tell us about your job

[JaBlue]

Tell us about what you do for a living.

What do you do? Do you like it? What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? What kind of people do best in your work? What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? What is a typical day like? What kind of problems do you encounter? What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? How much do you make? How much can one expect to make in your position?

and so forth.

[milesdyson]

I am bored at my job, so I will tell you about it.

What do you do? Structural engineering (unlicensed still).

Do you like it? Not really.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am well-suited because I understand geometry well and am good at math. I am unsuited because I am very easily distracted and unwilling to apply myself very much when there is no dire consequence to being lazy.

What kind of people do best in your work? People like me, just without all the other crap running through their heads.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A degree in civil or structural engineering basically.

What is a typical day like? Coffee, 2+2, and working on structural plans. It varies between custom homes, apartments, condos, townhomes, and other miscellaneous wood-framed buildings. I am pretty much always doing the same thing when in the office, which is designing the horizontal and lateral force resisting systems in these buildings. I am out of the office when I do structural observations on projects under construction or go to consultant meetings.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stupid people in the field and at other offices.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is usually caused by having to finish projects in short time periods. Elation is usually caused by drinking coffee in the morning, leaving for lunch, and leaving the office at night.

How much do you make? About $60k/yr when you count profit sharing.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Somewhere around $80-100k/yr with a good amount of experience and your professional engineering license.

[anduril]

What do you do? Head Athletic Trainer for 2nd biggest High School in Massachusetts. I love it. I get school vacations off, get paid cash for playoff games and neutral site games (we hold most of post season competitions for all sports), and get the summer off. I had last week off and may or may not work 8 hours this week. Again, getting paid cash for it.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? You need a Bachelors degree in Athletic Training and pass the certification and licensure exam to be able to practice in Massachusetts.

What is a typical day like? I go in at 2:30PM and if there are no night games I leave at 5:30-6PM. Otherwise I'll be there until 9-9:30PM. Hardly any weekends.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Problems are that I have a bad back and can't stand for long periods of time, which effects me mostly during football games. Also, most of my kids don't have health insurance, so I consistently bring kids to an orthopedist I know who used to work for the Cleveland Browns. If I don't bring them to the doctor, usually that means they have no way to get there.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Meh, I'm pretty laid back. It's annoying when we hold wrestling tournaments and more than two wrestlers start bleeding at once. All the coaches obviously expect me to get to them first.

Elation? Thank you's from parents. I never had an Athletic Trainer, and if I did I may not have a bad back and could've continued playing college football. I'm glad the same thing won't happen to my kids.

How much do you make?$38k/year. That is in the upper upper category of Athletic Trainers, even if they have a Masters Degree. I'm pretty lucky and negotiated my original salary fairly well though. Elsewhere an Athletic Trainer starting at a High School can expect to make $26-$32k/year. I'm not sure how you can live in this state making that much money, but people do. Thank science I can play poker.

[firstyearclay]

I am bored at my job, so I will tell you about it.

What do you do? Consulting, Affiliating, for various Internet Marketing Ventures.

Do you like it? Yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am pretty good at what I do because I 100% believe in myself. If I work I make money, when I become complacent, my earnings go down. I have great accountability, drive, and have been behind a computer for the greater part of my life.

What kind of people do best in your work? Individuals that are flexible to put in 18-24 hours behind a computer and be happy doing it. You must have the drive to try new things, be incredibly organized, and understand the economics of a business.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A college degree. You don’t necessarily NEED a degree at all, I just think it helps teenagers into early twenties individuals get experience, maturity, and grasp organizational skills.

What is a typical day like? Up between 10 and 12. Walk dog. Check emails and follow up with phone calls if needed. Browse current projects for progress and research and plan for future projects until about 5pm. Walk dog. Eat dinner and discuss projects and or new ideas with partner via phone or online from about 6 until ????. Usually turn in about 3-4am. Most of the night time “work” or “computer time” is pleasure mixed with business.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Frustrated customers and the inability for people to meet deadlines. Its one thing to say you can do a job and have the skills to do it; and it’s a WHOLE OTHER ball game to get that job completed on time.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration from jobs not being completed on time. Elation from making money day or night, sun or snow, around the clock.

How much do you make? /images/graemlins/smirk.gif

How much can one expect to make in your position? Grab a canvas and start. You can make as much as you want to earn.

fyc

[Dids]

What do you do? I supervise an adminstrative support department in a university.


Do you like it? It's low stress, I have a lot of freedom, with two large exceptoins, I like who works for me and who I work with. It beats a real job.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm a good teacher, I relate well with people, I'm good at hiring.

What kind of people do best in your work? We don't ask a lot. If you can be organized, you're pretty much ok.


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Well, I'm 5 credits short of my degree...


What is a typical day like? Depends on if I'm trying. If not, a lot of 2p2. If I am, meetings, working on project and putting out fire/helping my staff as needed.


What kind of problems do you encounter? Unreasonable requests from faculty, idiots on all fronts.



What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? I have two employees who are mostly braindead and useless. I can't fire them. Communicating them at all is a pain.

How much do you make? 40K a year.

How much can one expect to make in your position? 40K

[mmbt0ne]

What do you do? "Operations Analyst" aka GM/OM-lite at a 3rd party logistics company (we manage warehouses)

Do you like it? So far it's pretty good.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm really smart when it comes to the kind of analysis that's new to the industry.

What kind of people do best in your work? The best are the people who are able to manage people as well as compile, understand, and react to data. Lots of people in the business can do one really well. Very few people can do both. Those people are highly sought after.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? You can be an operations manager with a high school degree. You can be a GM with any kind of community college degree (and probably without if you're really old school).

What is a typical day like? Right now: in at 8:30, walk around the warehouse for 30 minutes, talk to the shipping clerk, walk around the warehouse, back to my office, read CNN, get the GM and OM together to finally talk about my project (helping w/ RF system implementation and getting the warehouse 5S compliant), work for a bit, go to lunch, come back, maybe a conference call for about an hour if it's Wednesday or Thursday, finish my work for the day, talk to boss at regional, try to find some more work, go walk the warehouse instead for another 30 minutes, leave at 3:30.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Figuring out how we're going to get all of this done in < 3 months.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? For me, it's trying to explain new concepts to people who are very set in their ways.

How much do you make? Just above $50k per year after bonus (because if I don't get maxed out I'm leaving) plus all the free batteries and razors I'll ever need.

How much can one expect to make in your position? This is a brand new position, so that's unknown. I know that plenty of OMs make over $60k with up to 20% bonus, and GMs usually make 100-120 with up to 25% bonus. The guys in Regional are making a good deal more it seems.

[XXXNoahXXX]

What do you do? 1L, Law Student.

Do you like it? I love it so far. I'd still quit in a second if I won the lottery or something.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am smart and good at taking tests and knowing what professors are looking for on exams. I have natural intelligence, so despite probably being in the bottom 5% in terms of hours put in, I get better than average grades.

What kind of people do best in your work? People that can view law school as a job, and put the hours in. Also, know how to study for exams and how greatly that differs from standing out during class. Definitely have to be good at both analytical and creative thinking. Hitting all the points on a law school exam will get you a B+/A-, but to get the A, you have to get a little creative.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Undergraduate degree, LSAT. If I had to do it again, maybe some work experience would have been helpful. If unsure, major in a hard science since it opens up a lot of doors for patent work, etc.

What is a typical day like? See A Day in the Life Thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Board=exchange&Number=9286144&S earchpage=1&Main=9284135&Words=day+XXXNoahXXX&topi c=&Search=true#Post9286144)

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stress of being called on when you haven't read the cases. Time crunch when memos are due and during finals.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Grades are based off of one exam for the most part. This is great for me, but still stressful. Looking at my grades from first semester, there was 0 correlation between my relative strength in the class and my exam grade.

How much do you make? Thanks to scholarships, I make about -$30K. (125k+ for private practice after graduation)

How much can one expect to make in your position? Law School has almost no need based aid, so unless you get scholarships, expect to pay $50k per year. Jobs after graduation range from 30k for public interest to 140k for big law.

[guids]

What do you do?
Self employed poker player, with vested interests in the outcome of sporting events, I also do a little food and beverage consulting among other income generating fields/

Do you like it?
Ya, its alright.



What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
Im well-suited for it because I learned at a young age, the only way to get rich is to work for yourself, and to rely on as little from others as possible.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Hustlers, haters, pimps, dealers, and scallywags

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
A creative way to see ways to generate income and street smarts.

What is a typical day like?
depends on the time of year, mostly wakeup at 7am, do some jogging, stop at the diner for some eggs and espresso, get home, shower, piddle around for a few hours, read the news, think of my next scam, I mean endeavor. Maybe hit the casinos, or meet up with friends to see if we have any jobs to do that night, if not, hit the gym, shower than to bed, or a night out on the town.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
not many, if you cant budget your money, the highs and lows can be rough.


What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Too many of each to name

How much do you make?
This year, the taxed equivalency to about 125k I guess.


How much can one expect to make in your position?

Skies the limit imo.

[quadzilla]

What do you do? Headhunter

Do you like it? Yes

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Rejection doesn't bother me.

What kind of people do best in your work? Money motivated, willingness to cold call and good communication skills.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Nothing other than the items listed above.

What is a typical day like? 150 - 200 calls per day.

What kind of problems do you encounter? I could write a book

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration - applicants/clients not doing what they say they will do. Elation - Closing deals/ Collecting money.

How much do you make? $250-400K depending on year.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Even someone who is new can make $100K+ if they work hard and have some talent. Some people make 7 figs+.

[IggyWH]

What do you do? My official title is "Environmental Services Technician" but that doesn't tell you much. I work for a civil engineering consulting firm and I mostly do field work for projects that need some kind of government approval and that is mostly environmental related.

Do you like it? The people are (mostly) great but the work sucks since I'm low man on the totem pole and always will be.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm well-suited because I'm smart. I'm the only one in our company that does this kind of work that doesn't have a degree in either Environ Science, Environ Engineering or Civil Engineering. However, I'm also poorly suited because I don't have a degree. None of my actual work gets validated in my name. I do the work and someone else (with a degree) takes credit for it.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who at least somewhat care about the environment. A lot of the work I do is for the eventual destruction of such environmental features so it's probably best to not be a tree-hugger (extremely passionate). You must be albe to at least stand working outdoors if not enjoy though unless you enjoy the cubicle farm. You also need to pay attention to fine print details and be able to put up with government and client imbeciles.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A college degree is pretty much mandatory. I sort of lucked into my job from knowing the right people and proving to them I could do the work.

What is a typical day like? There is no such thing as a typical day, but I can say what I did today. I had to be at a power plant this morning by 8AM. They want to add "scrubbers" to their facility that are used to reduce emissions (at this plant it will reduce S02 by 98%) and part of this project is to put in a new stack. They are filling in mines under this area with grout and concrete, which is where I come in because I am certified in testing these to make sure they are up to specs. Today we had 5 concrete trucks (all of which needed tested and 1 truck had samples collected that will be pressure tested in a lab). The pour lasted from 8AM to 1PM when the concrete pump broke down. In between testing the concrete trucks, I also had to test and get samples of the grout. Got out of the plant around 2:30 today after doing my paper work and then had to take samples that I made on Friday to the lab.

All in all, it's not really hard work. It killed my back the first couple days but then I got used to it. Tomorrow they're not pouring so I'll have an easy day before going on vacation for San Diego. If you're interested at all, here's the power plant on google maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&safe=off&q=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.29802,59.238281&t=k&om=1&z=16&ll =40.539227,-79.789925&spn=0.007795,0.021501&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl). Currently, we're working maybe 100 feet off that river (Allegheny).

What kind of problems do you encounter? Well, since I'm the bitchboy and [censored] flows downstream, I'm covered in [censored] all the time.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Trying to understand what my boss is saying. He's from Thailand and has lived here for like 30 years, yet it's near impossible to understand him.

How much do you make? $25k *sigh

How much can one expect to make in your position? If my position included a degree to go with my work experience and training, easily double what I make.

[limon]

What do you do? play poker, hustle golf, collect rent, book bets, "consult" for a company that lends money to illegal aliens, co-own a mexican collection agency w/ the ceo of the company i "consult" with. lament that my berkshire stock is stagnant. oh, and i married well.

Do you like it? cant hate it. really wouldnt change a thing. i would like to increase my golf % but its already ridiculous and the wife would object.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? growing up in the woods, running away from home, knowing i could lose it all and earn it back, ruthlessness, love for chaos/actually searching out chaotic situations.

What kind of people do best in your work? people who are willing to work their ass off in order not to work (hustlers), people who will end up dead if they dont get married. people who view everything as a game where they know perfect strategy, know theyll never be better than 60/40 on average and arent afraid to lose


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? would you bet everything (THAT ISNT YOUR WIFES) on a coin flip getting 60/40? can you deternmne your getting the best of it, beforehand, in a chaotic situation that you couldnt have prepared for?
What is a typical day like? get up before my t-time make and espresso, check the view/weather and let the dog piss. play some golf, head to the finance co. probably w/ someone i was golfing w/. return some e-mails. check some bets. call the mexican co. make sure the govt. hasnt seized it. go back to the course. putt for dough. in the old days i would have played poker all night but now i usually just go home, try to cook something, have a cigar and wine and watch the sunset.

What kind of problems do you encounter? before i got married...none. since i got married...extreme boredom. but the boredom is somehow fulfilling

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? frustration, losing. elation, winning. super elation, creating a situation where over time i cant lose. super duper elation birdie no. 4 at riviera.

How much do you make? 250k avg. last 5 years. it goes up and down but its way more than i can spend. i really have no use for the things most people want, cars clothes, jewelry, and my wife can afford her own bobbles.

How much can one expect to make in your position? most are dead broke w/ clinical ring around the collar trying to win $1000 bucks by losing 25 pounds in a week so they can play in the next "last chance" tourney at the la poker classic.

[guids]

people who are willing to work their ass off in order not to work (hustlers),


people who will end up dead if they dont get married.



I dont want to de-rail the thread, but your first point describes me also, something I couldnt put into words. The 2nd part limon, Ive been recently thinking about, I am pretty sure we are cut from the same cloth, have some of the same areas of business (moneylending, sports etc) and I hvae the feeling that w/o a wife to calm me down its going to rough times ahead, but I really dont want to settle down yet. Honestly enough, I feel that I teeter on the edge of complete degeneracy, and complete normalcy. at what point did you figure out when to get married, or was it not a planned thing?

[robinsons]

[ QUOTE ]
I am bored at my job, so I will tell you about it.

What do you do? poker / internet consultancy stuff.

Do you like it? Not much. it provides money, but I feel like my life is missing a major component that itneeds to make it complete.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? logical, disciplined, lack of ego, able to access situations without getting emotionally involved

What kind of people do best in your work? intelligent/disciplined people who are willing to work hard for themselves and don't like working for someone else

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? none

What is a typical day like? wake up around midday. go out for a walk to wake up and have a cig. read 2+2 for an hour or so while having breakfast and waking up. reply to emails/do some coding for an hour or two. play poker until 6. chill and make make food, then either go out or play poker til about midnight, get food, relax for a few hours and go to bed.

What kind of problems do you encounter? don't meet people outside of my social group. when I was working at a company I used to curse these people, however now I miss the social interaction with other people even if I think they're [censored].

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? most people would probably say long losing stretches, however I really am past them now. my biggest problem is prolonged stretches where I don't meet new people and feel like I'm just stuck at home with nothing going on in my life and I'm gonna die lonely when I'm 60.

How much do you make? who's to say, but I'd be surprised if it's outside 250-400k this year.

How much can one expect to make in your position? depends totally on how much you are willing to put into it (and now where you live).

[limon]

[ QUOTE ]
people who are willing to work their ass off in order not to work (hustlers),


people who will end up dead if they dont get married.



I dont want to de-rail the thread, but your first point describes me also, something I couldnt put into words. The 2nd part limon, Ive been recently thinking about, I am pretty sure we are cut from the same cloth, have some of the same areas of business (moneylending, sports etc) and I hvae the feeling that w/o a wife to calm me down its going to rough times ahead, but I really dont want to settle down yet. Honestly enough, I feel that I teeter on the edge of complete degeneracy, and complete normalcy. at what point did you figure out when to get married, or was it not a planned thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

i was in a long distance relationship w/ my highschool sweetie for 11 years. it was a cream dream....for me. once she earned her PhD she gave the ultimatum and i made the wise choice to get married. it helps shes bi and the first few years were a wild party. i needed that sort of transition or i wouldnt have made it. most (maybe all) great hustlers are married the single ones end up on the rail. marriage forces you to choose only the best hustles and not chase every coin flip. also the life of a hustler is very lonely becuase few can understand or would condone most of what you do so a partner in crime who knows everything helps somehow.

[guids]

Thanks, and it makes sense, I guess I gravitate towards chicks that can keep up my pace and party as hard as I do, I just cant focus on only 1. Im focusing this year on golf, Im not very good, but its an area that I would like to expand as I think poker/sports/lending will feed off the people I meet on the course. can I get a rundown on how you got started/what I should know, where ar the best places to play, etc. my cousin is working the clubhouse at a decent public course this summer, so I plan on getting out there 4 or 5 datys a week.

[limon]

[ QUOTE ]
Thanks, and it makes sense, I guess I gravitate towards chicks that can keep up my pace and party as hard as I do, I just cant focus on only 1. Im focusing this year on golf, Im not very good, but its an area that I would like to expand as I think poker/sports/lending will feed off the people I meet on the course. can I get a rundown on how you got started/what I should know, where ar the best places to play, etc. my cousin is working the clubhouse at a decent public course this summer, so I plan on getting out there 4 or 5 datys a week.

