Career Interview.

1. What is your job???

I own my own company...work by myself, for myself! My "bread-n-butter" is seal coating asphalt driveways, but I also do just about anything in and around a home(a regular jack@&& of all trades!). Work starts up about May 1st, and I shut down by mid-Oct. Then...I hunt for winters meat! I also work (on call) at my local airport during the winter. I get the graveyard shift when the snow flies. Gotta keep the runway clean, just in case UofM "Survival Flight" gets a call. I get quite a few hours of model building in!

In past years...I was a mason (block, brick, stone, concrete), landscaper, carpenter.

2.How did you get started?

My brother started the seal coating company in '07...I left at the end of the '12 season (too much drama...long story). He sold the company in '14. The guy that bought it was doing a poor job and lost almost all the customers that we had, and thus, wasn't making his payments. Company was repo'ed. My bro didn't want anything to do with it anymore, so I got it. Just started my 3rd season. I managed to get back the majority of our customers, as well as planty of new customers.

3.What keeps you up at night?

I feel that sleep is a HUGE waste of time.

4.What do you love/hate about your job?

I LOVE only having to work part time, and only for half the year...leaving late Fall free for deer hunting and salmon fishing, and I have all winter to build models!

The only thing I hate about it is....I'm not making a living playing my guitar or flying.

When I applied for my most recent job I found out I would be one of only three relatively "older" people in the department.  During the interview my prospective boss noted that the company had two general career paths available including one that would eventually lead toward grooming you for a management position and the other where you were more or less intended to become a subject matter expert in a given area, but not really intended to assume much management responsibility, beyond maybe just headed up a small subteam on a larger project.

Being in my early 50s at the time I jumped at the opportunity to avoid a management position at all costs

ExtremeTeam

For the most part I love my job but wish I didn't have to put in 60+ hours a week.  I hate the aspect that I have to work so much that it takes time away from my wife and grandson (we have been raising him since he was 1 and is the most awesome little guy)  who is almost 7.  I wish I could only put in a normal 40 hours but that hasn't occured in a lot of years - maybe someday soon lol.

I now supervise folks who install the French doors on to expensive refrigerators.

Tanker - Builder

Toshi ! 

 It's nice to see that I am not the only one who followed his own Drummer . Even with the bad stuff , Life can be and is good ! Right ?

 

Your friend,

Toshi

Toshi ! 

 It's nice to see that I am not the only one who followed his own Drummer . Even with the bad stuff , Life can be and is good ! Right ?

Mopar Madness

Toshi, I must say, that’s one interesting and exciting life!

 

Your friend, Toshi

Rambo

Toshi: If anyone has lived life to the fullest it has to be you.

 

Your friend, Toshi

This in a very interesting thread. It's great to hear about eveyones careers and stories. I enjoy the anthropogenic angle. I'll keep it short. 

1. Quality control manager for an industrial construction company / welding inspector. Deal with construction codes, fabrication and development of welding procedures. Mostly ASME for pressure retaining items and AWS for structural applications.

2. College dropout. Carpet salesman. Went to welding school and became a welder for 12 years. Through experience and study obtained my Certified Welding Inspector certification. Started as an inspector and now the QC manager. Mainly working on oil refinery and renewable energy projects.

3. I'm not great at being political but I have to deal with it often and it bugs the crap out of me but I do it. I like to call a duck a duck but sometimes you have to call a duck an eagle for political / business reasons of course.

4. I have pretty good freedom at my job and I am not micro managed from corporate. They don't know what I know they just know it gets done and they leave me alone. That's cool. I dislike the many disingenuous people I have to deal with but I think that is prevalent through all of society not just my business.

Griffin

Toshi, I must say, that’s one interesting and exciting life!

German Armour

Howdy Folks!

 

I have some question to ask y'all.  This is for my career exploration program I'm taking.

1. What is your job???

2.How did you get started?

3.What keeps you up at night?

4.What do you love/hate about your job?

Thanks!

 

Jazz Musician, Chef, Sushi Chef, General Contractor, Factory worker.

