What do you do... for a living?

When I saw the last "what do you do" forum, I thought this was going to be the question. I'd be curious to hear a little bit of what people do all day.

I am a (QA) Test Specialist for a big ol' insurance company. I test changes to the claims system before we implement them. I rock. :)

I am a graphic designer for Washington University in St. Louis.

That is the official full name of the university so that people don't get it mixed up with George Washington University or the University of Washington, etc.

That's where my little brother goes! :)

Though if anyone in the family has a school that needs to include its location in the name, it's me: Middlebury College (in Vermont).

During the week I'm a PC tech.... fix computers/printers/etc at a hospital.
On the weekends (at the same hospital) I sit in the server room, monitor the servers, and run financial reports to make sure things cross over from system to system correctly. (there are TONS of systems that have to all interface with each other).

i'm a part-time aide at a private preschool on the south side of chicago in the baddest part of town. i'm studying right now to become a licensed kindermusik teacher, planning to go back to grad school for a masters and certification in early childhood education, and bringing in an occasional extra dollar or two thru music and freelance editing as well. craigslist is my best friend.

it's really called kindermusik? That's cool. *glee*

And they keep the rhythm on shaker kindereggs. Or is that kindershakereggs?

I did kindermusik. I learned to play the glockenspiel.

�� I'm pretty sure I'm going to enroll Maddie in the 18 month to 3 year old class in the fall.�� That's a good age to start socializing her some and she will get the biggest kick out of it.� She really loves music.�

that's so exciting! i think kindermusik would be a great experience for her and for you.

I work in marketing for a convenience store chain. I work in the field mostly doing training, merchandising as well as implementing new programs and corporate layouts of stores. I also design layouts for the fast food/hot beverage area of the store, trying to make the best use of existing space to maximize sales. Best part of job is when you walk into a store and it is clean. Worst part of job is when you walk into a store and it isn't...Old coffee and milk smell really bad...

I teach math at NYIT

I'm a tenant services coordinator for a real estate management company. I play around on the Internet a lot.

I think we all do :-)

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Get to work!

I HAVE NO INTERNET ACCESS AT WORK

I am a legal assistant at a personal injury law firm. I can tri-fold letters like a rockstar, a skill which I am sure I will retain for the rest of my life.

also, I'm quitting in August to go to law school, so I can pay people to tri-fold for me. woo!

I work as a banana plug for Chiquita...

heh, as I read that in my head it was "thought" like I'd say it, and then it cracked me up because one of my bosses is named Zakira but it's pronounced "Chiquita", roughly, so it took on a disturbing image. :)

hahahaha.

Sorry for the disturbing image but I'm totally in a crackmonkey mood today (I mean more than usual :)

i'm an ASP.NET/ASP/MSSQL Web Application Developer.

that's a fancy, micro$oft term for code monkey w0t makes websites function.

i'm a terrible web designer, though. my websites are not pretty. only functional.

(...'cause I'm a short-term contract...)

I'm an IT contractor for a company with an office here in Rochester (I forget where their headquarters is), contracted out to a rather well-known payroll company for small- to medium-sized businesses. For this contract (which sounds suspiciously like "For my next trick..."), I'm supporting end users in a changeover from Netscape Mail servers and Communicator to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook.

-- Pauley

I run a Systems Engineering group for a small tech startup called Dust Networks that does low power, self assembling wireless networks for sensing applications. My group develops network modeling software and does algorithm development and system stress testing. I used to run the Hardware Group, and everything we sell was designed by me and my guys.

I apparently attempt to save the world by listening to people talk about their concerns they have in caring for their elderly loved ones, providing support for bereaved individuals, running groups and developing workshops and presentations on various topics for education and relaxation purposes. The hours are long, the pay is not so great, and I'm busy as heck 98% of the time, but I really do enjoy my job, particularly when I feel that I've been helpful to others (which happens every now and then).

...being a technical writer. I write, edit, revise, and otherwise finesse software documentation for the world leader in CAD/CAM software and hardware for the folding carton and corrugated packaging industry. We also are a pretty big player in the pre-press market for all types of packaging.

My main product is 170,000 words in its latest revision (2 weeks ago, aw jeah...).

But I wouldn't call it a living. Living is being with friends, family, and listening to good music. :D

I'm a registered broker's assistant for a major wire house that's been spending a lot of time in the headlines lately. :/

But my overall benefits rock!

(I also go to school full-time so that I can change careers when I grow up.)

