rangeroy is in the lead methinks!
Yup. Business Analyst (geeky though without the programmer chic). Earn above average salary which pays for bikes, fast cars, loose women 😯 and cat food. Flexitime. Good holidays. Varied work and all the stuff I do is interesting like working on our counter fraud initiatives at the moment - get inside the mind of a criminal.....??? Very much in charge of my work load. 25 mins cycle to work. A company that rates it's staff more than a PLC - we're a mutual. Dress down days on Fridays. Oh and final salary pension (well at the moment). Good grief almost forgot the indoor swimming pool and sports pitches 😀
Normally my job is brilliant. I'm the senior IT security bloke at a company with a couple of very large clients. Cutting edge technology all the time, proper hands on grubbing about inside computers and firewalls and stuff. Fighting off hackers, tracking down attacks, keeping ahead of viruses. Investigations and lots of secrets.
There's nothing better for me than walking into a room filled with panicking managers, rolling up my sleeves, hammering away on a keyboard for twenty minutes and then watching everyone breathe a sigh of relief as all the red lights turn to green and a load of indians on conference calls start shouting that things are working again. Brilliant!
But, it's a terrible job for the same reasons.
Pays really well, I reckon my job security is probably one of the highest in the company (of about 8000 staff - for the reasons stated above), hours are complete insanity, pressure is through the roof. I couldn't be doing this in ten years time.
Managing Director of Charity. Very stressful, tough in the 'good times' very bad now in the 'lean'. Not just problems with funders, but issues over reallocation of staff, issues with trustees, although in fairness they usually are very supportive to be fair. Issues with other firms - lack of imagination by local authority who we support, amongst others. Not good. Oh and greeney, meaney environmental do-gooders! Nothing but a bunch of self satisfied gits, when you have to deal with them day and daily. Achieve nowt in their mission to 'save the planet' namely from themselves and their ineptitude! Wouldn't miss that frankly!
Best job was forest management - would like to make welcome return. Had it's moments to be sure, but never as stressed as this. Steady, reliable, opportunities to mountain bike - stress relief wasn't pacing the office floor but taking a walk in the woods.
I've learnt a lot in the charity field, but my first love will always be forest management - it just makes sense to me
Countryside officer now building mtb trails for work! (and inspecting them on a regular basis of course) 🙂
Ts, I thought you were a flautist in a marching band?
That's my part time job; now away and knit me a new balaclava.....
No worries. Would you like an AK with that?
Hopefully no veggies on here: Butcher
😆
run my own shoe repair business, 5 stores , hardest part is staff
I Run my own property services firm. Do home improvements and refurbishments.
Every day really is different and I love it. I'm totally hands on and cover every trade. Electrics, plumbing, plastering, decorating, joinery, tiling etc.
Just done a basement conversion, current job is a £4k luxury en-suite, next job is a full refurb for a guy who just bought a house to rent out. Needs dpc, bathroom, kitchen, re-plastering and decorating throughout.
All my work come from word of mouth now and don't see myself doing anything else in the forseeable future.
Got a lot of property interests and always looking to grow, most of our income gets invested there for now for the future. All sensible long term investments.
Working in older houses is really challenging at times as nothing is straight or square, but looking at the finished project is extremely satisfying
I dislike mine, but it's low involvement, reasonably flexible working and doesn't impact my life outside of work in the slightest, which I think makes up for a lot of the downsides of it. I've done jobs I love before but I could never leave them at work, or just **** off and go for a ride, or whatever.
Stoner - MemberMental stimulation is the most important thing to me so it's time for a change.
Think Im either going to end up as a builder or a motor boat service technician....whichever comes along first...
What the **** does "builder" mean Stoner ? Do you visualise "Taylor Wimpey Stoner", or Bodgit & Leggit Extensions ? And ffs don't tell me you're thinking of working on the tools - there's no work-related "mental stimulation" there mate. Which of course is the great attraction ....it frees the mind to concentrate on [i]more pressing[/i] issues such as, how to achieve global peace and crush tyranny 8)
Air Traffic Controller.
