs, and some social deprivation. So a fair amount of behavioural problems, and motivating the kids can be quite a challenge sometimes.

I love it, but some days I do despair! I know I was a little sod at school, so can see where a lot of these kids are coming from. But by god, children can be horrible to you and to each other.

I love the playing around with machines, software, coding, and those 'lightbulb' moments when kids get it. I don't enjoy the paperwork, meetings, moaning colleagues, and marking homework. I do love the 13 weeks a year holidays (but do do a fair amount of work during those holidays).

It pays ok, but I could be doing something else for the same or more money, and I wouldn't have to wake up worrying about kids futures or having to mark 30 messy Yr8 books.

Next step assistant/deputy head. Not 😉

I did a lot of other jobs in the 13 years between graduating and doing my PGCE. Bar work, retail, IT tech, Scuba Diving (that was fun!), TEFL in Thailand, Database management, CAD design, trade building and kitchen sales. All of that experience makes me a better teacher, and also means that I appreciate that teaching is never, ever boring!

Recruitment manager. Basically training and managing a team of IT recruitment consultants. There are days when it's simply wonderful and others when it is mind numbing. But the pay is OK and the people are mostly okay too.

@ greatape- Physically attractive and wear winklepickers

Certainly not, none of that city style round here, more the dishevelled country vet look.

Radioactive Biochemist,

Halflife, half live it?

Radioactive Biochemist,

Halflife, half live it?

Didn't know you could double half lives.

whoops

Value Engineer in the aerospace industry

I do love it - always extremely varied and get to travel a bit

Usual frustrations with politics, weirdos and an American parent company

On the upside, i have a great team and have loads of freedom to do what we want

Incredibly lucky....especially considering how thick i was at school!!

Clinical Pharmacologist. I do a mix of Maths, Medicine and Biology and get to experiment on humans as part of my day job.

It helps to be an optimist in my line of work as "The drugs don't work..." very often, but it's great when they do. It's a privilege.

Stews, Pies and Sandwiches? [b]Are you Mr Stevens, Head of Catering[/b]?

Digger designer for a well known brand of 'yellow goods' manufacturers...in fact I've done time at 2 of them.

It's fun sometimes, sometimes it's like banging your head against a brick wall thanks to politics. Guess you'd get that anywhere and going out in the test yard and moving some soil around is quite therapeutic

[quote=jam bo ]oceanographer.
it's not too bad.

I've changed my mind.

I am an artist of sorts. I do anything " arty" that I can and pays. One aspect of my work I really love is providing art tuition to adults with learning or physical disabilities. I work both in a day centre and residential area providing group classes or one to one, depending on the person. Sometimes it's just playing with fantastic people with art stuff, other times it can be quite tragic. It has forever changed my approach to my own art work and life as a whole.

Another Police officer - 13 years in, still on response, and still really enjoy it.
Bad days are really bad, but the good days and good jobs more than make up for it

Gamekeeper (a progressive, modern, environmentally friendly one 😉 ) and yes I do!

At 25, after 10 years of doing the job, I ended up as a lecturer at a Gamekeeping college. I was stood in front of a class one day extolling the virtues of the wholesome lifestyle and wonderful freedom it can give you to make a difference to habitats, biodiversity and a whole community of rural folk who bind together through shooting and thought: "WTF am I doing stood here!"

So now I'm single-handed again, running 30 days shooting over 3000acres. Every day is different and I am my own boss. Ok so some of the chores are a bit mundane but the office isn't bad!

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Architect - work for myself. Love the time I get to spend with my boys - I miss the life of an office but decisions I make are mine and that means a lot. Certainly not earning much but quality of life good.

mattbee - Member
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'...

His boss 8)

Instructor in the Fire Service, teach Breathing Apparatus, Swift Water rescue, Working at Height and Wildfire.
Love it, just for the diversity.

Just a socialist pleb, waiting for the revolution promised since i was a kid, when workers will have proper rights and the NHS will be properley funded.

oh and i do have a full time job as well.

Woodsman. Definitely.

Love the whole seed to product process and the relationship to habitat and landscape. Love the slow life cycles, we plan on 200+ year rotations in some woods, our quickest are probably 80 years, with tinkering in between to get the best out of them.

Rainy day on a hillside with 10,000 trees to plant is a bit intimidating though, but the thought of planting something that could be a landscape feature for centuries to come and an income for following generations, that gives a lot of inspiration.

Pharmacist in the NHS. Trained and started my career in the acute hospital sector. Did a spell at a private hospital and then moved into a community trust. Current role is providing a medicines information service which is basically telephone or email support for any staff (doctors, nurses, dieticians, physios, health visitors etc) with medication enquiries. Also have responsibility for supporting education and training. I write and deliver training sessions and elearning on various medication topics. Also organise and support other staff with training such as non-medical prescribing. Lastly, I work one evening a fortnight at NHS 111 answering medication advice calls from the public.

On the whole I enjoy it but the workload is getting increasingly difficult to manage.

I'm responsible for strategy and business development in an NHS Foundation Trust. Currently trying to integrate with other NHS providers to provide better services closer to the people who need them. I fell into this following a career in marketing agencies and marketing technology. I love it, and am so glad that it is surfs I have ended up. The NHS is in a hell of a state and horrifically under resourced, but it is great to feel I'm contributing to making it as good as it can be under the cname rcumstances. It gives me a sense of purpose and achievement that I have never really had doing anything else.

