What do you do?

Jx3

Riddle me this...
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I worked as an overnight CSM at Wal-Mart to put myself through college. Dealing with high schoolers is what I'm used to. Plus the weekends and summers off are nice.

Guess I should have become an attorney, found out today my sister is suing me.
Thats super shitty
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
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14,508
The only one that matters to me is I am the last surviving descendant of a signer of the TX Decleration of Indpendence.

I'm currently hiring engineers and I really don't even look at their school. Of course we're basically shutting down a department of non college grads and replacing them with engineers to satisfy someone else. Non engineers did just fine in the past.
Schools for engineers aren't really a big deal unless you're looking for the top of the top (Google, etc). On the job skills trump whatever you learned at school anyways. I would still want to make sure their university was ABET accredited though
 

Heylel

Trakanon Raider
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Schools for engineers aren't really a big deal unless you're looking for the top of the top (Google, etc). On the job skills trump whatever you learned at school anyways. I would still want to make sure their university was ABET accredited though
I'd say it matters for engineers, but it doesn't need to be an Ivy. You're right in that what you can do matters a lot more than where you learned to do it.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I'd say it matters for engineers, but it doesn't need to be an Ivy. You're right in that what you can do matters a lot more than where you learned to do it.
Guess it depends on what type of engineer. For a civil engineers not so much apparently.
 

Picasso3

Silver Baronet of the Realm
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There's so many niches and such an indirect relationship between schoolwork i think specific experience for whatever job they're hiring for is king, put the gpa on there and eit or pe certification means they're abet accredited and most likely not a dumbass.
 

Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
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436
I know a lot of people here come from IT backgrounds (goes with the territory of being gaming nerds after all) but if anyone is thinking of career changes then Accounting really isn't all that bad. While I was working in Accounting at a bank, one of the Senior VPs once told me that Accounting is a great field because every company needs them.
It's also a good thing that Accounting uses logic, and knowing how software works helps with your everyday work. The other accounting guy here, my boss, has a higher education on paper but when he hits the keyboard the computer cries a little inside.

Forgot the most important detail about my job: since I've been there over 15 years, I can't be laid off (unless I really fuck up, i.e. steal silverware that we don't have).
 

Kalaar kururuc

Grumpy old man
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Reading through this thread it makes me relieved (probably not the right phrase but it will do) to see I'm not the only one bored off my tits at work. I work for a university and on paper it should be a fantastic job, working in academia on projects with global aerospace partners should be a recipe for good learning opportunities on exciting projects. But I am so under-utilized it's crazy. Not much work comes in and it's a scramble to get on a project between me and the other industry experienced guys. The academic types and the recent grads all seem happy to keep themselves busy (and by busy I mean doing fuck all) but it's driving me crazy. I did a BSc in Marine Science back when I was younger but I'm just about to complete a BEng in Mechanical Engineering I started at the same time as this job, that gives you an idea of how much spare time I have, full time job but have also done a full honors degree in the same time as you would going to university to do it full time. Not a clue what I'm going to do when I've no longer got that to fill the hours.

Problem is they give me 16% pension contribution, on top of my 8%. I work 35 hours/week and get Friday afternoons off, 30 days holiday, plus at least 1.5 weeks at Christmas plus a few days off for thanksgiving plus bank holidays etc etc. I spent years in industry so I know I'm not going to get even close to that (albeit with a higher salary) and now I'm 40 the benefits are something I'd be crazy to give up but damn it's boring. May have to do a PhD just to pass the time heh. First world problem hey?
 

Ronaan

Molten Core Raider
1,092
436
Reading through this thread it makes me relieved (probably not the right phrase but it will do) to see I'm not the only one bored off my tits at work. I work for a university and on paper it should be a fantastic job, working in academia on projects with global aerospace partners should be a recipe for good learning opportunities on exciting projects. But I am so under-utilized it's crazy. Not much work comes in and it's a scramble to get on a project between me and the other industry experienced guys. The academic types and the recent grads all seem happy to keep themselves busy (and by busy I mean doing fuck all) but it's driving me crazy. I did a BSc in Marine Science back when I was younger but I'm just about to complete a BEng in Mechanical Engineering I started at the same time as this job, that gives you an idea of how much spare time I have, full time job but have also done a full honors degree in the same time as you would going to university to do it full time. Not a clue what I'm going to do when I've no longer got that to fill the hours.