Every day is different, a bit challenging when it gets busy, but in a good way.
Cheap flights, short hours, good pay and loads of time off. I worked around 150 days in the last year. My neighbours all think I'm unemployed.
Fire service here. Best decision i ever made, colleagues who are closer than friends, every day has the potential to be 'the day', i get to drive lorries and play with boys toys, and at the end of the day i've actually helped a few people to continue living happy lives where without me they might not. You'll never be rich, but you'll have job satisfaction and i think thats worth a hell of a lot more.
I love my job though it doesn't fall into the traditional idea of a fun/rewarding/morally upstanding career - don;t have a title as such but I'm a 'Software developer' for a fantastic small city trading house (I've been there 9 years so it must be good). It's hard work, stressful at times but I get to play with technology, have an immediate impact on the business and thankfully the people are all cool (there are no office politics for one thing).
Aside from the job itself there are decent perks - the money's not bad, I've a decent commute, the office is bike friendly (mine sits behind my desk) and I get to work flexible hours so get to see plenty of my two young daughters.
We're hiring if anyone fancies a junior position in my team - an interest in finance, IT and a decent brain is all you need (though judging some of the candidates we've seen so far that seems to be a rare combination)...
I'm a comedian and I love it. It makes me (and others) laugh out loud!
+1 Air traffic controller here. Loads of time off for biking, but shift work generally means less weekends riding with 9-5 mates
Pomona, where you based?
And ffs don't tell me you're thinking of working on the tools - there's no work-related "mental stimulation" there mate
"dont know what Im doing yet" = "mental stimulation"
When Im bored Ill do something else again 🙂
In the meantime, welcome to my classroom:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/northmalvern/BakehouseBarn
To me i have the perfect job...
I am a carer for my disabled wife...she needs care both night and day so the shifts are a bit long and the pay is rubbish.. but i get a stress free life and can go biking often as soon as i get her settled.
I can get to dalby to do the 23 mile red route twice a week with a couple of two to three hour road rides inbetween... bliss.
The big plus is that i am now a lot fitter than i was at the start of the year when i was working full time trying to fir a bit of biking in here and there.
I love my job, but don't want to mention it on this forum - I'd just invite the trolls in.
Am in business with an old college pal and we own a lift company.
We employ 24 fantastic people who I hope we reward well.
Its been a struggle to get where we are but is worth it more than I can describe.
and I get to ride when I want...............part from at the mo because my knee is killing me (I may have mentioned this before)
BitterBaldingFatty - Member
I'm a comedian and I love it. It makes me (and others) laugh out loud!
A comedian on STW! Well I'm shocked..... 😆
Senior software engineer. Write and desgn my own software to my own specifications for a national cultural institution in a grand building by the seaside. Cycle to work 5 miles away and work flexitime. Live 3 miles from a trailcentre and some of the best riding in Wales. Pay is good for the area. Final salary pension. Have a junior developer who also is an STWer. Work on interesting digitisation pojects. Still wonder what it would be like to be my own boss though. Sometimes ponder learning CNC and making bike components or setting up a fancy new web 2.0 style company. But in reality I am very lucky in my present job.
stoner - youu say youre thinking of becoming a 'builder'. Have you really thought about it? the construction industry is not great. Its dirty, physically tiring, stressful, metally UNstimulating... As an electrician, i find it ironic that alot of people want to do my job, yet by far the majority of electricians ive met hate their job.
I'm one of them, but unlike most, i'm making efforts to change that. As said elsewhere, the RAF is a strong contender. I'm also going to look in to the police force, and for something different, becoming a physio...
Police officer in a specialist team working on major crime. Soon to be heading back to the horrors of uniform policing after promotion. I do like my job however. Just hate all the utter sh*te we have to put up with from the government/certain client groups/press/know it alls ad infinitum.
lyons - Im being a little facetious.
