What do you do for a living?

Blind Owl

Hallucinogenic Owl
Donor
Nov 27, 2015
20,862
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BlindOwl
I've been a stay at home dad with our high functioning autistic son for 2 years after my job was shipped down South ... Kinda worked out, though I'd love to get back to work ... doing anything frankly. Just hard to trust people these days, especially with kids who require more patience. He's shown tremendous improvements though and absolutely loves pre-school. So hopefully in a year or two when he enters full-time school, I can get back out there.
Damn my friend, that is awesome. It's amazing that you have the financial capability to be a stay-at-home dad. I'm willing to bet that your little fella shows the improvement he does because of the one-on-one time with you.
A tip of the hat to you sir.
 

Fischmaster

Space Marshal
Donor
Jun 29, 2018
15
71
1,700
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Fischmaster
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.
Nice! Trying to become a Radiologist here myself, so hopefully come January I have my degree and stare at a computer screen all day to make sure nothing blows up.


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.
This is awesome! Any chance your company goes public in the future? So we can throw our money on real (i.e. non-digital) spaceship-(parts)? :D
 

Shadow Reaper

Space Marshal
Jun 3, 2016
4,762
13,889
2,850
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Shadow Reaper
This is awesome! Any chance your company goes public in the future? So we can throw our money on real (i.e. non-digital) spaceship-(parts)? :D
Most startups do begin with an exit strategy in mind, where they hope to go IPO within 5 years. We're not that way at all. Especially if the thruster works, we're expecting exponential growth for more than the next decade, so leaving before then doesn't make sense unless you want to retire, and I don't. Designing and building spacecrafty kinds of stuff is just too much fun, and I have warned my partners several times that they'll need to ask me to retire when I can no longer do the job. I can easily imagine doing this into my 70's, so they probably will need to come to me one day and tell me to make room for a younger man. My father is in his late 70's now, and still working with the 5th company he built. He wouldn't know what to do with himself if he retired, and I may have more of him in me than is good for me. Have to wait and see.

Now if you're an accredited investor and want in whle the company is still private, we can talk. We are fundraising right now, and the discounts will never be as high as they are right now.
 

Shadow Reaper

Space Marshal
Jun 3, 2016
4,762
13,889
2,850
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Shadow Reaper
I tried the inventor path for a while in my off time. You're right. It does require a jack of all trades. It's also amazingly fun for the right kind of person. I just couldn't find a way to sufficiently monetize it. Every idea that I had either turned out to be too small, or after searching, someone already held the patent.
Part of my training is in philosophy of technology, and I have been very focused on space sciences for the last 15 years. So by studying how spacecraft do what they do, it naturally occurs how one might improve this or that. So instead of sitting down to ask "what can I invent?", I ask "how can I use this emergent material, or instrument, or nano-machine?" etc. It's much easier to begin that way than with an empty sheet of paper. I actually have notions for dozens of next generation devices, for guidance, navigation, communications, etc., but most of them we can't bring to market within 1 or 2 years, and that's where we need to be focused for a startup. How to get rid of the huge sets of mirrors for an X-Ray millisecond pulsar navigation device (XNAV) will have a great market, but it will take several years to turn that notion into a commercial device.
 

wmk

Space Marshal
Staff member
Officer
Donor
Feb 19, 2018
680
3,142
2,500
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wmk
(...) My job is basically staring at spreadsheets all day
Well, you can always try IT -- this industry is known for its wide range of job roles, and you don't necessarily need to be a programmer or system administratror. I've been working in IT for 20 years on a technical position while I finished Fine Arts college and then served in the Army.

That said, there is a good chance that without any technical experience you would end up... staring at spreadsheets all day.
 
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Thugari

Space Marshal
Mar 11, 2016
1,300
4,432
2,600
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Thugari
I've been a stay at home dad with our high functioning autistic son for 2 years after my job was shipped down South ... Kinda worked out, though I'd love to get back to work ... doing anything frankly. Just hard to trust people these days, especially with kids who require more patience. He's shown tremendous improvements though and absolutely loves pre-school. So hopefully in a year or two when he enters full-time school, I can get back out there.
Now that's a life you can hang your hat on.
 

supitza

Vault Dweller
Aug 5, 2015
2,000
8,576
3,010
RSI Handle
AstroSupitza
Well, you can always try IT -- this industry is known for its wide range of job roles, and you don't necessarily need to be a programmer or system administratror. I've been working in IT for 20 years on a technical position while I finished Fine Arts college and then served in the Army.

That said, there is a good chance that without any technical experience you would end up... staring at spreadsheets all day.
I'm formally trained in IT (internet security and e-business economics), and I did work as a C++ programmer for a year, then as a full stack developer for another few years after finishing school. Started liking what I did less and less until decided it was not for me and one day I just quit (and ran away with the boss' secretary, but that's a story for another time).
 

Deroth

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 28, 2017
1,827
6,130
2,850
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Deroth1
Most startups do begin with an exit strategy in mind, where they hope to go IPO within 5 years. We're not that way at all. Especially if the thruster works, we're expecting exponential growth for more than the next decade, so leaving before then doesn't make sense unless you want to retire, and I don't. Designing and building spacecrafty kinds of stuff is just too much fun, and I have warned my partners several times that they'll need to ask me to retire when I can no longer do the job. I can easily imagine doing this into my 70's, so they probably will need to come to me one day and tell me to make room for a younger man. My father is in his late 70's now, and still working with the 5th company he built. He wouldn't know what to do with himself if he retired, and I may have more of him in me than is good for me. Have to wait and see.

Now if you're an accredited investor and want in whle the company is still private, we can talk. We are fundraising right now, and the discounts will never be as high as they are right now.
Let us know when you need crash testers!
 

LoicFarris

Vice Admiral
Donor
Mar 1, 2019
884
3,077
500
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LoicFarris
I've worked in IT since 1997. I started off as a desktop monkey, supporting Microsoft infrastructures. Around 2002, I was seduced by the Dark Side and changed IT Careers from Microsoft technologies to Linux. My particular enjoyment around Linux is the overall control and flexibility around the technology. The transition from graphical interfaces to command line was a little rough at first but it quickly became second nature. I've been involved in Linux / UNIX infrastructure & middle-ware ever since. The most exciting job I ever had was with an airline GDS (global distribution service) where I designed the back end infrastructures for big names like United Airlines, the European Rail ticketing systems, Hotel and Car Rental reservation systems and more. Today, I work for one of the largest lumber supply companies in the country. I started as an Engineer 10 years ago and was promoted to the Manager of the UNIX Infrastructure and Operations team 5 years ago. I thoroughly enjoy leading a team and have to say that I have one of the best teams I've ever had today, with some of the most intelligent and driven people I've ever known.
 

Bambooza

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 25, 2017
5,682
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2,875
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MrBambooza
I thoroughly enjoy leading a team and have to say that I have one of the best teams I've ever had today, with some of the most intelligent and driven people I've ever known
They are holding your beer for ransom aren't they... You don't have to say anything just blink twice.

I've always find it amusing how we jump around from OS to OS or from programming langue to programming langue. This industry seems to be rather fluid.
 

LoicFarris

Vice Admiral
Donor
Mar 1, 2019
884
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500
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LoicFarris
They are holding your beer for ransom aren't they... You don't have to say anything just blink twice.

I've always find it amusing how we jump around from OS to OS or from programming langue to programming langue. This industry seems to be rather fluid.
Hahaha, naw they're actually good people.

It is funny, my degree was in computer programming, I was actually really good at C++ but I wound up in systems. But yeah overall, things migrate from one technology to another, we are moving heavily toward containers here and looking at building a system that dynamically scales based on load.
 

WaldoWohin

Admiral
Sep 15, 2015
32
82
700
RSI Handle
WaldoWohin
I am an SAS automation specialist for an analytics group inside one of the largest banks in the US.

No idea this was my calling until I got into right out of college. I was a state-certified teacher when I graduated college and I have never taught outside my teaching internship in my whole life.
 

Sirus7264

Space Marshal
Donor
Apr 5, 2017
3,364
11,193
2,800
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Sirus7264
I've worked in IT since 1997. I started off as a desktop monkey, supporting Microsoft infrastructures. Around 2002, I was seduced by the Dark Side and changed IT Careers from Microsoft technologies to Linux. My particular enjoyment around Linux is the overall control and flexibility around the technology. The transition from graphical interfaces to command line was a little rough at first but it quickly became second nature. I've been involved in Linux / UNIX infrastructure & middle-ware ever since. The most exciting job I ever had was with an airline GDS (global distribution service) where I designed the back end infrastructures for big names like United Airlines, the European Rail ticketing systems, Hotel and Car Rental reservation systems and more. Today, I work for one of the largest lumber supply companies in the country. I started as an Engineer 10 years ago and was promoted to the Manager of the UNIX Infrastructure and Operations team 5 years ago. I thoroughly enjoy leading a team and have to say that I have one of the best teams I've ever had today, with some of the most intelligent and driven people I've ever known.
I do woodworking if you want you can send your scraps wood haha. my favorites are babinga, mahogany, and tamo ash.
 

Talonsbane

Space Marshal
Donor
Jul 29, 2017
5,308
18,359
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Talonsbane
All of your jobs seem rather awesome. I've had several different sorts of occupations through the years. Unfortunately, I was laid off from my last full time job on my birthday a decade ago. Shortly afterwards I contracted a gradually debilitating condition which has been slowly degrading my health since to where I'm unable to hold any stable work position. I briefly held a part time job before I learned about TEST, but my health got to the point that I wasn't able to continue with that either. Most of my occupations have dealt with helping customers in 1 manner or another. The jobs I enjoyed most either helped me help make the lives of others more safe (even if they didn't appreciate me for it) or allowed me to use my college training in AutoCAD to design & create things in RL.
 

Vavrik

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 19, 2017
5,452
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Vavrik
I do woodworking if you want you can send your scraps wood haha. my favorites are babinga, mahogany, and tamo ash.
That's the only hobby left that I haven't tried to automate with a computer... and that's coming. But the ability to shape some wood into whatever I want has been amazingly satisfying, not to mention useful. One of my next project though is an automagic 8' X 4' CNC machine for wood.

The jobs I enjoyed most either helped me help make the lives of others more safe (even if they didn't appreciate me for it) or allowed me to use my college training in AutoCAD to design & create things in RL.
You posted this just as I was finishing the last sentence above by the way. I'm also here to tell you that not all jobs require you to work for someone else. This is a skill you might be able to leverage as nerds like me keep automating everything else.
 

Bambooza

Space Marshal
Donor
Sep 25, 2017
5,682
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MrBambooza
That's the only hobby left that I haven't tried to automate with a computer... and that's coming. But the ability to shape some wood into whatever I want has been amazingly satisfying, not to mention useful. One of my next project though is an automagic 8' X 4' CNC machine for wood.
I have one of these and I have to say its great.

12499


https://www.shapertools.com/
 
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