Currently retired. Finished my career as the "Director of Operations" for some seating component plants for the world's largest automotive seating supplier. Plant manager/Manufacturing manager/Technical Manager/Plant engineer at one of those same plants in Canada. Project Engineer/Bulk explosives (this was quite interesting).Project engineer in an ammunition and detonator/detonating accessories plant.
System Admin - AKA Professional Geek covering most aspects of IT at my companies.
In reply to Klayfish:
We've got a satellite lab in Houston too.
Lube tech, formerly motorcycle repair, general labor, tire repair, and my first job was appliance delivery and repair
Resume: I've had about every job in the fields of commercial construction and restaurants, hotel and apartment maintenance, IT contractor, fire and burglar alarms, telemarketing, retail, ditch digging(ok fios installs), and for a brief period I was a production head at a medical facility in California.
Currently: I run a handful of websites and do everything I possibly can to avoid punching a time clock, including eBay stores, estate auction flipping, and craigslisting.
tuna55
MegaDork
4/4/17 9:33 a.m.
FlightService wrote:
To all answering father and husband.
Might not want to ask your significant other if they are something you "do". They tend not to be looked at as a job/chore/burden. (I worded my title a certain way for a reason )
I stand by my answer, those are my responsibilities. They define what I do, and more importantly, why.
Production Manager/Graphic Designer, retail automotive restoration parts catalogs. Most of the time it feels like jack of all trades.
I'm not sure if I've lived long enough to have established my "thing." I feel like I've just been doing some different stuff and picking up different skills as I go. Right now I'm working at a little private school teaching music and tutoring. I kinda stumbled into the job by accident when I started subbing for extra cash while I was working part time right out of college. (My degree is a BS in Music and Audio Engineering.) I also do guitar lessons when I can find students and I usually fill my summers with some kind of labor job. I work on cars for fun when time and budget allows so that's a growing skill.
Working with students has taught me a whole lot about communication, people, teamwork, planning, managing projects, and all that important stuff. So that's cool.
In reply to DeadSkunk:
I used to work for Faurecia...
Wow......
let's see....
Caddie, then food service @ the club I caddied, then food service manager for all food outside of the club's clubhouse. Pumped gas, then was assistant mechanic. Then was VW factory trained tech, then Nissan factory trained tech. Then switched to the parts department for VW, Toyota, Nissan, and SAAB. Then was a online tech specialist for a "performance" aftermarket automotive based website. Then turned cylinder head specialist.........
Dogote
New Reader
4/4/17 10:28 a.m.
Lots of things where I've used wrenches, sockets, and screw drivers.
Tool Rental Store mechanic
Motorcycle mechanic
Aircraft mechanic
Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini dealer mechanic where I worked on a lot of the interesting used cars they had such as old ball Maserati's, and many V6 Alfas.
Back to motorcycles, BMW and Ducati in particular. The BMW were where the money was, the Ducati's is where my passion was.
I opened an independent shop in Bend Oregon and in a couple years built it into a very busy Ducati dealership. We also sold Husqvarna, Vespa, Husaberg, and serviced a ton of BMW's. During that time I worked with (for) Ducati on a lot of projects, became one of the first "Master" Ducati techs, and learned a ton about marketing and sales.
The crash of 2008 ripped a hole in Bend's economy that we couldn't overcome without going into massive debt and owing for the next 20 years if we wanted to keep our doors open. In 2010, we called it quits.
I went back to the career I went to school for, but got side tracked from due to better jobs being found in cars and bikes. Renewed my aviation mechanic and pilot certifications and have not looked back since.
I am currently responsible for an Augusta A119 Medevac helicopter at a remote base in north central Washington. It's pretty much a dream job. I can live in a resort town, and do a job one would usually have to live in a city to do. Great schedule too. 15 days on, 6 days off. If the helicopter isn't needing work, I wait at home of in my own shop (or fishing, dirt biking, shooting, anything but drinking and more than a 45 minute drive back) for the aircraft to break or need maintenance. I'm on call 24/7 while I am on duty, so I get really fun 100 mph drives up the canyon to work at 2:30 AM every once in a while. Sometimes the helicopter will even have an issue in the middle of nowhere on a mission. I get to load up my pelican cases of tools and go fix it.
It's rewarding. I have only one machine to care for, the pilots who fly it are well trained, and the only other mechanic that works on it was picked and brought into the company by me.