I mean more of a builder/developer in business with a builder pal than a single trade jobber.
As for the grunt and dirt - I enjoy it, because its not my main job probably. Physically my body is slowly getting used to it, I admit Im not in good enough shape to do a full 8 hours of demolition. Even if I do more and take it to the next stage of business, I doubt it will be my sole source of income.
As for mental stimulation, I find learning stimulating. Learning about regs, building designs, plumbing systems, alternative heating and insulation systems, materials selection, micro-generation, SAP calculations, planning applications, space design, glazing systems. Learning about laying foundations, concrete slab floors, joist spans, certain tools, mixing different kinds of mortars, use of limes, underpinning, oak frames, protected species legislation and licensing. Project book-keeping, credit accounts, development finance (which is actually my current trade, but to do it for yourself on small scales - £200k rather than £200m - is more interesting) the list goes on....
The last time I "learnt" anything in my day to day career was about 18 months ago I should think.
woffle, I may well interested. 😆
this thread makes me want a new job!
Managing conservation contracts, more Hardhats, Hi-viz and Helicopters than beard, quiche and sandals. Lots of time on the hill and some weekends in the office working on tenders - like today. There again I can see Mam Tor from my desk.
I'm a teacher, I enjoy it, actually its great most of the time. Its just the workload that drags it down. Wish I could have been a farmer but if you are not inline to inherit a farm it seemed a bit too risky. Farm work was my favourite work of all the jobs I've done.
Vimto you need a new job! 😉
I'm a police officer and enjoy it. When it works its incredibly satisfying.
There are so many different areas to work within. You can find something you like and just stay there or move around and experience lots of different departments.
woffle, I may well interested.
Cool. Drop me an email - it should be in my profile...
Cycle Courier in london, has its moments for sure but overall v good fun, very interesting situations on occasion and keeps me well and truly in shape.
Makes me very aware of quite how mad a place london really is!
As an electrician, i find it ironic that alot of people want to do my job, yet by far the majority of electricians ive met hate their job.
I enjoy being an electrician, don't do dull domestic stuff however.
Millionaire playboy here. It' alright, I suppose.
Stoner - Member
lyons - Im being a little facetious.
I mean more of a builder/developer in business with a builder pal than a single trade jobber.
So I was right first time ............. you have dreams of "Taylor Wimpey Stoner" 😀
[i]"As for mental stimulation, I find learning stimulating. Learning about regs, building designs, plumbing systems, alternative heating and insulation systems, materials selection, micro-generation, SAP calculations, planning applications, space design, glazing systems. Learning about laying foundations, concrete slab floors, joist spans, certain tools, mixing different kinds of mortars, use of limes, underpinning, oak frames, protected species legislation and licensing. Project book-keeping, credit accounts, development finance (which is actually my current trade, but to do it for yourself on small scales - £200k rather than £200m - is more interesting) the list goes on...."[/i]
You can't being to imagine how utterly soul destroying I would find all that.
.
The last time I "learnt" anything in my day to day career was about 18 months ago I should think.
Now [i]that[/i] I can identify with. There isn't a single week I can spend on a building site without learning [i]at least[/i] one new thing. Whether it's learning a faster or easier way of doing something which I have done thousands of times before, or whether it's doing something which I haven't precisely done before. The learning process simply never stops, and I have often considered how unbelievably knowledgeable I would be, if I could work for a 100 years. I have also thought how tragic it is that all that knowledge dies with you - if only it could uploaded onto someone else's brain just think how fantastic that experienced based accumulative knowledge would be !
ron jeremy, how about sorting out a discount for STW members?
im a bridge inspector, and a proffesional abseiler IRATA L3, combine the two and i get to work on some iconic Scottish bridges in the railway, i dont get to abseil all the time, but every day is different from the one before, on top of that im home based, which has its pitfalls with a young family
Downsides are the on call and weather, i get to abseil in some dismal weather, that makes things interesting
the first bridge i inspected was the Penang bridge in Malaysia many moons ago, but now its just Scotland and i get to see some amazing sights so wouldnt change it for the world
I run a bed&breakfast and I love it! It's great to see people so happy and enjoying the country side. Took a couple of guests out on a two hours skills session since they wanted to hire mtb and they absolutely loved it! Two days a week I still go in to Manchester and do my fairly dull scientist job just to realize how lucky I am the rest of the week!