On paper, I'm a Sr. Customer Service and Activations representative for a certain un-named cellular provider. What do I really do? Well, I have limited (read: firewalled from everything but CNN, mapquest & intranet) internet access that prevents me from conversing with the outside world... so I actually have to be productive.

I process paperwork in all its glorious forms. My little 6 person team maintains employee and business concession accounts for the company, reconnects phones for those customers who occasionally pay their bills and assists sales channels with turning the lines on when they can't tell an ass from a hole in the ground or when the system decides to be all crabby. ;-) The benefits are awesome, and well worth the selling of my soul (it wasn't worth much anyway) & pays well for the field. It also gets me out of the house for most of the day & pays me so I can continue to have delusions of middle class.

i don't, as such, work. i am in art school full time, with one more semester to go, although i am planning to take the summer off to create me comic books full time (which, i'm hoping, will make me money some day).

I make videos and otherwise help people communicate with each other. I'm a mercenary selling my services to the highest any bidder.

Anyone need a video?

I'm the Assistant Manager of a Blockbuster Video. I'm not feeling too good about it right now, especially after reading all about all of your damn careers. Sorry.

It's usually pretty fun and incredibly exhausting, with a brand new challenge every day. I'm constantly changing displays and receiving and transferring media and other products. I help with recruiting and hiring new people and am the major communication pillar between the CSRs and the Store Manager.

Lately it also appears my duties include being responsible for every little thing that goes wrong, whether or not I'm there, from theft to untidiness to processing errors to whether or not it rained the day my store manager went to Canada's Wonderland.

*facedesk*

I'm sure she's just in a bad mood and it'll pass but right now I'm one inch from looking for another job. And I love her, I really do.

which location do you work at?

during the day i'm an x-ray technitian at a dental office.
at night and weekends i'm an apprentice to a local potter or doing my own work at the pottery co-op.
i'm also a wife and mommy to two cats.

you married your two cats?

Deny that you're married to Oscar and Zim. Go ahead, deny it...

I'm a "kid Wrangler" which is less fun than it sounds like it should be. I dont get a lasso. I just make sure 11 year old actors in a Broadway show dont get Macaroni and Cheeese on their billion dollar costumes right before their curtain call.
It kind of rocks.
Alex

what shows do/have you worked for?

OMGIWORKATTHECONTAINERSTOREANDITISTHEBESTJOBEVAR!

*cough*

I work at The Container Store in New York City. I love my job. I do all manner of tasks there, including but not limited to sales, register sales, valet (the kind that brings deliveries up and down and gets stuff for people, not the kind with the cars), reception, Elfa planner (closet designer), Elfa Sales Coordinater (person who coordinates the closet designers), Shelving Sales Coordinator, receptionist, visual sales, Elfa puller, Elfa cutter, Elfa scanner (all tasks having to do with getting Elfa orders completed and out the door), and trainer. One of the coolest things about The Container Store is that you get to learn how to do such a variety of things so that you can be useful in any situation.

I am useful. Yes. Yes I am.

your company was positively featured in Readers Digest this past month. I read it and thought of you. They showed a picture of a closet and spelled Elfa with a lowercase e.

I'm a lighting designer, working freelance in NYC. I do dance, theatre, music, parties, industrials, restaurants, system design and consultation, and whatever. I also program moving lights for other designers a goodly portion of the time. Alex, we may know people in common.

I make other people look brilliant. Yes. Yes I do.

I'm at work 10-14 hours almost every day at boost mobile (where you at?) as a customer service rep..errr excuse me, technician, talking to gangsta's, gangsta girlfriends, surfers and skaters about why there phone's aren't working, where to find the pin on their reboost cards and activating or reactivating their accounts.

Daaaaamn muthafucka! Sheeeeeet.

Fo' rizzle yo! Damn as bee-atch call in like i's gots sum-sum to do wit da phone not workin'. I dint change no settins or nuthin! Phone's just not workin.

*Swear to god a large percentage of the tech calls start out like this.*

*falls off chair laughing hysterically*�

it's funny because it's true.� i've also been fortunate enough to get "my phone isn't working in the middle of my huge huge farm." as well.�

question is: how many "mysterious water damage" calls have you received?� i hear about 1 "dropped my phone in the toilet" every week.

At At&t wireless/Cingular I would get one every couple of days, at Boost since I started the water damage hasn't been a problem usually someone was in a gang fight and their phone got shot.
No, not really.� We don't cover anything so when they call we don't get past the fact that the phone is physically broken we refer them to motorola and give empathy.