[/ QUOTE ]

look for my thread in oot on hustling golf.

[guids]

cool, thanks, I read some of that thread before, for some reason I didnt think you were the op, anyways thanks again.

[Paluka]

What do you do? Equity options trader

Do you like it? Yes, quite a bit.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I have pretty strong analytical skills and good gambling/gaming instincts.

What kind of people do best in your work? Strong analytical thinkers who are able to evaluate situations quickly and without bias.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Nothing.

What is a typical day like? This would take a longer answer, but I'll sum it up quickly. I get to my office around 8:15 and check over yesterday's stuff and talk with co-workers about any work issues. At 8:45 I head down to the trading floor to get ready for the day. Market is open from 9:30-4:00 and I'm trading all day.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Only problem is that nobody is a perfect trader.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Winning and losing

How much can one expect to make in your position? I know options traders who make less than 100k a year, I know many that make over $1 million.

[firstyearclay]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
most (maybe all) great hustlers are married the single ones end up on the rail. marriage forces you to choose only the best hustles and not chase every coin flip. also the life of a hustler is very lonely becuase few can understand or would condone most of what you do so a partner in crime who knows everything helps somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]

I see alot of you in me Limon except this one part. If you have been with ur girly for 11 years + marriage how much hustle did you have for women? I have dated girls for 12/15 years of my life and the last 2 years off were amazing. I agree with missing a night or two with someone/ some of that confort, but otherwise I have an open-end ticket everyday to enjoy the world. If this is life on the rail then I am a bird.

fyc

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

What do you do? Aerospace Engineer

Do you like it? Yes

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm good at math and physics type stuff. I'm generally pretty good at learning new things and applying my knowledge to a variety of problems.

What kind of people do best in your work? Smart, anal, damn near autistic freaks not scared of actually using all the stuff they learned in school in real-life applications. Weed it down further by requiring good communications skills - we're not english majors by any stretch, but effective presentation and report writing skills are a must.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Generically, an engineering degree, usually in aerospace or mechanical engineering, but there are also some civils and a few other random majors. My job specifically pretty much requires at least a masters in aerospace or mechanical engineering. It should be from a pretty good school, too, if you want to get a second look with us.

What is a typical day like? I work for an engineering consulting company, which means I see a much larger variety of projects than someone who just works for, say, Lockheed Martin or Orbital Sciences. I currently have a home office that I work out of, but some customers want me to work on-site. The basic day-to-day operation is pretty boring on the surface, but in the grand scheme of things, the job is pretty cool. Whether I'm working from home or on-site at the customer's office, I generally sit in front of the computer all day, building models of various structures for a pretty decent variety of analyses. Right now, I'm working on a couple dynamics problems. One is a separation event for the next manned space vehicle, CEV/Orion. The other is the deployment of a solar array for a small research satellite. I also do a lot of standard structural stress and dynamics/response analysis work on everything from satellite buses to various launch vehicle components to more down-to-earth things like Harley Davidson fuel tanks or even xerox machines and Disney rides.

The not-typical-but-not-uncommon day involves various meetings and design reviews, travel to customer sites, and structural tests (shaking and breaking stuff).

What kind of problems do you encounter? One typical problem is in dealing with people who don't realize how much time and effort it takes to do what I do. The nature of my job is such that I'm also usually under a pretty tight schedule trying to get information from people who are also on tight schedules, so their stuff gets to me late and that pushes me even closer to my deadlines. Right now, I'm on two big projects that both have big reviews this week and next week. It's not fun when deadlines land on top of each other.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? I guess my previous answer pretty much takes care of the frustration part. I'm not sure that "elation" is the right word, but it's pretty cool when I get through a big review and I can see the looks on all the (non-rocket-scientist) faces. It's usually a mix of "wow I barely understood what the hell he was doing or how he figured it out, but it was pretty cool" to "great job, kid."

How much can one expect to make in your position? Engineers make good, but not eye-popping salaries. I started at around $60k. I've been full-time for about 4 years now, which is kind of a 'tweener position where you can probably expect anywhere between about $65k to $80k a year plus bonuses and maybe stock options, depending on the company and your qualifications. $100k is probably not too far down the road. If you've got enough experience and/or guts, you can probably make upwards of $200k-$300k going out on your own, but it's very risky and you better be pretty damned good and willing to move to where the work is when it dries up in one place. I'm not sure how much exactly the more senior people make at my company, but I do know they've got some ridiculous houses in some pretty expensive San Diego neighborhoods.

[ua1176]

What do you do? Freelance audio engineering/music production, along with 6 hours/week of teaching recording to college students, and the occasional recording session as a guitarist.

Do you like it? 90% of the time i love it. 10% of the time im exhausted/jaded/wishing i was making real money doing something else.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm a good musician with a significant intellect and a strong work ethic. im not a people person but i can convincingly pretend. i learn new things very quickly and i have no problem working long/strange hours.

What kind of people do best in your work? the really talented + hard working + lucky ones.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? none. but intelligence, people skills, and a strong work ethic are pretty much mandatory. i graduated Summa Cum Laude with a B.M. in music composition. one of my gigs is assisting a producer who dropped out of college after 1 semester but has about half a dozen platinum records on the wall. his business partner got rejected from the colleges he applied to but has 3 grammy awards on his desk.

What is a typical day like? depends. usually up around 9 or 10. breakfast, browse web/check emails. most of my recording sessions start around noon and go until 8 or 10. i occasionally do late night recording but i try to minimize that. i occasionally do very early recording (8am or 9am) for corporate voiceover clients.

What kind of problems do you encounter? bad studios. stereotypical music industry liars/cheats. musicians with no capacity for critical self-evaluation. musicians who "know a little bit about recording" and want to have opinions about what im doing on their record.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? frustration: sometimes going for 2 or 3 weeks without a day off. clients being cheap and trying to hire my services for cheap/free because their project will be "good" for me. general music industry nonsense.

elation: the players are good, the songs are good, the studio is good...and i get to sit back and watch the record practically create itself.

How much do you make? about $55k in 2006 (my first year as a full-time professional). on track to do significantly better in 2007.

How much can one expect to make in your position? varies widely. most can't make a living at all but on the upper end...the sky is the limit.

[pokerspite]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do? pipefitter/steamfitter/welder

Do you like it? Absolutely love my job.
What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? good at visualizing things three-dimensionally. Good working with my hands. Meticulous but not to the point that it impedes my efficency.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who try their best and take pride in their work. I can train any indivdual to do what I do as long as he or she is willing to put forth an effort.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Highschool diploma. You take an apprenticeship test to qualify. The apprenticeship consists of 8000 hours of actual work under the guidance of at least one journeyman at all times plus schooling the equivalent of an associates degree. The classes are real easy and 95% of what you learn you never use on the job. But they pay you your hourly wage for every hour you sit in class so that's not a bad deal. Completing the apprenticeship was one of the easiest things I ever did.

What is a typical day like?
7:30 - Get to the shop. Drink coffee, b.s., and read the paper.
8:00 - go on the job
11:00 - go to lunch, which contractually is twenty minutes, but we're pretty good at stretching it to an hour and a half (you know us damn union slugs).
12:30 - back on the job
3:00 - back to the shop
3:30 - on my way home
Actual hands on work for a day averages around 4.5 hours
What kind of problems do you encounter? Typical of a construction type job; someone measured wrong, poor workmanship, something doesn't fit the way it should, etc. Nothing that can't be easily remedied .
What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? They don't pay me enough to get frustrated. I leave that for the guys above me.
As for elation, that's too extreme but I do get a real sense of satisfaction from building something with my own two hands and knowing I did a damn good job.
How much can one expect to make in your position? I make 28.50 an hour.
Without hitting a lick of overtime that works out to around 60k a year.
The most I've made as a journeyman pipefitter is 98k in a year, the least was 74k. I work with guys who have made upwards of 150k in a year with all the O.T. they've worked.

[/ QUOTE ]

[hobbes9324]

Chief of a group of 44 ER MD's in Reno Nv.

4 yrs. college
4 yrs. Med School
1 yr. research (optional)
4 yrs. residency.

Well suited - make complex decisions based on partial information about potentially life/death problems. Good at adjusting to unexpected changes in a situation. Calm in tight spots.

Eight or nine hours shifts, maybe 20 patients a shift.

Rough average for someone in my job would be about 250K or so - we do a bit better.

I'm a half time MD, half time administrator (someone has to do it) - The admin part of the job is like living in a Dilbert cartoon.....

MM MD

[firstyearclay]

[ QUOTE ]
Chief of a group of 44 ER MD's in Reno Nv.

4 yrs. college
4 yrs. Med School
1 yr. research (optional)
4 yrs. residency.

Well suited - make complex decisions based on partial information about potentially life/death problems. Good at adjusting to unexpected changes in a situation. Calm in tight spots.

Eight or nine hours shifts, maybe 20 patients a shift.

Rough average for someone in my job would be about 250K or so - we do a bit better.

I'm a half time MD, half time administrator (someone has to do it) - The admin part of the job is like living in a Dilbert cartoon.....

MM MD

[/ QUOTE ]

Where does "Chief" put you in rank with the on-staff doctors on your shift?

fyc

[hobbes9324]

That's not how it works - we're an independent group, not employed by the hospital. I am the administative point guy for any procedural matters. Additionally, if there are problems between someone in my group and another MD, I'll generally get involved - which happens VERY seldom. It's a real good job, so we can be highly selective - we pretty much only hire good guys who happen to be ER docs.

MM MD

[Golden_Rhino]

What do you do? Work at the beer store b/c I needed a job that I could do while going to school full time.

Do you like it? Nope.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am over 19 and can count past 20.

What kind of people do best in your work? Those who are dead inside.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? be over 19

What is a typical day like? Unload truck, fill rollers, help some customers, go home.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Dumb customers.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? No elation. Broken glass can ruin a good day.

How much do you make? Less than I should be.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Managers make about 80k I think. I won't be around long enough to find out though.

[El Diablo]

limon,

"would you bet everything (THAT ISNT YOUR WIFES) on a coin flip getting 60/40?"

What if your wife didn't have any of her own assets, limon? Would you still be willing to take this wager now that you are relatively established in life?

[El Diablo]

Ja,

"What do you do?" Tech entrepreneur, advisor, investor

"Do you like it?" Yes

"What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?" Good problem solver, willing to take risks, smart, good at negotiating, good at dealing with people

"What kind of people do best in your work?" People willing to take risks, people who work really hard

"What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?" Some sort of technical background is good, but a good understanding of business and technology is sufficient.

"What is a typical day like?" Start work around 9. Do a couple of phone calls. Do email for an hour. Surf 2+2. Read CNN. Write up a sales/partnership contract. Eat some lunch. Do a couple of sales calls. Review product plans/progress. Surf 2+2. Make a Powerpoint presentation. Play flash game. Do more email. Review some deals. Read some blogs. Finish up around 6:30. Do some more email at night.

"What kind of problems do you encounter?" Just always takes more time than you anticipate or want to close sales, partnership, distribution, whatever deals.

"What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?" Frustration - sales that don't come through and product delays. Elation - closed sales and successful product releases.

"How much do you make?" Whatever I decide to pay myself. Made more this year because a company I advised got sold. I don't make much all that much unless a company I'm involved with gets sold.

"How much can one expect to make in your position?" Between 0 and billions depending on how much you sell your company for.

[renodoc]

[ QUOTE ]
Chief of a group of 44 ER MD's in Reno Nv.

4 yrs. college
4 yrs. Med School
1 yr. research (optional)
4 yrs. residency.

Well suited - make complex decisions based on partial information about potentially life/death problems. Good at adjusting to unexpected changes in a situation. Calm in tight spots.

Eight or nine hours shifts, maybe 20 patients a shift.

Rough average for someone in my job would be about 250K or so - we do a bit better.

I'm a half time MD, half time administrator (someone has to do it) - The admin part of the job is like living in a Dilbert cartoon.....

MM MD

[/ QUOTE ]

Sub-specialist in Reno trying to avoid being called in by Hobbes. Or, if I must be called in, attempting to convince the ginormous corporate unicycle riders to pay me for my time, skill and liability.

[kickpushcoast]

I'm a manager at a pretty popular lounge/bar/club. Its a nice, upscale place with a good clientele, and really, REALLY hot women. I work about 25 hours/week, but of course the hours are crazy, I don't get off work until about 4am on most nights. The flip side to this is that I have alot of time to hit the gym, play poker and work on my music production hobby.

Moneywise, its very good, I run the door on the busiest nights, and people have to tip me to get in, or else wait in line all night. This can be very lucrative, I do share the money with the door staff, if I didnt I could drive a Bentley to work. One of our owners/investors is one of the most famous people on the planet, so I guess its cool shooting the [censored] with him and his other famous friends, some of which are actually pretty cool people.

I'm 30, with a degree, and alot of business experience(I was VP of a medium sized health club chain when I was 24), so sometimes it feels weird to work at my "job" as opposed to furthering my "career" but the hours and the money are great for now, especially combined with my extra smedium cash game grinding.

Dealing with people when they are drinking is tough though, and it really does wear on you, if you can't shrug off all the dumb things the customers and employees do, you won't last too long.

Also, I work with some of the coolest people i've ever met, most people that work in bars and clubs have good day jobs and alot going for them(or they re in school), and when we're off work and hanging out, we have more fun than probably just about anyone.

[registrar]

What do you do? "Academic Registrar" in a sixth form college/retake college. In reality, business development/marketing: but that would be a -EV job title in this market. I still do some teaching.

Do you like it? Not especially. I probably work less hard for more money than anyone else I know or at least my peers.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am a great salesman and I'm a better teacher so selling educational courses comes naturally.

What kind of people do best in your work? No one else really does this. I carved out my own niche after deciding that I wanted to move away from London and responded to a job looking for a Principal wih good business awareness saying that good Principals are never good businessmen and that they should employ me because I would make them a lot of money. I offered myself on a three month trial and said that I would be very expensive to keep after this had expired.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? It helps to be well-educated and have a reasonably posh voice and use long words.

What is a typical day like? I get up at 8.30, rush the kids to school, arrive at 9.15, read emails, piss about on 2+2 and go home at 5.15. At busy times, when recruiting, I spend half the time on the phone and half the time interviewing/recruiting students.

What kind of problems do you encounter? It's no challenge whatsoever these days but I have a large mortgage to pay and I'm too lazy to find anything else. Dealing with rich parents and their useless and spoilt children gets kind of annoying as well and once in a while what is sold is not necessarily what is delivered and this is always messy.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Closing any sale is always satisfying. Personally, I generally can't stand teachers, especially the self-righteous trust fund whingers you find a lot of in this town (Oxford), so working with them is always frustrating.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Generally, this sort of position, whether as Vice Principal, Director of Studies etc. gets £30-40k. I get more than this and have received income-linked bonuses of over £60k in the last three years.

[Slow Play Ray]

What do you do? I am a mechanical product design engineer for a Fortune 50 company. Currently the bulk of my work centers around explosion protection components.

Do you like it? Sometimes. I work closely with a really cool group of people, and I live very close, so that helps the bad days along.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'd say seven years of engineering school, but the fact is passing those 'fundamentals' really get you nowhere in the real world. They provide a decent foundation, of course, but what suits me to my job is simply my logical nature and my natural tendency to wonder how things work and how they can be better. There's no substitue for experience either. What makes me ill-suited is laziness.

What kind of people do best in your work? People like me, but less lazy.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A BS in mechanical engineering should do the trick. An MS never hurts either, and an MBA can move you up the ladder quicker. A PhD will hurt you more than help you though.

What is a typical day like? Arrive 15 minutes late, check email, read news/sports. Get coffee and toast, 2+2, more news/sports, etc. When I actually get cracking at working it can vary widely from day-to-day. I may spend all day on solid modeling or analysis software, running small tests in the lab, running explosion tests off-site, chasing a paperwork trail all day, putting out fires in manufacturing, or any combination of those and countless other tasks. That is the best part about my job - the variety; since we are a relatively small engineering group, we are pretty much responsible for everything. I generally try to leave on time every day.

What kind of problems do you encounter? General idiocy and unexpected results.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: general idiocy (particularly among non-engineering project team members) and unexpected results. Elation: when major tests go as planned, and when projects are finally completed.

How much do you make? Enough to live comfortably and support my many vices while still creating a nest egg for the future.

How much can one expect to make in your position? In my current position, it's presently pretty tough to get north of $120k but with some business smarts it's a pretty straightforward climb to an executive position, and then the sky's the limit.

[NicksDad1970]

I'm the chief dispatcher for a concrete company. I've been here for 10 years.

I'm treated fairly well by the boss. I make a decent income (nothing compared to the balla high stakes players around here, also nothing compared to you stock traders or lawyers)

My job in the summer is much harder than the winter. During the summer I'm usually there by 6 am and not out until at least 5. Sometimes I'm in earlier and stay much later. In the winter it's usually like 7 -4.

The way my job works is I'm pretty much hated by EVERYONE. I have drivers mad at me for working them too long. Other drivers are pissed at me for sending them home too early. I have customers mad at me because they can't get their concrete when they want it. I get the bosses pissed if I have trucks sitting on the yard. Dispatchers mad at me if they work too long. My wife mad at me if I work too long etc.

My job consists of scheduling drivers, loads for the customers, scheduling vacation for 75+ employees, writing letters when peeps mess up, calming customers down when things go wrong, and many other things.

In return I get a decent check, they pay for all my fuel, all my lunches, some of my breakfasts, a yearly bonus, a turkey for Thanksgiving and a ham for X-mas. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Gildwulf]

What do you do?

