A little short on adventure based on some of what I read. My wife wishes I was more open to relocation. She lived in Houston for 7 years after college to get a job and then moved back here where she is from. She is also more of a dreamer and I am a realist.
Odd fact:
From kindergartner through college I lived at home. The same house the entire time and I walked to every one of those schools.
Long story short, I started off working with my uncle as a building mover. Then worked for AutoZone for 5 years. Left MA to go to school at the University of Northwestern Ohio and earned an associates degree in High Performance Automotive Technology and Alternative Fuels. I moved back home after college and started working at a Dodge Dealer.
Dealer ended up closing and I applied to State Street Bank. For some reason they hired me over a bunch of other people with bachelor degrees. I now work in a cube all day but I actually don’t mind it. Things have been going well and I’ve been promoted a few times over the past few years. Currently I’m a Senior Pricing Analyst working 4 days a week with every Wednesday off plus a bunch of vacation time. Plenty of time to work on my projects.
BoxheadTim wrote:jrw1621 wrote: Embarrassed to admit I still live 60 miles from where I was born.Why would you be embarrassed about that (says the guy who's living over 6000 miles away from where he was born)?
I refuse to leave St Louis. I love it here.
I'm a content strategist for an online marketing firm that deals largely with the automotive industry. Basically I write for a living and know how to work Google to get good page rank (SEO). They hired me above a lot of other people because I know cars and trucks better than anybody in the company.
Prior to this I was a sports editor at a daily newspaper for 5 years and before that I got my BA in Communications with a writing minor.
None of your damned buisness.
BoxheadTim wrote:jrw1621 wrote: Embarrassed to admit I still live 60 miles from where I was born.Why would you be embarrassed about that (says the guy who's living over 6000 miles away from where he was born)?
I am less than 3 miles from where I was born. (and I mean the actual hospital!). I have moved but was fortunate to be able to move home. It is fun raising the kids with Grandma (2) and Grampa (1 - my dad died before the kids were born) around to see and enjoy them.
I graduated from college in the mid-80’s with a textile chemistry degree. I was hired by Burlington Industries (at that time a 500-pound gorilla in the textile industry) as a manager in one of their dyeing and finishing plants. I soon realized that the traditional, woven-textile business in the US was moving far south and east on the globe. I quit soon after and went back to school for a master’s degree, MBA.
After grad school, I was hired to manage a manufacturing plant/operation making highloft nonwoven textile media used in low and medium efficiency air filtration applications. 9 or 10 years and another company later, I had grown tired of management. I called a headhunter and described my “dream” job (besides rock star or porn star, neither of which I had the skills to be successful). Coincidentally, one of the largest companies in my field had called him the day before wanting to create a position just as I had described.
That is the job I still have today after 15 years; Director- Fiber Development and Engineering. I oversee the technical aspects of our manufacturing processes, products, business development in some cases, research and development spread across the US and Western Europe for our fiber operations. I also have responsibilities for monitoring the “big picture” of our manufacturing operations from a business and process management perspective. I have a couple of patents (Patent Nos. 7,259,117 and 8,021,466) and additional pending applications. If you have purchased a mattress, a piece of furniture, other finished products, work with industrial or commercial paint booths or commercial air filter medias in the last 15 years or so, you have probably come in contact with a component incorporated, or the product itself that I developed or helped to create. It is a very rewarding job, but the downside is the travel commitment.
You guys that invent stuff from stuff and have patents are my heroes!!
jrw1621 wrote: Odd fact: From kindergartner through college I lived at home. The same house the entire time and I walked to every one of those schools.
You walked to college? For some reason that sounds funny to admit. (Did you get chased home one day by a dog?)
I was a "walker" in 1st - 3rd grade and I walked home for lunch most every day. The joke with my family is the day I was chased home at lunch by a dog.
From Atlanta Georgia to Medina Ohio.
Went from a crew member on Kinetic Motorsports to Porsche Parts Specialist at ECS Tuning. Can thank Brad for this move.