I had a lady that would plug her phone in a bathroom outlet and was upset because steam from the shower would collect inside her phone and it eventually caused damage.� After letting her know that we (at attws) wouldn't cover that many times I asked her why she plugged it into the bathroom outlet and she told me because it was the closest one to her bedroom and she shouldn't have to walk down the hall to answer the phone.� I told her perhaps she should speak with the managment at her apartment and see if they'd cover the cost to replace the phone since she didn't have enough outlets in her bedroom.� After that she hung up on me. *shrug* just a suggestion..

I'm a nanny and a stay-at-home mom. even though I don't get to stay at home....

the kids I nanny are 8 and 11, so mostly it consists of before- and after-school stuff, so I do get the middle of the day to myself. thank goodness. but then again, having an 11 month old "child" is a full time job. right?

Shari here...I spent 11 yrs working as a CNA (certified nursing assitant) in the nursing field before I had my breakdown and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I have been 5/6 yrs now trying to find the right med combo for me to function halfway normally again...pretty lamely at first as my pdoc kept tweeking little things here and there, but I was getting more and more out of it. By the time I was pacing back and forth from one end of our apartment to the other over and over and couldn't sit down, I had had enough and signed myself into the mental ward of our hospital where they took me off all of my meds and started me over on different ones...but this time they hit on something that worked and I have awoken to discover life and love for the first time. I have also raised three wonderful sons and am now bringing up a 5 yr old as well. Of course I have lost my nursing lisence so I have no idea where I will go from here. But I have alot to learn since I have lived so many yrs in a mentally ill state and couldn't see the forrest through the trees. I am very thankful for the love of my husband of 22 yrs and also of my kids who have stuck by me.

Just The Lion King. But it's the best job ever.

i don't envy your job one bit. a room of twenty four-year-olds i can handle. a bunch of broadway kids? no way in hell.

and btw, the reply button is your friend. :)

OOOH, that button :). got it now. It's not so bad, there are only 4 of them, and i'm quite tall.

You know what? I always feel like I suck explaining what my company does. So how about a link to the company website?

Among the things you can find there are our odd tendency to have nicknames for all but the newest roadcrew, a really bad picture of my mom, and a picture that makes our President/Founder look a bit like a televangelist.

Better description...
I work a 40 hour week in 4 days (sometimes 3). I'm one of those people you see on the road in an orange/yellow vest, outside a truck with yellow flashers - but not usually in/near a construction zone.

I'm out collecting the data that tells your county (and sometimes city) engineers things like "you need to replace this guardrail" "you need to get rid of this guardrail" "you need to put guardrail here" "this should be a no passing zone" "this curve needs to have a lower posted safe speed" "this tree needs to be removed" "this mailbox must be moved" etc, etc.

I've only ever worked here in my "lovely" home state of Ohio. But the Boss works contracts in New York state sometimes, I've been told we've done work in Michigan and Indiana, and there's actually some small talk of opening a "branch office" and doing some work down in Florida one of these years (The Boss's family has a condo down there, nearish to Daytona IIRC).

So, um, yeah. That's what I do. Well, that's what I do during the highway survey/construction season. In the winter months I mostly sit around and collect unemployment.

I'm a full time college student during the school year, a full time mother during the calendar year, and I work odd jobs on school breaks. I still have to figure out where I'm working this summer, which for me, starts in a week and a half.

Oh, and I'm majoring in Chemistry and secondary education so I can teach teenagers.

How did I fail to know you were a mom all this time?

umm, just lucky, I guess.

My son Jeremy is 6. I haven't seen his dad for six and a half years.

Because you all know how fashion-conscious I am ;-)
I take the catalogue orders, answer questions, things like that. I actually like it a lot, which is weird because alone I hate the phone and clothes.

But that's only part-time until things pick up again in July.

I'm holding out hope that I'll be a full-time grad student soon (if not this fall, then next year. It will be mine)

In the meantime, I have an interview for a part-time circulation desk job at the local library.

I do hope to wind up doing something academic in the end. Be it a professor (or instructor, or adjunct even. Something teaching in college) or maybe something in the library. I'd just like to find a job where random knowledge is considered an asset ;-)

;_; I just lost my job last night. I was a temp at a company and they decided they needed someone more experienced. *sighs* Anyone want to hire me?

Like other people I am full tie student anda part time Temporary Administration Clerk for the Community Liason Team at the Univeristy I attend which involves dat entry and analysis. Most jobs I've had have been based around that but I am apllying for admin posts at chariites and community support type places so that i feel I am doing smething positive, most of these places also let you volunteer on anything you are interested in too which is pretty cool.