My father was a professional trumpet player and played in the Royal Hawaiian Band.  It is the only band in the USA that is run by the City and County of Honolulu.  This happened due to King Kamehameha III in 1836 ordering a concert band under his rule hence the continuation of a royal band.  My father also played jazz at night and I used to follow him all over the island.

2. How did you get started?  

At five years old, I got got my first trumpet and of course without question my first teacher was Mr. Allan T Miura Sr.  My father.  At thirteen years old I got to play my first professional jazz gig. By the time I was fifthteen, I was playing professionally all over town.  I recall very fondly as always having the honor of having “Bruno” opening up for me.  He was five years old at that time.  He later became very successful and changed his name to “Bruno Mars”.  

During this time I took my GED and left Honolulu, Hawaii to continue my career in The West Coast of the US.  In San Francisco.  I created my own band called “Jazz Attack”.  We first travelled throughout the US and preformed concerts.  My percussionists played with Miles Davis, my bassists played with Ella Fitzgerald, the pianists played with many famous jazz artists, and finally my saxophonists was none other than ”Pharaoh Sanders”!  

I made so much money In that I purchased a original “1966 Mustang”, it was green with a white racing stripe right up the hood and continuing up the side of the of the Mustang.  I rebuilt the transmission as a six speed and installed a eighty pound clutch.  I then added a Ford 427 Big Block Engine with chrome accents and high performance parts ie: Accel Coil, Spitfire Sparkplugs and Wires, etc.  I drove my exciting vehicle throughout the Bay Area.  The second evening I drove her she decided to die off the freeway.  I realized it was the alternator.  Then I could see through my rear view mirror in that there was a Camaro coming at a high speed behind me at full blast only to hit my rear end and literally destroyed my Mustang!  Her fiberglass camaro was a complete mess, luckily no one had a single scratch.  The female driver was drunk and arrested!  My Mustang ended up in a junkyard to owner called Humble Harrold for seven hundred dollars.

During the day time and down time from Jazz Attack, I learned to cook at a Japanese Restaurant called Yoshi’s in Oakland, California.  I became very efficient and was worked up to Sous Chef and finally Executive Chef.  I was only sixteen!  I then also learned how to make sushi.  Things really picked at this time as we were asked to travel and open up for other bands.  Of course I jumped at it and the first place we went to was New York.  We were so busy playing, we then had to travel to Europe ASAP so we got to fly in the Concord.  That was so cool!  Once we landed we played in England at the Live Aid concert.  

From there we toured to Amsterdam, Belgium, France, and Switzerland.  At this point our tour ended.  Everyone was ready to go home after touring for a year.  I got to meet so many great artists it’s too many to speak of.  The band wanted to return to the US while I wanted to stay hence in the end that’s what happened.  I decided to make Amsterdam my home.  I again took up sharpening my skills as a chef during the day while playing at various jazz clubs.  I stayed there for five years.

I then found out that my father was very ill, I decided to move back to Honolulu and care for him.  At this point in my career, I met Mrs. Toshi and we’ve been married for twenty six years coming up in May sixteenth.  I started up Jazz Attack and we did some minor tours, one of them was Tahiti.  I had a son by this time and felt that touring with a band while raising a family was not a good situation, I needed to settle down.  I disbanded Jazz Attack, put my trumpet away and called it quits.  My father who couragiously fought his illness finally succumbed to his cancer at the age of fifty eight. 

Since I had been previously a Executive Chef I decided to go back into the culinary world.  It was another form of art for me.  I settled in with Marriot and moved to Maui.  It was in Maui that I met Yuji Sekiguchi.  He was the student of the Sushi Chef, (Kinjiro Oomae whom wrote a famous book called ”The Book of Sushi”) of the Empreor of Japan.  Then it was off to Palm Springs, we stayed there until the attack on the Twin Towers in New York.  I then realized that the hotel industry would drastically slow down.  Mrs. Toshi’s sister whom lives in Ashtabula, Ohio called and said why don‘t you come this way?  So we packed everything up into a very large Uhaul and drove across the Great Nation of America.  It was my two children and I.  There was know room for Mrs. Toshi so she flew to Cleveland, Ohio.  