Compared to fixing toys for unappreciative asshats that only bought a Ducati to "keep up with the Jones's" and don't want to, or can't afford to care for it properly, what I do now is freaking awesome.
DeadSkunk wrote:
Project Engineer/Bulk explosives (this was quite interesting).Project engineer in an ammunition and detonator/detonating accessories plant.
You win!
Environmental Scientist (two entomology degrees, but no available jobs)
Asbestos technician: air sampling during abatement and inspecting buildings.
Research and Development Representative for two ag-chem companies.
Worked part time for US Fish and Wildlife Service as a Biological Aid while in college. No idea why I left this job.
Global Principal Engineer – Med Tech Industry…I fly all around teaching engineering statistics in a corporate university setting and I manage projects that require advanced statistical techniques.
Basically, I use math to keep patients safe, control costs, and get new products through the FDA approval process.
Ten years in purchasing and plant management.
Twenty two years in industrial sales and sales management.
D2W
Reader
4/4/17 12:26 p.m.
Started as a farm boy,
Mechanical/Design Engineer for 25 years building all sorts of heavy industrial equipment to smash and destroy things.
Bought the company two years ago. So now I am either a Magnate of Industry, or the company whipping boy depending on how the day is going.
D2W
Reader
4/4/17 12:28 p.m.
Not surprising, but there is a lot of engineering, math, and science going on here.
I started out working at a nickle mine in Canada, Body shops, car detailing, familys stamping plant,Pizza delivery, Have always been involved with Horses and ranching,
Came to California and started training animals for the movies while working at the Navy Stables and Doing Carriage rides in San Diego, Moved to L.A. to do the animal thing full time, Worked at ranches, Motorcycle Messenger, Helped start a Yamaha Dealer, Did Motorcycle repair and ran the parts dept at a Suzuki dealer. Now I make Eye glasses/lenses,Install low voltage in rich peoples homes, Work for a couple bands and still do the Animal thing when I have a little time, Still build Choppers and Hotrods, then in my spare time work on my truck.
FinTech manager. I really miss making stuff for a living and don't get to do nearly as many driving events as I would like due to endless family and work obligations.
In reply to nderwater:
Fintech the payment company?
The place i work at now i deliver beer 3 days a week and do maintenance 2 days a week.
In the past ive trimmed display posters, done maintenance, and sold books.
Mike
SuperDork
4/4/17 1:51 p.m.
I do information security. It seems like what that means, exactly, is rather flexible. I've given talks to community groups about email scams and crawled through hot attics to pull out sixty-year-old documents that have superannuated their way into being subject to privacy regulation. Mostly though, I answer email.
FlightService wrote:
In reply to DeadSkunk:
I used to work for Faurecia...
I worked for the one in Hillary's TV ad .....you know, the one that skipped off to become Irish.
MulletTruck wrote:
I started out working at a nickle mine in Canada, Body shops, car detailing, familys stamping plant,Pizza delivery, Have always been involved with Horses and ranching,
Came to California and started training animals for the movies while working at the Navy Stables and Doing Carriage rides in San Diego, Moved to L.A. to do the animal thing full time, Worked at ranches, Motorcycle Messenger, Helped start a Yamaha Dealer, Did Motorcycle repair and ran the parts dept at a Suzuki dealer. Now I make Eye glasses/lenses,Install low voltage in rich peoples homes, Work for a couple bands and still do the Animal thing when I have a little time, Still build Choppers and Hotrods, then in my spare time work on my truck.
You just made my entire career seem so boring.
Deflowerer of virgins.
P-licence Aircraft Maintenance Engineer.
Restoration shop foreman.
Guy who fixes E36 M3 that you can't.
Gary
SuperDork
4/4/17 2:11 p.m.
Machinist/toolmaker/fabricator
Manufacturing Engineer
Supervisor, Manufacturing Engineering
Technical Sales
Product Manager
Marketing
Marketing Manager
Project Manager
Retirement
That all spanned 45 years in manufacturing, machine tools and industrial measuring equipment. I like retirement the most. However, although everything else was fun and interesting but stressful, from a personal satisfaction and creativity point of view, machinist/toolmaker/fabricator was a great job. It just didn't pay as much as the others. (But really required a lot of skill). But it was a good foundation for what I did after. I consider myself fortunate for having a few good breaks along the way. Looking to buy a CNC machining center, deep hole drilling machine, CMM, or factory automation integration? If I was inclined to come out of retirement (I'm not), maybe I could help.