Public Affairs Research Consultant at a consulting firm on Bay Street in Toronto. I do everything from statistical analysis using SPSS to making presentations to client relations to helping run focus groups to creating questionnaires. I have my hand in at least 7 different projects at a time and I'm project leader on usually 3-4 projects at a time.

Do you like it? Most of the time it is very challenging and engaging work.


What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? My skillset is perfect for my job. I have a strong background in politics/public policy, so I understand the basic issues we look at every day in a broader sense. I have excellent research skills, as I worked as a research assistant for two years in my Bachelor's degree. I write very well and type quickly so I can meet the sometimes brutal deadlines (especially for media). I also have good 'boardroom presence' which is an important part of client relations. And a good sense of humour, which is important in any profession that involves schmoozing.


What kind of people do best in your work? Smart people who can talk about public policy who are good shmoozers, good writers and can run a set of numbers and understand it easily.


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Everyone else at my office is 25+, has an advanced degree in public policy, economics or business and 3-5 years work experience. I am 22 with an Honours degree in political science from a top school and good research experience, and a semester's worth of credits at UChicago where I dropped out of my MA. I lucked out big time.


What is a typical day like? Coffee to start at 9am, browse 2p2, meetings. Client calls. Running data analysis, writing questionnaires, lunch, 2p2, contacting the media, billing clients, writing syndicated reports, 2p2, content analysis and writing, go home around 7pm.


What kind of problems do you encounter? Very very tight deadlines and overload of projects.


What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? The timelines can be difficult. Getting projects in the media is always fun (I just had a four page spread of a poll I did in a major syndicated magazine. I also regularly publish polls in Canada's major newspapers.)


How much do you make? Low for Bay Street but I get paid more than anyone else in my age cohort I know.


How much can one expect to make in your position? low six figures

[Kintamayama]

What do you do? I’m a freelance Japanese translator. Basically, I translate documents, mostly legal, financial, and IT-related, from Japanese into English.

Do you like it? I can’t say I love the actual work, but I love the near-complete autonomy the work provides, along with the high pay and low time commitment.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I have an unusually high level of competency in the Japanese language, and am a relatively good writer of English. My desire to be independent drives me to do a type of work that most people, even those otherwise qualified, do not care to do. However, I have a short attention span. I’m not naturally attentive to detail, which is a requisite of this work. Though I’m a people person at heart, I have almost no contact with the outside world while working. Though I am an energetic person and would prefer to be physically active throughout the day, my work demands that I sit at a computer all day long.

What kind of people do best in your work? Book worms. Linguistic nerds. Detail-oriented people. People who desire an autonomous lifestyle. People who like to write, but lack the creativity to otherwise do so. People who are curious about a wide range of subjects, but who dislike settling on any one area.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Surprisingly, no academic qualifications are necessary. Basically, a translator needs to have the following three skills: a high level of competency in the source language (the language translating from), the ability to write well in the target language (the language translating to), and knowledge of the fields in which one is translating (or the ability to fake it well). In the case of Japanese, it takes a minimum of five years, usually much more, to gain sufficient competency in the language. It then takes several more years to learn the unique “skill” of translating.

What is a typical day like? I usually wake up pretty early, around 6:30 or 7:00. After checking my email and surfing the net briefly I get right to work. My brain functions best in the morning, so I try to get as much work done as early as possible. However, I also have a short attention span and have trouble sitting still for very long, so I tend to break my work up into short sessions throughout the day. After working 2-3 hours in the morning, I’ll go work out and then eat breakfast. Then I’ll either put in another hour of work or go take a nap if I feel like it. Another couple of hours in the afternoon, and then I’m usually off to the driving range to work on my golf game. I’ll usually put in another hour or so before dinner and then I’m done, except for corresponding with customers, usually via email. Since the work flow is irregular, I frequently work weekends, although in reality I seldom work more than 5-6 hours a day tops.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Unreasonable deadlines. Poor-quality source documents with lots of illegible text. Occasional jobs in fields I am not familiar with, which slow the process considerably.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Again, work in difficult, unfamiliar fields. Frustration when a client wrongly insists that the English should be written differently. Frustration at the lack of human contact. Not much elation in the work, other than occasional feelings of accomplishment after completing an interesting or large project. Elation at being outside playing at 1:00 in the afternoon instead of trapped in an office in a salaried position. Elation at having near total control of how I use my time throughout the day (thanks in no small part to the fact that most of my clients are based in Japan, and are asleep while I am awake).

How much do you make? It varies by year, but usually in the $50k~$100k range. However, over the past six years, I’ve probably averaged no more than 25 hours of work per week.

How much can one expect to make in your position? It depends how much you’re willing to work. I know of translators who make upwards of $200k per year, but they produce a high volume of work at the upper end of the pay scale. Many translators are people like me, who get into the field because of the opportunity it provides to make a good living doing what boils down to a part time job.

[Vavavoom]

What do you do? European High Yield & Distressed Bonds (Broker). Also partime DJ (Weddings/Birthdays etc)

Do you like it? I enjoy the good times and hate the bad times... When we're busy its a great job, when we're not its horrible...The only reason anybody ever does this job is for the social aspect of it. the entertaining side involves all the top restaurants/clubs/bars/strip clubs..and the fact that it can be very lucrative...

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I used to be a holiday rep. I am an extrovert and a quick thinker. Good with numbers and very hardworking. I'm popular which helps immensely as this job is not what you know its who you know....

What kind of people do best in your work? Those who get in the right product at the right time, and have good friends (realtionships) on the other end of the line...

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
A contact in the city... who has decent credentials...

What is a typical day like? I'm up @ 5.50am - In work for 7am and finish at 5.30pm - I get in @ 6.10pm....During my day i have 4 bloomberg screens up keeping track of the ITRAXX/World Equity Indices/All my bonds and then my message screens... I surf/browse the internet all day with 2+2/Myspace being the main recipients. I also multitable MSN as well..Thats about it..

What kind of problems do you encounter? More established relationships...They get first look on the prices and so the chain is started...they get the first counters and etc...being second is no good in my product....

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Taking margins out of trades...and losing money on trades...As we're execution only the gamble in us to make money is what creates this..

How much do you make? A decent amount for someone my age who has been in the job 3 years with the prospect extremely decent twice yearly bonuses.. On my old desk - there was 7 of us...and the 2 bosses were on £1M each.... luvverly !! in $$$, i'm aiming for approx $110K this year..

How much can one expect to make in your position? I think if i'm earning £200K a year in 3-7years then its fairly easy money and I'd be very happy with that... Being 30 and getting £250 a year is my aim...



Vava

[ScottieK]

What do you do? financial analyst for commercial loans at a bank.

Do you like it? Yes. Compared to my last job, this is a breeze and much more rewarding.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I understand financial statements, ratios, credit analysis, accounting principles, and loan structuring. I'm fairly good at math (specifically arithmetic and algebra) and have a naturally analytical mind. I'm solid in all MS-Office programs, and we use Word and Excel a lot. I also have an MBA in finance.

What kind of people do best in your work? Detail-oriented, analytical minds who are good at math. Business training and computer experience is also good to have.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A business degree, preferably in finance or accouting....maybe prior work experience in a financial / accounting work environment.

What is a typical day like? 8-5, M-F. A loan renewal or request is assigned to me. I assemble all documents necessary to get the request approved, including loan grade models, risk models, profitability models, relationship profitability numbers, and financial statements. I also test any loan covenant requirements that may exist. Then I work on the credit memo, which is the bank's analysis and rationale for approving the loan. Sometimes I work with the client and their accountant to go through statements, inventory reports, tax returns, and anything else I need. Then I work with my bosses to make sure we address all relevant issues in the memo.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Getting information from the client in a timely manner can be a hassle. Sometimes I miss material issues that need to be addressed in our memos. Numbers that are referenced in many sections of the package must be uniform.....if a number changes, I have to make sure it is updated in all sections.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Getting rush orders from our line of business managers upsets our work flow. Sometimes they aren't even sure what the client needs a loan for or how to structure it. Also, getting a writeup back that is bleeding in blue ink can be frustrating. Satisfaction comes with getting a loan package done and being able to move on to the next one. Seeing a building or project in town that I helped finance can be fun.

How much do you make? $48K/yr, plus bonuses, 401k matching and benefits.

How much can one expect to make in your position? The real money is in the sales positions with the line of business managers. They mostly work on commission. Analysts work on salary, and there is probably an upper boundary around $70K.

ScottieK

[limon]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
most (maybe all) great hustlers are married the single ones end up on the rail. marriage forces you to choose only the best hustles and not chase every coin flip. also the life of a hustler is very lonely becuase few can understand or would condone most of what you do so a partner in crime who knows everything helps somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]

I see alot of you in me Limon except this one part. If you have been with ur girly for 11 years + marriage how much hustle did you have for women? I have dated girls for 12/15 years of my life and the last 2 years off were amazing. I agree with missing a night or two with someone/ some of that confort, but otherwise I have an open-end ticket everyday to enjoy the world. If this is life on the rail then I am a bird.

fyc

[/ QUOTE ]


lol. reread carefully. i was w/ her 11 years LONG DISTANCE (aka OPEN) relationship.

[limon]

[ QUOTE ]
limon,

"would you bet everything (THAT ISNT YOUR WIFES) on a coin flip getting 60/40?"

What if your wife didn't have any of her own assets, limon? Would you still be willing to take this wager now that you are relatively established in life?

[/ QUOTE ]

if i was married no. i made a commitment and i do live by the gamblers code. if i was single/when i was single 51/49 looked like printing money.

[Officer Farva]

What do you do? Quantitative Analyst for Long/Short Global Hedge Fund

Do you like it? Kinda. It ranges between low stress and easy to high stress and impossible, as much depends on mood/success of principals.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Well-suited: Majored in a combo of math, stats, and comp sci. Use all three, esp comp sci for data analysis and risk templating. Can figure complicated stuff out. Able to understand what my principals want most of the time. Poorly-suited: Somewhat lazy, will drift if not on critical project.

What kind of people do best in your work? Focused, math and comp sci saavy peeps. But you can't just be a nerd as there's a lot of nuanced personal interaction in a high stress situation.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Some kind of quant background, preferably with CS. I jumped in straight from college (though I went to a top 5), so experience isn't neccessary.

What is a typical day like? 6-4, M-F. Get in, surf/email, run a few risk screens. Code some VB. Talk to manager in 10 minute meeting. Eat catered lunch at desk. Fix someones computer problem. Mess around on BB. Read about Monte Carlo sims. Try to implement it, screw up. Run some screens for the analysts. Screw around with my RSI model.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Waking up on time. Figuring out "correct" way to do something, such as a VaR calcualtion, or more importatnly, the meaning/usefulness of it.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Getting discouraged when project I've worked on gets tossed by boss.

How much do you make? $70k plus large bonus depending on firm performance.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Prob like 50kish entry to a 1M plus for someone with a working model. Entire firms are run by quants. Check out DE Shaw. Head dudes are all quant analysts and prob pull 100M plus.

Mike

[Kost]

What do you do? I'm taking a break from college beacause I got Mononucleosis last semester. I have been grinding 2/4 and 3/6 SHLHE the last 4 months. I'm starting studying again next semester.

Do you like it? Yes. But I wish my winrate was better. I also wish my progression was faster. I want to get back at 10/20

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Well-suited: Love for the game. Poorly-suited: Some times I'm not selfdiciplined enough.

What kind of people do best in your work? Meh...

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? None

What is a typical day like? My sleeping schedule change from week to week. Wake up, breakfast, surf the internet, poker, dinner, work out, hang out with friends, eat, poker, go to bed.

What kind of problems do you encounter? To be diciplined enough to put in 40+ hours a week. To be diciplined enough to not play when I'm not playing my A game.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Downswings of 100BB or more

How much do you make? Averaging $2500 a month.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Meh...

[nineinchal]

What do you do?

CPA, manager of an accouting firm.


Do you like it?

Nahhh, I just can't make more money as a poker player.


What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?

The ability to be OK with people not liking me!

Excellent technical,concise writing, ability to look at the big picture, solve problems, communicte my intentions to people clearly both orally and the written word.


What kind of people do best in your work?

People who have the ability to think independently. You have to be able to be the little kid in "The Emporer's New Clothes"



What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?

Five year accoutning degree, pass a rigorous licensing test. The ability to work a slave like apprenticeship if you can do the first two things mentioned here. Then the ability not to see your girlfriend/wife or family because you will be too busy working.


What is a typical day like?

Don't look at me, I am a-typical. I work a regular 9 to 5 day which is the condition that I stipulated to my employer when I took this job, NO overtime, No Saturdays or Sundays.

I basically supervise about five accountants. However, I am at the point in my career where I hang out, while I am interrupted by work.


What kind of problems do you encounter?

Incompetents, you would be amazed how confused the chief financial officers are in most places. Stubborness from the clients, it is incredible how people try to defy the laws of economics and accounting.


What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?

Idiocy and stupidity, from people who should know better, is the biggest source of frustration.

Watching former clients go to prison for fraud is the biggest source of elation.

How much do you make?

$150K, plus bennies of a 12% match of my salary to the retirement plan and medical insurance.


How much can one expect to make in your position?

Probably $250K plus the bennies if they are willing to put in 60 to 70hrs a week. I learned being in this profession money isn't everything. I had to take time to enjoy my life.

[Boris]

I have a good job but I really dislike talking about it.

[XXXNoahXXX]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a good job but I really dislike talking about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for sharing!

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do?

[/ QUOTE ] Account Manager for an legal publishing company: territory consists of large law firms

[ QUOTE ]
Do you like it?

[/ QUOTE ] Love it. Good job --- overall low stress, though peaks of high stress during contract negotiations

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of people do best in your work?

[/ QUOTE ] Independent thinkers; people who can get the "big picture"; people persons; good instructors; people who can think strategically

[ QUOTE ]
What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?

[/ QUOTE ] In the exact position I have, you need a law degree and a pulse. It helps to have prior experience with the company (I've worked here for 4 years before becoming an Account Manager working our help-desk and building/designing our web product)

[ QUOTE ]
What is a typical day like?

[/ QUOTE ] I usually work from home 2 days a week. On the days I am downtown, I visit firms, train people on our product, have contract meetings, etc.

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of problems do you encounter?

[/ QUOTE ] Difficult contract negotiations (as the contracts are generally quite substantial.) Constantly learning new products.

[ QUOTE ]
What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?

[/ QUOTE ]
No huge sources of frustration. Successful negotiations are a pretty big source of elation.

[ QUOTE ]
How much do you make? How much can one expect to make in your position?


[/ QUOTE ]

I make a decent salary and we have a decent bonus structure depending on territory sales and revenue. The salary runs about 75% of my total compensation which provides for a decent amount of stability month-to-month.

[Dominic]

What do you do? Film & Television writer/producer/director. I also find myself editing this week.

Do you like it? It all depends on the project. But on the whole, yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Well, I'm very creative-minded and need the constant chaos and daily changes to be interested in what I'm doing. I'd be no good at a job that was repetitive or the "same old same old" day in and day out.

What kind of people do best in your work? Talented, hard-workers. Intelligence and some culture is nice, too.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Experience. Climbing up through the ranks. A film degree means bupkus to most people in this field. Also, an absolute love of what you do. And a close relationship with financial hardship doesn't hurt, either.


What is a typical day like? That's what's great about my job: there is no typical day. It usually revolves around pre-production, production and post-production. Some days I'm writing up budgets or creating a script, others I'm traveling all over the country shooting various kinds of shows or commercials or corporate crap, and others I'm in an editing bay hammering out a cut with an editor.

What kind of problems do you encounter? This line of work is naturally difficult, high-pressure and sometimes frustrating. Clients can be unreasonable, tempers flare....really nothing too different from any job, I would think.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is usually caused by the person who owns the studio I work for. He has no clue how to run a company. Elation is rare, though satisfaction is often possible. And that comes from figuring out a particular problem, making a client thrilled with the end product, or just creating something artistically pleasing.

How much do you make? $85k/year plus various bonuses. I also sometimes take freelance jobs that bumps me over 100K. Having a salaried position like I do right now is very rare - some years I've made as little as $10K, some as much as $250K...so, as you can see it's quite volatile.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Sky's the limit.

[natedogg]

[ QUOTE ]
How much do you make? $48K/yr, plus bonuses, 401k matching and benefits.


[/ QUOTE ]

You have an MBA and you took a job makeing 48k, I have to ask why.

natedogg

[Orangeheat]

What do you do? Sr Managing Engineer

Do you like it? I go in cycles. Typically six months yes and six months no.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I like approaching things from a structured/logical standpoint and have learned to apply this engineering perspective to management.

What kind of people do best in your work? Somewhat dedicated with engineering background. Need to be able to adjust priorities on a continuous basis while satisfying multiple customers (internal/external).

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A bachelors in engineering and typically 10+ years of experience or a Masters to get to Senior level. I did well enough in my first five years somehow to get it without either.

What is a typical day like? Check e-mails, get coffee, walk the floor talk to people check the departments. Production meeting, engineering meetings, project meetings, some firefighting, and then some project work.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Internal politics and red tape is the worst. So much wasted time and resources on BS.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is mostly convincing MBA's above that not everything you expend capital on needs to have an ROI of X months or years to have a positive effect on the long term growth of the company. Elation - completing a project that will save big $$ or seeing someone under me get promoted because they have developed well within the organization.

How much do you make? Depends on profit sharing and stock options ~$90 - $100K+ on average years.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Base will top out at ~$110. Out of school 7 years ago I started at about $40K.

Orange

[theBruiser500]

college student, i despise it. no willpower to do something that isn't immeadiately satisfying and the ability to act this way in life because of poker. classes are so boring! i have dream classes right now, an indepedent study with my favorite teacher, a spanish literature class which is v. challenging, spanish conversation class, and jazz dance but they're just so boring. it's all reading and listening, the last one should be different that's why i took it.

