What do you do for a living and do you enjoy it?

Self employed fitting woodburners and chimney relines etc.
Really enjoy it, always plenty to do and I only have myself to worry about. Manage to make enough money with plenty time off when I fancy it.
No two are the same, I enjoy the variety. Customers are almost always really nice too, I’ve only had a couple of irritating ones over the past few years but no proper nasties.
I always enjoy taking a few minutes out on a roof to chill, especially on sunny days by the sea 🙂

Get right grubby sometimes though…

I’m a Consultant Automotive Technical Specialist.

Sounds dull, but means i get to scoot around in, for example, one of these:

Even if every day of doing 200mph test track laps is followed by 3 weeks of data reduction and analysis behind a laptop.

As you can imagine, i hate every minute of it…….. 😆

Manage a large antiques / furniture shop and have my own business wheeling and dealing / restoring / upcycling and generally buying and selling stuff.
Its ok and the hours are nice but doesnt seem to be making me a fortune.
This time next year though Rodney….

Flash ****.

Stockroom manager.I don’t call myself a logistics manager… Like some . I’m very good at it. If you know what it is.

I love my work, often loathe the job.

Recently moved from IT management in FMCG and before that manufacturing to education. Head of IT for trust in Manchester. At 50 wanted a change. Which it is!!!

I want Postierich’s job though.

Teacher, some good days, some bad days and some holidays. 😀

Quality Inspector, for now a cosmetics firm lots of lovely ladies in the office but I spend most of my time in a warehouse 😕

Previously Quality Supervisor (Manager without the pay!) in manufacturing, prior to that Quality inspector in the semi conductor industry.

I love it as every day is different, pay could be better as always though.

Run my own design / analysis consultancy. I am very passionate about it and it pays very well so I can have lots of nice toys sitting in the garage like what MaxTorque was driving but I haven’t really had a life for the last 5 years so don’t actually get to enjoy any of it. Spend half my life on flights between the UK, US, Middle East and Asia so some months I forget what my wife and kids looks like.

Working on exit plan from this particular venture into something where I can be more choosy about what I do yet still maintain the passion.

So it’s not true – you don’t all work in IT. Seems like teaching is a popular choice for the average mountain biker.

I’m a manager for a large UK based premium car manufacturer – specifically developing engine control systems and in the lat 2 weeks have moved to a role developing hybrid vehicle technology. I like the role, am comfortable in it, can commute by bike which means a lot to me, but am looking forward 6-7 years when I can scale back and do 3 days a week working and 4 days leisure.

I manage a Resourcing team for a large construction company. Until recently that meant I was a recruitment manager, now it’s a mix of strategy, planning, relationship and project management (while another team entirely do that actual bums on seat type stuff).

It’s very challenging, which I enjoy, and I get a lot of freedom to work the way I want. I’d just change my (internal) customers for some more grateful ones!

I’m a medical writer. It’s really interesting but stressful.

Most of the editorial vacancies near me seem to be for medical writers, you should be able to swap jobs if the office politics are the stressful bit!

Engineering manager in a big modern flour mill.

I love the engineering bit but the corporate ballcocks just makes my teeth itch.
We could make 50% more money if we didn’t have whole rafts of faceless drones requesting utterly pointless information that they have no idea what to do with once furnished with.

It pays reasonably well though the 3am phone calls I could do without.

I’m a mechanical building services engineer. For a local authority now.

Do I like it, well, I have to share an office with **** architects, qs’s and (worse) sparkies. And the pay is shite. But, the work/life balance is great (flexi time/9 day fortnight).

Private practice was more varied (and interesting, used be qualified low carbon consultant and breeam assessor. Enjoyed the hospital engineering side of things the most though) but it was mental at times. Too old for that shit,

Volunteered to be the engineering BIM man, see how that goes (always loved the draughting side of the job).

I’m a Children’s home manager for Children wiEpilepsy, Autism, Learning Disabilities and challenging behaviour. Really enjoy it! Stresses with staff and generally funding issues – apparently local government have no money, who knew! – and not great pay, but it’s a good way to spend my work time…

Brewer at a small hampshire micro brewery .
Do I enjoy it? Yes , when its going well and we are busy enough to keep busy .
I dont like it when we are quiet.
At least I get to make something and other people seem to like it
Flexi hours , but most weekends have go in , poxy yeast doesnt know its a sunny sunday and needs monitoring.

Soldier. Not popular with some, but I thoroughly enjoy my job, even in the face of obvious issues.

Freelance engineer / land surveyor.

Left my corporate nonsense job about 4 years ago to set up as a freelance engineer etc., not looked back yet, doubt I will.

Just finished a hydro and wind farm job, great job, clients (private ones) were a total nightmare in a rude arrogant ignorant sort of way but other than them, I can’t complain. Contractor i was on for has been a regular source of work on and off though otherwise I’d have walked.

Suppose the clients hated me though as I was responsible for surveying rock extracted, which cost them more. Ho hum…

Offshore ROV Pilot in Norway.
Enjoy the work and the time off is a bonus as I work 2 weeks on and 4 weeks off 😀
Being paid in krona is a bit of a pain at the moment due to the strong pound. 🙁

Cobrakai – do you work at Swanwick?

Singletrackmind – which brewery?

Actuarial consultant – the job would be easier if I was an actuary.

Event Production manager. Mostly great apart from the hours (during events triple figure weeks are common & don’t see the family (or the back of my eyelids)) and pay (not quite as great as I’d like or been paid previously for in London).