I became the Corporate Executive Chef for Giant Eagle a large grocery store.  There my job was to set up a sushi program for them.  After that job, I worked for The Wolfsteins at their Hotel in Aurora, Ohio called the Bertram Inn and Conference Center.  It was next to Six Flags.  In the summer, I was so busy in that I could afford to fly Mrs. Toshi and my two children back home to Honolulu, Hawaii.  They got to stay there for a month as I was making upwards of up to ten thousand dollars a month.  When Six Flags closed that was the end of the great run.  

I then met a entrepreneur and became a General Contractor of my own company called Allan’s All American Services.  I built in ground pools.  I had the time of my life!  This was so fun I couldn’t believe it.  The first year we made one hundred thousand dollars for the summer as winter we had to shut down.  That hundred grand was literally made in four months!  Wow!  Then came 2008 in which the economy tanked!!!  That was the end of Allan’s All American Services.  

I then went looking for a job.  Any job.  I worked four jobs in one month.  A landscaping company, a butcher, Walmart, then finally a corrugated making company called Temple Inland.  They made boxes.  I had the responsibility to deliver ink and printing plates to each machine.  The on 5/5/2010 I got seriously injured and became incapable of just not being able to wash myself, shave, use the bathroom etc.  

3. What keeps you up at night!

I had Traumatic Brain Injury or TBI.  That was eight years ago.  I’m a lot better now due to the fantastic members of FSM Forums!!!  But what truly keeps me up at night is severe headaches and neck and back pain.  Unfortunately that’s what I’ve got to deal with.  I am now retired and a stay at home sitter, my wonderful and cute grandson!  

4.What do you love/hate about your job?

I must say when I contemplate and visually meditate on my love or hate of my job, I don’t feel like it was a job.  I loved every minute of it.  I physically and mentally feel that it was a way of life, a experience if you will.  Even my job at Walmart making minimum wage as a third shift or grave shift employee it was fun, looking back at that.  This I feel is a way or path that you choose to move forward with like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz.  She had to follow the Yellow Brick Road.  We all should follow the Yellow Brick Road, with each step you’ll find the friends, relatives you don’t like lol, and most important of all, we will seek the great and powerful Oz in the end.  So make everyday count.

There are two days in the year that you cannot control.  Yesterday as it has already happened and tomorrow as you don’t know what to expect!

Dalai Lama

Your friend, Toshi

1/            I am the Director of Facilities Planning & Management at a small university located Toronto Canada. It was originally the Ontario College of Art but is has grown to become OCAD University.

2/            I attended OCA as a student and during the summers worked on the maintenance teams to clean up the college and be ready for the next term.  I graduated and moved out to the country at the request of my fiancé at the time.  Taught photography at another university and a few years later she wanted to return to the big city.  Upon returning my old boss offered my a job.  I took it with the understanding that I was only going to be there at max, a few months until I found out what I wanted to do with myself.  That was 39 years ago this past April Fools.

While there I slowly self-taught myself many different skills and rose from Maintenance, to Supervisor, to Chief Engineer, to Director Physical Plant, to my present position Director, FP&M. I now have only 31 more days left and I will then leave for a one year vacation with retirement kicking in May 31, 2019.

3/            Not too much keeps me up at night but over the years many differing things came and went.  Inadequate funding and staffing levels did me in for the longest time.  If it couldn’t be worked out I had to do it myself, hence the banking of unused vacation time.  Trying to maintain the institution in a working condition and trying to eat away at the deferred maintenance.  At the same time expand the institution with Capital funding in order to keep up with the expansion.   Also trying to keep family life and work at proper levels took a toll for a while, or rather burning the candle at both ends.

4/            I guess I loved that I made a difference.  And by making that difference many students went through the institution and they began their own lives.  While not exactly the same as the feeling that a teacher may have in helping their own students along, but a very similar feeling in that by making things work right, the students were able to concentrate on what they were there for and we always tried to help them during they various shows, exhibition etc.  It is very pleasing to have students come back and say that our help improved their show.