Police Officer for eighteen years, I suppose I love it if thats the right decriptive term. Yes it must be, but only because I don't have to deal with the public at all in my role long may that last! 😆
Eat_more_cheese...I'm in NZWN, was at EGPF before I moved here
Care Worker for the disabled.
Enjoy the work, but trying to live on minimum wage is a bit of a bind.
Had a pretty well paid job working for a large insurance company - left a couple of years ago after I realised there were more important things in life than money.
Such as my sanity. 🙂
Data Analyst - Has its boring moments but mostly i enjot it. Very little stress and pays OK, the x wife thinks so any way as she gets 25% of it. 😕
Teacher - not enjoying it very much at the moment. It's not the kids (they're mostly great) it's the meetings, paperwork, jumping through hoops that gets in the way of the teaching. Everything (at least in our school) is ofsted driven - nothing to do with real education.
Rant over.
If I could afford to re-train I would.
My job is Ok, I suppose. 
Yes
Excellent pay
A role that I really enjoy and I'm good at
Get to cycle to work whenever I'm in the office
Fantastic colleagues
Great potential for promotion & development
Get to travel all over the world
Former boss of mine used to say that all he wanted from a job was to wear a nice suit and drive a good car. Someone once told him in that case he should have been a chauffeur!
not sure if i do. i certainly used to.
i describe myself still as being a carpenter, only now i'm teaching english.
used to really enjoy working as a carpenter. own boss. worked with a good mate. laughed all day long. start and go home when i wanted to; if the wind was blowing nicely i'd pack up and jog off to go fly. it's nice to see the work you've done. generally good pay. lots of cash work and i got to put everything i bought through the books.
moved to germany and took up a job as a carpenter here. hated it after the first week. start at 7. finish when the job was done or it was too dark to work safely. that'd mean we were sometimes working 13-14 hour days. if you were five minutes late you'd get a talking to despite the fact you were outside till 8pm the night before. money was shit and the taxes are stupidly high once coupled with health insurance payments.
no joking, larking or laughing at work. you're there to work, not to have fun (zuerst kommt der arbeit, danach die verfugung - first work, then enjoyment). i'd find that i had no time or energy at the end of the day to go riding despite living on the edge of the alps.
in the UK i was earning almost as much in one week as two weeks in germany. i also realised how important it is to have fun at work, a very un-german theory. i quit after 5 months.
since then i've trained as an english teacher. i enjoy it alot. not going to be doing it forever but it's a decent enough stop-gap. i like helping people and seeing them progress. hardly any morning classes.
would like a little more work than i've got currently. not many firms want to pay out for their staff to learn english when business isn't there.
i could tell you what i'd like to be doing but that'd mean me telling you my business plan. it does involve riding though. and skiing. and perhaps snowkiting. and some land. and some investment/saving.
C&I in the Power Industry, and still on 9-5 hours
Present job is ace and enjoy the challange, great for cycling with full kitchen/showers/clothes drier and some ace off road commutes.
Best bit is knowing the place inside out and being put on a good flexi-time scheme to keep me sweet, 24 hours/3 days a week minimum and go out and ride when the sun shines...wahoo.
Don't think anyone has said dentist so I will.
I enjoy it more now than I used to if I'm honest but mainly because I don't do it 5 days a week and I've really developed a specialist interest which is intellectually stimulating, professionally challenging, technically demanding and very rewarding. One of the few areas where we get healing (rather than just filling in where the cack used to be) which gives me a buzz!
It's a great job for flexible working hours, reasonably well paid (not as much as most folk imagine probably) and providing you can cope with everyone hating you it can be as good as many ways of earning a living.