[ScottieK]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How much do you make? $48K/yr, plus bonuses, 401k matching and benefits.


[/ QUOTE ]

You have an MBA and you took a job makeing 48k, I have to ask why.

natedogg

[/ QUOTE ]

#1 - I got fired from my previous job and took what I could get.

Sure, I could be making more if I lived somewhere else or maybe even in another field.....but I love Albuquerque, and this job is pretty stress-free, no overtime, rare business travel, lots of perks in the office. We get invited to a lot of events and fundraisers, like golf outings during the work week, business lunches and business conferences. Pretty relaxed environment. On the downside, banks typically pay cheap.

ScottieK

[jaydub]

What do you do? Technology VP

Do you like it? Yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Ability to relate to both the technology (former Software Engineer) and the business.

What kind of people do best in your work? Technically minded individuals who can make key business tradeoffs.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Bachelor's and experience.

What is a typical day like? First deal with any crisis through a combination of direct involvement and delegation. Depending on the resolutions, potentially begin work on whichever projects are critical. Lots of time spent answering questions regarding how to do X, Y, or Z. Fair bit of research into emerging technologies and how we can use them. A [censored] ton of interviewing.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Anything from online products being down to client communication breakdown to employee performance. Lots of security related items.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Impossible demands of CXOs and people making terrible mistakes due to not asking how to do X (or even can I do X). Elation due to new revenue coming in.

How much do you make? Depends on bonuses and stock but about 200K +/- 30K. I'm fairly young and underpaid by competitive standards.

How much can one expect to make in your position? At least 100K and up to 400K is certainly possible. It will vary greatly depending on company size and structure.

J

[ChromePony]

What do you do? Technology Analyst With a Big 5 Consulting Firm

Do you like it? Not particularly, but I get by

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I graduated from a relatively well known school with a degree in physics. I had very few skills that related to this line of work but that apparently did not concern my company when they hired me.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who are really into and motivated by IT stuff like information management, data warehousing and other non descript business speak phrases like that. Good people skills are also important as is the ability to navigate a lovely web of office politics. Must enjoy travling, living out of hotels and working non standard hours from time to time.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? I would recommend some background in CS or IT related fields. In reality you mostly need a tech/engineering/science degree from a top school to get an interview and then you prove yourself from there.

What is a typical day like? Get in around 9:30 email, google reader, 2+2. Meeting with my team, talk about stuff, write some test scripts, execute some test scripts check status of defects for the application we are developing and maybe test some of those to confirm they have been fixed. Lunch was in there somewhere, more meetings, chat with my entry level co-workers, watch some Daily Show clips online, chat with friends, another test script or two. Go home 6:30. (This is a standard day recently, sometimes I'm actually really busy all day and don't leave until 9+) (I also seem to have a relatively relaxed gig compared to a lot of my friends on other projects)

What kind of problems do you encounter? I
Dealing with miles of bureaucracy and sometimes mind boggling inefficiencies in the work place to actually get some work done from time to time. Managing client expectations and demands when it is of course clear to us that we know exactly what is best for them.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Dealing with boring work that I really have no motivation to do. The more I test, the more problems I find that I have to retest later etc. Annoying people towards the top of the chain that can be condescending and like to talk about 'building my network' and 'growing my career'. Having to sit around to look good for the clients when there's really no work for me to do at the moment. Being forced to travel to a out of town project every week when I could do most of my work from home. (Although I do like the travel...see below)

On the plus side of travel I get firm subsidized (up the the approx cost of my fight home) weekend flights to locations of my choosing...this is probably the main reason I am still here. I also have practically no living expenses, other than rent for an apartment I hardly see, because everything is taken care of when I'm on the road.

How much do you make? 57k + all the various perks and rewards (airline mileage, hotel points, per diem, weekend flights) that are hardly insignificant.

How much can one expect to make in your position? This is a pretty standard salary in this field, for a new hire it is essentially non negociable out of school cause there are like 12 million of us starting at the same time. Other firms pay from 50-65k, as you move up you can expect yearly raises of 6-15% based on performance until you hit management positions in 7-8 years where there's probably some kind jump.

[Sluss]

What do you do?I talk on the radio. My main job is a traffic reporter where I am also the ADO of the office. I also do part time weekends, voice over work for commercials and some sports play-by-play.

Do you like it? I love it.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm a loud obnoxious jack-ass

What kind of people do best in your work? People who are entertaining and sound good.

What is a typical day like? I'm up at 5 a.m. everyday. I get to work at 5:20 and start talking at 5:30. I go home at 9:30 a.m. and then go back at 2pm in the afternoon until 6pm.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Making it sound like something is going on when nothing is going on.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? On bad traffic days or big snow storms I'm going crazy for 12-13 hours straight trying to figure out what is going on and then letting everybody know about it. My biggest elation is that my job is basically sitting on my ass and flapping my mouth all day.

How much do you make? About 28k when you add everything up

How much can one expect to make in your position? It all depends on where you work and when you work. I'm at about the top of where I can make a normal salary. However the more voice and play-by-play work I do the more money I can make.

I would be looking for a new job if my wife wasn't making good money. Radio is not for people looking to get rich.

[Wack Jade]

What do you do?

Mathematics and Statistics Instructor at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Do you like it?

Sure, although it gets a little boring / depressing every now and then.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?

I'm a fairly patient teacher, I'm younger than most other instructors so I think some of the students relate to me a little better, and I try to avoid 'fancy' mathematical explanations. And I use a lot of poker and baseball examples.

What kind of people do best in your work?

Teachers with experience who find a good balance between being everyone's best friend / actually being a good teacher.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?

An undergraduate degree in mathematics and some teaching experience.

What is a typical day like?

Wake up early (I teach an 8:00am Calculus I class), teach a few classes, office hours, exercise (usually ultimate frisbee in the afternoon), get home around 6:00pm, read / play video games / play poker until bed.

What kind of problems do you encounter?

Students who hate math. Students who are terrified of math. Students who hate me (luckily not too many). Other teachers complaining about everything.

Sorry, that's actually all I have time for at the moment. Oh yeah, and I get summers off. Sweet.

[offTopic]

What do you do?
Current title is some type of senior engineer. I'm doing a consulting gig right now, so it doesn't really matter.

Do you like it?
Not particularly...it's a project with a big scope, and there are too many different project managers, and too much email flying around. For example, there were a bunch of people in a meeting yesterday evening, and this morning, I got three different updates of the same meeting, two of which weren't even in the meeting (they got reports from others). I was thinking, "This is like Rashomon."

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
+: It's semiconductor, and I have a lot of experience with these types of software systems. I'm a pretty good problem-solver in general, and having worked in development in the past, I can usually identify specific application bugs from the end user side.

-: I always have to rein in my inherent cynicism because nobody really wants to know that I think there's no way some group or group of groups won't make a deadline, or some module is a piece of [censored] or whatever. I'm not cartoon birds and sunshine, either, but I sometimes have to temper what I say because being extraordinarily negative doesn't usually help anyone.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Being detail-oriented definitely helps. Being able to think beyond what is written in documentation helps (especially when the documentation is incomplete, or even worse, misleading.)

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
Some type of experience in production and software is helpful, but probably not necessary as long as you can think about things clearly, and have an understanding about how various software systems work.

What is a typical day like?
I typically roll in around 9 +/-20 mins, get coffee, catch up on email, take care of any immediate problems, and read some random crap on the internet. Pretty busy right now, with a new client deployment with testing through the day, and a couple of late-afternoon-early-evening conference calls with Asia. Most days I can leave by 6:00, but the last couple of days, I've stayed after 7, and will again tonight.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
In this role, I'm the customer, so I don't really have to deal with customers, so that's OK. Project delays, clueless PMs, bizarre software behavior...pretty standard stuff.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Without providing too much detail, I found out today, quite by accident, that the reason we couldn't get a client to work was because I had added an environment variable that was spelled correctly. When I misspelled it, it worked. That was big, but certainly not common. Stuff that's undocumented, though, that happens all the time.

How much do you make?
Meh. 85K. I suck at negotiating salary.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
I started in a more junior position with a different company 10 years ago for $48K. I'd imagine that's much higher now. I'm sure plain ol' software engineers can make north of $125K-150K, but you have to get a different title (tech lead, architect, etc) to make more than that, I think. One of these captains of industry will correct me if I'm wrong. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[jba]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do? Software Engineer


Do you like it? About 20% of the time it's the best work that I can imagine doing. The rest of the time it's a drag, but mostly because they expect me to show up.


What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? great at logic type puzzles, solving problems, design principles. I'm particularly good at reading and understanding code written by other people. I'm poorly suited because I have a hard time concentrating sometimes on redundant or simple tasks.


What kind of people do best in your work? People with the same set of skills. You can usually tell in one or two conversations the kind of guys that know syntax and some principles but don't really have the problem solving skills.


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? a bachelors and/or experience. It's pretty tough for people to get a good job (ie not a sweatshop) without doing something like QA or support first.


What is a typical day like? wake up between 730 and 9 am, roll out of bed. Read a book on the train/bus (about a 30 min commute). Depending on my timing I sometimes stop for a bagel and a coffee for 15-20 mins and read halfway through the commute (I really enjoy this part of the day). Show up to work around 830-1000 am, read some coffee, catch up on emails, then start working. Working is about half and half between writing new stuff or troubleshooting/fixing problems. have some lunch around 1230-2, head home around 6-7.


What kind of problems do you encounter? completely insane and hectic release schedules, incomplete/unclear product specifications, bugs in stuff that you depend on but don't have any control over. Also I have a lot of problems with context switching when there are a bunch of very different things that I need to work on at the same time. The very best is when there is a particular feature or problem that I'm working on that is very difficult - often times I'll be working head down on something for five hours and barely notice the time has gone by.


What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Hmm I guess I mostly answered this in the last one. more about elation: lots of times there will be a particularly difficult problem that a bunch of people are working on for a while - finding a solution to this type of thing is a pretty fun "hero" moment. Also, creating a particularly clever solution to a problem is pretty fun.


How much do you make? 80-90k ish.


How much can one expect to make in your position? in my area somewhere around 60-250k+ depending on a bunch of stuff, mostly experience/ability and type or richness of the company. This doesn't include any potential windfalls from buyouts/IPOs (equity grants and/or options are ubiquitous in my field). It has been estimated that the best engineer is 10x more productive than the worst in 5-10 member software teams - in my experience (three companies) this estimate is too conservative.


[/ QUOTE ]

[Dkay04]

What do you do?
I was a farmhand now I am probably the same but also a beginning farmer.

Do you like it?
I love it, i couldn't think of another thing i would rather do.


What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
I am Well suited because i grew up around farming, i know what needs to be done and when. I am also a decent problem solver and can usually fix things without panicking.


What kind of people do best in your work?
Most of the time you need to have grown up around it and have people willing to help you, you also need good credit.


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
You need a general knowledge in equipment operation and maintnence, a knowledge of crop production and marketing, some accounting knowledge, and a good work ethic.

What is a typical day like?
It changes around planting and harvest times and seasonally, basically in the summer I get up around 5:30 drive to town and eat breakfast and then check well motors and Sprinklers, if anything is on row water I change that. Then eat lunch, between Plowing and spraying there is always tractor work to be done so I get on a tractor from ~1-8:30 or 9 and then go eat supper and sit at the bar until 12 and go home and sleep and repeat the next day. Weekends I just check water and sleep or whatever.
In the winter I check cattle, pump water and put out hay and am usually done by noon.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
Everything changes, one day it can be a well broke down and one day it can be tractors tore up or bugs in fields, you definetly need to learn to roll with the punches.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
It is a low stress job iif you learn to take everything as it comes, the weather seems to be the biggest source of frustration.

How much do you make?
Last year I made about 45,000 after paying back some loans and including a weekly check for woking for family. I had to pay taxes on 175k.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Anywhere from - figures to over a million depending on how good you manage things and how much land you own.

[TheWorstPlayer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
How much do you make? $48K/yr, plus bonuses, 401k matching and benefits.


[/ QUOTE ]

You have an MBA and you took a job makeing 48k, I have to ask why.

natedogg

[/ QUOTE ]
Maybe you didn't notice that he's also making 401K in bonuses and benefits.

[TheWorstPlayer]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
people who are willing to work their ass off in order not to work (hustlers),


people who will end up dead if they dont get married.



I dont want to de-rail the thread, but your first point describes me also, something I couldnt put into words. The 2nd part limon, Ive been recently thinking about, I am pretty sure we are cut from the same cloth, have some of the same areas of business (moneylending, sports etc) and I hvae the feeling that w/o a wife to calm me down its going to rough times ahead, but I really dont want to settle down yet. Honestly enough, I feel that I teeter on the edge of complete degeneracy, and complete normalcy. at what point did you figure out when to get married, or was it not a planned thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

i was in a long distance relationship w/ my highschool sweetie for 11 years. it was a cream dream....for me. once she earned her PhD she gave the ultimatum and i made the wise choice to get married. it helps shes bi and the first few years were a wild party. i needed that sort of transition or i wouldnt have made it. most (maybe all) great hustlers are married the single ones end up on the rail. marriage forces you to choose only the best hustles and not chase every coin flip. also the life of a hustler is very lonely becuase few can understand or would condone most of what you do so a partner in crime who knows everything helps somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]
I always basically worshipped you (even when it was apparently your brother posting a long time ago?) but now I am pretty sure my life ambition is to write your biography. Will you be my hero?

[Matt Flynn]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a good job but I really dislike talking about it.

[/ QUOTE ]

would you like me to tell them about your job for you?

[Howard Treesong]

What do you do? I manage litigation for about 1/3 of a Fortune 100 company.

Do you like it? Yes, quite a bit.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Pluses: Fifteen years' experience tying cases for similar companies; solid fundamental understanding of litigation processes and associated risk analysis; a quick intellect and high bandwidth; communication skills that permit easy translation from lawspeak into either insurancespeak or businesspeak as the case may be. Minuses: Inherent laziness; inability to take routine issues seriously.

What kind of people do best in your work? Those who can make quick decisions on insufficient data and who can tolerate high risk. Those who can communicate sometimes-arcane legal concepts to nonlawyers.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Law degree and ten-plus years of experience in the trenches, plus some connections earned during that time.

What is a typical day like? Get in by 7:30 or so. Spend all day responding to email and talking on the phone. Review incoming complaints and hire counsel. Analyze problems pitched to me by business units in order to try to minimize legal risk. Discuss strategy on major cases with other inhouse lawyers and execs. Make strategy calls on cases. Review and authorize payment of outside counsel bills. Once per quarter, comply with significant reporting requirements. Argue with accountants about materiality and sarbanes-oxley. Create training materials to explain to businesses how to NOT [censored] up. Usually out the door by six unless I'm editing a major brief, in which case I ignore email and phone and let it all stack up while I rewrite, then get to all that stuff at the end of the day.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Some of our litigation is kind of cookie-cutter (products liability stuff) but most of my time deals with managing one-off issues, but virtually all of it is problem-solving in virtually every area. IP, HR, commercial, products, coverage, you name it.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?Outside counsel who can't write a brief that gets to the point quickly. My experience is that judges perceive themselves as damn busy, and devote little time to most motions and briefs. Because of that, a brief needs to get to the point quickly and clearly without too much irrelevant detail -- but must also be scrupulously correct on the facts and the law. Credibility is our stock in trade. Elation comes from making correct risk assessments, such as winning a case outright after rejecting settlement.

How much do you make?Mid-six figures. Some of it is deferred under various complicated executive incentive plans. Company and division performance can be a 25% swing in either direction. I took a huge pay cut to take this job, and haven't regretted it.

How much can one expect to make in your position?About what I am. Moving up one spot on the corporate ladder would be huge, however.

[limon]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
people who are willing to work their ass off in order not to work (hustlers),


people who will end up dead if they dont get married.



I dont want to de-rail the thread, but your first point describes me also, something I couldnt put into words. The 2nd part limon, Ive been recently thinking about, I am pretty sure we are cut from the same cloth, have some of the same areas of business (moneylending, sports etc) and I hvae the feeling that w/o a wife to calm me down its going to rough times ahead, but I really dont want to settle down yet. Honestly enough, I feel that I teeter on the edge of complete degeneracy, and complete normalcy. at what point did you figure out when to get married, or was it not a planned thing?

[/ QUOTE ]

i was in a long distance relationship w/ my highschool sweetie for 11 years. it was a cream dream....for me. once she earned her PhD she gave the ultimatum and i made the wise choice to get married. it helps shes bi and the first few years were a wild party. i needed that sort of transition or i wouldnt have made it. most (maybe all) great hustlers are married the single ones end up on the rail. marriage forces you to choose only the best hustles and not chase every coin flip. also the life of a hustler is very lonely becuase few can understand or would condone most of what you do so a partner in crime who knows everything helps somehow.

[/ QUOTE ]
I always basically worshipped you (even when it was apparently your brother posting a long time ago?) but now I am pretty sure my life ambition is to write your biography. Will you be my hero?

[/ QUOTE ]

thanks man. my brother opened this account and he is "limon". when we 1st moved to l.a. we had to play holdem and neither of us ever played it (only stud and draw in oregon), my brother wasnt even good at stud and draw, so we bought a 2+2 book on holdem and learned of the website. i didnt own a computer so he agreed to ask some questions. after i got a computer and he had a child i took over his account. he would be horrified by half the shyt i say.

[TheWorstPlayer]

i'm probably one of the only 5 3/6 players on stars who knew that

[JojoDiego]

What do you do? managing editor of a monthly trade magazine for cops

Do you like it? Yes, usually.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm creative, I can work well with many types of people, I don't panic, and I'm a bit of an idealist. On the other hand, I hate having to deal with people motivated purely by money, and slackers and idiots frustrate me.

