Hello! I was curious as to what some of you guys do for a living, outside of writing. Of course I am aware many people on here are writers, but if there are any doctors, welders, or architects among you, I'd love to hear about it! Also if you are not currently employed I'd still love to hear about what you are doing and what you plan/hope to become in the future! As for me, I did not receive a college education. Right after highschool I followed in my father's footsteps and became a commercial fisherman. I work with my father/cousins catching king crabs in the waters off the coast of Alaska, generally between october and jan. It can be challenging work, but its fun. We have our own boat and everything! I actually come from a long line of Samoan fisherman- my father, my grandfather, and my greatgrandfather. There are probably some uncles in there too But enough about me, what do you guys do?
I work as a Russian/English/Spanish interpreter and translator. I currently work for the U.S. District Court, District of Puerto Rico, but I started life as a military Russian/English interpreter. I come from three generations of military family. I was in the USAF, so was my dad and my grandpa was in the US Army. Writing for me is part of my personal life, not something I think of as a career goal. I want to be published, just like everyone else, but if it never happens I'm okay with that. I do it because I enjoy it. Happily hitched for nine years and I live on a mountain top in Puerto Rico on what used to be a coffee plantation.
I'm an electronics engineer, specializing in machine control systems for the amusement park industry. I've designed and built control systems for Disney theme parks, shows in Las Vegas, touring rock bands, and so on. I also do industrial control work for aluminum foundries. I'm pretty much retired now. I spend most of my time reading, writing, and researching for my WIPs. And I spend a lot of time on the forum!
Nope. The hubby and I are a little old to think about taking that on and adoption for gay couples is still a pretty tough slog.
Me and my roomie are older than you guys, and we're thinking of adopting. Roomie's health has to get better, though.
Sounds like a really cool gig! Unfortunately I was never much of a maths person so engineering was always pretty much out of the question when it came to jobs
More power to ya', man, but... I'm just not in a place to think about that. William and I have had "Puerto Rican adoptions"* offered to us twice and it just wasn't something I felt I could take on, and William was pretty darned clear that he wasn't into it. *Puerto Rican adoptions are similar to kids going to live with grandma, but here it's a more extended concept. Going to live with aunties and uncles and family even further afield is a common thing when someone in the family has a situation where they are having difficulty raising the kids.
Soon-to-be University student, entering as a Junior and majoring in English. Next year I'm joining a publishing program to learn how to be a real editor and such.
I'm a senior in college in Criminal Justice, and I work part-time as an asshole... err I mean stocking groceries for slave pay. I recently had a poem published in an anthology, but I can't advertise it here because it was on another writer's forum. I'm working on trying to do something with an invention I have had for several years. Hopefully I will be able to come up with some investors and make us all rich!
I also do nothing. lol I moved from Illinois to Virginia two years ago to live with my boyfriend and never got a job. lol Okay, that's not true. I worked at Macy's for a few months, but I hated everything about it so I quit. Got married a year ago, so now I'm a stay-at-home wife with no friends and four cats. lol
Hmmmmm Well I'm still quite young and so I'm still dumb enough to want to pursue writing as a career as impossible as that is. I think its pretty much the only thing I love enough that I could do forever and such but as I try to make it as a writer and improve my skills. My life is a bit of a mess somewhat XD I lived almost alone in an apartment last year and made money working for family and friends plus any other odd work I could find and some help from my ma sometimes (who was living with my aunt at the time and still is) plus my sister lived there sometimes to. It was very cheap. It felt nice being on my own for awhile though. But eh I ended leaving cause the place was infested roaches and a few rats. So lately I've been crashing on my aunt's floor but we recently got a new apartment so I'm moving up there with my mom. It is close to my grandma to and she's getting older and such. So its good to be near her if she needs help or anything. I've also applied for a dietary position at a senior home. I hopes I get it but there are a lot of nice working opportunities . I'm also a high school drop out and got my GED. I'm super proud of that! YES! I don't encourage people to drop out or anything but I've no regrets or anything. I'm sure I might when I'm older but for now I'm glad to be free from all that. It helps me focus on working and my own personal goals. I've considered college and military (Come from military family) but I don't think I'll do either. I may do college but pretty much everyone in my family has student loans and I honestly don't think I wanna deal with that hanging over me but maybe if things become less expensive or free somehow in the next couple years , But I'm still thinking about it. Oddly enough I'm a young person who would very much like a nuclear family someday. I don't mean any time soon (I'm not even in my mid twenties yet) or any sort of cliched 50s family. But I'd like to get married and have kids. Ya know? I know one can never be prepared for that (even if you think you are) and I'm certainly not prepared yet and might never be. I just would really like to be a good husband to a woman I love and a good dad someday. Sorry if that sounds to idealistic or anything and I never wanna do any of that until it just FEELS RIGHT in all areas. I'm just really a big softy for that kinda life though. So I'd prefer for that instead of being a bachelor forever or never having kids. But that's a long ways off but who knooooows might be closer then I know Other then that. I live day to day and such. So its a chaotic life but a fun one! I love it!