Used to have a job I loved. Got made redundant, no openings any more for the rather narrow skill-set I had, managed to get a job that means there's plenty of work and I'm busy for the forseeable future. I just really don't enjoy what I do anymore, but I just can't find anything out there to replace it with. I'd love something working with bikes, but there's nowt where I live. Just gotta live with it, I guess.
woffle. YHM.
Signaller on the railway, love it, like playing with a big trainset, keeps you busy when things are going wrong but when you have a gap between trains you can get the kettle on and get the paper/book out and enjoy the view, the worst thing is some of the bull that filters down from the management in the strive to be "World Class" lot of pish. Working just now watching a lovely sunrise behind Nevis Range, and get to see pine martins and otters etc out on the track, long may it last.
PJ.
Banavie signal box peajay?
Yup, Banavie, FortWilliam Junction and Annat, mostly Banavie but in Annat today.
Estimator / qs / buyer / contracts manager (depending what hat I am wearing) for a small construction company.
It was great till about 18 months ago when the whole industry went tits up. Everyday saw a new challenge and a new set of problems to solve. It is now just soul destroying. Life is one big argument, with employees, sub contractors and clients who will do anything not to pay you for a fair job.
I have seen hundreds of colleagues kicked out of jobs, and thousands of tradesman out on the scrap heap. Our company, which I have helped build up since we started in 92 is now teetering on the edge of going under, simply because 2 big clients will go to any means imaginable to avoid paying us for work we carried out.
Mortgage to pay and kids to feed so cant afford to be out of work to retrain. Reasonable salary and said commitments always prevented me from doing what I always wanted to do and be a paramedic.
Life is proper shit at the moment.
Aero technician.
I get to play with giant airfixes all day!! graet fun. And i retrained from a fire alarm engineer at 45......I know how lucky i am.
Architect/QS/dogs body, same as Lowey really, spent years training and working for the big developers and used to love this job but after 3 redundancies in 18 months it really is soul destroying. Pretty ****ing bleak.
I love mine, although i think i may be classed as sad for it,
machine shop manager for specialist and very small engineering company(fully skilled cnc machinist 25yrs to boot..wow!!!)
currently making first of three NEW front ends for DLS in chilton to go on the synchrotron particle accelarator, also working for Orion at AWE aldermarston and bnfl sellafield on various dubeous projects...
13 yrs here now, Ride the 14 miles everyday ( a life long wish to ride daily granted)plenty of other MTB riders here,
Interesting days at work and piles of pay ....perfect
only problem is I may be helping with bringing on the destruction of the world, oh well, never mind, every cloud and all that.
Glenn... you got my sympathy mate.
IT Recruiter - the esteem from my fellow humans is nice 😕 but not much joy in the job at the mo, lots of people I have known for years who need jobs but nothing around to offer them & too much time scratching around trying to find things to do when I would rather be busy
I manage the digital diagnostic image archive for a mid-sized NHS Trust - that's like the electronic version of x-rays, ct scans and stuff. All very interesting, although turning up in theatres in mid hip replacement or brain op is a bit unsettling, and theatre greens are just so unflattering. But it's interesting. Some very cool technology, keeping my inner geek happy and fed. But not as interesting as it was when we went filmless and engaged in doing away with all that expensive and envoironmentally unsound blue plastic film. That was some major stress, and now it's over, it all seems a bit quiet.
And being management in the NHS means that it's all my fault, whatever it is.
Oh look, it's raining, bl00dy overpaid underworked overpensioned NHS management.
Yes love my job - Scott sports are an excellent company to work for 😀
bumley - it wasn't you you that thought "ADDICT" was a good idea was it?
Hate mine to the extent that it's making my family misewrable a well. If I could find an alternative I would be gone in a hearbeat.
Escorted half a dozen paying customers on a cycling trip round Corsica earlier this year, didn't get paid but all expenses were covered & got tipped 500 euros! Just got a find a way of doing that for the other 51 weeks of the year....
