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What do you do and do you enjoy it?
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plyphonFree Member
I design software. Mainly web apps but also some hybrid/native mobile stuff.
I currently work within the startup scene in the geospatial sector. It’s really interesting, and it’s great learning about the technologies that makes software work. No two projects are the same.
I enjoy it.
tazzymtbFull Memberspecialist consultant/contractor doing all the weird/wonderful/bloody niche stuff that most other folks in our sector wont touch. Its varied, sometimes frustrating at times “interesting” (particularly some of the overseas stuff when there has been emergency evacs of our team due to rapidly deteriorating political situations, ebola, having to work in red zones with additional armed escorts and such like) after 20 years the amount of travel, particularly on UK roads is getting sodding dull though
PierreFull MemberI own a bike shop. Am I the first on this thread to say that?
I do enjoy it, some of the time. I made the jump and set up my own business, on my own in 2008 and it’s grown steadily (but not consistently) since then.
I started it because I’ve grown up riding bikes and playing with Lego as well as helping my dad with a couple of not-very-reliable classic cars, so I’ve always been interested in how things work and how to fix them. After a degree in Physiology (which is basically that, but for humans) I temped in various jobs for a couple of years before realising that a) the area I lived in (SE15) needed a bike shop and b) I’d quite like to be the person in charge of that shop.
I worked for a couple of other shops for a few years, gained qualifications and experience, studied hard, learned from others’ (and my) mistakes and eventually took my meagre savings, borrowed a fair chunk of my amazing parents’ savings (and they definitely worked long and hard for it, council worker dad and mum who did admin in a GP practice) and opened my own shop.
I still spend some of my time mechanicking, mainly building wheels, but I’ve got two full-time mechanics and a part-time one who do most of the hands-on work. Even though it was that that got me into this and that which I’d prefer doing if I had the chance. I spend a lot of the rest of the time doing shop admin and trying to keep the business running (and occasionally looking on here when procrastinating or eating lunch).
Because it’s my business, when it’s surviving I’m OK with how it’s doing and I can enjoy it, sometimes. When we get good reviews or praise, or just when we sort out really difficult problems or hear of our reputation spreading for the top-level jobs, it makes me very proud. We’ve worked hard to build expertise and although we’re not yet Sheldon Brown / Lennard Zinn-level experts, we know our stuff, we’re always learning and we’re good at what we do. And that’s definitely something to take pride in and enjoy.
One thing it certainly doesn’t make me is rich, regardless of what else you may read on here. We’re proud to be a London Living Wage employer; I don’t know how many other bike shops could say that, certainly not many. Apart from my wage – I’m literally working below the minimum wage. Yes, it’s my business, so if it ever makes much profit that I don’t immediately put back into making the business better, it could pay me some dividends. But at the moment it definitely isn’t.
When it’s struggling, it’s incredibly stressful. When I’m shuffling money from one account to another to try and pay bills and make sure my staff get paid, always before I do, and accounts to some suppliers are overdue while other customers want us to order in expensive stuff and compete with online shops on price and the money simply isn’t there in the bank accounts, that is definitely the opposite of enjoyment. As much as some posters on here think that mechanics are all incompetent monkeys, or that everyone who owns a bike shop does a Scrooge McDuck with their piles of cash, that’s simply not true.
I’m not after sympathy. Everyone makes their own choices and I still get to work with bikes sometimes, even if I rarely get chance to ride them. However, like most people who run their own businesses, I got into it because I wanted to earn money doing the thing I’m good at, but I now spend most of my time doing the business-running side of things. Which is not as much fun.
boabymFull MemberMeasurement geek (metrologist) working for a motorsport bearing manufacturer
Pays well enough, plenty of kit in the gauge room to play with so happy days.roccoFull MemberWow a real variety of jobs, I thought everyone on here was an IT manager driving an Audi! Big respect to a few on here, doing jobs I would never be able to do.
As a few others have said I fell into my job and really don’t enjoy it anymore. Working for the NHS is full of BS now and is just target driven with only a little interest in the actual patients. But with a family to support not sure how easy it is going to be to change now.
