What do you do for a living?

[supitza]

I monitor and run the night mainframe processing for a company that owns 4 bank chains in New York. Which is a fancy way of saying I stare at a computer screen all night to make sure nothing blows up.

Staring at screens is awesome. It's what I'm best at.

Self employed, Leatherworker

How cool is that? I'd love to be able to work with raw materials and transform it into cool stuff. The only thing I'm good at transforming is food to poo.
Pinging @RiceMaiden, our master woodperson.

In a former life, I spent 10 years in the US Navy doing the same job Printimus described above. Now though, I work on laboratory equipment used in Immunology testing. They are basically big robotic pipetting machines that also handle reading the test plates and tell you the values for whatever test they are running. Some of the common things that are tested for on these machines are Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Lyme Disease, Lupus, Celiacs, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and various connective tissue disease. Chances are if you were screened for an autoimmune disease your blood may have gone through one of the kinds of machines that I work on, if you are in the Southeast US then it probably went through one of the ones I work on daily.

Your job sounds so cool! I've always wanted to work in the medical/health industry, I even play medic or support characters in the video games I play, just so I can help people. And wear white lab coats. But alas, I didn't go to med school, and if I started now, I'd be old before I finished it. I'm currently studying to become a registered nutritionist (nutrition technitian, actually. REAL nutritionists are MDs), which is as close as I can get to something medical-ish. Does it pay enough to count as a full-time job? Don't know yet.


You guys have really awesome jobs!

 

[Injustice]

Law Enforcement, did seven years as a street officer and now currently assigned to Intelligence.

I specialize in wiretap and polygraph examinations.

 

[Bambooza]

Law Enforcement, did seven years as a street officer and now currently assigned to Intelligence.

I specialize in wiretap and polygraph examinations.

Now i have to wonder if your name is ironic or not...

 

[DorianSkyphire]

TEST Squadron seems to be the most eclectic community I've ever been a part of and I was curious about what you guys and gals do while you're not trolling and shitposting on the forums.
This question comes at a time when I'm considering a career change, because I realized I'm falling out of love with what I do / what I've been doing for the past 5-6 years.

I'll start:
I currently manage the finances of a small company that teaches professional qualification courses in the beauty industry: medical aesthetics (like botox and lip fillers), permanent make-up, and stuff like that. Although the industry is all about glamour, there's nothing "glamorous" about my job. My job is basically staring at spreadsheets all day.



What's something interesting about your career? Do you love what you do?

I am a white collar prostitute.. a Senior IT Project Manager of 20+ years, but currently working at the IRS as a phone monkey while in the search for a job more suitable to my resume.

 

[Injustice]

Now i have to wonder if your name is ironic or not...

According to social media and the news, I have lived long enough to see myself become the villain.

 

[Deroth]

Engineering/Theoretical Physics student stuck at bachelor for the last 6 years, which should only be the first 3 years of the program I signed up for.
For the last year I have studied part time and worked at a meat factory stacking and weighing boxes with sliced ham at a conveyor belt. The pay is good, as I do it through a recruitment company, but it is hard to explain how boring a should-be-automated job like that is. Especially when you have the knowledge and skills to design and build the robot yourself!

DO IT!

 

[Bambooza]

According to social media and the news, I have lived long enough to see myself become the villain.

Its ok Badman did as well.

 

[DarthMatter]

DO IT!

Asked the company if they wanted it. Was not something they where looking for at the moment. :(

EDIT:
They also have contracts for upgrades and reconstruction of the conveyor belt system they need to keep...

 

[Thraesh]

I've done several jobs over the years. I worked in the oil field for several years as an Electrician, got my ticket working there and went to night school to do Computer Aided Drafting. I left the field to join the Army as a Vehicle Tech but sadly got injured a couple weeks into course. 6 months later I joined the Navy as a Naval Communicator and served for 6 years. Started going offshore on the oil rigs for 2 years and made some connections. Currently I work as a draftsmen contractor doing minor work and will be in the military again in the next month or so for Comms Research (my other choices were full for now)

 

[Shiwaz]

Quit my job (army) some 6 months ago, now teaching our newer generations about bits, bytes and the CIA-security triad at a local IT academy.
Closed the latest class of 28 adult students today and now soaking in all the impressions that comes with such a job.
A new purpose in life can be very refreshing at the right moments...

 

[Lorddarthvik]

I studied to be an electric engineer, then as a transport engineer, cos family pushed me to electric while I only cared about stuff that moves (electric cars weren't really a thing 15+ years ago). I dropped out of both.
Meanwhile I thought myself working with 3D graphics software like 3dsmax and Maya.
I've been in the CGi/VFX/games industry for about 10 years now (omfg, I just realized that),.
First working on some iPad games no one ever heard of for a year.
After that I went into digital restoration. Very tedious and boring, but it had its moments, like have you ever seen a person on film, who was born in the 17th fucking century!
Then I transitioned to work in post production on movies and TV shows. 3D and 2D compositing stuff, from "simple" task of cleanup of wires/crews in reflections to simulating and inserting headshots with blood splatter and chunks of brain, to blowing up cars, I can say I done it all. The most interesting thing I really enjoyed, was dropping a CG wolf into CG water, playing with the splashes and foam simulation and of course animating the wolf as it sinks. All in 4K. It will be featured as a background video for an opera.
For the last couple of years I worked on ads/product renders mostly, so for example if you've seen a boxed up Nespresso machine at some store, or been to their website, you have most likely seen one of my renders.

Tldr.: I'm a CGI/VFX artist / 3D generalist / compositor, and I love it cos I can make stuff, even if it's only digital. (Apart from when I can 3d print it lol)

Ps.: nope, it doesn't pay nearly as good as it sounds. But it's okay, I'm content with it.

