im a graphic designer with a side salad of brand and marketing stuff, set up my own business almost a year ago and work from my wee cottage. its still a bit up and down but its great being my own boss. feel I’m truly creative again, even entertaining factoring in drawing and painting as part of what i do/sell as well. loud music and top drawer in the work place with no one to disagree! (until the boss gets home)

being able to switch the mac off and head out on the bike whenever i fancy is great as is no longer dealing with an awful commute and idiots in suits anymore. take comfort from the fact ‘if it was easy everyone would be doing it’.

IT Director at the UK’s only remaining truck manufacturer. Hard work but enjoyable.

I spent my working life making cigarette filters. It was definitely a livelihood not a career but served me well. Took ill health retirement three months ago.

I run my own Contruction / Project Management company.

It’s just coming up for 2 years old so it’s still very up & down but still learning loads about how to do things better. Overall it’s a B+. Making enough to make ends meet is a D- but I’ll keep flogging the horse until I dream up a better way to make a living!

It’s a reflective process…i.e. “well that approach didn’t work…let’s try this one”!

The up side is I get to ride whenever I want to which is no bad thing.

beaker –

do you work for a certain mahoosive company which own/run satellites out of a crappy hellhole in Wiltshire?

If so I work as a maritime field engineer for the same company !

We probably each other, as I will defo have spoken to you lots.

Business Systems Analyst.
Also about to launch 2 small businesses.
Looking to escape the corporate slave world.

Property – London & Spain.

I love it, my own boss, wear shorts & t shirt every day, lots of time to swim, bike & walk every day. Live in Spain but go to London every 3 months to inspect flats. Do everything myself so its blocked toilets/painting/buying white goods from JL etc.

Before that 15 years in oil & gas – supply chain, pipeline scheduling, exchange agreements (looks like someone here is doing my old job then gas operations. Did the job in half the time so started dabbling in property alongside the day job. Made enough to concentrate on property full time so took the leap 15 years ago.

Future more of the same, no wish to do anything different & probably won’t ever retire, I’ll just get a man Friday to do all the chasing around. Wouldn’t mind owning a café but not working in it.

Driving trains for Northern Rail Ltd. Don’t enjoy it most of the time. I find all driving (whether its a car or a train) tedious after a while not to mention uncomfortable. The pay is just under 45k for a 35 hour week.

Horrible car commute to Manchester to add to the misery.

Because its shift work I nearly always miss out on group rides and have to bike on my own most of the time. Its crap. I have to work 2 Saturdays out of 3. Every Sunday off though. Sundays are optional overtime. Mid week evening rides are out of the question unless I’ve got the whole day off.

I’m in a bike club yet seem to miss out on 80% of the rides that I want to do, mainly because the epics are always put up on Sat rather than Sun. Don’t know why ? Do people need Sun to rest before going back to work on Mon?

Reqlly hard to get a annual leave in August as well on Saturdays its impossible. Really pissed off now after an entire month of riding on my own nearly all the time.

No job at the moment and I hate it.

Logisitics lead for a massive pharma comapany in London. It’s ok, the pay is good and work life balance is also good. Offices are nice and the people ok. Although no-one seems to have any idea what’s going on….ever.

I hate living in London though, and would jump at the chance to move elsewhere, which I may do in the next year or two. Im in my mid 20’s, and my goal of six figures by 30 is becoming less appealing by the day, the older I get and more I earn, the more I just want to ride my bike and be outside.

over the last 4 months:

Publican – have been for the last few years but onset of family and marriage made it too much of a burden and I wasn’t seeing my wife/daughter at all. Good fun and glad I did it but towards the end I hated it!

National Trust Ranger – easily the happiest I’ve ever been in a job. outdoors in the woods/on the beach with the dog, extremely low stress – lots of public interaction, knowing that you’re doing something good. company vehicle is a quad bike and I get to play with lots of noisy toys.

BUT, it’s only a 3 month job I took for the summer, before I go back to school to do a PGCE in primary education. Start a week Monday. Hopefully I haven’t made a horrific mistake 🙂

Oceanographer / marine consultant. provide data, info, research on winds/waves/currents to the offshore industry.
Interesting work, oil price drop not helping. Get to live in Devon, which is the main plus point!

would it be cheeky to contact a few of the engineering types here? Mid-20’s material scientist/ engineer and looking for new work.