For the past 5 years I have had a bit of a dream to open a shoe shop, but no idea where to start with that
MrSmithFree MemberPlease stop with the trade lingo and abbreviations.
Outside of your peer group people may not know what they mean,
I certainly don’t.leegeeFull MemberI design aftermarket locks and security parts for commercial vehicles mainly vans.
I end up doing lots of things like stock counts and inspecting components that are manufactured by sub contractors too.
Its a pretty good company to work for and i’m pretty happy there.beejFull MemberTitle is “Account Technology Strategist” for Microsoft.
What that means is that I advise/support a small number of very big customers in how they can best use Microsoft stuff to help their businesses be better. Most of the interesting discussions are CIO/CxO level when we’re looking at how technology can help transform how they operate or what they do. The fun stuff is around Azure; machine learning, IoT, predictive analytics, cognitive services etc.
I’m rubbish at Excel though.
Alpha1653Full MemberArmy officer, and yes I do enjoy it. I’ve had some amazing opportunities for which I’m very grateful. Most of my time currently is spent doing administration within a reserve regiment but any given day can range from a welfare case, medical issues, discipline, career management, event organisation etc etc etc. Hopefully the next step is an MSc before moving into technical projects. However, i reckon I’ll be out before long as having a wife and child makes the prospect of going away for extended periods of time hard to deal with: I signed up for this, my wife didn’t so it’ll be soon time to get a proper job.
(Goes back to page 1 of the thread for inspiration!)
pete68Free MemberUnemployed. Pay is awful but time off is excellent! Lots of bike riding a major perk.
beejFull MemberEnlighten me CIO/CxO
Chief Information (or Innovation) Officer, or others at a similar level. Americanisms for board members that’s been adopted over here. Director of IT, Director of XX, Managing Director would be the UK names but pretty much every big company uses CEO (Chief Executive Officer), COO (Chief Operating Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer) etc
Not really trade lingo, just modern large business lingo.
If you want trade lingo… TSP, CSA, DSA, SSP, ATS, AE, TAM… and they’re just internal job titles.
barkmFree MemberInspiring thread.
I’m an IT project manager, replete with industry standard Audi. 😐
No don’t enjoy it. I’m not really an IT project manager, or a manager, or ‘anything’ in an office. But it pays enormously well for what I actually do, I get away with doing a pretty bad job in a relativity easy place to work and I’m very autonomous. If I can manage to balance that with other life stuff I’ll be ok (hence recently taken up volunteering).
Lots of food for thought here though. My latest ‘project’ is a 3 year career change plan.
redmexFree MemberOk cheers for that, I know a TAM i occasionally have working nearby me crabbit old git who smokes a lot
thegreatapeFree MemberPoliceman. It’s been varied, did a few years in Southampton, a couple in Nottingham, and have been in Scotland for the last ten years, including a couple of years in a little unsupervised station covering one of the UK’s largest mountain areas – very different to being in the middle of a big city. Last five years have been in CID, where I’m a jack of all trades – drugs, rape, sexual offences, fraud, burglaries, unexplained deaths, mountain/water deaths, child pornography, serious violent crimes, missing persons, a whole range of things. Do I enjoy it? Sometimes it’s hugely satisfying, sometimes I hate it, mostly it’s somewhere in between, but frequently incredibly frustrating. I can’t think of what else I’m qualified for – anyone need someone to drive fast and get in fights?
ernieFull MemberSome great and interesting careers!
I fell out of school into a sales job that I hated. After five years I quit , used my savings to get myself through college and ten uni (BSc and MRes). Spent almost the years working as either an environmental regulator (exciting job but crap pay), environment consultant (felt morally wrong charging the money we did to the MOD for no benefit), environment advisor (bio research laboratory who should tbh be shut down), environment manager for network rail (on the crossrail programme). Loved the company but not the role so became scheme project manager. Now I love the job, love the company, believe in what I am doing, see all the work I put iin being realised and can’t wait to see the first electric train run on the tracks that my team installed.
coolhandlukeFree MemberFreelance engineer
I’ve built landfills, wind farms, hydros, major roads, ponds, power stations, housing estates, and now on an enormous concrete slab.