Its nicely varied with lots of site visits (velodrome yesterday, dolby atmos studios next week), interesting & lovely colleagues and a variety of interesting large public events in various spaces.

Previous events include Velothon Wales, Half Marathons, Childrens Literature Festivals, large sporting fanzones etc plus lots of smaller events. Currently working on the World Half Marathon and number of smaller projects.

Much much much prefer it to the corporate event work I used to do in London but do miss the money & amazing venues – the Tates, NHM, V&A, Science Museum, St Pauls Cathedral etc etc

Reward Consultant.
I tell companies how, how much, when and why they should reward their employees with cash, bonuses, benefits, etc.
I like the work, but putting a roof over the head of three and food in their mouths means I probably should move on.

Technology Innovation Manager for a telco. Involves finding out about new technologies, figuring out if they might be useful for us or our customers, getting prototypes and proof of concepts built, running internal and customer trials, putting together business cases and then trying to get someone to turn it into a real product. Plus talking to big customers about future technology and how it might help them.

It’s a cross between a technical project manager, an inventor and Mystic Meg.

It’s got lots of freedom to explore what I find interesting, I get to meet people from lots of different industries (football clubs to uranium enrichment) and play with new kit and services I’ve had built. On the down side only about 5% of what I do will ever become a commercial product.

Access control facilitation technician. thinking about retraining as a Funeral Facilitator,

Criminal Barrister, good days and bad but never dull. Had many and wildly varied jobs before but after almost 15 years its only the massive cuts to the criminal justice system that make me think about moving on. Would love to retrain as an engineer but fear career propsects for newly qualified at 50 may be limited.

Access control facilitation technician

Is that a doorman?

Software development manager, used to be for an Ecommerce company that was UK based, now part of a Japanese giant. It’s pretty crappy at the moment, could be worse and the pay is pretty good. I’m making applications to other places but they could be just as bad as this, so might stay. No Audi either, sorry!

Drugs.

Developing them. Well, not the chemistry, the biology, or the medicine. Rather, making the evidence available to decide how to design the clinical studies that determine whether a compound is a good enough drug or not.

I really enjoy it. I get to play with evaluate technologies and products that might make gathering and using such evidence easier. I get to develop training, policies, systems, and ideas. I have access to whatever journals are needed to procure the evidence. I get to work with brilliant, world-class experts, geeks, nerds, scientists and physicians from around the world every day. And in nice accommodation, in beautiful surroundings, with a short commute.

Downsides are the burden of international travel, the need to always do even better than ever before, the difficulty of developing medicines, and the likelihood of redundancy before the decade is out.

Product Manager.

I quite like it. Get to use my brain to be creative and to solve problems. Liaising with other infrastructure areas like legal, compliance, tax, operations, front office, technology.

It pays the rent and allows me to live the life I want for me and my family.

Firefighter and urban search and rescue technician

14 years in and love both roles, especially the newer USAR role.

Hate how were being smashed by the government and very concerned about the future of the fire service and the service the public will receive when these fresh cuts have gone through.

Hi all been a good interesting thread, for my sins I’m a time served fitter still working on/with tools sheet metal,pipe fitting, machining, assembly and still like my job. Third stint at present company a good one as well, local edge of town, walking distance. Private company 75 years, same family owners. Under going big investment within company. Yes I like my job.

Loading Bay Equipment and Industrial Door rep, dull as dish water.
Boring job and products, don’t like it but it pays the bills.

Would love to have gone into the forces, Royal marines Commando.(Too old for it now but probably fit enough)

Junior Scientist in a biotech firm working to GMP standards.

I enjoy it, however it can include lots of incredibly repetitive paperwork that gets tiresome quickly as does validating data ready for it to be sent to the FDA. It’s all part of rigorous science and it’s teaching me discipline, so that’s good.

It’s fun on the whole and the team is great, I feel very supported by them.

Director of an Architects Practice (RIBA). Not an Architect. (Stick with it Mikey74).

Enjoy it but it can be tough.

IT delivery manager owning a functional area of the business (or now this seasons “in” word is capability)

Working for a company which currently has very good work / life balance, which is great now I have a son. Job isn’t going anywhere and I’m pretty busy but bored stupid most days.

Few links with others above, initially wanted to be an architect but was put off by family, then studied law and decided that was deadly dull and ended up falling into IT as I needed to earn money and it paid ok.

Been looking around for something I’d rather do, but keep drawing a blank. Keep toying with the idea of setting up my own software company. Plenty of people said they’d come work for me, just got to find some clients…..and the balls to give it a go.

I drive a 206 and ride a Scott scale…

Interesting thread.

@renton, still some time to think of what next. Health and Saftey Mgr seems to me the type of job where no one is happy to see you !

Portfolio manager. Yes I do although often too much of it. Absolutely detest my commute with a passion though, by far the most stressful part of it. Thanks, TfL.

Teacher working for a charity specialising in helping the unemployed.

Its interesting and varied but not lucrative. However it is way less stressful/demanding than “proper” teaching and I have no work at home [ nor long holidays]

Day job: Visitor Services Manager at a small museum in the lowest paid part of the country. Hard work, not great pay, but work with great people and love (almost) every minute.
Evening job: Meet-and-Greet at an open-air theatre. Fun work, beautiful place, makes up for sitting on my arse all day, and a reminder that 99.99% of people are just lovely.

Very lucky, and proof that money (and having any leisure time) isn’t everything.