What kind of people do best in your work? Organized, efficient people. Non hotheads.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Good with written English, good with people. Definitely need work experience with the deadline thing.

What is a typical day like? It depends on where we are in the edit cycle each month. I seem to write 30 e-mails or so a day on average. I might be editing and/or copyediting articles in Word. Or I might be editing and/or copyediting layouts in Quark. Or I might be planning future issues, communicating edit plans to ad-sales, putting out fires, attending a trade show, dealing with random jobs that fall my way, etc. I'm also on the phone at least several times a day with the editor, ad sales, writers, PR people, etc.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Writers miss their deadlines. Production frequently gives me fewer or more pages than I'd planned for. Ad sales frequently pesters me with requests, impositions, etc. that violate editorial integrity. We frequently have way too much workload.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: not enough staff. Elation: I can't say I'm ever elated--that's too strong. I definitely enjoy seeing our final product each month when it arrives from the printer, however. And getting good feedback from readers can make your day.

How much do you make? 55k

How much can one expect to make in your position? from what I've read, up to 70-80K, maybe 100K?

[OrigamiSensei]

What do you do? I am in technical sales in the EDA (electronic design automation) industry. My company makes specialized computer hardware and software to assist companies with electronic design.

Do you like it? Even though it can be quite stressful I do genuinely enjoy it. I realized about a year after I graduated from college that this industry and sort of job was where I eventually belonged. It took a while to get there but I've never regretted taking this career path and I have trouble imagining any other job I could realistically do that a) pays as well and b) I would like as much.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm very self-motivated and I enjoy working with customers to solve their problems. Also, because I am on the ADD side having a lot of activity and things going on at once keeps me from getting bored.

What kind of people do best in your work? People with a good mix of technical, business management and people skills. As a typical dork engineer it took me quite a while to really learn the business management and people skills. To be truly good at this job one must have the ability to fully understand and meet the needs and desires of the customer while still maintaining a profitable situation for one's own company.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Generally an undergraduate degree in electrical or computer engineering. A Master's in science or business is a definite plus but not necessary (I don't have either). Beyond that, generally 5+ years in an engineering design position since some maturity and experience is required.

What is a typical day like? It depends and it pretty much changes from day to day. I travel approximately 30-40% of the time. When traveling I am at customer sites across North America and Europe doing meetings, presentations, demos and occasionally support. When not traveling I work out of my home office. A typical home day involves conference calls, phone and email communications with customers and co-workers, planning for the next set of trips and events, and development of meeting and presentation materials. Also, since I act as lieutenant to my manager I wind up helping to fight a lot of his fires, helping him to prepare his documents, etc.

What kind of problems do you encounter? My main problem is that customers are reluctant to spend their hard-earned money and they need convincing. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif Customers having issues with the products they have purchased is another one since an unhappy customer is one that will soon be purchasing from my competitors. However, as far as I am concerned anything to do in dealing with customer concerns is what I am paid for and I don't mind handling those issues. It's when the internal tiffs and political infighting occur that I get stressed and upset.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? As noted above the largest source of frustration is when internal company friction keeps things from moving ahead with the customer. It's also frustrating to see customers behaving irrationally or deceptively. Elation is when we achieve a win-win situation with the customer. They pay us for our products and services of course, but in doing so they also make themselves measurably more successful and profitable. I'm not out to shake someone down for a one-shot killing, I want a successful long-term customer-vendor relationship. Since I work in the organization that handles our largest customers where relationship is key it's a good fit for my temperament.

How much do you make? Over $100K and I'll leave it at that.

How much can one expect to make in your position? A solid person in a position like mine can expect to make $75-175K depending on experience, talent, and how well the company is doing.

[Zeno]

What do you do?

I work for a small Environmental Consulting Firm (this is my third career by the way)

Do you like it?

Mostly yes, but it can be stressful because I have a variety of roles that I must fill, but I have also had the opportunity to travel about the US and once to Taiwan for this type of work. And the variety of the work I’ve done adds much enjoyment.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?

I’m well -suited for what I do because I always put my best effort into whatever I undertake to do.

What kind of people do best in your work?

Those people with a blend of scientific, technological, organizational, and people skills.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?

A degree in a science or engineering field (Geology, Hydrogeology, Civil Engineer, environmental degree etc). Many that I work with have Masters degrees in their respective field and almost all have at least an undergraduate degree.

What is a typical day like?

It varies because I have a number of roles. I may do menial tasks like making up a training matrix to helping on a large bid proposal for jobs, to writing reports. I also still do field work (drilling and sampling mostly) though not as much as I used to

What kind of problems do you encounter?

The main problem is dealing with government agencies, the overburden of regulation that border mostly on the inane and obstructionist, and the, in general, moronic people that try to enforce all the nonsense. I’ve worked for private clients also and this is usually much better and always more rewarding.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?.

For frustration one word: WASTE. Waste of time, effort, and money for much of what we undertake. If we work for government it is three times more costly for what we can get done for a private client. Also much work done or forced to do by government is at least partially wasteful and much is simply unneeded. For elation, best recent example is that last summer I worked very hard with much overtime because I was in charge of producing a large Scientific Report. Worked more than four months on it and did everything from authorship of chapters, reviewer, coordination of all the people writing and producing it, to helping with figures and compiling. It was about 400 pages (a lot of tables and data so not all that was writing) when all was finished and we did a good job on it. When it was finally finished I felt better about this effort than I have for just about anything since I finished my Masters Thesis.

How much do you make?

About 80K

How much can one expect to make in your position?

From about 60-100k depending on a variety of factors including size of company, your personal versatility, experience, and amount of drive.

-Zeno

[kidcolin]

Props to Miles for getting this killer format going.


What do you do? I'm a "component design engineer" for the world's biggest chip manufacturer. That's a fancy name for logic design. I make chipsets.

Do you like it? I'm on the fence on this one. I've been here just shy of 2 years. There are things I like, there are things I don't. When it's just the design work, I love it. For instance, this past Sunday I was up all night to catch up on some stuff, and didn't blink an eye. But there are other days where it's boring crap. Ultimately, I think the "culture" is going to be the reason I leave this place.

What make you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I've got a solid, logical mind. I'm hard working, patient, and don't compromise on quality. I'm poorly-suited in that I pay far too little attention to stuff like documentation.

What kind of people do best in your work? People similar to me. My one fear is that the really successful in-house engineers are somewhat complacent in their place, though. We have some really brilliant minds, and their stuck in this "turn out 1 design per year" frame of mind. I guess this didn't really answer the question.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? You need an electrical or computer engineering degree. If you faked it through college, you won't last here (or at any job worth its salt, for that matter). A lot of recent college grads work at my level.

What is a typical day like? Walk in somewhere between 8 and 9. Check email. If it's a day I really need to get cranking, I get cranking. Otherwise respond to mails while checking through my various sports blogs. A little 2p2, too. It all depends on what phase of the project we're on. Sometimes it's testplans, sometimes it's spec work, sometimes it's RTL coding.. usually it's pretty busy. Get finished up between 5-6, though some days I'm there until 8 or 9.


What kind of problems do you encounter? Either bugs in the design, or just straight up design work. Beyond that I'm not really sure what to say.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: I just don't "fit in" here. I don't get along with many co-workers. I feel isolated. I find them all very boring. It's really a downer sometimes.

Elation: Getting cycles going on new designs. Stuff like that.

How much do you make Started at 54K + benefits, stock options, etc. After a year 65K, more stock, etc. I should have a raise coming in the next month, but probably only a couple thousand bucks in keeping with inflation this time around.

How much can one expect to make in your position? I dunno, really. My EXACT position, maybe 70K. But I'm a newbie. You can go a lot of different directions from here. Micro-architects and principal engineers make solid 6 figure bank.. so do design managers. So if you assert yourself, you can do pretty well. And if you're really bright, you can probably find other companies willing to fork over big bucks for you.

Apparently before the dot com bubble burst, employees who stayed at my company for 5 or 6 years were millionaires, just based on stock. The past few years haven't been that kind, unfortunately.

[El Diablo]

kid: "Props to Miles for getting this killer format going." Actually, props to JB for some great questions.

Howard: Do you want to stay as legal/GC or do you want to move into a more general executive mgmt position?

[Howard Treesong]

[ QUOTE ]
Howard: Do you want to stay as legal/GC or do you want to move into a more general executive mgmt position?

[/ QUOTE ]

Open. I'm confident I can get to the GC company level, although not perhaps at a company as big as my current employer simply because of the leverage in the legal department (100+ in-house lawyers, many of whom are strong, but only one GC). I like law, but could see myself jumping to the business side for the right opportunity where I felt as though I knew enough to be valuable.

[scotchnrocks]

[ QUOTE ]
I am bored at my job, so I will tell you about it.

What do you do? Structural engineering (unlicensed still).

Do you like it? Not really.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am well-suited because I understand geometry well and am good at math. I am unsuited because I am very easily distracted and unwilling to apply myself very much when there is no dire consequence to being lazy.

What kind of people do best in your work? People like me, just without all the other crap running through their heads.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A degree in civil or structural engineering basically.

What is a typical day like? Coffee, 2+2, and working on structural plans. It varies between custom homes, apartments, condos, townhomes, and other miscellaneous wood-framed buildings. I am pretty much always doing the same thing when in the office, which is designing the horizontal and lateral force resisting systems in these buildings. I am out of the office when I do structural observations on projects under construction or go to consultant meetings.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stupid people in the field and at other offices.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is usually caused by having to finish projects in short time periods. Elation is usually caused by drinking coffee in the morning, leaving for lunch, and leaving the office at night.

How much do you make? About $60k/yr when you count profit sharing.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Somewhere around $80-100k/yr with a good amount of experience and your professional engineering license.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have been working as a structural engineer (bridges and retaining walls) for a little over 2 years now with my a BS and MS degree, and this is about where I'm at and exactly how I perceive it. Good post.

[Jihad]

What do you do? Navy Pilot

Do you like it? Yes

What make you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Athleticism, intelligence, calm under pressure. Also people forget that you are, first and foremost, and Professional Military Officer. So the standard stuff that goes along with that helps tremendously: honor, sense of commitment and dedication, good leadership abilities.

What kind of people do best in your work? There's a pretty well-defined prototype. A lot of the stuff you see in Top Gun is unfortunately true personality wise. 100% Alpha Male attitude helps a lot. You absolutely must be smart and absolutely must be athletic. Outside of the straight monkey skills, you really need to be cool under pressure, and you really absolutely must be social. The wardroom of a Navy Jet squadron is like a (much) more mature Fraternity, and if you don't fit in its really obvious and you will just never get the help that you need to succeed.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? 4 year degree, commission in the Navy, and then its about 2-4 years of flight school. If you're a Carrier-based guy such as myself, you're looking at the fat side of 4 years due to the carrier-landing and highly technical Fighter syllabus.

What is a typical day like? God right now its an absolute dream because we're on a down-cycle. I get to work at 0650 for a morning maintenance meeting (my ground job is on the Maintenance side so I have to be there) and then I hit the computer, EMail, 2p2, then depending on the day I'll have some minor ground work to do. I fly about 3 times a week and sometimes the flights require lots of preparation and effort, but other times its just a quick brief, start up the jets, go be a cowboy for an hour and a half. When you are busy, you're very busy, and there's a lot of time away from family, and a lot of sacrifices. Fortunately (although I really do itch to see some action) I haven't had to do that yet. As for now, I get every Friday off and I'm going on a week and a half flying detatchment down to Curacao, which is gonna be awesome. Oh and I'm 75% sure I'm flying a jet to the Paris Airshow in June for 2 weeks.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Alpha males (read: me) can be giant tools and there's a good amount of head-butting if people are not kept in check. I don't fly enough lately, and my squadron is decommissioning in 2.5 years so its gonna be a hard road with no foreseeable actual deployments.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: Bosses, just like everybody else, and getting left off the flight schedule. Elation: taking a break from work to fly at 500 mph 200' off the ground, dropping 2K pound bombs, landing on an aircraft carrier, cloud surfing, going over a thunder head upside down and seeing a sunset when you crest it, etc. Also I love working with the Enlisted guys. Also, as of yesterday, doing 4 impromptu low altitude high speed passes of a Submarine headed out to sea, and seeing flashbulbs go off while you're in a 90 degree angle of bank turn /images/graemlins/smile.gif. That was fun.

How much do you make? 60K ish.

How much can one expect to make in your position? I'm a pretty junior Lieutenant, and the pay scale never stops going up. In 2 years, once my flight pay kicks in (over 6 years in flight status), it'll go up over 70K. Making the next rank is about 85K, and if you're the next rank (XO/CO of a squadron), you can expect about 95-100K. Never forget the benifits, of which their are plenty.

[JaBlue]

Jihad, have you ever read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff? Its all about navy pilots and seems pretty true to your responses. You might really like it.

[Jihad]

[ QUOTE ]
Jihad, have you ever read Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff? Its all about navy pilots and seems pretty true to your responses. You might really like it.

[/ QUOTE ]Yes and absolutely.

[Weasel45]

What do you do? Loan processor for Home mortgages

Do you like it? Not really.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? The job is pretty easy. Anybody could do it. I am poorly suited because I am not very organized.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who are organized.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? None. I started doing data entry when I was 19 at this company and I got promoted from there.

What is a typical day like? Get in at 9:15. Read Espn and 2+2. Do some work. Go to lunch. Submit any new files or check on conditions on in progress files I have.

What kind of problems do you encounter? People dont give us the paperwork we need. Some lenders can be really backed up so you have to wait like 4 or 5 days for an approval or for Loan docs.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is usually caused by getting a bunch of new files at once. Elation is when you close a loan for someone purchasing their first house.

How much do you make? 40-50k

How much can one expect to make in your position? 30-70k

[mrmr]

[ QUOTE ]
I am bored at my job, so I will tell you about it.
What do you do? Consulting, Affiliating, for various Internet Marketing Ventures.


[/ QUOTE ]

I read your entire post and still have no idea what you do. Care to elaborate?

[nolanfan34]

I don't want to post about my current job, but I'll post my previous one because I think people might find it somewhat interesting.

What do you do? Public Information Officer for a caucus in the State Senate. Basically a PR/Media Relations guy for Senate members of one of the parties.

Do you like it? During the legislative session, when you're busy, it's great. When your party is in the majority, it's great. One year one of my members was the chairman of the Senate Ways and Means committee, so driving the budget discussion in the press and getting my work published was a blast.

When you're in the minority, or having to write for difficult members, it sucks. The interim is also extremely boring during the summer, because the work slows down tremendously. The best analogy is that it's like an NFL season. Go hard for 4 months, then it dies down in the off-season. That's how I ended up with 6000+ posts on 2+2.

What make you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I had experience in broadcast journalism. I write well under extreme deadlines and pressure. I have a knack for public speaking so speechwriting came easy. I'm fairly outgoing and easy to get along with, so developing rapport with reporters was a strength.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who are outgoing and have good communication skills. People who have patience dealing with people with big egos, and are good at defusing difficult communication situations. Good writing skills and the ability to write persuasive arguments. Ability to not be bored by the minutia of public policy.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? College degree in PR or journalism for the most part. Or experience in a legislative member's office for a few years. Some people make the transition that way.

What is a typical day like? During session: Get in around 8. Attend committee hearings, track member's bills, work on press releases, write talking points. When members are on the floor, track floor action on TV, run back and forth from the office to the floor for member's needs, chat with reporters. Leave around 5 or 6 when they're not on the floor. Around the legislative cutoff dates, multiple days of working 8 am to midnight are not uncommon.

During interim: Work 4 ten hour days. Get in around 8. Check e-mail, surf 2+2. Eat lunch. Stare into space for 30 min. Walk around capital grounds to get out of windowless office. More e-mail. Go home at 5. Repeat for 6 more months.


What kind of problems do you encounter? Difficult members with unreasonable expectations. Members who accidentally make racist comments and cause political firestorms. Death from boredom during the interim.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: Sort of mentioned above. Having a member completely re-write a press release, or argue linguistic semantics, then watch them re-write what they already re-wrote in the previous draft will drive you insane. Being in the minority and having your press releases ignored.

Elation: The party at the end of session. Seeing your words in print in newspapers across the state.

How much do you make Mid $40k or so for the first few years. Increases based on time in service with the state. Communications Director position, the one shot at advancement, pays between $65k-$90k depending on experience.

How much can one expect to make in your position? See above. At the state level, I guess the highest would be to move into the Chief of Staff role for a caucus, which would be around 100k. I can't speak to federal, but similar roles probably have a higher ceiling there.

[rsigley]

What do you do? 2nd year actuary for an insurance company (4 tests done)

Do you like it? yep

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? i guess my background in statistics (phd from rutgers)

What kind of people do best in your work? good problem solvers

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? college degree in math, stat, economics, or actuarial science. pass a bunch of tests.

What is a typical day like? spend 60 mins crammed into a train with millions of other people on our way to NYC. sit around and wait for people to give me stuff to do since i'm still considered new they don't trust me enough.

What kind of problems do you encounter? too many bosses, i think I have 8.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? i can run with the ball if given to me, but they haven't run the offense through me yet. once I get the results from this exam I took last month tho I should get more responsibility.

How much do you make? 64k

How much can one expect to make in your position? once i get fellowship prolly like 300k, no idea - it varies so much.

[Marc H]

What do you do? I manage ~15 patent examiners, who decide whether a patent applicant will receive a United States Patent for his invention.

Do you like it? Yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Engineering knowledge, now combined with law degree. Attention to detail.