Variety and challenging. Love it.
chilled76Free MemberHead of Maths in a secondary school.
Love teaching, hate all the crap (mostly target orientated) that dominates the profession now.
Alpha1653Full MemberBarkm – I’ll look you up when I get out so you can pass on some tips!
skink2020Full MemberI manage three picture framing shops. Been working in the trade for 15+years and I genuinely enjoy it. The people I work for are superb and incredibly generous. The people I work with are great. Mostly art school graduates(so they can ,at times,be a bit eccentric), but keen and knowledgeable.
I really like my job. Previously I was a vacuum deposition tech which had some first class work jollies to interesting places, but was mostly about getting irritated with ‘o’ rings.
Anyway, off to Bologna tomorrow for the famaart.it trade show.jimobFree MemberSelf employed plasterer and yes. Working on an historic listed building in North Yorkshire at the moment
jag61Full Membersite engineer/manager
QSs ive worked with recently been fine, Clients and Architects on the other hand F my old boots. Current site has ONE drawing no details few levels, on the bright side we cant really do it wrong (until QS gets involved). It has been a breath of fresh air after teaching D & T for 12+ yrs was engineering before teaching. enjoying life again 😀 😀olddogFull MemberCorporate financial strategy.
I actually got out of the corporate BS 5 years ago but am doing this as a favour for a mate. I am really not enjoying, organisation has a poor culture, ultra competitive which is tiring. And nobody goes out on the piss after work anymore. At least it’s IT so I can have a beard. I reckon I can stick another six months before I bin it a go back to voluntary work
doordonotFree MemberLandscape Architect specialising in Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA), Green Infrastructure Strategies and strategic landscape design for a smallish multi-discipline environmental planning consultancy. I also get to assist on ecology surveys which adds variety during spring/summer/autumn.
Yep, I like it; it can be technically challenging and now getting involved in writing landscape proofs of evidence for planning appeals, which is mind bending. (It is a career change from a short stint in IT during which a colleague first told me about stw all those years ago).
Pz_SteveFull MemberMain job is a manager in a Museum. Mostly great, and it’s something I honestly believe in and think is massively under-appreciated (our specific field – not necessarily all museums, per se), but there’s a silly amount of work, there’s no money in it (personally, nor for the organization), and I don’t get to spend enough time interacting with visitors.
I also “ush” at a local theatre, which is brilliant. It’s minimum wage stuff, but basically involves chatting with the customers and making sure they have a good evening. I also see bits of lots of plays, and whilst a lot aren’t to my taste, better a night at an open-air theatre than a night in front of the telly. The view’s ok, too.
In my spare time I help out on father-in-law’s farm. Mostly at planting time (they don’t trust me with a knife for harvest). I love it, as it’s just a whole day spent on the back of a planter, in the fresh air, talking crap with the best of them. Downside is it’s voluntary (working for family) and eats into my annual leave from my other jobs.
All told, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
XyleneFree MemberHead of a small international school – depends on what day it is if I enjoy it or not, certainly has its moments.
doug_basqueMTB.comFull MemberI’m surprised there aren’t more bike industry people here. Go on then, I’ll make up the numbers! I run a very small bike guiding company. Before that I worked in optoelectronics which I didn’t love. I love what I do now, if I won the lottery I would genuinely keep doing it, just with a cooler van. I guess nobody wants to hear me drone on about the upsides. The downsides? I work a lot, it’s physically hard and I pretty much always ache. For a large part of the year I work 7 days a week and more than 12 hours a day. There is a surprising amount of office work and paperwork too. It can also be quite intense working so hard as part of a small team and us guides have to share rooms for weeks on end and work 12+ hour days. It’s also never going to make me rich and I struggle with the fact that my lifestyle choice will affect my daughters financial security. Part of what I love is the variety. This week I was setting up a database for stuff, updating the website and filming a video. Next week I will be guiding in the mountains. The biking upsides are obvious and I can’t imagine ever being able to do anything else now.
kiwijohnFull MemberWinemaker, it has it’s perks. But then I miss a lot of rides in the best part of the year due to vintage.
sprockerFree MemberCivil servant, I investigate directors of liquidated limited companies. Prior to this I ran an engineering company which paid twice as much but was generally shit with massive hours. Work a 4 day week now with loads more time for family, riding etc. Actual work between varies between being semi interesting and dull, the main issue is the antiquated way certain areas of the organisation still work, oh and the need to be ‘engaged’.
allthegearFree MemberWeb developer, mainly using Drupal.
