I do like my job and the people I work with. I was avionics in the USMC working on CH-53E's for 9 years. That was the coolest job I ever had. I was aircrew and a door gunner. I got out and got into the semiconductor industry working with copper electroplaters. I was there for 7 years. I hated every minute of that job working at the Intel factories.

While there I made an acquaintance at the gym who left Intel to me a manager at Electro Scientific Industries and he offered me a job. I've been working with lasers now ever since 2007 and the technology I work with is mind-blowing. I knew nothing about lasers prior to that but I've learned a lot in the time I've been working there.

I survived countless layoffs and have managed to gain enough seniority that I can work whatever schedule works for me and I pretty much work alone. I have also gained the ability to teach others and that seems to be one of my callings. I teach new engineers and techs that come through the company. It's been pretty cool.

My job is finally ending though and I get to move to FL next month and work on my real passion which is gunsmithing/gun building.

Tony.

quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:

I am the corporate subject matter expect for assembly of our primary product lines, so I work with plants around the world. I've started up several new assembly plants in Asia, put a new line in Mexico, and now I am working on some projects in the US and UK. Also consulting on a project in Japan and maybe a project in Thailand.

Cover for your CIA assignments?

I retired 7 years ago from a 42 year in banking that included consumer, mortgage, commercial and agricultural lending. It was a great job helping people obtain the things in life they wanted.

Train Operator - LOVED everything about it, expect the job being in the San Francisco Bay Area. Had to get out of there.

I used to love my job. Like I couldn't wait to go to work. On Christmas break, halfway through I was ready, and looking forward to going back.

No, I still like my job,for the most part, but I no longer look forward to going.

Sometimes I dread going. Like today, I'm counting down the time when I have to go back and I'm loathing it, especially the next three days.

I'm a school bus driver, and specifically I'm an open route driver/sub bus driver. I'm going on 8 years now as a school bus driver, and a little over 5 years as a open route driver.

But with the severe shortage of drivers, the coof plandimac, and the lack of the school principles disciplining students has turned a fun and rewarding job into a grind.

There are days that make me wonder why I'm still getting up and going to work.

I have 3 more days and the last day of school is Wednesday, no more dealing with the route I'm on now, 7 months with the worst kids I have ever seen.

I'll be doing summer program, 2 or 3 days a week of field trips, and some bus cleaning here and there. Looking forward to it.

ARman

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
As the title states.

I loved every job I ever had until about two years before I retired. Then not so much, which was probably the main reason I retired.

quote:

Originally posted by petr:
Also, how did you get there?

It just kinda sorta "happened." Never planned one single bit of it.

First job, out of the Army, was making rubber gaskets, seals, and o-rings. (That was actually one of the most satisfying jobs I ever had, in some ways. Zero stress.)

First "real" job was service tech. for telephone peripheral equipment. (Only job from which I was ever laid off. Later found out it was because, instead of telling customers they needed new machines, I'd actually, you know, repair the ones they had--which I'd thought I was supposed to do.)

Took the summer off

Next job was making wiring harnesses for commercial video games, part-time. Needed a job, knew how to solder, so...

Leveraged that into refurbishing old video games into new.

Leveraged that into circuit-board repair.

Leveraged that into hardware design, which eventually became running the entire circuit-board design, manufacturing, and repair operation.

Leveraged that into software design and coding. Subsequently left the video game industry and moved into industrial automation.

After 10-15 years of hardware and software design I moved to I.T.

After twenty-five years of I.T. I decided there was nowhere else interesting to go, and retired.

Self-taught every step of the way.

My only regrets? I sometimes vaguely regret not having applied myself more diligently in school and gone into law. Or stayed in the military and retired after twenty years. But I'm happy enough with how things turned out. And, had I done either of those, odds are I'd never have met my wife, so...

I retired from GM as a Journeyman Millwright. Started (1969) out on production when I was barely 18, 9 years later I go an apprenticeship in the foundry of Pontiac Motors. When that was closed I got picked up at the GM Tech Center. I retired in 2012 with 42.7 years of seniority. I was not quite 61 at the time but they were giving a retirement bonus to old guys to make room for younger guys that were on layoff from other plants. I retired debt free at that time!
I pretty much enjoyed the work most of the time. A few bosses made some hardships once in a while. I was not happy with some of the reverse discrimination that occurred over the years but that was life.

I am a frontline manager over two Facilities groups for a large aerospace company. Usually, my position requires a degree. I worked my way up from the bottom and am actively working on finishing my formal education (my personal goal).

Do I like my job? Overall, yes. There are positives and negatives with any job. I tend to focus on the positives. The most rewarding part of my job is developing my people.

I am not interested in promoting any higher, but if my job depends on it, then I will.

I have been working at this company for 21 years. If all goes well, I will finish out another 10-15 years and retire.

I have been lucky, but I have also worked above my pay grade. I have done everything that I could to make myself valuable. While I didn’t see the direct benefits of additional responsibility at the time, looking back at my career I was responsible for carving my own path and creating opportunities for myself.

I am a retired Clinical Laboratory Scientist with a very broad medical background. I enjoyed my entire career, ranging from hands-on clinical laboratory work, medical research and then sales and management. Eventually ended up owning a clinical laboratory services company.

I retired when my wife suffered a major brain bleed and required my constant care…

If you enjoy your work, doing it is a pleasure, not a chore - I am truly blessed.