What kind of people do best in your work? Socially impaired individuals /images/graemlins/smile.gif (well, maybe) who can understand highly technical subject matter and make themselves understood in the English language. Actually, that's more true of examiners. As you move into management, people skills get more important.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Bachelor's in some form of engineering. Legal training is not necessary, but like chicken soup, it couldn't hurt.

What is a typical day like? Review a bunch of examiners' decisions on patentability ... and/or meet with attorneys who want us to reconsider our position ... and/or sit through various less-than-scintillating meetings ... and/or perform various administrative tasks, like putting someone in for promotion, doing some special project for my boss, etc.

What kind of problems do you encounter? I have one or two employees who can't really do the job, so I have to spend a lot of my time monitoring their work product. Occasionally I have to field a phone call from an attorney who is unhappy with something we have done (or failed to do).

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration - see semi-incompetent employees, above. Telling them for the sixth, or sixteenth time, how to do something they've just done wrong AGAIN. Elation - seeing somebody you hired and trained move up the ranks and become independent, or even a managerial colleague.

How much do you make? Just north of $100K, plus potential for half-decent bonus (a few thousand) once a year.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Not much more than I'm making now. One could make a bit more by moving up the management structure, but NOT a lot more, unlike private enterprise. If I left to practice law on the outside, I could make substantially more money within a few years.

[NajdorfDefense]

What do you do? Chief Investment Officer, mostly private money with some corporate funds/cash also.

Do you like it? Love it. If I had to get a real job, I'd go back to bartending on South Beach.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I have pretty strong analytical skills, love to read, and learn new things, ability to spot a trend as well as avoid one that's ending, good gambling/gaming instincts, and am long-term greedy.

What kind of people do best in your work? Strong analytical thinkers who are able to evaluate people and situations quickly and without bias. Have to be able to spot the BS artists which comes with experience. Ability to manage clients is the biggest thing. Keep fear and greed firmly in balance.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? EV calculations, able to open Excel, explain why one investment is 'better' than another, based on some set of criteria. As long as you have the smarts of a clever 11-yr old, you're all set.

What is a typical day like? This would take a longer answer, but I'll sum up, I get to my office around 9:15 and check over yesterday's stuff and look the markets and check emails to make sure nothing blew up. At 9:45 I head down to grab food. Read a lot of deals and pitches and stupid/brilliant emails. Spend day on phone with marketers, managers, lawyers, acc'ts, client[s], coworkers. Minimal Excel and similar work. Head out btw 5-9pm depending on my work load.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Too much capital, not enough good ideas/managers. Clients are not always rational.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? See above. Doing well. Outthinking the market.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Managing OPM you can expect to make anywhere from very low six figures to Eddie Lampert money.

[Quercus]

What do you do? Own a company that designs and manufactures women's apparel. We sell via our own website, Amazon and a number of retail outlets in the US and abroad.

Do you like it? Yes

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I think I was born to do this sort of thing. Prior to the apparel space, I was involved as a principle in a number of venture backed tech startups. That experience really helped us carve a niche as a nearly pure-play Internet apparel company (if we weren't the first, we were one of them). I really just enjoy entreprenuership. I enjoy having my own company, founded from scratch, more than I enjoyed being involved with venture capital.

My wife is my partner is this company, which is nice too. She handles the design and photography part of the business, and I handle production and marketing.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who understand the delicate balance of risk and caution required to start a company from the ground up. People that hire and fire well. People who have the stomach and means to go without pay for long periods of time as a company gets rolling.

Oh, and people who married smart women.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Mostly just intelligence and drive. A willingness to listen to and love your customers is a big help as well.

What is a typical day like? Up at 630, in to work by 730. Check overnight emails and orders to see if there is anything that requires immediate attention. Help out with manufacturing and production. Quick lunch around 2pm. Answer the phones and talk to customers. During busy season (November through May) finish up around 7pm and head home. In slower season, finish up around 6pm and head home.

Its hard to quantify a typical day. Some days I may spend on the factory floor from start to finish with quick breaks for email. I could be doing anything from cutting fabric to ironing tops. Other days are spent almost entirely in my office, where I could be doing anything from book-keeping to talking with television producers who want our garments for an upcoming show.

The fact that every day has the potential for something interesting is part of what I like about it.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Manufacturing equipment breaking down. Sales growth faster than production capacity growth. Employees leaving and needing replacing. Retraining employees from the (wrong) way that they learned to do things somewhere else. Customers needing help with sizing and fit. Customers with problems that need addressing. Finding photo models. Balancing the need to get hands on with production with the longer term needs of sales and marketing.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? The single biggest frustration is production. Not being able ot manufacture product quickly enough drives me batty. Not so much because of the lost sales potential (which is bad enough) but because a customer may have to wait an unacceptable amount of time to receive product. Second to that is our lack of a robust ERP suite. We're too small to afford one of the major packages and its attendant customization, so we've wired a bunch of junk together that only sort-of, kind-of gets the job done.

The elation? Hmm.. good question. I wouldn't say I feel elated about much at all. I'm happy with the progress we've made - from a company formed out of an upstairs bedroom by my wife and I into a company employee a half dozen people with strong sales growth. Some of the firsts are neat too. Our first magazine cover was cool. Getting written up in the most influential monthly magazine in our general space was nice too. Really though, I like it when customers call me and say, "I just LOVE your stuff. I've bought several pieces and I've told all my friends!" That's pretty cool.

How much do you make? Enough to pay the bills. Everything else is plowed back into the company.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Well, we made zero our first two years in business. So, zero at the low end. At the upper scale of our space, I dunno - enough to enter the Forbes rich list.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
private money with some corporate funds/cash also.

[/ QUOTE ]
What is the private money if not cash? Even if you manage and existing portfolio wouldn't that mean you're managing other people's cash? I guess it would be pretty cool if you went around bartering with anything clients gave you like spools of thread or recyclable cans.

[Georgia Avenue]

Reading these is a lot more fun than writing mine. Limon is now my king.

WARNING: BORING

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do?

[/ QUOTE ]

I teach writing to gifted high school kids for an reputable online program. I also design courses and do tech support and training and lots of other stuff so I go into an office.

[ QUOTE ]
Do you like it?

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to, and I still think it's a very worthy cause and it gets me chicks somehow (writing/teaching/kids/charities/computers= punk rock chicks want me to play daddy), but I am bored with it. I need something more deadline driven and creative.

[ QUOTE ]
What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think quickly and speak clearly and can talk down angry parents= +++
I am easily distracted and bored, so thats a huge minus.

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of people do best in your work?

[/ QUOTE ]

My predesessor was a lot more organized than me and impressed everyone. But I do less work and get paid the same amount. You decide.

[ QUOTE ]
What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?

[/ QUOTE ]

MFA in writing and plenty of computer savvy. I doubt there are 3 other people in the world with a similar job description though.


[ QUOTE ]
What is a typical day like?

[/ QUOTE ]
2+2, some tech support, fiddling with course design.

[ QUOTE ]
What kind of problems do you encounter?

[/ QUOTE ]

My own laziness...general academia issue where noone completes things they say they will.


[ QUOTE ]
What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?

[/ QUOTE ]

Working with kids is great but you have to have a special kind of altruism to be a teacher. I've realized I dont have it so I'm looking for another job. I really like designing courses online so I'll probably expand that aspect of my job and go back to school for instructional design.

[ QUOTE ]
How much do you make? How much can one expect to make in your position?

[/ QUOTE ]
40/40

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
private money with some corporate funds/cash also.

[/ QUOTE ]
What is the private money if not cash?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not all funds are cash, which should be obvious. Cash can be uninvested funds, or simply part of an asset allocation decision to hold short-term floaters or t-bills.

[Hornacek]

What do you do? Trading Desk at a large investment bank. Asset Management Division, pretty much our group is separate from the rest of the bank, as we think of ourselves as a ridiculously large hedge fund.

Do you like it? Yes

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Math and game theory. Just an overall love and appreciation of the markets. I also have a computer science background (undergrad and grad), so it helps that I can add technologically to our desk, where others may not have an expertise.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who are hard working, motivated, and quick on their feet. Detail oriented, good communication skills (since you're on the phone with brokers ~40% of the day), and teamwork skills. Is this the most cliche response ever, or what?

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Mostly just intelligence and drive. If you want to find a nice 40-hr week job, this is definitely not for you.

What is a typical day like? Up at 6:00, in by 7:30. Check out economic data, emails, etc for a bit, then heavy trading occurs until about 1 pm, when London is done for the day. 8 am to noon is pretty hectic, since its the overlap when both NY and London are available, so everyone is busy. Grab lunch, come back, and review trading. Speak to portfolio managers, run optimizations for the following day's trading, book trades, reconcile trade breaks, meetings, etc. This may sound trivial, but this is a pretty time consuming activity. Generally, things may start to wind down by 7:30, but if problems persist, its not unnatural to stay past 11 pm.

What kind of problems do you encounter? China sucking at life, everyone fleeing to Ten Year Bonds, killing the EQ markets, blah blah blah. /rant

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Losing and making money. Plain and simple. For you financial guys out there, there was an article on us on the cover of Bloomberg magazine last month... down years suck (esp when S&P is up 17%), good years end up acting like status quo. Pretty much your basic example of prospect theory at work.

How much do you make? I'm still at the analyst level (2 years out of grad school), but I think anywhere from $100K to $300K is reasonable for an analyst level person at my firm.

How much can one expect to make in your position? It's a lot about meritocracy AND seniority. If you're good, you will get paid. You've seen the numbers, and putting in long hours and good work will end up being fruitful down the line. I think for VP-level and above, a buck is not out of the question.

[Str8Fish]

What do you do? I'm currently about to defend my Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in mid-March. My project was extremely interesting to me... I worked on a NASA project, looking at alternative ways to capture CO2 from the respiration of the crew for the long-term mission to Mars.

Do you like it? Most definitely.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm good at what I do and have great hands-on experience. I'm also extremely math-gifted like most people here and have a very easy time visualizing a process occurring.

What kind of people do best in your work? You have to be willing to give up 4-5 years of your life (sometimes more) to get a Ph.D. It's not for everyone... the pay sucks, the hours are extremely long, experiments never go right the first time... etc.


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? B.S. in Chemical Engineering helps. Finding a grad school to take you.

What is a typical day like? Up at 5:30, go to gym, back to shower and out the door to get there at 8, work till 5 on experiments, go home to dinner, work on papers, reports, etc until 10ish, then chill. Depending on experiments, I could be in the lab until late. My wife, who just got her Ph.D. had to go in one time at 9, 11, 1, 3, 5 am. Thank God I never had to do that.

What kind of problems do you encounter? The largest problem I face is dealing with the idiot Electrical Engineer lab technician. I really hate that guy. Other than that, meh, experiments don't always go as planned, but that's really expected, so it's not so much a problem. I plan for problems to occur.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is taken care of in the last one. Elation is meeting with NASA and getting the thumbs up! Another one is building reactors in the machine shop and having them work. I've built two packed-bed reactors and one wetted wall reactor and it felt great!

How much do you make? For my research, I get paid 24k a year. Hopefully now that I'm graduating I can start ~75k? That's my hope.

How much can one expect to make in your position? As a graduate student, nothing... but when I get in the real world, hopefully more than I can imagine. 3-4 years down the road with a Ph.D. and some experience, one could easily be making over 100k.


Now that I'm finishing up, though, I'm looking for an entry level position... anyone here looking to hire a Ph.D. Chem Engineer?

[That Foreign Guy]

What do you do? I work in internal marketing (so not the cool adverts you see on TV - mundane stuff like organising freerolls etc) for a poker site.

Do you like it? Yes. It's close to my dream job (realistic dream at least)

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm smart, creative, and have several years experience in a variety of poker stuff.

What kind of people do best in your work? People like me. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif more accurately there's a variety of skills and experience, the one thing the guys who do well have in common is we love our job and our company.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Knowing a straight beats a flush. Beyond that, the ability to think like a fish and plan large events.

What is a typical day like? Well almost every day involved me sitting in front of my computer. I'd say my main tasks are running reports / analysing the results, writing plans for future events, and ensuring current ones go off smoothly.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Excel only goes to 65k rows and I can't use Access. Localisation is the other big one as almost everything that goes out to players needs to be produced in multiple languages.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Frustration - running reports and excel when I don't feel them to be worthwhile. When a project I was psyched about gets canned.

Elation - Seeing a project I conceived and babysat through a bunch of revisions and discussions finally get launched and getting positive feedback and seeing site activity go up.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Depends on the company and location. A good company pays quite healthily for wherever you are, a [censored] one might bounce your already meagre check. Thankfully my current company is a good one.

[ispiked]

[ QUOTE ]
What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? <font color="red">Knowing a straight beats a flush.</font> Beyond that, the ability to think like a fish and plan large events.

[/ QUOTE ]
/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[Cancuk]

What do you do? Run/own a section of a wine distribution company.

Do you like it? Very much

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I never graduated from Uni. but I have a mind for business. Where to go with it, what works and what doesn't. You have to get creative with it too, which is my favourite part.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who arn't afraid to risk a lot for the potential to make a lot. Outgoing and creative people who understand what people want, and how to get it to them.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Business savvy. Thinking logically about what people want and how to get the product to them. Not afraid to lose. Being able to shmooze snobs is nice as well.

What is a typical day like? There's no "typical day". Some day's i'll be out doing tastings from 10AM until 4:30ish if we got a product in that I want to push. Somedays i'll get up at 10, get on the phone and be on it yelling at the Liquor Board for most of the day. Nothing's the same. I love it.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Wine snobs who we have to pretend to like. Dealing with archiac gov't regulations. Telling people you can get them something when you probably can't and figuring out how you can do it for them (even if it's -EV short term for you)

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: Dealing with gov't regulations and wine snobs.
Elation: Walking into a tasting that you think has no potential and walking out after they buy 20K worth of wine. Tasting unreal wines that I would never know about if it wasn't for this job.

How much do you make? Haven't been in the business for a full year, don't know.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Our goal is to have 10% of the immediate wine market within 10 years, which is 500 million annually.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do? My official title is "Environmental Services Technician" but that doesn't tell you much. I work for a civil engineering consulting firm and I mostly do field work for projects that need some kind of government approval and that is mostly environmental related.

Do you like it? The people are (mostly) great but the work sucks since I'm low man on the totem pole and always will be.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm well-suited because I'm smart. I'm the only one in our company that does this kind of work that doesn't have a degree in either Environ Science, Environ Engineering or Civil Engineering. However, I'm also poorly suited because I don't have a degree. None of my actual work gets validated in my name. I do the work and someone else (with a degree) takes credit for it.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who at least somewhat care about the environment. A lot of the work I do is for the eventual destruction of such environmental features so it's probably best to not be a tree-hugger (extremely passionate). You must be albe to at least stand working outdoors if not enjoy though unless you enjoy the cubicle farm. You also need to pay attention to fine print details and be able to put up with government and client imbeciles.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A college degree is pretty much mandatory. I sort of lucked into my job from knowing the right people and proving to them I could do the work.

What is a typical day like? There is no such thing as a typical day, but I can say what I did today. I had to be at a power plant this morning by 8AM. They want to add "scrubbers" to their facility that are used to reduce emissions (at this plant it will reduce S02 by 98%) and part of this project is to put in a new stack. They are filling in mines under this area with grout and concrete, which is where I come in because I am certified in testing these to make sure they are up to specs. Today we had 5 concrete trucks (all of which needed tested and 1 truck had samples collected that will be pressure tested in a lab). The pour lasted from 8AM to 1PM when the concrete pump broke down. In between testing the concrete trucks, I also had to test and get samples of the grout. Got out of the plant around 2:30 today after doing my paper work and then had to take samples that I made on Friday to the lab.

All in all, it's not really hard work. It killed my back the first couple days but then I got used to it. Tomorrow they're not pouring so I'll have an easy day before going on vacation for San Diego. If you're interested at all, here's the power plant on google maps (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;q=&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;oe=UTF-8&amp;sll=37.0625,-95.677068&amp;sspn=33.29802,59.238281&amp;t=k&amp;om=1&amp;z=16&amp;ll =40.539227,-79.789925&amp;spn=0.007795,0.021501&amp;um=1&amp;sa=N&amp;tab=wl). Currently, we're working maybe 100 feet off that river (Allegheny).

What kind of problems do you encounter? Well, since I'm the bitchboy and [censored] flows downstream, I'm covered in [censored] all the time.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Trying to understand what my boss is saying. He's from Thailand and has lived here for like 30 years, yet it's near impossible to understand him.

How much do you make? $25k *sigh

How much can one expect to make in your position? If my position included a degree to go with my work experience and training, easily double what I make.

[/ QUOTE ]


http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6205/thorir5.jpg

[Ben K]

What do you do? Consulting actuary (still training)

Do you like it? Yeah, I guess so - it's challenging

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm not scared of numbers and always try to understand how something works rather than just it does by doing x

What kind of people do best in your work? Very smart analytical people who have the personality to go out and consult with clients and devote their evenings to the job studying to qualify.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A-level maths techincally although to get into a good company you'll need a first class degree in something maths or economics related

What is a typical day like? It's mainly project based work for clients - putting a numerical answer of questions like "how much should the company put to one side to pay for the pension benefits for the staff" and others. It can be hard sorting through misunderstanding and poor information to get at the answer.

What kind of problems do you encounter? If I think you're wrong - I tend to try and show it (as nicely as I can of course) but insecure senior types can't handle it sometimes.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration comes from relying on other people to do their part before i can do mine. Standard project problems really. Elation - when everything goes right. I think it's mre a reflection of what I like rather than specific to my job. I get the same elation when playing basketball and the whole team is moving together

How much do you make? £40k+ and I'm only part qualified

How much can one expect to make in your position? Senior actuaries often move in to management so I'm not sure there's a cap but for staying in the core job, I'd say £250k or so.