1. Retired.  After finishing high school, I held two jobs in my adult life.  First I worked as a housekeeper at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario for four years (80-84).  I then worked as a police officer (former Gloucester and Ottawa) for 31.5 years (01 Oct 1984 - 31 Mar 2016).  The smaller police services in the Ottawa-Carleton Region were amalgamted into the Ottawa Police Service in 1995.

2. My dad.  After emigrating from Ireland in 1951, he was a police officer in Bermuda for four years before coming to Canada in 1955 and joining the Ottawa Police Force (as it was known back then).  He was still active duty (32.5 years) when he passed away from cancer in 1987.  I always wanted to be a police officer and I gained life experience working at CHEO.  It was the best preparation for being a police officer that I could have ever asked for.  It was even better than going to university for book smarts.  I learned to talk to, to listen to, to watch people and to interact with people.  People from all stations and lots in life; wealthy, not so wealthy, educated, not so educated, young, old, children, happy people, nasty people, despondent and devesatated parents, professionals, immigrants, nurses and doctors who looked down their noses at me because I was 'just a janitor', etc.  You get the idea.  That's what a lot of policing is; interacting with people.  People having a good day, a not so good day and those who are having the worst day of their life. 

3. I'm sort of like stik, althought nothing ever really kept me up at night.  I put the day's activities, good and bad, in that little filing cabinet in the back of my head and closed and locked it every day.  I was very fortunate in that I took heed to a few things my dad instilled in me before he passed.  When I took the uniform off at the end of the shift and put it in my locker, the job went in there with it.  I identified myself as Mike - a guy who happened to be a police officer and not Mike - the police officer.  There's a big difference there.  I never let the uniform identify who I was.  I knew guys who cried when they returned their kit to QM because being a cop was who they were.

4. Again - what stik said and more.  Hate is a very powerful word.  Disliked was a more appropriate term.  Domestic disputes were always a pain.  You never knew how they were going to turn out.  Next of kin notifications were always hard.  Deaths of children or any child / wife abuse calls.  It ALWAYS took a great deal of restraint when arresting a 'tough guy' who would beat a woman or a child.  Having a spineless, incompmetent, useless, uncaring, lazy, self-aggrandizing superior, including those in the Executive Command, was also hard to swallow.  There are many other things I disliked but I'll leave them aside.

I liked and enjoyed helping people.  There was nothing better than getting a thank you from someone you helped have a better day, be it formally in writing to your boss, a handshake, a hug or even a simple nod and a 'tip of the hat'.  Some people aspire to being homicide detectives, CSI types, K9 officers, etc.  Good for them but I spent the bulk of my 31.5 years on the road and in a police car because, to me, helping people and putting bad guys in jail was what policing was all about.

I always tried to make things better for those I supervised.  One of the things my dad taught me was that you have to respect the rank but it's easier to respect the rank if you respect the person in the rank.  Respect and trust are earned, not a given.  It was very gratifying, when I retired and even before, to have those I supervised thank me for everything I had done for them.  I always believed that once you become a supervisor, it's not about you anymore.  Your focus has to be on those you are leading.  That was something I always enjoyed; helping those under my charge.

I always enjoyed watching a beautiful sunrise.  It signalled a new day with new challenges.  It also meant that I made it through the shift and was going home safely.

I also liked the fact that I knew each day was going to be different.  Yes, I would see the same sights and landmarks as I drove my police car but one day could be a day with no calls for service (in the old days I could go days without taking a call) and other days you would be run ragged (one day I had three suicide calls in a 12 hour shift).  Unfortunately, thats's the kind of stuff you have to deal with when you sign your name on the dotted line after you are sworn in.  You get to see society and people at their best and at their worst.

I had a wonderful career.  I'm a very lucky man.  I miss the people but it's a young man's game.  Now I get to put my feet up, relax and build models.  Life is good.

Mike

Okay , I'll bite as well .