From California (my original stomping grounds) to Georgia, was because of my dad. He went from Tiger Racing (the team that recently won the World Challenge GTS Title) to Service Manager at Ferrari of Atlanta. With my prior Ferrari experience (working on the Tiger Racing Ferrari 355 team as well as historic Ferrari's and Maserati's), I went to Lamborghini of Atlanta, only because I couldn't get a job at Ferrari of Atlanta (conflict of interest). Additionally, I have been on numerous race teams. Now, I'm a "key banger" 
BoxheadTim wrote:jrw1621 wrote: Embarrassed to admit I still live 60 miles from where I was born.Why would you be embarrassed about that (says the guy who's living over 6000 miles away from where he was born)?
I live 3 blocks from where I grew up.
local parts store was looking for help and I've been there for 7 1/2 years.
My only "invention" was this Uniform Tool that I designed. There is an Army, Air Force, and Navy version. Working on the Marine version. Not very exciting and certainly nothing I tried to patent.
One night of thinking with the wrong head and I ended up married with a son and no means to support them. So I joined the army as a helicopter mechanic. Ended up overseas and my 1st wife found someone else and divorced me. I stayed overseas for a while, came back to the states and was a big partier. Went back overseas and hooked back up with the girl I met after I was divorced, brought her back to the states and married her. We have 2 grown daughter and been married over 30 years. After 20 years in the army as a CH-47 Flight Engineer/Tech Inspector I retired and tried my hand at being a full time college student. Got tired of no extra $$ and took a job as a contractor at Aviation Command. Over the next few years moved up, got picked up civil service and moved up some more a couple times. I hold the title of Logistics Management Specialist in Lifecycle Maintenance. I work in field support and field representative on future projects. I travel to field new equipment to army units, usually before they deploy and involved in prototype equipment. My job is to make sure it suits the needs and is sustainable by the field. I also help the field with obtaining hard to get parts and assist in maintenance issues they can't figure out. I also work with the supply managers here figure out what they need to buy. There are a few other things I do but this stuff keeps me pretty busy. I did continue college while working as a contractor and did get my Bachelors degree. Also have several work related certifications. I'm luck with the people I work with, most of us were in the army together and have known each other for years. One used to be my boss in the army and a few others I flew with. Now we're all friends and get along great. We often scare others into thinking we're getting ready to fight but we give each other a hard time for fun and we know it's all in fun. It's kinda fun to run off others that way too, we get a kick out of it. We have a great boss that lets us come and go whenever we want as long as we attend the meetings and take care of "the boys" as he calls them. The "boys" come first, even over meetings and command in his eyes. The "boys" are the soldiers we support and used to be.
This is the Helicopter I support.
wlkelley3 wrote: I work in field support and field representative on future projects. I travel to field new equipment to army units, usually before they deploy and involved in prototype equipment.
Do you happen to know anything about the Comanche? Supposedly only two were ever completed, but I used to live next to NSA headquarters and have seen one in the air (painted flat black) after the program was officially cancelled in early 2004.
BoostedBrandon wrote: *paging SVreX, paging SVreX*
hahahah! this whole time, i've been waiting for this wall of text with his name at the top and bottom. 
need to go to bed but will be glad to share tomorrow. best thread idea so far this year.
I needed a job towards the end of my time in school so I got in with Wegmans in the Seafood Dept. Almost 4 years later I'm still there. I like my job, only down side is still being part time. That is mostly because in my area chances for advancement are very rare, and fought for when they do show up.
Tech Writer, actually applied for a different job at MerCruiser, but the HR people thought I would get bored with it.
Passed my resume around the plant and the Tech Writing manager though my interest in cars/motorcycles + journalism degree would work.
Went from being a new tech writer to editor of 11 person dept in 6 months. 4+ years later, it's proven to be a great career path.
Couldn't be happier.