[Phil Van Sexton]

What do you do?
Software Engineer at hedge fund.

Do you like it?
yes


What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?

I taught myself to program at about 11 or 12, so the coding part is very easy for me. I ended up getting an Information Systems degree from a business school where I picked up a base of business knowledge that has been very valuable.


What kind of people do best in your work?


The most successful people in my field are not the best programmers. They are the very good programmers who also have good interpersonal skills, and industry knowledge (like finance or biotech).


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field
as you?

You have to be able to code to even get in the door. Most people have a computer science degree, but that's not even necessary if you can manage to teach yourself.

If you are great at math, you can probably do it. (There's no real math involved in my job, but it's a good indicator.) The vast majority of people wouldn't be able to code with 100 years of school, so that keeps the good programmers in demand.


What is a typical day like?

The first thing I do in the morning is check to see if any of my applications are having problems. Since we are a small company, I support my own programs. We have a lot of market data that comes in overnight, so most problems happen then.

At 8:30, we have a 1/2 hour staff meeting. This is an attempt to get us to communicate. This is no small achievement with IT people. Without this, you'll have everyone duplicating work, or assuming someone else is working on a problem when they are thinking the same thing and no one does anything. Of course, this happens anyway.

At 9, I can finally start working on my stuff. I work directly with the traders and their analysts. My boss in IT basically just assigns us to a particular area or trader. After that, I meet with the analysts to do whatever the trader wants the application to do today. This is a great deal. No red tape or stupid meetings. They tell me what they want, and I do it.


What kind of problems do you encounter? What are the biggest (most common)
sources of frustration and elation?

My programs are based on services and data that were created by other programmers. If any of these get screwed up, then my application will be screwed up. Of course, the users don't care about this. They just see that my program is broken. The other programmers don't work for me, so getting them to fix things is sometimes difficult.

The satisfaction comes from writing good applications and seeing them being used. It's nice to walk through the trading desk and see people making 8 figures a year running 1 of my applications.


How much do you make? How much can one expect to make in your position?
6 figures + bonus (which is based on fund performance and could be 6 figures too)

After 12 years on the job, I'd assume most people make 80k+. It varies a lot by location (I'm in Boston). You can probably still pull down 250k if you get the right consulting gig (I was independent consultant for a couple years before taking this job).

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
private money with some corporate funds/cash also.

[/ QUOTE ]
What is the private money if not cash?

[/ QUOTE ]

Not all funds are cash, which should be obvious. Cash can be uninvested funds, or simply part of an asset allocation decision to hold short-term floaters or t-bills.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well yea, it was pretty obvious that not all funds are cash when you said that some of it was cash, therefore implying that some was not. What was not obvious was what the non-cash funds are.

Does "with some corporate funds/cash also" mean that an alternative to cash would be "corporate funds"? What is a corporate fund? Let's say I give you $100 to manage in cash or I give you a share of stock with $100 and tell you to manage my portfolio. Are those different things in the terms you're talking about?

[punkass]

What do you do? 'AP Specialist', pretty much AP clerk for a huge international law firm in baltimore

Do you like it? don't hate it

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm well suited because I'll do monotonous work without wanting to kill myself. I'm excellent with numbers.

What kind of people do best in your work? Those who don't mind doing the same thing everyday.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Field= Accounting/Finance - The ability to not kill yourself from looking at numbers all day. Must not take anything to seriously as most any mistake can be easily fixed.

What is a typical day like? 7.5 hours. I code/audit/process/enter invoices into a computer. Pretty much transcribe details from a piece of paper to a computer screen. I do extra projects when offered which may separate me from the pack and actually help me get a promotion.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stupid people within department. Stupid people within the firm. Stupid people from vendors.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: most people in an AP department are college dropouts (me), recent high school grads, or old women who got the job 29 years ago. The women in the department always comment on "excessive" expenses like "Oh my god, he spent $250 on dinner! That can feed me and my family for a week!" and other such comments. The ignorance is very high. My tolerance of such is pretty high and I'm able to ignore most of it. Elation: job isn't hard. I actually get paid ok for a non-college degree. I like some of the people I work with, and go drinking with some of them.

How much do you make? $40-44k, depending on OT. No match 401k. Excellent health.

How much can one expect to make in your position? In the baltimore area, typical AP clerks make $8-$20/hr. I'm definitely on the high end of the scale, which is mostly due to luck. The firm I work for just seems to pay much higher than the competition in the area.

[Neuge]

What do you do? I'm a grad student in chemical engineering at Arizona State. My research focuses on higher order finite elements and Lagrangian particle tracking in parallel for modeling particle deposition in the upper airways of the lung. I also do a bit of work with preconditioners and algebraic multigrid. Basically, I'm an applied mathematician.

Do you like it? Yes

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm good at math.

What kind of people do best in your work? Highly dedicated and technical. I consult with some of the smartest people in this country regularly.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A BS in math, physics, chemical engineering, or mechanical engineering are most common, but I guess any engineering would do.

What is a typical day like? Wake up, wander over to my lab on campus at some point, spend 6-8 hours there coding various simulations and running them. Read papers and occasionally the internet while said simulations are running.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Code stability and cluster maintenance.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Mostly the answer to the previous question, for frustration. Elation comes from getting my research published.

How much do you make? My stipend is $20k/year plus tuition and health insurance. I have an internship at Sandia National Laboratory this summer that pays a bit more.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Post-docs make around $50k/year, industry professionals and national lab employees make between $60-200k/year, professors $90-150k/year (though highly accomplished ones make as much as $450k/year).

[iversonian]

Whoa, Jihad needs to start an askme thread.

[kyleb]

I really wish I could tell you about my job.

Someday.

[Neuge]

[ QUOTE ]
I really wish I could tell you about my job.

Someday.

[/ QUOTE ]
Funny enough, I've told many women this. It's not a complete lie, because I do a bit of classified work, but dumb girls eat this up.

[That Foreign Guy]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? <font color="red">Knowing a straight beats a flush.</font> Beyond that, the ability to think like a fish and plan large events.

[/ QUOTE ]
/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I said I needed to think like a fish. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Glad someone noticed my lame joke.

My boss does not play poker at all and is damn good at his job. When you're not dealing with winning players (and have plenty of experts around to check with) it's more about other stuff. Actually, even dealing with winning players it's about other stuff too.

[Freakin]

[ QUOTE ]
I really wish I could tell you about my job.

Someday.

[/ QUOTE ]

aren't you a pro baseball player?

[mmbt0ne]

kyleb has a pattern mapper.

[cbloom]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do?
I was a farmhand now I am probably the same but also a beginning farmer.


[/ QUOTE ]

DKay , where are you? I didn't think it was possible for a small-time farmer to make a profit any more? How hard would it be for someone with little/no experience to get into farming?

[prohornblower]

[ QUOTE ]


What do you do? Work in a private consulting company reviewing construction drawings and inspecting buildings throughout the state of Texas for handicap accessibility. Write reports and send to clients for both services.
Do you like it? It's pretty boring and monotonous but it is low stress. And I get to fly to Dallas and other parts of Texas about 6-8 times a year.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Introverted, yet good on the phone. Enjoy driving and good at navigating. Ability to write a coherent report. Ability to tell our clients where they are out of compliance without pissing them off and alienating them.
What kind of people do best in your work? Typically introverts who don't mind doing boring, low-stress work. People willing to work harder for a bonus. People with a car that gets great mileage. (we get paid $0.485/mile)

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A professional (5-year degree) in architecture or I believe engineering as well. Also a state license to perform building inspections.

What is a typical day like? Tuesday and Thursday I am in the office. I come in an hour late and leave an hour late to avoid RH traffic. I surf 2+2 while writing my reports and faxing them out. I also answer phone calls from clients. Occassionally I will review drawings if the plan reviewers are behind.
M, W, and Friday I'm out in the field. I usually log around 110 miles each day in the field. Dragging my ass all over Houston and outlying areas, meeting people (building owners/managers, contractors, architects, etc.) and walking their building with them. Often times I will have breaks of up to 2 hours between inspections, so I'll either sleep in my car, or find a bookstore to lounge in, or take care of other errands.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Inspections in the medical center are very stressful. It is really crowded, and there is always construction. It is hard as hell to find where I have to go. I get shoddy directions from building managers who think I know the facility as well as they do. Parking in the garages sucks ass because they are always full except for the top and I get stuck behind an old man going 5mph trying to find a spot on level 6 instead of just hauling ass to the top.

Also, a lot of the new building I inspect are so new that they aren't on mapquest or yahoo maps yet so I have to really do some detective work to find them. I end up driving around weird/construction areas so I get a nail in my tire about every 2 months.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? The female architects and building owners who call are always way way more rude than the men. The women really piss me off. Having to hold the file for 9 months and follow up with building owners is frustrating.

How much do you make? Total compensation (incl. 401k + ins. + gas money) is 52k, with quota-bonuses, I can make up to 64k probably. It should fall in between at about 58K

How much can one expect to make in your position?

That is about max. because I'm always working harder for bonuses.

[moneyshot]

What do you do? Senior finance manager for Fortune 50 Consumer products company

Do you like it? I like the people very much, the work isn't that challenging.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? You need to be able to explain complicated financial concepts to people in marketing without finance backgrounds. You need to be patient and able to work with bureaucracy.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who can get along with other, influence others and understand multiple functions (finance, sales, operations, marketing)

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Usually an MBA from top 10 school, thought very few people have been promoted without one.

What is a typical day like? Usually in the office 7-6 and will do another hour or 2 of email at home. Spend lots of time in meetings, do very admin stuff for my team and probably spend an hour or so doing actual finance.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Lack of motivation from employees, bureaucracy. You can make 100K a year without really doing much. Some people want to make more, but lots are comfy with a cushy corporate job.


What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Creating reports for senior people who want them for no legit reason.

How much do you make? its complicated. Base + bonus is aroudn 150K-175. Stock, profit sharing and deferred comp probably add another 25K.

How much can one expect to make in your position? As a director, totaly comp is probably arond 300K/year; probbaly around 600K-1MM as a VP. Most of the pay is deferred at senior levels. Part of the frustration is that bonuses are determined much more by compaby performance than your own. [/b]

[suzzer99]

What do you do? What do you do? Web programmer. I make websites that need to do a lot of stuff, like BofA, work. (I don't actually work on BofA, just an example.)

Do you like it? Generally yeah. I like the puzzle of getting the back end to work, and of boliing down the user-interface to the simplest, most straigtforward way to get the job done. I also like the feeling when I can create a great product that people love to use.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I think I may have the same brain as people who write computer languages. I've always picked them up very easily. Also I think a lot of gifted programmers may not be tuned into the human aspect (user-interface) of what they do, or have lousy communication/social skills in general. So someone who can deliver the goods *and* function well within a team environment has a leg up.

What kind of people do best in your work? Geeks. Very similar to poker pros or chess guys or whatever.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Bachelors in CS or higher will work. So will just finding some projects and working cheap to get experience. Everything is always changing so fast that college education in the field really isn't necessary right now. There are plenty of jobs to be had if you can just show a little experience, and convince them you're clever. This could all change as the fields matures.

What is a typical day like? Like any other office. Come in, stare at a computer screen most of the day, maybe have a few meetings. If you're lucky you get a tele-commute day or two, which often = day off. Then again when a big project is due you might work almost every waking hour for 2 weeks.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Lousy requirements from higher-ups who just want something that works, but haven't really thought through many aspects of what "works" actually means, and don't want to be bothered to sit down and figure it out with you. Co-workers who get stuck in some stubborn mode of thinking and just won't come around. Unrealistic project deadlines (the norm). Lack of interesting work. Trying to make something work, when the wrong technology or architecture has been selected for the job, and it's too late to change.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Frustration - working on a huge project you think might fail and isn't being run right. Working for a project manager who thinks the user-interface is more of an afterthought, so you constantly have to battle to make things smoother in that area. Working with people who put their own interests above the product/project. Projects for big corporations or healthcare stuff (or the worst - BOTH) that require tons and tons of documentation. Friction between different groups, like the front end and the back end, who fail to see the other side's POV.

Elation - creating something really cool that people love. Solving a particularly tough programming problem in a creative way. The feeling of accomplishment when you finally roll out a big project. Having a peer look at your work and say "that's pretty cool". Hearing directly from your users how much they love the product, or how much better it is than the old one.

How much do you make? I was making about $118k at my old job. I think the new one will offer me similar on Monday.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Very geographically dependent, SF/LA/NY would be at least 20% higher than anywhere else I think. I think what I was making is getting up there for a straight programmer (fellow progammers - please let me know if I'm off here). Maybe $150k+ if you're some kind of architect who's already designed a couple major systems from scratch. Or more obviously - if you become some kind of director or VP and start managing people. Also if you get lucky and land at a startup that makes it big, you can become a multi-millionaire (or billionaire like Dikshit). But that is a total crapshoot, and not likely enough to spend a lot of time searching for IMO.

[octopi]

Holy [censored]. I just started a new job last week, so I'm going to gush about it...even at the risk of jinxing myself.

What do you do? I am a part time assistant photo editor at a huge newspaper in my city.

Do you like it? Yes. A lot. It's my dream job...and I didn't even know it existed three weeks ago.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm well suited because I love multitasking, journalism, photography and the internet. I'm a curious person and a self starter and learner. Poorly suited...perhaps only in terms of trying to please everyone. I worry about deadlines and trying to get everything done for everyone.

What kind of people do best in your work? Chain smoking journalists, apparently. I think I'm the youngest person in the newsroom, and the youngest in my department. I think you have to have a good memory and an ability to throw whatever you are working on if something else bigger comes in.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? I'm still working on my Bachelor of Science degree, but basically an eye for photography, Photoshop skillz and and ability to handle stress. My photo editor is a ex-freelance photographer. My coworker is a photographer as well, who happens to be good with computers.

What is a typical day like? I do not think I can answer that yet. Last week Mark Messier's jersey was retired in my city, so there was lots of Messier talk. A day later, some art show was big talk. The day ebbs and flows with news stories. The day at 11am is significantly different by 4pm. They seem flexible. A lot of eating at the desk, reading the newspaper and newsites, waiting for news to happen.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Reporters who want their pictures NOW. Terrible photography sent in by the public. Copyright issues.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? I'm too on a high to answer that rationally. Ask me in three months.

How much do you make? $33,000 CDN a year, if I was full time at my hourly rate I am getting paid right now. I have no idea what someone would cap out at or would be salaried at. Below photo editor, but above most of the peons, I expect. I think I could use this job to springboard into more journalistic pursuits, or working at a big name place like Associated Press or Reuters. You can tell I'm in the halcyon days of early employment because I don't care about the hours or the money, just that I really like what I seem to be doing thus far.

[Ray Of Light]

What do you do?
I work as a Freelance Mystery Shopper. Basically, I go to various shopping centres and stores, purchasing goods or services. Afterwards, I write up an assessment on the level of customer service that I recieved. I am then paid a fee for the shopping assignment, as well as reimbursed by the company for all of the required goods/services that I purchased plus my travel costs.

Do you like it?
I used to... mostly because of the immense flexibilty that I have with my daily schedule. Also, I like being able to keep whatever I purchase. However, over the past year I have earned much more from poker/writing/internet marketing, than I have from from Mystery Shopping... causing the elation to wear off.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
I am suited for my job in that I have a keen eye for detail, I am logical, I am good with keeping up with paperwork, and I am self-motivated. However, I am (very) poorly suited for my job in that I hate shopping... always have done, and probably always will. Fighting mid-day shopping crowds is not my idea of fun.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Basically as long as you can keep on top of masses of paperwork, and you are actively drumming up more work from day to day, you will do great. You also have to like to shop... I mean you REALLY have to like to shop...

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
None. Thats the beauty of it... simply build a portfolio of companies who want to regularly hire you and you will do fine.

What is a typical day like?
I wake up around 10am and watch some bad day-time tv whilst checking my emails. I then spend an hour or so calling round companies (or checking their websites) to find out if they have any work available or any upcoming jobs. Once done I then shower, dress, apply my make-up and go out between 12pm - 5pm actually mystery shopping (purchasing goods, eating at resturants, going into banks and asking about their 'great rates'). I then come home for about 6pm and spend around 2-3 hours writing up the reports on the customer service provided by all the shops that I attended. I then send off the reports (usually via email or post), and that is my work day complete. If it reads as though I am bored with this routine, it is because I am. I have done this for a few years, and I am now looking for a change.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
The paperwork by far. A typical mystery shopping report is about 8-10 pages long, and requires detailed explanations throughout. When you have 10 shopping reports to complete in one evening, it can become heart-stoppingly boring to complete them all on time.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Frustration --- Paperwork; Elation --- Flexiable Hours/Getting lots of free goods.

How much do you make?
It varys according to how much work I can get, but I typically average $2500 a month ($30k a year) after tax.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
At the top end of the spectrum, you are going to peak at about $60k a year after tax.

[cbloom]

What do you do?
Nothing

Do you like it?
It's better than doing something. Actually it gets boring sometimes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
I'm a hard-working perfectionist. I'd rather do nothing than do something badly.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Hobos, drug addicts, kids with trust funds, aging hippies.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
A hefty bank account and an ability to amuse yourself.

What is a typical day like?
Get up pretty early, have coffee, read the paper, make breakfast, browse the interweb, play some video games. Then find someplace to get lunch, go out &amp; lunch, come back and chill, go to the gym and squat 2000 or so or maybe go for a bike ride, then go to the park and read a book. Meet some friends at a cafe when they get off work (suckas), go out to dinner, go home and watch a movie. Some nights drop and go out clubbing, some days go out mountain biking or hiking.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
Friends who wanna go to the crappy steak house that charges $100 for a side of potatoes. Parents and grandparents constantly telling me to get a job. Self doubt and thoughts that I'm wasting my life.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Frustration - pretty minimal, mainly parking related. Elation - when you find a whole week's worth of Steel Cut Oats in the bulk bin for $1.50 !!

