[Closed] What do you do for a living and do you enjoy it?

I move things around and automate things (via Workload Automation, scripting stuff, FTP(S), SFTP, Connect Direct, HTTPS etc etc etc).

Basically I'm an IT nerd but its got a good job title, pays extremely well and is secure. Do I enjoy it? Yes. Its kinda interesting (I never set out to make a career in IT, I fell into it), I work with some great people and work/life balance is fantastic.

Designer / R&D for an oil and gas valve manufacturer.

Yes its good but you always think the grass is greener etc, you don't get half as much as people think you do. On the plus side I work with some nice people and I like what I do. On the negative side no one things R&D is worthwhile and wont help you out at all.

Still its nice bailing people out of the shit every day 🙂

Freelance architect / stay at home dad. Work is at all scales from extensions through to masterplanning, but residential sector mostly.

Suits the time I have in-between school runs. Can be enjoyable as long as it's varied. Can be stressful balancing it all, but largely I enjoy the challenge of turning projects around quickly in short days.

SHEQ Director. I don't really like or dislike the job as such, it's ok as far as jobs go. What I do enjoy is the overpaid and underworked nature of my role 😆

I'm a charge nurse (male equivalent of a ward sister).

My days consist of trying to run a ward and give good care whilst being constantly bugged at to meet targets and free up beds. Its all about targets and saving money in the NHS. The care aspect goes out the window. The whole thing is run on a shoe string with limited supplies and the below recommended staffing levels, morale is the lowest I've known and complaints come in thick and fast but its OK because we are saving money and meeting targets!

I deeply regret my career decision. if I could afford to re train as something else I would but currently I've a young family, mortgage and debts to pay and I'm the main breadwinner so it looks like I'm staying.

I hate it.

I design biscuits Mon-Fri, but fancy something a bit more outdoors and away from the desk. Main hobby is Dolphin training, may try and make this my main job, but there's so much competition.

I really have no idea what direction I want to take when I leave the RAF.

I design biscuits for Dolphin Trainers.

Investment Manager. Started out in Artificial Intelligence moved into Finance as a quant in mid 80's. Finance paid much the best and needed quant / maths skills. It's been an extraordinary 30 years, some big highs and some serious lows (probably not when people might think). Best times where 10 years of running my own business and hiring talented people and helping them grow. Enjoy the work, had it not been for getting divorced would possibly have retired. If I was starting my career again I'd almost certainly have stayed in "tech" as some very interesting things being done with AI techniques and applications which now pays better than finance.

2nd week into being environmental Consultant for a financial services firm after being an IT Technician in the same industry for 13 years. So right now I love my job because I'm no longer an IT Technician. Hopefully it will lead away from financial services because it's not massively interesting or full of opportunity in house. I'm more optimistic than I've been in, well, 13 years (not hard) so it's good.

Drac, we should talk.

Drac, we should talk.

Do you speak Bottle Nose?

Primary school science teacher. Great job, shame about some of the adults!

Aviation Fuel Site Operator on a land based terminal was until May this year a MoD nationwide asset. I have a love hate relationship with it however I may not have a job soon as the new European owners of said assets are looking at trimming it down somewhat. 🙄

Build missile guidance systems, use to enjoy the job, now I struggle with the morality of it. 🙁

Frequency planner on a constellation of comms satellites. Used to be RAF electronics type bod previously.

40mpg - Preconstruction Director for a regional construction company.

No way - I'm a Bid Manager for a construction company.

About to become CEO of a media business - some great people there so should be fun

Regional Business Development for a large U.S. IT company. Get involved in a bit of everything, sales, marketing, operations, finance etc. Love it, and it puts me bang in the STW profile, I don't drive an Audi though 😉

Guess! 🙂
Enjoy my job but I have a good delivery around Staveley in the Lakes, mix of shops business units and houses been doing the round for 3 yrs meet loads of nice people even the guys in Wheelbase 🙂
that I have a brew and a natter every day with!