NGTD wrote:BoxheadTim wrote:I am less than 3 miles from where I was born. (and I mean the actual hospital!). I have moved but was fortunate to be able to move home. It is fun raising the kids with Grandma (2) and Grampa (1 - my dad died before the kids were born) around to see and enjoy them.jrw1621 wrote: Embarrassed to admit I still live 60 miles from where I was born.Why would you be embarrassed about that (says the guy who's living over 6000 miles away from where he was born)?
I grew up in PA, then lived in New Orleans, Los Angeles, Austin, Miami, and a few other neat places. I ended up settling down in PA again. Nothing wrong with home.... and certainly nothing to be embarrassed about.
This has been an incredibly interesting thread. As for me - I graduated with a business degree weith a marketing concentration and I am now working as an assistant director of admissions at a college. Amongst other things I basically decide who gets in and who doesn't.
I don't think anyone ever dreams of being in college admissions... it kind of just happens one way or another. I happened to have a friend working at the school let me know when the opening came up and I went after it since I didn't have a job at the time. I really do love what I do and can see myself being in the college admissions world for a while longer.
OK, I'll give this a shot.
Took 4 years of hand drafting in HS (last year was self-study using AutoCAD R9 or 10 on a 486 or something like that). Was accepted at GMI with the goal of being an automotive engineer. Started out co-oping at an industrial engineering firm near my home town and through experiences at school and 1 quarter co-oping at GM I realized automotive engineers don't design cars, they design little bits and pieces that make up cars. So I transferred out after 2 years and went back to work at the industrial engineering firm full time while picking up my associates in MET on nights. The industrial engineering firm, where I was a Jr. HVAC Designer and CAD monkey hired me out to a local mechanical contractor who needed to turn in CAD as-builts for a job they just finished. Their union sheet metal detailer was still hand drawing so I just re-drew his stuff in CAD (and so did not "take any work away" from anyone ;-) ). As I finished that job up I mentioned how I enjoyed working there and would be interested in staying on if they had anything. Met with the owner, got hired as an assistant project manager and faxed my resignation in to the industrial engineering firm.
During my time at the mechanical contractor I worked on a variety of jobs including a large expansion to the local GM assembly plant to accommodate the then new larger Blazer (GMT360) models coming out. On that job I worked with some guys from my current company, a general contractor/construction manager, who ended calling with a job offer. Took that job as a MEP (mechanical-electrical-plumbing) coordinator, moved into a more traditional project engineer role, and then did a job or two as a project manager - all the while being known as 'the computer guy' on the jobsite and developing a good relationship with our IT staff. Couple years ago my boss approached me with a new position they wanted to create - basically a operations-IT liaison position - so I took it as I'm pretty passionate about both construction and technology. It's been going well, I seem to get a fair amount of executive face time and interaction and I hope to one day end up as the company's first CIO.
Went to college for Hospitality Tourism Management, wanted to bake/cook for a living. Realized that many in the field turned to alcohol or harder things to live day to day (and threw my back out the same week). While recuperating, I saw that Crutchfield was hiring. Started in CS (at the retail store), moved to sales, then custom install, back to sales). Decided to sell racing safety equipment, got tired of a 103 mile commute (each way) after 3.5 years, did a few different things around town, and them back to Crutchfield, this time on the back end. Tested returns for a year, then started driving the company truck, am currently interviewing for phone sales.
Oh, and taking classes so that I e day I might get into nursing school.
I make beer.
Beer is awesome.
fastEddie wrote: Was accepted at GMI with the goal of being an automotive engineer. Started out co-oping at an industrial engineering firm near my home town and through experiences at school and 1 quarter co-oping at GM I realized automotive engineers don't design cars, they design little bits and pieces that make up cars.
This! I was also really interested in automotive engineering until I met one at a party I attended with my parents. I asked him what his job was like and he said he had been working for the last 2 months on the trunk hinge for some new Cadillac model. He was proud that he had cut something like 79 cents off the per-piece cost. I realized that was not the career for me.
Salanis wrote: I make beer. Beer is awesome.
You win.
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