Northerntom – would be interested to hear of your career path thus far…

Oceanographer / marine consultant. provide data, info, research on winds/waves/currents to the offshore industry.
Interesting work, oil price drop not helping. Get to live in Devon, which is the main plus point!

do you work for Pete?

pen tester, loved it to start with can get a bit boring now. although owning other peoples networks is still fun when we are allowed to do it.

do you work for Pete?

no Jam bo, I work for a certain civil service department based in Exeter! I do know a Pete though (Gaches).?

You?

no Jam bo, I work for a certain civil service department based in Exeter! I do know a Pete though (Gaches).?

You?

South devon based manufacturer of oceanographic stuff.

a friend of mine has outpost of a largish consultancy down this way, thought you might work for him.

a friend of mine has outpost of a largish consultancy down this way, thought you might work for him.

ah right, what company’s that then? always interested to know what other oceanographic related work may be available in the region!

Fisherman – i hate the sea and everything in it

ah right, what company’s that then? always interested to know what other oceanographic related work may be available in the region!

Partrac. although the devon office isnt mentioned on the website by the looks of it. I know they have at least 4-5 guys based in the SW.

edward2000 – Member
Fisherman – i hate the sea and everything in it

Tried the meat industry? 😆

Policy advisor in Government. Stressful and the pay is on the low side of average, but it’s cool striding around Whitehall and watching stuff on the news every day you’ve been working on directly.

Flexitime is fantastic and I’ve just escaped the capital to move back to Sheffield.

Military Air Traffic Controller in the RAF. Enjoy the core task, don’t enjoy constant unpaid overtime, jumping through hoops at the whim of a madman. 6 years to go, one eye on the exit.

Renton, also not sure what to do. Have you thought about trying the charts with the armourer song?

Cobrakai, I’d try and chisel for a job but I know NATS’ policy to ex-mil over 30!

Property Maintenance (handyman) — Love it being, your own boss is the best bit!

Associate Director for a small Acoustic, AV and IT consultancy, looking after the offices in Singapore and Hong Kong and projects throughout the SEA region.
I’m so out of my depth I may as well be a deep sea diver.

Mechanic. Love it

Partrac. although the devon office isnt mentioned on the website by the looks of it. I know they have at least 4-5 guys based in the SW.

ah yeah, i know them. used to work with a couple of their guys back at Fugro a few years back.
small world is the oceanography one!

Hansrey

would it be cheeky to contact a few of the engineering types here? Mid-20’s material scientist/ engineer and looking for new work.

I need an additional mech eng.
email me….

No dentists yet?
Oh well, I stress test model railways in that case. Love it.

I work in Computer Security, a nice growth area which should keep me employed for a while yet.

Do I enjoy it? Sometimes. There are times when I think I should just jack it in and become a landscape gardener or international hitman or something.

Main job – Firefighter, I enjoy the going out on shouts bit but the erosion of the work force whilst increasing targets means that for the most part it’s drudgery.

Also do 1-2 days a week as a tree surgeon, love that, bloody hard work though.

Also do the occasional Saturday in a butchers shop, quite enjoy that but I’m glad I left it as a full time job 21 years ago.

Northern Sales Rep for Europe’s market leading industrial PVC hose manufacturer.
Dealing with customers in well over a dozen very different markets and industries.
Started 8 weeks ago and absolutely love it.

Worked for their competitors in the past always looking up to this company.
No pressure on sales, targets or pressure down from the management as it’s mainly a PR role.
Now that I’ve got my foot in the door I’m here to stay and the results are already rolling in.

Offshore Medic and Registered Nurse…work in Australia but live in UK. The commute is a bitch,but I get 6 months a year off, paid more than I ever dreamed possible, and have very nearly zero stress…so I can hardly complain really. And frankly anything beats the NHS right now, and certainly what’s going to happen to it over the next 5 – 10 years.

Ir_bandito, you have mail!

Technical Manager in food manufacturing. I enjoy it most of the time but the job has become less enjoyable these last couple of years.

The problem with the raf for me is that it’s getting a lot smaller and the workload is getting bigger. Moral within the troops is on its arse. It doesn’t help that a lot of people that are still in are “yes” men to afraid to say no to stuff and it just pisses the lads off even more.

Also for me I see my immediate superiors sat at their computers all day and its not what I want to be doing next at all.

Airtragic, Recruitment is at a stand still anyway. I’ve got friends of friends who passed selection still waiting on a course. As I said earlier, I was a squaddie for 8 years so got out whilst young enough to try something else.

I also know Mil pension rates so your better off just hanging on in there.

Don’t post on here much, but what the hey.

Army Chaplain. Best job in the Army. Hated being the minister of a church which I did for three years. Was a squaddie before that, nice being back in the military environment but without all the bull of being a jnco.

@renton, sounds familiar!