Works Manager of a Sub contract heat treatment/brazing company. The title seems to suggest I am somehow responsible for production - which is not the case, I am more of a site manager/Technical advisor I reckon.
I do not like dealing with those staff that just push the boundaries of doing enough but cannot seem to motivate themselves to do any more - albeit this is now a minority of people.
Secondly, I miss my days on the shop floor, brazing and playing with furnaces and fire - unfortunately this is not a financially viable option.
Thinking about it, I came through the ranks from floor sweeper to Manager and my happiest days were once I had reached a management level which allowed me to play with fire but carry little or no responsibility for people.
I like my job, my best mate works there too and he likes bikes.

Train Driver, (started as a carriage cleaner then conductor)

14 years later and I still enjoy it, plus it pays well enough (for me anyway!) shame about the trains being as old as me and the silly shifts, but thats mitigated by a decent rest pattern.

Wouldn't know where to start if I decided to change career.

Operational Technician for a midlands water company, in other words i operate a sewage treatment plant but only till Friday and after that I`m unemployed !! ... that's how much i liked it 🙂

I'm starting to really not enjoy my job. I think it's because I don't like football and I don't drink that much that I'm seen as an weirdo now.

I'm thinking of something in the health and safety side of things next.

GIS Analyst - consultant so move around a bit, current placement is interesting but I'm glad it's not forever

I sell teabags, coffee, biscuits and other such related goodies from my van. Love it mostly, though it can be slightly less than fun when the weather is rubbish.

3 days ago I started as a postie. Enjoying it so far (even the location, Dudley, isn't as bad as I feared) gives me plenty of free time to work towards what I'd really like to do in the long term; a ranger for the NT

I run a genetics diagnostics company in the USA and UK focussing on IVF. In the UK we are the first company to offer the new higher accuracy Down's syndrome testing (Non invasive prenatal testing). At the moment I'm employing new people every month. 99% super interesting and with a great outcome for success of lots of healthy babies.

Recruitment. Primarily management and internal training but I still keep my hand in with some sales and candidate work from time to time. It's a small ish company, 4 people when I joined, 33 now so I've kind of grown up with the place. I have days when I hate it and days when I love it but I've been here 10 years so overall it's good. The stress is high but the pay can be good to make up for it.

Frankly, even if I wanted to leave I wouldn't know what to do.

houns... dont be fooled! they'll chew you up ans spit you out and not give 2 short about the consequences... unless you have a decent dom and som... unlike where i used to be

Web application developer.

I do love what I do - very rewarding and it's a constant learning curve!

Pays the Audi fuel bills...

Teacher, and I love it, I can't imagine doing anything else to be honest!

I did want to be a headteacher, and got myself into senior leadership, only to realise that I hated sitting in budget meetings and sorting out HR issues. I only taught one day a week in my job, and I didn't count that day as work. So I have taken a paycut and gone back to being in a small 11-16 secondary school where I will be head of Science. I can't wait to be doing teaching most of the time, with a small bit of management!

Students can be mad as hatters, and constant government 'support' is a complete pain, but I get to teach Science, and be a true geek 😀

Guess!
Enjoy my job but I have a good delivery around Staveley in the Lakes, mix of shops business units and houses been doing the round for 3 yrs meet loads of nice people even the guys in Wheelbase
that I have a brew and a natter every day with!

Hawkshead Brewery drayman?

How much beer do I win?

I'm a proctologist. It's good for looking up old friends.

Ah, my coat! I'll show myself out.

Quote and configuration specialist is my job title, for an IT distributor.

It's penance for all the baby seal clubbing I did in a past life.

Energy management and M&E consultancy (operational, non design)
Smallish company (not mine) on the rise, I enjoy it very much.

nice. What sort of stuff do you manufacture?

This is us (been working on a fancy new website for some months, so it's a little old school right now):

www.barefacedbass.com

Bass cabs and active PA cabs, with a guitar cab and PA subwoofer in the short-term development schedule, a bass amp, guitar amp and more cabs and PA wedges in the medium-term and a complicated patentable massive R&D project in the long-term. Exciting times, just got to not run out of money in the present!

I'm a medical writer. It's really interesting but stressful.