I love my job, been doing it for 8 years now. I've got my own tree surgery business, i rarely work more than 3 days a week, start at half 9 and like to be home by 3. Got a couple of mates who work for me so have a good laugh at work. If its raining or it looks like it might rain i stay in bed!
I love heights & swinging around on ropes, its just nice being outdoors so much, i could never go back to office based work & I get an endless supply of logs so no winter heating bills for me.
bumley - it wasn't you you that thought "ADDICT" was a good idea was it?
Not guilty!
Tree feller, no climbing, they make a bigger bang when taken from the ankles and we have big machines too, what more could I want. Get to work a lot of remote tricky sites. Employed with no pressures. Like dropping big oaks and chestnuts, dream of douglas fir with their height and minimal snedding, quite enjoy the carnage of clearfell.
Love my work.
me, computing.
Luckily I started in 1977, Computer Science (Uni open day: Physics - boring, Accountancy - considerable more boring, Computing (of which I knew nothing) - blokes in jeans and t shirts running about enthusiastically.
Anyway, still here after 3 redundancies and several skillset evolutions. I enjoy using my brain, you do get people interaction (*tip - don't do backroom/techie head down computing unless you're truly brilliant at it - get a job that involves being there/considerable user/budget holder inmteraction, it will help come the outsourcing phase).
Had to relearn my skillset several times over, so fresh challenges.
Pros - can get good money, easy on body (*makes a difference as you get older), keeps the mind active, travel etc opportunities if you want/pick the right field.
Cons - geek reputation, can be boring, serious potential for shipping to a cheaper location.
My one regret in life is that I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do as a job.
Inquisitive, enthusiastic, did well at school, went to uni, didn't do quite so well and just fell into(admittedly reasonably paying) job(s) that I didn't enjoy. 10 years on and I've not found my niche at all.
One day I'm hoping to wake up with the answer in my mind....
I enjoy all the trappings of being my own boss, and none of the negatives, like poor-ish earnings, unpaid hollidays and sickness. All in all - I think I do!
me= www.peterflynnclassiccars.com
Aristotle - your story sounds familiar.
Mech eng turned project manager. Not happy. Wish I thought more about the sort of thing I liked doing rather than the - "I'm ok at maths and physics so will do eng degree and see where that takes me"
Thing is I'm now mid-ish 30's and I still don't know what I want to do. Prefer to be outdoors and dealing with people who are enjoying themselves. Also want a "making a difference" element to my job.
Fed up of pestering people who are over-worked to do more just to make sure someone in another country can tell their boss that they have done some arbitrary number of sales they said they would 12 months ago.
I work as a computer artist in the video game industry, mostly doing character modelling work. Great job, sometimes has lots of overtime but the actual work and environment is great.
Mech eng turned project manager. Not happy. Wish I thought more about the sort of thing I liked doing rather than the - "I'm ok at maths and physics so will do eng degree and see where that takes me"
That is what I did and do...
Thing is I'm now mid-ish 30's and I still don't know what I want to do. Prefer to be outdoors and dealing with people who are enjoying themselves. Also want a "making a difference" element to my job.
That is also my situation and [b]exactly[/b] what I think
Aristotle - your story sounds familiar.
Separated at birth?!!? 😉
Yeah I can relate to that too - Aristotle and supersession, but totally different field so no birth confusion...! 😉 I think time was that it was easy to trundle through the education system, cause it was kind of expected of you, but I have no recollection of ever having any good advice - or ideas of my own for that matter, as to what occupation might actually hold my long term interest once you'd got over the earning a wage thing. I've been chewing this one over pretty much all the way through my 30s and am still looking... getting ideas is actually quite easy once you get in the mindset, it's having the courage to put those dreams into action that is still thwarting me.... 😐
There is a lot you can do within the 'engineering' field, and I agree that some of it is pretty rubbish.
I work in the food and drink industry, currently building a new Chocolate factory in Poland, which is pretty cool.