 All mine will be past tense though . I retired some years back . I graduated at the top of my High school class .Then The Navy Many years and lots to learn . Came out of the Navy as a Chief Damage Control technician . Short stint as a loaner from the Navy to Woods Hole Institute .Got to fix some neat stuff .

Same amount of time in the Marine Corps . Retired from there early as a Gunnery Sergeant  and started an Engineering firm  , After college of course !. Got into custom Homes , large Buildings and Bridges . Fascinating work . Wasn't  Busy enough though . Started a specialty trucking company Hauling special shaped and weighted loads for NASA .

  Time on my hands began playing with tow trucks . Sold it all when my son passed in 1982 in the Tornado season that year . Moved to Atlanta and had a bar and on the side as in Arkansas , built custom Models for folks . 

 I hated the fact that as a proffessional Model Building and Creating  Technician ( I like the sound of that ) people still many times see the end work as toys ! Even an architectural creation ! 

 Officialy retired in 1998 after Running a Marina and Working on oil spills for marine pollution Control Company in California . . Still build models here in Texas And doing my Last commission .

 Also am A Vice President on the Board of the local Rail-Road Museum  ! Fun and aggravation in equal parts . Ah , well it supports rail history . Play with LEGOS in a group here in the San Antonio area . That's fun too . A good mindless break for Life ! !

 One thing I learned is this .There may only be so many hours in a day that you can work and stay healthy too . Use them well and never say Never ! 

1. Software Developer

2. During my senior year in high school ('85), I was considering architecture, computer science and aeronautical engineering. Aero required more math than I wanted to deal with at the time, so I ended up starting in the architecture program at Texas A&M. After about 6'weeks, I decided architecture was not for me, and transferred to the College of Business at A&M with an eye on accounting. Yeah, intro financial accounting proved that I really don't like dealing with numbers, so I switched to Information Systems. Very similar to Computer Science but with business courses rather than engineering courses. My career started off literally at the ground level, but over the years I have built a solid resume well versed in a variety of languages and development platforms.

3. Not much keeps me up at night, although I will admit to waking up a couple nights ago wondering what is going to happen in the Infinity War movie.

4. I am currently out of work, but what I have always loved I said the technical challenge and problem solving aspect of developing software. I did have a position for many years where I did clinical trial software, and it was a point of pride for me that there was a chance that what I was doing may have played a role, small though it was, in saving someone's life. What I hate about this work is when I find myself out of work, as has been the case more than once in my 25 years of doing this.

hogfanfs

That sounds like a really cool job, PFJN. 

Thanks,

I also forgot to mention work I did on the NOAA Fisheries Research Vessel and some Selaift design studies that were kind of interesting.

Pat

I am a Professional land Surveyor working out of Washington and Idaho.

I started in the profession when I was 20 with no experience, way back in 1989.  My mom knew the owner of the local land surveying / engineering company and she talked him into hiring me (I was looking at getting a job at a local saw mill and she didn't want me doing that) as I had just finished a two year AA degree in architectural drafting.  I was hired on as a survey crew member and survey draftsman.  I stuck with it (same company) and obtained my state license for Washington in 2008 and my license for Idaho in 2013.  I have been with the same company since I began in the profession and this company has taken very good care of me and still do to this day.    

Everything keeps me up at night, especially from this time of year till the end of November.  I run the land survey portion of the company and my brain doesnt shut off very often, always worrying about jobs and schedules.  I guess I stress to much in regards to my job/profession.  Even when I am home I tend to think about my job and what needs to be done the following day.

For the most part I love my job but wish I didn't have to put in 60+ hours a week.  I hate the aspect that I have to work so much that it takes time away from my wife and grandson (we have been raising him since he was 1 and is the most awesome little guy)  who is almost 7.  I wish I could only put in a normal 40 hours but that hasn't occured in a lot of years - maybe someday soon lol.

I get to meet different people everyday and I also get to help them with their land boundary issues which is fun and exciting.  As with all jobs / careers everyday is different, some good and some not so good.