Spinal surgeon, NHS. Awesome job, mostly. There are some tragic things you just can't make much better, but there are many more where you can hugely improve quality of life and take away pain. I am very aware that is a great privilege!!

Fix and sell bicycles. First job I've had where i look forward to turning up for in the mornings

This is what makes it worthwhile https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155171943961995&substory_index=0&id=651886994

Control & instrumentation tech . Calibrations and wot not . Used to be a little bit interesting , now it's a technical clerk role . I do not enjoy it one jot.

Instructor in the Fire Service, teach Breathing Apparatus, Swift Water rescue, Working at Height and Wildfire.
Love it, just for the diversity.

Slap the Fatlad.

Technology Support Analyst - England Rugby.

I enjoy it but hard work. Some long hours at certain times of the year. Got today off though!

Plenty of travel which is good and we often work with other sports such as cycling and F1. So its a pretty fascinating world behind the scenes of elite sport.

Later in the year.. Lions Tour.

Right now, nothing.

Apart from buying and selling shares for pocket money.

I was (well I suppose I still am) an Architect but got bored of arguing about money and spending more time on Outlook than the drawing board and also not having enough time to do things despite monstrous overtime. Great profession, god awful job.

I tried to get into tutoring at my local University but despite have a great deal of experience across many sectors I was rejected as my CV wasn't 'academic enough'. I think they only want people who have never worked in the real world now.

Solicitor. Mostly not. Would sooner be tinkering with bikes. Did manage to save a client just shy of £50,000.00 in Stamp Duty Land Tax the other day by staring very hard at Schedule 15 of the Finance Act 2003 (MV = (100 - SLP)%) which was quite satisfying.

Instructor in the Fire Service, teach Breathing Apparatus, Swift Water rescue, Working at Height and Wildfire.
Love it, just for the diversity.
Slap the Fatlad.

will do Lee 😉

Did my bit to help a few foreigners enter the country.

Did my bit to help a few foreigners enter the country

Lorry driver?

Field Service Engineer, Nuclear Ventilation Testing and Consultancy with a bit of Site Calibration work thrown in. Work in teams of two for a week at a time at various sites across the UK plus a bit of overseas. 23 years this year and overall still enjoy it.

I run my own business called Yourplay Music, providing music sessions for adults with disabilities and the elderly. Also teach guitar, and in a band called The Straw Men. I'd be a right nob to complain about any of that. So, yes I love all of it, I feel very blessed to be doing any of it. Some right interesting jobs on this post.

Civilian Air traffic control officer. Started off as a stock room boy at 16 and still can't believe I've got to where I am.

The work/life balance is great due to the shift pattern and the pay/pension is 2nd to none (maybe an MP!) I leave the building and never have to take work home.

Downsides are it is bloody stressful at times. Everyone makes mistakes but I'm constantly aware of the consequences if I do.

Worst thing about the job though is when my days off are over a weekend. I hate sharing the world. At least when I'm off during the week almost everyone else is working!

attempting to look busy as a warehouse assistant supplying high pressure washing equipment to the whisky distilleries, Its actually a much better job than I could have expected, with lots of variation and a MD that lets us "self manage" and "use our initiative'. 730 till 5 with weekends off, that will do me thank you very much living the dream.com, and can't complain.

Commercial insurance broker.

I spend all day talking to big businesses about insurance

I'll let you draw your own conclusions about the available levels of enjoyment!

Still, decent package and 9-5 normally so fits with my work to live plan which I decided on after 10 years in the music industry. Very very different careers, definitely a lot less booze, coke, travel and parties in exotic locations in insurance! When I'm deep in the middle of analysing business continuity plans or something equally as thrilling I sometimes think 'what have I done' and miss the old life, but on the whole the right decision. But enjoyable - meh

A rather grand job title of: Clerk of Works... For a large-ish ( circa 6000 acre) privately owned estate in Norfolk, which essentially means that I look after the maintenance of the 35 residential properties and farm buildings of the 5 farms on the estate.

Live and work on the estate and everyday is different, tasks ranging from carpentry, building, plumbing, electrics, to clearing drains etc etc. My workshop is bigger than my house, a provided Defender 90 and pretty much left to get on with what needs doing and I'm loving it! Money is not great, but I'm never going to run out of things to do and just a few miles from the Broads and my 2 very beautiful traditional Broads sailing yachts, which take up nearly all of my spare time outside of work - apart from my loving family of course!

His boss

Slightly it thread resurrection.

bikebouy - Member
I couldn't do Kilos job.

Nope, never.

After managing to pluck up the courage this morning I can't do it anymore either, psychologist later this morning then I suspect I will be removed from my post for my own safety / welfare. Not the best of days.

Massive respect to you for doing it as long as you have.
It wasn't for good guys like you having to wade through the cesspool of human depravity, the old pervert three doors down from me wouldn't be going to jail next Wednesday.
Be well and good luck.

Cladding fabricator in a small company, could be worse!

Things changed?

+1 respect to kilo.

kilo - Not the best of days

I'm kinda stuck in a dull job, but it's things like this that make me realise how sheltered/privileged my life has been, and how there are people out there putting their well-being on the line to try and keep the world running smoothly. Thank you, kilo, hope you are able to deal with your current demons and move on.

Copywriter, freelance. Sometimes it's great, mostly it's fine, every so often it sucks. Best thing is being freelance - I can't imagine working full-time for an employer ever again.