I wanted to work with explosives since my high school chemistry class. At the end of getting my BS in chemistry (2006) I attempted to join the service with the goals of OCS and EOD. I found out at MEPS that I was a Type I diabetic; the doctor called it "rapid adult onset". It was a pretty big life-down-the-toilet moment for me, since it killed any chance of a military career. Plus, I was busting my ass at the gym every day and was down to a 5 minute mile.

I didn't want to give up on the ultimate goal, so I found a MS program out at New Mexico Tech for explosives engineering. I applied, was accepted, and finished the program (2010).

I worked for a while at Tech's EMRTC (Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center), where I got into sensitivity testing, synthesis, and formulation of energetic materials. Once I moved to my current employer, I was instructing in a homemade explosives class for active duty military EOD. I also run my facitly's sensitivty testing lab and explosive component disassembly lab. It also involves lots of explosives training/teaching, including some international trips.

So, instead of being EOD, I get to train EOD and still get hands-on with explosives every day. I do love what I do, though the job isn't always unicorns and rainbows. There is TONS of safety BS and paperwork, as you could probably imagine. I love having to convince managers and/or safety folks that don't know jack shit about the field that what we are doing won't get us killed.

I got out of the Marine Corps and started as a computer draftsman (after getting my CAD certification) at a company my father owned.
Going from what I did in the Corps to sitting on my ass behind a computer was absolutely not for me.
I got the call from the State offering me a seat at the academy and I jumped at it.
Started work as a prison guard and I’m currently 70 days away from retirement.
The state lets veterans buy back up to 5yrs of military service to count towards retirement and I did that when I started after the 2012 restructuring of Ohios pension funds my Department bumped me from 30yrs to 31yrs.
That ends Augusta 1st.
I’ll be collecting my full pension just having turned 52 and after my 60day waiting period I’ll be looking to start my second career with the State of Ohio as they permit you to “double dip”.
Too much money to leave on the table with 13yrs to go until I’m 65 to pass up collecting a pension check & full time pay check each month.

Plenty of openings at the Dept of Transportation or the Dept. Of Developmental Disabilities in my area.

i retired in '07 after 2 nasty helicopter crashes.

academically suspended in early '69, lost 2s school deferment.

us army was the only service where i could fly without a degree.

after flight school, rvn...ets/derosed after 2 years/2months/29 days.

36 years commercial flying all over the world. i left iran dec '78, just before return of khomeni's exile in paris, which took 'em back to the dark ages.

looking back, the academic suspension was the best thing that happened for me at the time.

i lived/worked in places that folks dream about traveling to.

Grumpy, I used to deliver CO2 to the two prisons in Lebanon Ohio.
I see you used the term Guard, One time I was between the two gates checking in,
and asked if that guard was going with me. He screamed at me..WE'RE CORRECTION OFFICERS!!
Did it bother you to be called a guard?

In HS I was a serious motorhead and into everything with wheels, mostly drag racing and motorcycle flat track. Went to Tech School to be a mechanic and was good at it. Until I found out that doing it day to day was a grind and a long haul to better positions. I looked at the military as an option and thought the USAF was a better gig, since Vietnam was still ongoing. The USAF recruiter offered Security Police and I took it thinking it might be fun to the pursuer instead of the pursued. After I got out, I went to DOD Police, then to the Pinkertons, then to the PD in my hometown. Medical retirement after 21 years and then a PI and working in private security in the medical field. Complete retirement in 2008 and move to the Yoop. Then 10 years as a Volunteer Deputy for the SO here. Now done with LE totally. I miss the action. And the people I worked with. But not the rest of it.

Hate my job.
I do as little as possible.


I come up with solutions to fix the solutions engineers got wrong or have absolutely no clue how to implement that were just plain stupid in the first place.
Then write a procedure on how to implement in the field.

I like my job and love the people I work with. The company treats us well and there is a lot of flexibility. I work for a consulting engineering firm and design plumbing and fire protection systems for all types of renovation and new construction projects (schools, colleges, hospitals, manufacturing, municipal, etc. etc.). My time is split between engineering/design and mentoring junior engineers. I went to college for mechanical engineering and being an ass (it only took me 6 years to earn my degree).

quote:

Originally posted by tleddy:
If you enjoy your work, doing it is a pleasure, not a chore - I am truly blessed.

I very much feel the same.

I've loved every job I've held; I just have a short attention span. Every few years, I need to change something: job, classification, etc. Almost all of my employment has been in management. I was with Bell Labs for 26 years, was Asst. Mgr. for a small firearms distributor, was a Mfg. Mgr, and now an Armed Security Guard on a government contract. While my current job pays very well, I'm looking to drop it and find something where I don't have to think all day; maybe in a grocery store or something similar.

At my age, I just want something to take up 3 days a week, so I can enjoy the other 4 days!

I like working but not having to work.
And yes I enjoy what I do.

I'm a maintenance planner for a large aerospace company (worldwide). We make stuff out of aluminum. Plane parts and large truck wheels are our specialty.

My department forges wheels, and we are one of 3 plants in the world that do so for our company. I like my job a lot, but I hate some aspects because my plant has the UAW auto-workers union there, and we are currently running with about 50% of the salaried support staff that we had in 2020.

I've been there just shy of 5 years and am currently going to school for my Bachelor's degree. My company is paying for the schooling, so it would be stupid of me not to take advantage of that opportunity. I just completed the 1st 1/4 of the curriculum and should be done in another 2.5 years or so (I go to school online in an advanced program that has 5-week classes.) Once I'm done with my degree who knows where that will take me?

I've corresponded with vthoky about our jobs and see gjgalligan is a retired millwright. I work with electricians and millwrights all day, every day and appreciate their knowledge and skills that they have learned through the years (most of them anyway )