Problem is they give me 16% pension contribution, on top of my 8%. I work 35 hours/week and get Friday afternoons off, 30 days holiday, plus at least 1.5 weeks at Christmas plus a few days off for thanksgiving plus bank holidays etc etc. I spent years in industry so I know I'm not going to get even close to that (albeit with a higher salary) and now I'm 40 the benefits are something I'd be crazy to give up but damn it's boring. May have to do a PhD just to pass the time heh. First world problem hey?
Avatar fits.

"Here I am, brain the size of a planet..."


Do any of you nerds do web design? I have been out of the game too long and I've got some people asking about it. I told them to try godaddy
Been thinking about doing some web design and "I'll fix your computer" stuff on the side. Probably not worth the brain cancer, my everyday users are bad enough already. Not really keen on fixing aunt Mary's 1989 Vobis. Though that would require no additional learning, I could start right away.
Web design, not so much. I'd have to learn new things as I'm going, like I did when I fixed our daycare's website.

Plus when I think of potential website customers, I always think of this:The Expert (Short Comedy Sketch) - YouTube
 

Phelps McManus

<Silver Donator>
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But I am so under-utilized it's crazy. Not much work comes in and it's a scramble to get on a project between me and the other industry experienced guys.
I wish I had some downtime to work on pet projects or even implement improvements to processes I was too busy hitting deadlines to accomplish to worry about ("Next time!"). If I was ever done with that, I would read articles or something.

Don't get me wrong. I am not an overachiever. I fuck off plenty (hence rerolled), but I am never bored unless I have boring work to do or somehow got trapped in a meeting. You would never catch me going to my boss and saying "I need something to do". He tells me what he needs and any other time I spend creating my own work.
 

Lost Virtue

Trakanon Raider
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When I was a systems engineer I was on conference calls for like 6 out of the 8 hours I worked everyday. Never again.
I am on conference calls or planning/budget meetings pretty much 6 hours a day, 5 days a week. I generally get a lot of (candy crush, online poker, or forum browsing) side-work done. I have maybe 2-3 meetings a week around 7PM with some of our west coast customers. Those meetings make me want to kill myself... Nothing better than working a full day to come home and relax, then do a conference call around dinner time.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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32,037
Had an interesting conversation over dinner last night about hiring people. The person said the best deal was to hire people who promised everything (except legal and accounting) and thin the herd often if they don't work out. I would normally scoff at such talk but it has REALLY worked out for him in the long haul.

Kind of upsetting actually.

He went to put feelers out if I was interested in working at his new comapny he aquired, Ummm NO. Not after what you just said.
 

Cad

<Bronze Donator>
24,487
45,378
Had an interesting conversation over dinner last night about hiring people. The person said the best deal was to hire people who promised everything (except legal and accounting) and thin the herd often if they don't work out. I would normally scoff at such talk but it has REALLY worked out for him in the long haul.

Kind of upsetting actually.

He went to put feelers out if I was interested in working at his new comapny he aquired, Ummm NO. Not after what you just said.
Unless you're someone who can't hack it, that sounds like a great place to work if he'll actually fire retards.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I fired the one retard we had working here. I don't see it. We have very low turnover and get the job done with no retards. I have only one boss, the president. If I changed jobs it would a board, stockholders etc...

It's worked well for him, I just rather spend the effort to weed out the retards before hiring.

It's worked out well for him. I just don't have the patience to put up with them long enough to fire them. He really doesn't have to do it personally, he has an entire HR department that has more people than at my entire company I'm guessing.

I haven't had any dealings with him and his company since they had 4 guys working outdoors and kept their tools in a lean to 25 years ago. Eventually it turned into a fortune 500 company with him as CEO. I always thought they were going to end up as the next Enron. They/he seemed to constantly suck up companies at an alarming rate.

I guess I'm just not corporate enough.

He's getting a lot of positive press locally because he bought another company after selling out his last and bringing it to town with his investment group.