Love it. Hate it.
Mind you, I’m just back from weekend in Reykjavik, speaking at an event in London this coming Saturday and then riding down to Seville on the company motorbike the following weekend for a week or so. Clients generally don’t care where I work from so might as well make the most of it!
Rachel
dangerousbeansFree MemberNHS Community Nurse working with people with learning disabilities.
Hate it to the point of it making me ill. Most of my colleagues feel the same.
Love working with the people themselves but the patients and their families have taken a very distant back seat to a host of centrally imposed numberical targets.
I’m sure I will die much earlier from the stress of the job but until the mortgage is paid I’m stuck. Perhaps if I didn’t care it would help.
Sat here now feeling sick as I know I have to go start work soon.
siwhiteFree MemberPolice Officer. I didn’t particularly plan it – I went to Sandhurst after university and was all set for a life-long Army career, but picked up a sizeable knee injury and was medically discharged a month before commissioning.
I’ve enjoyed my time in the Job – six years as a response bobby, with part time roles breaking down doors, doing public order work and operating in CBRN environments. I then joined Traffic which was huge fun, wafting around in various pokey Vauxhalls and latterly Volvos – lots of coffee and sarcasm, with the occasional terrifying and/or tragic pursuit or collision. I’ve had to pass numerous death messages which ripped families apart.
I was promoted a couple of years ago, and am about to reach the top pay grade for a Sergeant. I’m currently a Custody Officer, which is either spent chatting with chums and watching Netflix or working flat out managing some very high profile detainees and trying to prevent anyone dying. I can’t leave the block, so don’t see daylight for eight hours on end. I also work about a third of my shifts as nights. Our current shift pattern is very generous – we have mandatory meal breaks as part of our terms and conditions but we cannot just shut the suite and eat lunch, so we finish early – I effectively work a 34 hour week for a 40 hour wage.
My wife is also a Skipper although on maternity leave. We are planning our second wean, so we won’t be going anywhere soon. Our five year plan is to sell up our home counties semi and buy a nice detached house in East Anglia mortgage free. We’ll both have part time hobby jobs and be able to spend much more time at home.
PimpmasterJazzFree MemberI can’t think of what else I’m qualified for – anyone need someone to drive fast and get in fights?
CI5? 😀
BeagleboyFull MemberResearch Technician in a molecular biology lab.
I started working as a TIG welder when I left school at 16, but hated every minute of it until in my early 20’s I went back to college, then university to do a degree in Ecology. My undergrad project supervisor gave me my first tech job in his lab and over the last 20 years I’ve moved labs and retrained a few times till I’m now working in a lab that’s doing cutting edge research into the genetic makeup of blood borne parasites causing diseases such as Malaria, African Sleeping Sickness and Leishmaniasis.
My actual work is now centered around extracting DNA / RNA from the parasites at different points in their life cycles, then processing the material so that it can be sequenced to see what proteins they are creating and expressing in the hope that this knowledge can lead to new treatments.
We also use the parasites to model how DNA replication starts, progresses and halts in cells. studying the various protein complexes that come together and interact during this process. A lot of our work focuses on the BRCA-1 and 2 genes and the mutations that can lead them to fail as tumor suppressants.
Can you guess that I love my job? The pay is appalling and I have a 2hr commute each way, but I get up in the morning and I find myself excited about the day ahead. I don’t think you can beat that. I also get the privilege of working with some of the finest young scientist you’ve ever seen as they work through their Phd projects.
Sorry for the trade lingo!
C; 🙂
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