# So. What do you do for a living? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 9, 2025, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774 "2025-01-09T21:53:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/41 "2025-01-10T02:32:31Z")
As a co-worker of mine used to say, I organize 1’s and 0’s into useful patterns. Embedded software engineer. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/42 "2025-01-10T02:41:24Z")
Retired for five years (!), but I ran analytical groups (including data science) for a large company. Those of you working in GIS, that’s fun stuff. I’ve dabbled since retirement, it’s everywhere once you start looking for it. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/43 "2025-01-10T02:57:12Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > What happened to Blower-Up Of Stuff Real Good? Oh, I retired from that _direct_ hands-on line of work in 2015 (retired from Active Duty). I was able to parlay that experience directly into _this_ job. Tripler My second career is _booming._ ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/44 "2025-01-10T03:39:21Z")
I work for a printing firm, operating large cutting machines and routers to make signage. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/45 "2025-01-10T05:35:34Z")
I teach math part-time at a community college. The other part of my time is working as a bookkeeper for my wife’s accounting business. I’m preparing to take the exams to become an [Enrolled Agent](https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/enrolled-agents/enrolled-agent-information). The idea is to transition away from the teaching and go full time in the business as a bookkeeper/tax preparer. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/46 "2025-01-10T05:54:07Z")
I am a semi-retired consultant for anti-money laundering and bank fraud. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/47 "2025-01-10T06:15:08Z")
I’ve worked in the computer industry for 50 years now. Initially field hardware tech, then software support (mainly networking, eg NetWare, but also Windows, Mac and Linux toward the end). I now do tech support on permanent-contract for a mid-sized computer gaming company, who specialise in grand strategy games. Amazing how well my corporate work set me up for my current job! No career planning involved, I just got really, really, lucky. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/48 "2025-01-10T06:26:51Z")
At the moment I’m a Canine Coach / Rover at Dogtopia (daycare/boarding). It’s been a long strange trip and this is kind of just what I’m doing right now (and going broke at it) but it’s the funnest job I’ve ever had. As Canine Coach I run a daycare room with as much as 40 dogs at a time. It’s a challenge at times, but I laugh every day at something one of the does. And I get to pet dogs all day long. As a Rover I do a lot more cleaning around the place, but I also do spas (baths, nails, teeth, ears) and evaluate new dogs during meet & greets, and I’m generally more responsible for one-on-one care for a dog if he needs it, be it an injury or a behavioral issue. I took the job because I’ve wanted to work with dogs for the longest time, so what the hell. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/49 "2025-01-10T06:51:40Z")
After grad school, I did IT consulting for a few years, but I’ve now been back doing physics (research on quantum computing at the German Aerospace Center) for about two and a half years. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/50 "2025-01-10T07:07:00Z")
Payroll at a hotel. Because we aren’t big enough for that to be a full-time job I am also the General Auditor and Cash Audit. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/51 "2025-01-10T07:13:47Z")
I’m an Electronics Technician for the USPS. Currently in my eighteenth year of service. Trained on seven different processing and sorting systems, most of my time these days is spent restoring the first-class mail sorting machinery to operation when interruptions occur during the operations shift. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/52 "2025-01-10T07:42:57Z")
I’m a retired (goodness, so much of that here!) **industrial safety specialist**. Upon being hired, I was asked to simply “take care of these guys,” and besides the mountains of regulations and documentation that was what I did. Every year, there’d be at least one or two fatalities at other plants in our company, but because ours was in the American South, filled with Blacks, Mexicans and rednecks; and was expected to be sloppier than the Midwest or West Coast, I was determined not to let it happen at my plant. I made myself a holy pain in the ass to upper management, the rank and file, and human resources for fifteen years, and after I left they wasted no time in gelding the safety program. A year later, a young man who’d been inadequately trained in lock-out/tag out had the life crushed out of him by a hydraulic platform. Life is a precious gift. As I grow older and see my own flickering out, I grow even darker at a world where it’s too often snuffed out all at once ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/53 "2025-01-10T08:02:36Z")
I used to work in HR before it was called HR. (It was "Personnel and Industrial Relations when I started in Australia). So for several decades across different industries I worked at various levels, some quite senior, until something broke a few years ago, anxiety bit me on the arse and I retired. Now I do gardening, home renovation, read books, play the occasional game of Golf and drink too much all of which beat the hell out of working. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/54 "2025-01-10T08:08:35Z")
I work full-time at a locally renowned pizza kitchen! (Worked a corporate job in an IT-ish job for about nine years. Never. Again.) ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/55 "2025-01-10T10:09:48Z")
Software developer and analyst for a company doing electrical system simulation. I also dabble in IT and DevOps for same. Before that, I worked on software for image analysis, for video editing and for device control. Managed teams for a while, I’m now avoiding that. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/56 "2025-01-10T10:32:38Z")
Currently Executive Creative Director of a brand strategy/creative agency. 32 years as a design and advertising creative all told. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/57 "2025-01-10T12:26:48Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’m an Electronics Technician for the USPS. I know this likely isn’t your area, but I inadvertently signed up for Informed Delivery, and for some reason I enjoy seeing previews of my mail every day in my email inbox. I’d never even heard of the process before that. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/58 "2025-01-10T12:37:44Z")
I work in risk management at a large bank. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/59 "2025-01-10T12:39:47Z")
After I left the Navy (1984), I worked for the Navy as a mechincal/aerospace structural engineer. Retired from that in 2011, then worked on and off for various government contractors as a mechanical drafter - pretty much all for the Navy. Retired from that right before COVID hit, then babysat my granddaughter, then grandson, until last year when he entered preschool. Now I’m totally retired, thinking seriously about never having a job ever again. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2025, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774/60 "2025-01-10T12:41:40Z")
I do the impossible for the ungrateful. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-what-do-you-do-for-a-living/1012774.md?page=4)