After high school I worked for a local town engineering office as a draftsman. After a couple months of that joined the Marine Corps, did my time, 26 years (25.5 close enough for government work) and retired. I've spent the last 5 five years working civil service as a training specialist.
I provide financing for business equipment purchases. I've financed almost any kind of equipment you can think of over the last 12 years.
Retired from the Army after 22 years, currently work as a Nursing Supervisor in Northern California and run my own business selling Amsoil, Wagner Intercoolers and Plasti Dip.
Similar story. Retired, and play hard at it. (That Harley doesn't ride itself.) It a former life, was a Project Manager for a very large multi-line insurance company. Tech. projects (went from dumb terminals to PC's) some corp. convention projects (convention halls and loading docks are so sexy) and while I did run a large phone project once, I too do not fix phones. But, I understood my real job was to make Vice Presidents look good, so I was kind of successful for awhile.
Retired from the Army and Civil Service. I currently do some contract work for NSA and DIA, but lately that has been few and far between, which is fine with me. More time to get the MINI dirty and fall off our horses. :biggrin5:
I just re read this thread and see that you've got something in common with a great friend of mine. You made the cables and he made the wheels for those famous Cable Cars!
My first real job out of college was working in marketing communications for EDS, back when Ross Perot owned it, and EDS had a whole bunch of your IBM mainframes. We probably had a closet full of the same suits. Now, I am a photographer and art director. I used to work for a couple car magazines. I still do a lot of car photography for classic auction companies. CD
Since it was bump'd or bubble'd. I am still retired..... :wink: And I have been perfecting my target groups.
USAF for 22 years right out of high school. Worked for a private interconnect company for a couple of years along with some part time work at a gun shop. Started my own company installing business phone systems, CCTV and security systems. Partnered up with a friend of mine and built houses for a few years until I got a job offer from Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Built tires for semi's, HumV's, Strykers, and even a couple for the Concord before retiring for the last time in '09. Now I do pretty much what ever I want... within certain strict financial constraints. An exercise in patience when your hobbies are, Vettes, Minis, firearms, and occasionally my '93 FXLR.
I'm manager of engineering and operations of a medium sized nuclear research reactor. Most days are fun and enjoyable as long as no one spills Pepsi on the control console.
For last 19 years I have worked in the Sign Building Industry dealing with the vinyl and CNC Programming end of it mainly.. In years past have worked as a Locksmith, Land Surveyor, company that makes the cardboard core that goes inside a roll of masking tape, to name just a few..
I'm in the IT world. I work for a company that deals with prepaid cards-Itunes,Vanila Visa Etc. I program the point of sale devices... And find and fix bugs.. endless.. Originally wanted to wrench on cars since I've done it all my life, but that work doesn't pay as well
This is a really cool thread! I have worked in research for all of my adult life. Spent a couple of years right out of graduate school doing nutritional studies with dairy cows. Determine nutritional content of the feed...then determine nutritional content of the poop....it was messy and stinky work. For the past 10 years (I'm feeling kinda old now that I can measure time in increments of decades), I have worked in a veterinary pathology laboratory. I mainly perform bacterial identifications and run the clinical chemistry and hematology analyzers here. I always get a little nervous sharing this information since I never know how people feel about the subject, but my laboratory does health monitoring for the majority of the research animals housed here at the University. We do regular health checks, and if an animal gets sick, the veterinarians and their technicians submit their samples to us. If an investigator is performing some kind of research study and needs bloodwork done, that bloodwork is likely to come to us.
I took a semester off, but I'll be back at college in Jan, teaching the youngsters about cars. It can be "interesting" trying to communicate across so many generations and still be relatable.....:crazy: