What do you do for a living?

Krazy Kat2 and flimflam - got my fingers crossed for you!

:tounge2: :tounge2: :tounge2: :tounge2: :tounge2: :tounge2: :tounge2: :tounge2:

I'm a first-year graduate student in English. I wake up around 11 AM, go to class for an hour or so, and spend the rest of my day reading, talking, and thinking about books. My focus is early 20th century American lit (esp. African American), but for the first couple of years I'm taking classes in all sorts of areas, including learning Old English. It's not too shabby, except for the meager pay. Next year I begin teaching Freshman Composition in addition to taking classes.

Before I started the program, I was a legal assistant in environmental law at a big DC firm. Before that, I was in college.

I'm a builder service rep for a major cabinet manufacturer. I talk with the superintendants from the different home builders. I "manage" the west valley of Phoenix, and some of the builders are Continental, Beazer, etc. I talk with these guys throught the day. My job is to order parts (such as broken cabinet doors), key new houses (when a super calls in and says he needs to schedule cabinet installs) then I release the house, and order that entire house for cabs; make new starts (starts are when a house has just been release to production and we find out the lot address, etc). I also schedule service out for the parts that have come in. I am lucky ... I am in the production stage of the house, not when it has become occupied, so I dont deal with the customer servic part. I like it, but even thought I've only been there a few months, somedays it gets frustrating. I need to go back to school ... I'd really like to get into the mortgage industry.

I trained as a Graphic Designer and them worked in a number of studios in and around London. In the early/mid 90s I met my now husband, and we started a design agency, of which I was Creative Director. This failed because the 2 guys we started it with just weren't interested, and were using it as a vehicle to pursue their own objectives.

I then swallowed my pride an a massive pay cut, and started at the bottom in the marketing department of Bang & Olufsen's UK head office. This job taught me tons about marketing and I had quite a good time there for 5 and a half years. I then went on to be a Marketing Manager for a London silversmiths who manufactured beautiful tableware in their East London workshops.

Recently, following redundancy, I have started my own marketing agency - we specialise in providng multilingual marketing support across a number of industries.

We got our first ever project last week which means I can get a loan and neither I or the cats starve this Christmas!

I have my own business as a personal chef. I cook everyday meals for people in their homes and do their grocery shopping. I go once a week or once every two weeks and fill up the fridge and freezer with easy convenient meals, mostly suppers, but for some people lunches and breakfasts, too. For my regular clients I also do dinner parties and special events, but not just for anybody, like a caterer would do. This morning I stuffed a turkey and made about 7 side dishes for a client who is hosting a Christmas dinner for 14 on Wednesday. This afternoon I went to another client's home and did some fish pies, a macaroni and cheese, a meatloaf, some soups, wrap sandwiches and mashed potatoes.

I started my business almost 2 years ago, when I was laid off from my job in my "official" field of training, chemistry. I worked in labs for about 7 years before this happened, from the time I was a upper level undergrad at university. I loved that work, but I was getting sick of the office politics that always seem to rear their ugly head, so other than financially I wasn't sad to leave that place. I love working by myself, since I have always been a bit of a loner. It's a fairly low-risk business with almost no overhead or initial investment and now that my schedule is pretty much full with regular clients, my income is steady. I got a lot of help from a government program associated with employment insurance; they extended my benefits for an extra 9 months (without penalty, regardless of how much I made at my business) and taught me about all aspects of how to run a business. I couldn't have done it without them, and I encourage anyone trying to start a business to look into gov't programs - you never know what you might find!

krazy kat -

I have a friend who owns a tatoo/body piercing shop. He says it's petty tough business, too. Good luck!!


Sounds like a lot of really great talent on this board. And that means EVERYONE! The world needs people to do many jobs. All of them matter, just like all people matter.

And KIM, to your question! When I'm working on the PC, whether at home or in the office, I just leave the cat site up in the background. Inbetween calls or projects (I work a lot writing or building models in excel), I "pop over" and read or write a reply - or finish writing one I started. It means that sometimes I'm writing something in response to someone, and then there's a bunch of posts inbetween - but - that's life!

(That's why I put myself in "invisible" mode - or it would look like I was on-line on the cat site all day, when I'm often off doing something else!)

Laurie, thanks for saying those things to me. I appreciate that! You are so kind!

It's just the truth!!!

bump

I don't have a fabulous job like some of you, but I DO like my job, and I guess thats inportant too.

I work as a cashier at a hardware store- I love being able to socialize with people every day. My boss is great, very accomodating when I have to call in sick due to an ill child or lack of daycare.He often plans outings for the staff, all paid for by him- like bowling nights and beach parties. I live in a tiny town, so most of my customers are people I know. The people here are notoriously friendly, so it makes my job a lot of fun

My main job is being a music student at the University of Arizona. But part time I work for a pet sitting agency, and I also do orchestra gigs.

I'm a Registered Nurse (RN), but I haven't worked in a hospital in years. I work for a company that gets subcontracted by insurance co's, workers comp and auto mostly, to medically manage their cases.

In English, that translates as: I get to meet people who are hurt at work or in a car accident, attend their doctor's appts with them, and update the insurance co and employer on how they are progressing. When they are recovered and can return to work, I help that to happen, if there are restrictions I make sure the employer sticks to them so the patient doesn;t get hurt all over again by overexerting.

I spend a lot of time on the road and also sitting in doctor's offices. When I am not on an appt, I work from home. This is time to make phone calls and type up reports on the computer. (It is also time to browse the Cat Site..shh.. ).

I like this way better than the hospital. No weekends, no night shifts, no holidays. And I get to know the patients as they recover over weeks or months, as opposed to only seeing them for a day or two in a hospital bed.

I am currently a full-time student *trying* to earn my BS in Computer Information Systems. I retired from the Army National Guard in 2000 with 20 years and 3 days of service. Of the 20 years in the Guard, 15 of those I worked as a Federal Civil Service employee. I got so stressed over my job that I finally left to go to work as an Administrative Assistant in the civilian sector. I was then advanced to Information Systems Manager within the same company. I worked for a not-for-profit substance abuse/mental health counseling agency, so there was no hope of ever getting a decent wage. My husband died suddenly in March 2001, and I continued to work until August 2002. I decided I needed to go back to school and finish my degree--mostly just to take a break from the "real world" and eliminate some negative stress in my life. I expect to graduate from university in May 2005.

Oh My Gosh...I'm so sorry to hear about your Husband. What a tough thing to go through.
It's great that you wanted to go back to school! More power to ya!

I'm an RN, left nursing when I married 7+ years ago. I was a high risk labor and delivery RN for 13 years.
Met my husband on a specialty pets forum on Compuserve
Co-founded & co-owned a pet products business for 5 years, and now have a sole proprietorship that focuses on catnips, cat treats and toys. I love it!

This thread is very interesting.... it's really neat to know everyone's career.

Joyce - I am sorry to hear that your husband passed so suddenly. You sound like one strong lady. I think it's cool that you are going back to finish your degree!

I've changed jobs, since this thread started. Now, I'm a customer service rep for Chrysler Financial, handling inbound customer service calls.

Beats the heck out of Walgreens: I'm off of my feet, the pay is better, the hours are better and there isn't as much bovine excrement!

I'm a legal assistant for an immigration lawyer.

Shell and Kim, thank you for your kind words. It truly is like they say, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."