After 20 years driving a desk doing H&S and facilities management in the south east I jacked it in last year and moved to Scotland.

Now I work for halfords as a cycle technician. Despite the occasional abusive customer I'm much happier and get lots of time to ride and walk in proper mountains.

I want Matt_outandabouts job though!

I make and repair nice jewellery (self employed)for a living, really love the work but dealing with people is the difficult bit , I do wonder what percentage of customers are total numptis ,for the most part I am up and down like monkey on elastic. But very nice feeling when I make something that is absolutely right for customer

I remember the days, when on nights out with the lads...

We where either dolphin trainers or biscuit designers...

It used to work !!

Up until about 3'o'clock this afternoon I was a production technician/control room operator on an offshore oil & gas platform in the North Sea. Price of oil and a financial backer terrified of a UK "BP Macondo" style incident meant that the plug was pulled about 3 months ago and the place is now being decommissioned. Got my notice a couple of weeks ago, but then today got told of a new project. I'm now a production technician/control room operator in a gas terminal.

I enjoyed the offshore lifestyle cos the time off was immense and the money pretty good too. I suppose I'll get used to the onshore life soon enough.

Also training to be a BSI auditor for medical device manufacturers, which is what I think I'll end up doing full-time within 12 months.

Self employed fitting woodburners and chimney relines etc.
Really enjoy it, always plenty to do and I only have myself to worry about. Manage to make enough money with plenty time off when I fancy it.
No two are the same, I enjoy the variety. Customers are almost always really nice too, I've only had a couple of irritating ones over the past few years but no proper nasties.
I always enjoy taking a few minutes out on a roof to chill, especially on sunny days by the sea 🙂

Get right grubby sometimes though...

I'm a Consultant Automotive Technical Specialist.

Sounds dull, but means i get to scoot around in, for example, one of these:

[img] ?itok=l1g_ztyV[/img]

Even if every day of doing 200mph test track laps is followed by 3 weeks of data reduction and analysis behind a laptop.

As you can imagine, i hate every minute of it........ 😆

Manage a large antiques / furniture shop and have my own business wheeling and dealing / restoring / upcycling and generally buying and selling stuff.
Its ok and the hours are nice but doesnt seem to be making me a fortune.
This time next year though Rodney....

Flash ****s.

Stockroom manager.I don't call myself a logistics manager... Like some . I'm very good at it. If you know what it is.

I love my work, often loathe the job.

Recently moved from IT management in FMCG and before that manufacturing to education. Head of IT for trust in Manchester. At 50 wanted a change. Which it is!!!

I want Postierich's job though.

Teacher, some good days, some bad days and some holidays. 😀

Quality Inspector, for now a cosmetics firm lots of lovely ladies in the office but I spend most of my time in a warehouse 😕

Previously Quality Supervisor (Manager without the pay!) in manufacturing, prior to that Quality inspector in the semi conductor industry.

I love it as every day is different, pay could be better as always though.

Run my own design / analysis consultancy. I am very passionate about it and it pays very well so I can have lots of nice toys sitting in the garage like what MaxTorque was driving but I haven't really had a life for the last 5 years so don't actually get to enjoy any of it. Spend half my life on flights between the UK, US, Middle East and Asia so some months I forget what my wife and kids looks like.

Working on exit plan from this particular venture into something where I can be more choosy about what I do yet still maintain the passion.

So it's not true - you don't all work in IT. Seems like teaching is a popular choice for the average mountain biker.

I'm a manager for a large UK based premium car manufacturer - specifically developing engine control systems and in the lat 2 weeks have moved to a role developing hybrid vehicle technology. I like the role, am comfortable in it, can commute by bike which means a lot to me, but am looking forward 6-7 years when I can scale back and do 3 days a week working and 4 days leisure.

I manage a Resourcing team for a large construction company. Until recently that meant I was a recruitment manager, now it's a mix of strategy, planning, relationship and project management (while another team entirely do that actual bums on seat type stuff).

It's very challenging, which I enjoy, and I get a lot of freedom to work the way I want. I'd just change my (internal) customers for some more grateful ones!