That sounds like a really cool job, PFJN. 

castelnuovo

Sorry GermanArmour, the question was directed at PFJN, he said he is a naval architect so I was wandering what kind of ships is he building?

Hi,

I spent several years working on the US Navy's LCAC/Ship to Shore Connector program and a couple more years on two different failed USCG Offshore Patrol Cutter designs, but now am supporting the LCS and FFG(X) programs.

Sorry GermanArmour, the question was directed at PFJN, he said he is a naval architect so I was wandering what kind of ships is he building?

I haven't built any ships yet, my focus is mostly military. Right now I'm working on tamiya 1/35 M8 howitzer , 1/48 SU-122, 1/35 dragon russian tank riders, tamiya 1/35 kubelwagen w/ verlinden stowage set, academy KTiger which I'm going to put in a dio.

On Britmodeler: 2 group builds Panther Group build, T-34 Group Build. For the panther group build, Maybe RFM new panther G or one of takom's new panthers? Or Tamiya Panther D?  T-34 Group Build, something T-34.

Maybe when all of that is done I might build a WWII ship or U-Boat.

What kind of ships are you building? I used to sail on quite a few merchant marine ships (bulk carriers, general cargo, heavy lifter and a tanker)

1. I'm a carrier for the USPS.  With some supervisor experience.

2. Graduated from a technical school for automotive bodywork.  Wanted to get into restoration and customizing. Got stuck doing mostly collision .  A friend's dad told me to take the postal test.  That was 22 years ago.

3. As a carrier not much keeps me up. When I was a supervisor you're never "off the clock" very mentally exhausting

4. I'm a people person. I've had the same route for 12 years. My customers really like me. I'm part of the neighborhood  I've been invited to block parties, birthday parties etc.I've made friends. 

The part I hate is the majority of the new people starting have no work ethics. The quality of work is terrible.

John

Hi,

For me

1. What is your job?

I'm a Naval Architect

2.How did you get started?

Long story short, is that by senior year of high school I had no idea what I wanted to do, and that, coupled with an accute case of appendicitus, led me to kind of putting off making any decision for a couple years while I attended a local state college with an "undeclared" major. 

Once I realized that I needed to get serious about a career, a chance find of an old naval architecture text book in my local library deep in the heart of Texas, plus a purchase of the book "Battleship Design & Development" out of the discount bin at a local book store, and the realization that there were actually schools that taught this kind of stuff, while looking through a book of colleges in the US, and the majors that they had programs for led me to applying to a school in New York 34 years ago 

(Interestingly, this school [Webb Institute] is actually used in both the "Gotham" TV show, and some Batman movies as a standin (for external shots of Stately Wayne Manor )

3.What keeps you up at night?

I'm not sure if you mean workwise or just in general, but  I do have occassional insomnia, and am never really sure why I can't get to sleep some days .  From a work point of view though, there are the occassional "did I make a mistake or do something uncorrectly, that I need to fix before leading the rest the team off track and/or make a fool out of myself" moments.  

4.What do you love/hate about your job?

Overall I mostly like my job, though there are occassional things that bring me down.  I think the biggest down points often involve either people "discounting my inputs because they believe that they "have a better idea" eventhough you may have spent the last 40-60 hrs developing your input, including trying to address multiple concerns, whereas the others appear to have only just sketched something (not to scale) on the back of an envelope, and have neglected to take into account numerous significant items and/or have radically undersized some key items . 

Other frustrating issues often involve customers who seem to be badly mis-interpreting requirements but you realize you can't really tell them that you think they are way off base (since they are the customer) so you end up struggling to politely convince them not to lead the design team off on a tangent, but sometimes fail .

On the plus side though, I have had a chance to work on some interesting projects, meet some interesting people, and travel to a couple different places like England, Norway, Canada, Japan, and South Korea .

PF

1. High school chemistry teacher. I’ve been in education for 25 yrs. 16 yrs as an administrator. I returned to the classroom last year. I also serve as an assistant director of bands.

