What do you do for a living?

[Prettymaid]

Of course, you don't have to say, but so many people have referred to their jobs in other threads, I thought it might be interesting to read what you all do.

I'll start...

I'm a full-time bank teller. I've worked at the same bank for 13 years and have no desire to climb the company ladder. I want to do my job to the best of my ability and leave it there at the end of the day. I have 11 more years before I can retire.

Aside from the usual transactions that you think of when you think of a teller, I am also required to sell at my job, which I do not enjoy. It's my job to ask if you want to open a checking account, upsell you to a better checking account, get a free insurance quote, or have our brokerage department give you a call. Whew! I don't even like writing it!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

PM, wow! I'm not a 'people person', so I'd be lousy at your job, no doubt!

I started to type in my official title here and it occurs to me I don't even know what it is at the moment. I think it's Business Analyst / Subject Matter Expert. Up until about six months ago, I was responsible for both business analysis and software testing, but we hired more people and the testing got off loaded to a new person.

Unfortunately, I can't give a lot of details on what I do or who I do it for, but in general a business analyst sits with the customer and determines their needs and wants from a business perspective, then figures out how a software system can meet those needs. Works with the customer to determine the steps needed to get from point A to point B (usually requires several software releases) and then writes the business requirements. Once the customer signs off on those, more technical specifications are written, and the software developers write the code to those requirements, the testers write testcases to those requirements, and the customer writes their User Acceptance testcases to those requirements.

[sad-cafe]

I am a teacher.

I teach at an Alternative Program Center. It is for kids that get kicked out of our very large district. Among the reasons kids can get kicked out vary from many incidents to drugs/trafficing and or weapons, violence or any number of reasons.

We are kind of their last chance and the rules are pretty strict. I have 12 different subject matters that could happen in my classroom in any given hour. My biggest class size is 9 but it is not "easy"

I love it!

[Outlawman13]

I'm a server/maintance person for Texas One Stop gas station. It is a bbq/bakery/gas station. LOL I serve people bbq and sometimes the people can be so stuck up. LOL I'm not a people person so sometimes this job is the hardest for me. LOL. I work from Wednesday-Sunday and can't wait for my days off most of the time. Hard work dealing with people. LOL.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

PM - I'm totally with you. My very first fulltime job was as a bank teller. I did not like the 'sales' part of the job either so I went into what my education and interest was and had the opportunity to become the Teller Trainer for the bank. That eventually morphed into becoming the Regional Teller Training Manager. As a result of a bank merger, that position was eliminated and I started developing and delivering merger and acquisition training for various operations departments in the bank.

I left the bank at the end of the century and switched gears a little. I joined a software development company as a technical writer. Technical writers basically worked with the programmers to design documentation for the products - everything from marketing materials, user guides, software specifications, online Help systems, etc. After a while, I was promoted to a technical writing editor, which meant that I edited documentation to make sure it was in compliance with technical writing standards. I also helped develop the technical writing corporate guidelines.

I decided to leave that position in 2006 and started working an independent consultant. It is basically working for different companies in contract positions on various special projects. I have used all of my past experience and have worked as a trainer, technical writer/editor, and am currently working as an instructional designer. That's just a fancy title for someone who designs training materials. But since most all of it is done on a pc these days, you have to know how to use tools to develop all of your course materials online i.e. CBTs, WBTs, online assessment courses, and Help systems, etc.

Whew! I tried to keep that as short as possible, but since I've been working quite a few years, it was hard to do. Anyway, the good side of being a consultant is that you are basically self-employed, I can do much of my work from home, and the pay is pretty decent. The downside is that you have to provide your own benefits, there is no paid time off, and that you have to seek employment again after each assignment is completed. However, from my experience, if you keep a good reputation, employment opportunities are not usually a problem.

[Grey Sadler]

I'm a public high school Biology teacher...hand over the ibuprofen!!

Sad-Cafe--my old placement (9 years) was almost like yours, except it was a diploma options/independent study program (you work on your own out of "work packets" and then take tests), and it wasn't necessarily for disciplinary placements (attendance problems, pregnancy, etc.)...but after all that time (and several years working nights, I said ENOUGH, put me in a regular classroom please!!!! )

[Glennhoney]

I have been a pharmacy technician for (yikes) 32 years now....the last 3 years as a tech for nursing homes only...

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I neglected to say how I got to where I am. I went to technical school after high school after taking a year off and working. Working in the salad/cold foods dept of a ski resort and then as a file clerk at an insurance agency was great motivation to do well in school.

I went to school for Industrial Engineering and got hired by IBM here in VA. I worked in production control, basically ordered parts and organized kits to be delivered to manufacturing. I was doing a temporary assignment in Boulder, CO to do some training there when I was accepted in IBM's Programmer Training classes. They sent me to school full time while paying my salary (incredibly lucky to have that opportunity). Northern Virginia Community College followed by George Mason University. Once out, I worked as a programmer (Software Engineer).

In the HOTE movie, when they get to Bill Szymczyk's part, they show a picture of a control panel on a submarine. I wrote software for an upgraded version of that. I also wrote software for an anti-submarine warfare program.

IBM sold us in 1996 and I quit Lockheed Martin in 1998 and went on to software testing and business analysis at several commercial companies.

One very interesting part of my job at IBM was that part of the testing for the submarine software we had actual tapes of sounds from deep in the sea and could actually listen to blue whales and hear them 'talking' to each other.

[Witchy Woman]

I sell computers at a major electronics store. I'm a personable individual, so it's nice to be able to meet people, and even better when you hit it off with them and they buy everything you sell them !!

[Glennsallnighter]

I'm also a teacher - we seem to have a few on the Border.

I teach Maths, Science and Biology to kids of ages varying from 12 to 19. The school is in a disadvantaged area, so the school and kids are not without some problems, but we have a very good Principal, and in her first year in charge she has made a number of very positive changes.

Our aim with some kids is that they would do well enough to get into college after school, while with others its that they come out of school able to read and write, and hopefully not have gotten into too much trouble.

Its challenging and tough but very rewarding too. And I have to say too, as people, these kids are wonderful. Some have been through a lot of upheaval in their lives, and that they still muster up the strength and courage to come to school every day is wonderfu;.