 

[Sraika]

I was laid off fairly recently, but i was a glass printer. Y'know, like beer glasses and mugs and the like.
I'm also going back to school in september.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

I'm an inventor and CEO of a small aerospace startup. We have over a dozen IPs to bring to market within about 2 years and the first 3-4 within a year. Our most important work however is the most speculative and highest risk--it is in advanced propulsion development. Actually, I have a presentation at NASA Headquarters on that a week from today so would appreciate anyone's prayers. They have the money and the mechanism to invest if they want to, and they are already supporting academic forms of this work. Ours is stricktly commercial however, and we're intending to develop a demonstrator thruster in one year and a commercial prototype within two years. Apart from propulsion we do things like spacecraft antennas, so maybe we'll be able to hire Printimus one day.

 

[DarthMatter]

I'm an inventor and CEO of a small aerospace startup. We have over a dozen IPs to bring to market within about 2 years and the first 3-4 within a year. Our most important work however is the most speculative and highest risk--it is in advanced propulsion development. Actually, I have a presentation at NASA Headquarters on that a week from today so would appreciate anyone's prayers. They have the money and the mechanism to invest if they want to, and they are already supporting academic forms of this work. Ours is stricktly commercial however, and we're intending to develop a demonstrator thruster in one year and a commercial prototype within two years. Apart from propulsion we do things like spacecraft antennas, so maybe we'll be able to hire Printimus one day.

As someone who is looking into... exotic propulsion systems in general for a presentation (for an "engine" based on corona discharge), mind if I ask what kind of advanced propulsion system?

 

[ThomSirveaux]

Well, I'm currently a [REDACTED] working for [REDACTED] on [REDACTED]. It's an interesting job, since I started out as an Computer Engineer for [REDACTED], then was a software engineer for a small aerospace company that did the fire sensors around commercial airline engines. Since I'm definitely NOT A software guy, that job only lasted 7 months until I was able to get an EE position at a medical device company that treated their employees like shit... or at least my manager did. Spent the worst 3 years of my life there before going into the Civil Space division of a major defense contractor. Got to make instruments for weather satellites before jumping ship to Systems and now working on [REDACTED].

And while, yes, It's all well and fun, I really can't say what I do, beyond "A SHIT TON OF DOCUMENTATION AND MEETINGS". Since documentation was the primary focus of my time at the medical device company, I figure my future would end up in Systems, and here I am.

 

[atpbx]

I drive a lorry.

 

[marcsand2]

Industrial Automation and Technical Automation.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

As someone who is looking into... exotic propulsion systems in general for a presentation (for an "engine" based on corona discharge), mind if I ask what kind of advanced propulsion system?

The only propellantless solution that does not propose to violate the Conservation of Momentum, nor any other canon physics:

Mach Effect for In Space Propulsion: Interstellar Mission - NASA

NIAC 2018 Phase II Woodward Macheffects

www.nasa.gov

I was a member of the team at Fullerton for 8 years. Now I'm doing commercial rather than academic work. However, I still have lots of close friends on Jim's team, and I know NASA is about to institute its first ever NIAC Phase III award, specifically so they can continue to fund the Fullerton team once their Phase II grant is complete. They have already delivered the goods on Phase II.

So yeah, this is gonna happen, and it's not just for interstellar flight.

For corona discharge, you're talking about some sort of ion lifter? Ion wind is not an efficient means of propulsion by any means, but they are so very cool to watch fly! Just note they don't work in vacuum at all. All of the tests with lifters in vacuum that have showed thrust, were shedding parts of their solid and they are the basis behind the solid state ion thruster developed at MIT.

 

[maynard]

I'm a retired construction guy. As an apprentice carpenter I worked on big projects like power stations, bridges, and stadiums. Since then I've done a bit of everything including commercial, residential, and even some set building in Hollywood. During the good times I worked up to Superintendent, then when things got slow I would go back to working with my tools.

I'm seriously considering moving back to the big city, which will mean re-entering the work force. Doing what, I have no idea.

(I wouldn't be in TEST if I knew what I was doing, would I?)

 

[DarthMatter]

The only propellantless solution that does not propose to violate the Conservation of Momentum, nor any other canon physics:

Mach Effect for In Space Propulsion: Interstellar Mission - NASA

NIAC 2018 Phase II Woodward Macheffects

www.nasa.gov

I was a member of the team at Fullerton for 8 years. Now I'm doing commercial rather than academic work. However, I still have lots of close friends on Jim's team, and I know NASA is about to institute its first ever NIAC Phase III award, specifically so they can continue to fund the Fullerton team once their Phase II grant is complete. They have already delivered the goods on Phase II.

So yeah, this is gonna happen, and it's not just for interstellar flight.

For corona discharge, you're talking about some sort of ion lifter? Ion wind is not an efficient means of propulsion by any means, but they are so very cool to watch fly! Just note they don't work in vacuum at all. All of the tests with lifters in vacuum that have showed thrust, were shedding parts of their solid and they are the basis behind the solid state ion thruster developed at MIT.

That looks really cool! I'll keep as many fingers as I can muster crossed that the presentation goes well!

Not an ion lifter, but it should be working with the same phenomenon. It started with a video of a metal wire on a Tesla coil producing sparks and starting to rotate. Our task was then to maximize the rotation speed, so no need to make anything fly. Our current hypothesis is that the corona discharge creates a field of ions with the same charge as the metal wire, so we get Coulomb forces causing the acceleration. Going to present it at the International Physics Tournament in Switzerland next week, so that's a pretty fun coincidence of schedules.