2. I got into teaching to work a little while and make a little (very little) money while waiting to enter grad school to work on a Masters in biochemistry. Well, I’ve been here ever since and earned a Masters in Ed.

3. Nothing really keeps me up at night. The pace of teaching 6 classes/3 preps per day will wear a person out.

4. I enjoy seeing kids when they finally grasp a concept or when a struggling kid works so hard and it finally clicks for him and they begin to improve. I enjoy working with kids, especially band kids-a truly different breed. The only things I don’t like about teaching are the long after hours stuff-prepping lessons, grading papers, and some of the decisions that are made for you by admin.

1. CAD/PLM Systems Administrator. Basically, I'm an IT guy who specializes in computer assisted design and engineering applications.

2. I friend of mine called me and told me about an opening for a shipping Manager at a computer consulting company he worked for. I got the job, then after a few weeks, the training supervisor asked me if I wanted to teach an AutoCAD classes; I said sure, if you teach me AutoCAD first. Well, she put me in one of her classes, and then a second class. Then I took a Catia V4 class. The Director of Tech Consulting saw me in the class and told me to report to the helpdesk the next morning, And, as they say it, the rest is history. That was 22 years ago.

3. I can't say anything keeps me up at night, but the company I work for is very cheap. And I have to deal with very old equipment that most is out of life and without support. And then I get repeatedly asked why we are not able to perform as well as our customer's equipment. A little more investment would go a long way in my stress relief.

4. What I like about the job is I get to see some really cool stuff being built. Rotor craft, jet engines, automobiles, over the years. I like to problem solve, and like to build things. What I hate about the job is summed up above in #3. 

1. Storeman at a facility which cators to those held at Her Majesties pleasure. Also known as a prison.

2. After coming out of the army after 22 years i was self employed for a couple. Then got a job for a construction and maintenance company at the US airbase RAF lakenheath. When they lost the contract, i found out the same company were looking for a storeman at a local prison. having worked in stores for a couple oif years while in the army, i went for that.

3. Nowt, and certainly not work. As soon as i walk out the gate, the work day is over

4. It pays the bills/ its pretty routine and boring.

1. Retired military, but I build refrigerators for GE (in charge of putting doors on them).
2. Bored after retirement, opened up the paper to look for a Lowe's or Home Depot type part time job, saw a full page ad so I applied. Only planned on working here for six months or so, that was nearly six years ago.
3. Nothing at all. I get off work at 12:30 AM, get home about a quarter after 1 AM, shower and I'm out like a light.
4. Easy money, keeps me busy. I dislike many peoples' work ethic; absenteeism is rampant. Employee turnover when they get fired for attendance. The company's (HR) insane placement policy insures I have new people under me every month or so.

Thanks GA, this is helpful to me as I am wondering what I do next as I bounce around a few jobs recently.

1. What is your job???

Project Manager for the Environment Protection Agency, working on vehicle noise testing. I have been doing it for five weeks, contract finishes in nine weeks.

2.How did you get started?

At Uni did chemistry, got into a paper mill doing recycling. Worked my way through technical, operations, customer support, product development, safety, environment and technical management roles. The Mill shut down with plenty of warning and a severance. Got four years of consulting to other mills, but that work was drying up and I spent 6 months last year unemployed.

So I have been looking for roles in all areas, got this job and it is interesting but not challenging. Trying to get into sustainability positions, but it is not easy. Today talked to someone at a cosmetics factory to work on the factory floor, but I'd have to buy a car to commute, don't know if I want it, want to work in the environment sector, etc,etc

3.What keeps you up at night?

Not much about work. Used to when I was responsible for industrial safety. A heart attack ten years ago changed my perspective a bit. I do fret about getting the job I think I want, but currently I don't have the serious responsilities with work that others do.

4.What do you love/hate about your job?

The people. There are great people everywhere, and I have some lifelong friends from work.

Trying something new. In the new job, working in a new (female heavy, multi cultured) work environment after decades in manufacturing.

Don't like that this job is office based, upside is a 30 minute bike ride to and from work every day.  In the paper mills I was always up and around the place to see what was going on.