I'm a medical writer. It's really interesting but stressful.

Most of the editorial vacancies near me seem to be for medical writers, you should be able to swap jobs if the office politics are the stressful bit!

Engineering manager in a big modern flour mill.

I love the engineering bit but the corporate ballcocks just makes my teeth itch.
We could make 50% more money if we didn't have whole rafts of faceless drones requesting utterly pointless information that they have no idea what to do with once furnished with.

It pays reasonably well though the 3am phone calls I could do without.

I'm a mechanical building services engineer. For a local authority now.

Do I like it, well, I have to share an office with ****ing architects, qs's and (worse) sparkies. [i]And[/i] the pay is shite. But, the work/life balance is great (flexi time/9 day fortnight).

Private practice was more varied (and interesting, used be qualified low carbon consultant and breeam assessor. Enjoyed the hospital engineering side of things the most though) but it was mental at times. Too old for that shit,

Volunteered to be the engineering BIM man, see how that goes (always loved the draughting side of the job).

I'm a Children's home manager for Children wiEpilepsy, Autism, Learning Disabilities and challenging behaviour. Really enjoy it! Stresses with staff and generally funding issues - apparently local government have no money, who knew! - and not great pay, but it's a good way to spend my work time...

Brewer at a small hampshire micro brewery .
Do I enjoy it? Yes , when its going well and we are busy enough to keep busy .
I dont like it when we are quiet.
At least I get to make something and other people seem to like it
Flexi hours , but most weekends have go in , poxy yeast doesnt know its a sunny sunday and needs monitoring.

Soldier. Not popular with some, but I thoroughly enjoy my job, even in the face of obvious issues.

Freelance engineer / land surveyor.

Left my corporate nonsense job about 4 years ago to set up as a freelance engineer etc., not looked back yet, doubt I will.

Just finished a hydro and wind farm job, great job, clients (private ones) were a total nightmare in a rude arrogant ignorant sort of way but other than them, I can't complain. Contractor i was on for has been a regular source of work on and off though otherwise I'd have walked.

Suppose the clients hated me though as I was responsible for surveying rock extracted, which cost them more. Ho hum...

Offshore ROV Pilot in Norway.
Enjoy the work and the time off is a bonus as I work 2 weeks on and 4 weeks off 😀
Being paid in krona is a bit of a pain at the moment due to the strong pound. 🙁

Cobrakai - do you work at Swanwick?

Singletrackmind - which brewery?

Actuarial consultant - the job would be easier if I was an actuary.

Event Production manager. Mostly great apart from the hours (during events triple figure weeks are common & don't see the family (or the back of my eyelids)) and pay (not quite as great as I'd like or been paid previously for in London).

Its nicely varied with lots of site visits (velodrome yesterday, dolby atmos studios next week), interesting & lovely colleagues and a variety of interesting large public events in various spaces.

Previous events include Velothon Wales, Half Marathons, Childrens Literature Festivals, large sporting fanzones etc plus lots of smaller events. Currently working on the World Half Marathon and number of smaller projects.

Much much much prefer it to the corporate event work I used to do in London but do miss the money & amazing venues - the Tates, NHM, V&A, Science Museum, St Pauls Cathedral etc etc

Reward Consultant.
I tell companies how, how much, when and why they should reward their employees with cash, bonuses, benefits, etc.
I like the work, but putting a roof over the head of three and food in their mouths means I probably should move on.

Technology Innovation Manager for a telco. Involves finding out about new technologies, figuring out if they might be useful for us or our customers, getting prototypes and proof of concepts built, running internal and customer trials, putting together business cases and then trying to get someone to turn it into a real product. Plus talking to big customers about future technology and how it might help them.

It's a cross between a technical project manager, an inventor and Mystic Meg.

It's got lots of freedom to explore what I find interesting, I get to meet people from lots of different industries (football clubs to uranium enrichment) and play with new kit and services I've had built. On the down side only about 5% of what I do will ever become a commercial product.