No, I'll probably go into one of three fields: loss prevention, private investigating, or as a security consultant.
I'm looking at various potential careers, because juggling my interests with practicality is fiddly, but it's going to be something nerdy like History Professor or whatever. (I like History, and I get good marks in it so I'm mostly looking at that). I also plan to do activism on the side once I have a stable, good job. Human rights; particularly LGBT rights, atheism, socialism, pacifism, reduction of war, anti-death penalty, that sort of thing.And I like writing as a hobby a lot, obviously.
I am a forum moderator for a video game company for a living, and have been doing that more or less for 10 years. That is never something I intended to do. I just had a friend of a friend offer me the job because he knew me from message boards I used to live inside of, that I knew how to navigate message boards, and he was a marketing executive for this company. At that time I was working minimum wage, overtime, living out of my car (early twenties but still), and the forum mod job gave me the ability to move away from my shitty life/friends/town, get a college degree, mess around with music and art in a college town for several years, and discover that, after a series of tumultuous relationships, and a couple years of therapy, that I, myself, wanted to become a psychotherapist. I have been in a master's in clinical psych program for the last 1.5 years (75% done!!) and for my practicum work have been seeing children and adolescents at a child abuse treatment agency for the last 6 months*. The math, when you add up forum mod job + grad school + seeing clients, I am working 60 hours a week and do not have a single day off. This has resulted in some stress related medical issues recently. (*Today I had two excellent sessions. In the first, which was a farewell session with a 10 year old who was my first ever client (kind of sad), the kid reported that he is no longer having debilitating nightmares (the initial primary complaint thingy). I am pretty sure he said that to make me feel better. Me being pretty sure is interesting, and if I'm right that's interesting. He's been teaching relaxation techniques I taught him, to his cousin, who is Mexican-American like him, because his cousin has been having nightmares about Donald Trump deporting Mexicans. In a session with one of my juvenile sex offenders today, I successfully got this somewhat developmentally delayed teen who is mandated to treatment by probation, to do "empty chair" work. This is a one sentence response kind of kid, so seeing him do what's considered "deeper work," was extremely rewarding. Plus, facilitating such work is a good ego boost. Best part of the thing was that once I got him in a deep place, detected the deep affect from the nonverbal communication, accurately reflected the feelings n shit, I got him to identify the location of the deep sadness in his body (for him, the chest), then asked him to "stay with it," I uttered this exact sentence in my head, head on chin: "What the fuck do I do now?" (I did not write this into my progress note.) As he was in his transformative moment, I felt myself smirk at my internal commentary. I was aware of this happening, and how insensitive and hilarious it was simultaneously, but since he wasn't looking at me, I felt relieved. I hope this large paragraph was as entertaining to read for someone as it was to write.)
That reminds me, I want to do something similar. I'm majoring in English, but once I graduate, I want to be an activiist for spreading basic reproduction education, particularly women's anatomy. So many people are confused about it.
I also intend to find love and all that. Maybe get married if he wants to, presuming things go well with the Liberals' bloody plebiscite. (Grumble, grumble, just free vote you dicks )