Access control facilitation technician. thinking about retraining as a Funeral Facilitator,

Criminal Barrister, good days and bad but never dull. Had many and wildly varied jobs before but after almost 15 years its only the massive cuts to the criminal justice system that make me think about moving on. Would love to retrain as an engineer but fear career propsects for newly qualified at 50 may be limited.

Access control facilitation technician

Is that a doorman?

Software development manager, used to be for an Ecommerce company that was UK based, now part of a Japanese giant. It's pretty crappy at the moment, could be worse and the pay is pretty good. I'm making applications to other places but they could be just as bad as this, so might stay. No Audi either, sorry!

Drugs.

Developing them. Well, not the chemistry, the biology, or the medicine. Rather, making the evidence available to decide how to design the clinical studies that determine whether a compound is a good enough drug or not.

I really enjoy it. I get to [s]play with[/s] evaluate technologies and products that might make gathering and using such evidence easier. I get to develop training, policies, systems, and ideas. I have access to whatever journals are needed to procure the evidence. I get to work with brilliant, world-class experts, geeks, nerds, scientists and physicians from around the world every day. And in nice accommodation, in beautiful surroundings, with a short commute.

Downsides are the burden of international travel, the need to always do even better than ever before, the difficulty of developing medicines, and the likelihood of redundancy before the decade is out.

Product Manager.

I quite like it. Get to use my brain to be creative and to solve problems. Liaising with other infrastructure areas like legal, compliance, tax, operations, front office, technology.

It pays the rent and allows me to live the life I want for me and my family.

Firefighter and urban search and rescue technician

14 years in and love both roles, especially the newer USAR role.

Hate how were being smashed by the government and very concerned about the future of the fire service and the service the public will receive when these fresh cuts have gone through.

Hi all been a good interesting thread, for my sins I'm a time served fitter still working on/with tools sheet metal,pipe fitting, machining, assembly and still like my job. Third stint at present company a good one as well, local edge of town, walking distance. Private company 75 years, same family owners. Under going big investment within company. Yes I like my job.

Loading Bay Equipment and Industrial Door rep, dull as dish water.
Boring job and products, don't like it but it pays the bills.

Would love to have gone into the forces, Royal marines Commando.(Too old for it now but probably fit enough)

Junior Scientist in a biotech firm working to GMP standards.

I enjoy it, however it can include lots of incredibly repetitive paperwork that gets tiresome quickly as does validating data ready for it to be sent to the FDA. It's all part of rigorous science and it's teaching me discipline, so that's good.

It's fun on the whole and the team is great, I feel very supported by them.

Director of an Architects Practice (RIBA). Not an Architect. (Stick with it Mikey74).

Enjoy it but it can be tough.

IT delivery manager owning a functional area of the business (or now this seasons "in" word is capability)

Working for a company which currently has very good work / life balance, which is great now I have a son. Job isn't going anywhere and I'm pretty busy but bored stupid most days.

Few links with others above, initially wanted to be an architect but was put off by family, then studied law and decided that was deadly dull and ended up falling into IT as I needed to earn money and it paid ok.

Been looking around for something I'd rather do, but keep drawing a blank. Keep toying with the idea of setting up my own software company. Plenty of people said they'd come work for me, just got to find some clients.....and the balls to give it a go.

I drive a 206 and ride a Scott scale...

Interesting thread.

@renton, still some time to think of what next. Health and Saftey Mgr seems to me the type of job where no one is happy to see you !

Portfolio manager. Yes I do although often too much of it. Absolutely detest my commute with a passion though, by far the most stressful part of it. Thanks, TfL.

Teacher working for a charity specialising in helping the unemployed.

Its interesting and varied but not lucrative. However it is way less stressful/demanding than "proper" teaching and I have no work at home [ nor long holidays]

Day job: Visitor Services Manager at a small museum in the lowest paid part of the country. Hard work, not great pay, but work with great people and love (almost) every minute.
Evening job: Meet-and-Greet at an open-air theatre. Fun work, beautiful place, makes up for sitting on my arse all day, and a reminder that 99.99% of people are just lovely.

Very lucky, and proof that money (and having any leisure time) isn't everything.