How much do you make?
$0.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Well, most people make around $0, but the sky's the limit, some people like Paris Hilton seem to be making millions from doing nothing.

[midwestkc]

Well, I guess it's my turn
[ QUOTE ]
What do you do?I work for a large Mattress Retailer, as a store manager/salesperson

Do you like it?Yeah. It's not always the most exciting job in the world, but I like the company that I work for, and the opportunities for advancement that I have. It also has a pretty good income to amount of work done ratio

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?Umm...I'm a good salesman.

What kind of people do best in your work? Good Salespeople. Also, even some not so good salespeople that are nice and personable enough. Self motivation is also key, as you may literally sit on your ass for 6-7 hours, then have a couple customers come in. If you're not ready to sell them something, you get to go home and tell the wife that you donated your time for the day.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? None, really. Sales experience is nice, but as anyone who has ever trained salespeople will tell you, it's easier with someone who has never sold anything before. No bad habits.

What is a typical day like? Get to work at 10:00. Check E-mails, run sales reports, clean the store up, follow up with customers if necessary, wait to have someone to sell beds to.
What kind of problems do you encounter? Slow times of the year, crappy salespeople that leave issues from the day before, thing like that.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration: You spend an hour or two with a customer, sell them a big bed, they want to finance it, they get declined.

Elation: The busy times of the year. Also, the utmost high that I've ever felt on this job was a few years ago. I had a customer come in with his mother. This guy was in his 20s or 30s and had some sort of Mental Retardation. We found him a bed that he liked, but it was too expensive for him. Long story short, I found a way to get it into his budget. As we were sitting at the desk writing up the sale, the guy comes behind the desk, hugs me and starts crying. Now normally, I don't like it when another dude starts hugging me, and if he's crying it's kinda creepy. However, through his tears this guy starts telling me how happy he is and that he never thought that he would ever be able to afford a bed like this, etc. It was by far the most rewarding sale I've ever made (though definitely not the most profitable one).

How much do you make?It varies. Last year I made $65k. However, it's commission, so it varies.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Average for sales people and store managers company wide is $56k, but this includes the level above me, which get bonuses based on things other than just sales.

[/ QUOTE ]

[41eater]

Since someone else with a single-digit post count waded in:

What do you do?

I am a federal prosecutor.

Do you like it?

Yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?

The job requires a mix of talents: you must be a good courtroom lawyer; you must be a good brief-writer; you must have the ability to supervise agents; and you must have at least some inter-personal skills. I'm well-suited because although I'm far from brilliant, I'm pretty well-rounded.

What kind of people do best in your work?

The very best are the people who are not only smart and talented but willing to work very, very hard.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?

J.D. from a top school. Prior experience in either another prosecutor's office or at a big law firm. Prior clerkship for a federal judge is a plus, but not required.

What is a typical day like?

Out the door at 7:00-7:30, in the office at 7:30-8:00. Leave the office anywhere from 5:00 to 7:00. There is no "typical" day otherwise -- some days you go to court, most days you don't. Some weeks you might be writing a big brief, some weeks you don't write a lick. There might be periods when you spend days at a time at the FBI or DEA office supervising an investigation. Plus meetings, telephone calls, all the usual stuff.

What kind of problems do you encounter?

Number one problem: I could do a lot more with a competent paralegal to support my work. Otherwise, the usual gripes about the workplace: jerky colleagues and incompetent management.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?

As government lawyers, we are held to a higher standard. This is as it should be. But there are times when the other side is throwing mud at you and you have to just take it. That can be very frustrating. The best moments come when you and your colleagues do a great job in a difficult case.

How much do you make?

$132K

How much can one expect to make in your position?

$140K+

[cabbagehead7]

What do you do? Toyota automobile sales

Do you like it? Love it! I have been at the same dealership for over 10 years. I cannot imagine a job where you have to be tied to a desk all day and have a set schedule.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Good personality, have itegrity, charismatic, intelligent and have the ability to read people and situations well

What kind of people do best in your work? same answers as above with adding the ability to take rejection well and not take things personally. One has to be very competetive and get to the point of your career to where you are working with repeat and referral customers and leave the "lot" traffic to the newbies.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Have confidence in yourself knowing you work off of 100% commission only and not a base salary

What is a typical day like? Show up around 8:30, drink a cup of coffee and the rest depends on what is going on that day. Some days I may not be busy and others I am non stop all day


How much do you make? avg 7k-10k per month more in summer and less in winter. I know that is a pretty big range per month but that is the life of commission sales. Some days I do not make a penney and some days I may make a couple of grand. I like the challenge of not knowing when I wake up which day it will be.

How much can one expect to make in your position? it is entirely up to the individual. The best make a very good easy living while most in this business are living month to month trying to make a quick buck and burn out and have to move on. The longer you stay at the same dealership the easier and more profitable the job becomes.

[Misfire]

What do you do? Jack of all trades - LSAT/GMAT/GRE instructor/tutor, photo restoration artist, voice actor, graphic designer, web designer, stagehand, musician, recording engineer, audio editor, technical writer.

Do you like it? Most of it.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? Someone with multiple competing interests and abilities that doesn't like doing one thing too long.

What kind of people do best in your work? Free spirits.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
LSAT/GMAT/GRE Instructor - logic, reading comprehension, writing, highschool math, and english grammar skills. Ability to simpify concepts and explain them clearly.

Photo restoration artist/graphic designer - Photoshop skills, good eye, patience.

Voice actor - deep voice, good annunciation, and no regional accent (usually). Owning your own gear helps too.

Web designer - HTML/Javascript and hell, I don't know. I suck at it and people pay me anyway.

Stagehand - two arms, two legs, a slow month, and a small bank account.

Musician - practice.

Recording engineer/audio editor - Good ears.

Technical writer - ability to understand convoluted techie garbage, sort it out, and write about it so idiots can understand.

What is a typical day like? Sleep half the day and wake up wondering why I quit my dayjob. Play teh poker.

How much do you make? Dog [censored].

How much can one expect to make in your position? Depends.

[BukNaked36]

[ QUOTE ]
What do you do?
Nothing

Do you like it?
It's better than doing something. Actually it gets boring sometimes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
I'm a hard-working perfectionist. I'd rather do nothing than do something badly.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Hobos, drug addicts, kids with trust funds, aging hippies.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
A hefty bank account and an ability to amuse yourself.

What is a typical day like?
Get up pretty early, have coffee, read the paper, make breakfast, browse the interweb, play some video games. Then find someplace to get lunch, go out &amp; lunch, come back and chill, go to the gym and squat 2000 or so or maybe go for a bike ride, then go to the park and read a book. Meet some friends at a cafe when they get off work (suckas), go out to dinner, go home and watch a movie. Some nights drop and go out clubbing, some days go out mountain biking or hiking.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
Friends who wanna go to the crappy steak house that charges $100 for a side of potatoes. Parents and grandparents constantly telling me to get a job. Self doubt and thoughts that I'm wasting my life.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
Frustration - pretty minimal, mainly parking related. Elation - when you find a whole week's worth of Steel Cut Oats in the bulk bin for $1.50 !!

How much do you make?
$0.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Well, most people make around $0, but the sky's the limit, some people like Paris Hilton seem to be making millions from doing nothing.

[/ QUOTE ]

This sooo reminds me of Office Space.

"It's not just about my dream of doing nothing, It's about all of us"

[DamitBob]

You sound like a good peddler. Of course, it don't hurt to be selling the hottest product ever. What a lineup. Man, Toyota is on a heater.

I was a sales trainer with Chrysler for 15 years.

[Isura]

Thanks for doing this guys, keep it coming.

I'm still a student, but I think I'll end up doing something inbetween what limon and diablo do.

[UpstateNYAAonly]

what do you do?
I am a part-time over night videographer/tape editor for a Local Television Station

Do you like it?
yes its only part time and im not finished with college so its a fun job

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
well i dont know if i am yet, its basically an entry level job for television broadcasting, i may eventually like to direct, or be on air-talent, but i understand the basics of shooting video, and what looks good on TV

What kind of people do best in your work?
well for photogrophers, people who shoot good video under any condition, people who can capture things a normal person wouldnt at certain places, people who can make uninteresting things seem interesting

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
well i dont even have a college degree but i am studying television and radio broadcasting, but i dont think you need a college degree to do what i do

What is a typical day like?
i get to work at 930pm, i do nothing till 10, at 10 i "run tapes" (put tapes in decks as they play on air) for 30 minutes, i browse 2p2 until around midnight, edit tapes for the morning show till around 130, then more internet browsing till i get out at 230, internet browsing can be interrupted by fires, shootings, or anything else newsworthy that could happen at night

What kind of problems do you encounter?
editing machines acting up, tapes running out while im shooting video, forgetting batteries at the station when im 40 minutes away, mostly stuff that is my fault

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
my job is pretty laid back

How much do you make?
embarrasingly enough $10.00 plus night differential, but im only part time for now

How much can one expect to make in your position?
if i stayed working at a photogropher at this TV station. probably around $25.00 hr, bigger markets alot more....but i dont wanna be a "cameraman" for the rest of my life

[Jimmyjohn]

My office (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d17/jhd_123/Sunrise_2.jpg)

What do you do?
Oil and gas drilling and completion consultant.

Do you like it?
Yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
Able to relate to people from grunt laborers to multi-millionare investors to tech related specialists equally well. Innovative solutions to problems based on experience and intuition.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Intelligent working stiffs that were brought up hands-on in the business and put out extra to get ahead.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
Ranges from 8th grade failures to Petroleum Engineers.

What is a typical day like?
Drilling is 24/7 so you live on site. Reports go out @ 6:00am each day. You pace yourself to be up and around when needed or when your weaker/less trustworthy workers are on duty. You get the materials/services on location and direct them to do their jobs. 10-40 days to drill a typical well these days.
Completion is usually 7:00 am-6:00pm 6 or 7 days a week. Same as above.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
In drilling, operators (well owners) taking unnecessary risks to try to save money. Unforseeable downhole maladies that bite your butt.
Completion is easy compared to drilling, except the risk of being around high pressure. I typically work with completion pressures of 2,000-7,000 psi. Sometimes the plumbing leaks.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
I still get a buzz out of perforating and bringing in a 200 bbl/day oil well/5mmcfpd gas well.
Frustration? A picture is worth a thousand words.....
Very frustrating (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d17/jhd_123/BLOWOUT3aa.jpg)

How much do you make? $900/day drilling or $700/day completion plus all expenses.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Salaried with bennies for a major makes about 90k. Consulting see above (+++ for offshore or overseas).

[Wubbie075]

What do you do? Event planner for major university. We do dinners, receptions and conferences for the Board of Trustees and major donors. I don't deal with students at all.

Do you like it? Love it most of the time, but but hate what I get paid. I am wrestling with the fact that I could make a lot more in a position I would not like nearly as much.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am a social person and enjoy dealing with people. I have a strong eye for details. I work best in high pressure situations.

What kind of people do best in your work? See above for technical qualifications. Artistic creative people with good taste. Knowledge of good food and wines obviously helpful (which I REALLY need to work on!!).

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? No real qualifications such as degrees are necessary. I fell into my position totally by accident on a temp assignment with no previous professional experience.

What is a typical day like? Really depends on the day. My day can be dreadfully boring, or insanely busy. Anything from coordinating mailings of invitations to recording RSVP's to meeting with vendors (caterers, printers, etc.) to planning logistics and too many other things to name.

What kind of problems do you encounter? I'm sure these are easy to imagine

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration - Idiots who RSVP at 5PM for a sit-down dinner starting at 6:30PM. Idiots who say they ARE NOT coming to the event, but show up anyway and get mad that we are not prepared for them (name badge, table assignment, etc.). Not getting to go to a conference we had in Florence. Not getting to go to a conference we're gonna be having in China. Dealing with multi-millionaires and billionaires on a daily basis and having none of that money fall into my lap. Elation - The thing I love most about my job is that rather than endless streams of paper crossing my desk, we'll bust our asses on an event (or 4) and we get to be there to see everything come together. Dealing with contant problems and glitches so seamlessly that everyone (except the ppl who matter) thinks there were no problems at all. I eat very well on event nights!! Oh, and Billy Joel played a private concert for us at one of our dinners. That was really cool.

How much do you make? Ugghh... well I work for a University, so they get away with paying us "non-profit" salaries. I make $42K plus some overtime, but in NYC that's less than nothing.

How much can one expect to make in your position? If you have your own business and are experienced and talented and have the right contacts, the sky's the limit!! (How much do you think Trump's wedding planner makes???) I don't know for certain, but I would speculate that my boss makes on the order of $100K.

[Grunch]

What do you do? 'VP/Development &amp; Senior Software Engineer'

Do you like it? Yes

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I'm an excellent programmer, I'm a pretty good manager of people, and I have very high standards of excellence while still being grounded in the demands of reality.

What kind of people do best in your work? People who are good at herding cats with one hand while inventing things with the other.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Usually you would work your way up through the ranks.

What is a typical day like? Up at 600, bike to work, shower &amp; shave at the gym. At desk around 830. Write code, frequent meetings &amp; about 200 emails per day. Train new programmers.

What kind of problems do you encounter? The old adage that the customer is always right is nearly always wrong. My challenge is to figure out what it is they really want, how to do that, and then how to sell it to both the customer &amp; my boss.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Elation is taking a company that is broken in places and fix those things. Frustration is being stymied by short-term thinking &amp; lack of vision.

How much do you make? 6 figures+.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Depending on the company, a ton.

[milesdyson]

BUMP!

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I am bored at my job, so I will tell you about it.

What do you do? Structural engineering (unlicensed still).

Do you like it? Not really.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am well-suited because I understand geometry well and am good at math. I am unsuited because I am very easily distracted and unwilling to apply myself very much when there is no dire consequence to being lazy.

What kind of people do best in your work? People like me, just without all the other crap running through their heads.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? A degree in civil or structural engineering basically.

What is a typical day like? Coffee, 2+2, and working on structural plans. It varies between custom homes, apartments, condos, townhomes, and other miscellaneous wood-framed buildings. I am pretty much always doing the same thing when in the office, which is designing the horizontal and lateral force resisting systems in these buildings. I am out of the office when I do structural observations on projects under construction or go to consultant meetings.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stupid people in the field and at other offices.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is usually caused by having to finish projects in short time periods. Elation is usually caused by drinking coffee in the morning, leaving for lunch, and leaving the office at night.

How much do you make? About $60k/yr when you count profit sharing.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Somewhere around $80-100k/yr with a good amount of experience and your professional engineering license.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have been working as a structural engineer (bridges and retaining walls) for a little over 2 years now with my a BS and MS degree, and this is about where I'm at and exactly how I perceive it. Good post.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just felt it was necessary to bump this thread to tell everyone that today, on a whim, I quit this job. I probably had 50 hours of work per week lined up for the next 4 weeks.

The boss asked me today, "Are you going to get these projects done?"

I said, "I don't know."

He said, "Well you have to. You'll have to put in extra time either after 5pm or on the weekends."

This was at 11am this morning. At 1:30pm, after lunch, I went into the other's office and told him I was quitting. I feel soooooooo good.

[CharlieDontSurf]

What do you do?. Assistant to Feature Film Producer.

Do you like it? No...but who would.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am well-suited because I can write good development notes and have a good eye for scripts. I am unsuited because I am doing a job a semi-retarded monkey could do.

What kind of people do best in your work? Anyone can do well in this job...if your well read, intelligent, well educated, and have lots of creativity then you probably could do something a lot more meaningful with your life.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Be willing to be someone's bitch. Have thick skin. Be so interested in movies and making them that your willing to grind out several years of your life working as an assistant.

What is a typical day like? Get up at 8:00. Sit in traffic for an hour/ hour and 1/2. Get to work at 9:30. Roll calls, go thru messages, things to do etc. Answer phones, create project lists-directors list, actors list, submission lists, read scripts, send out scripts, deal with films going into production, set up lunches/meetings, write development notes, do lots of secretarial [censored]. Do bosses expenses and anything else they want you to do. Read 2+2. Read the net. Work on my scripts if my boss is out of the office. Gossip with other assistants if I'm really [censored] bored. Go to lunch with other assistants. Repeat all this crap till like 7 or 8 pm and then go home. Sit in traffic for an hour. Get home. Wish I had stayed in the Caymans. Watch some TV maybe play some poker. Go to bed.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Stupid people, a$$holes, having to do every little nitty thing for my boss, having to read awful scripts, having to be around people who have no creativity or no real love for movies etc but watched Entourage and thought it would be cool to work in the industry. Having to deal with 40 year old interns who had a mid career crisis and decided to try working in the movie business.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? See above..watching a movie start out as an idea a writer as off the top of his head and seeing it move thru the process and get made into a really good film. Meeting and hanging out with people who love making movies and are incredibly creative...writers/directors/actors/producers/set designers/etc etc. Meeting really hot actresses who act like they like/respect you even if they don't because you work for so and so.

How much do you make? About $35k/yr.

How much can one expect to make in your position? anywhere from $400/450 a week working in the mailroom at aagency to 40/50K working as an executive assistant to a studio VP to 80K+ working as a personal assistant to a A-list actor etc. Average for most assistants is 500-650 a week..but that is usually a 50-55 hour work week.

Depends on where you are working and who you are working for.

But obviously if you move onto to a "real" job in the industry you can make anywhere from 100K to 1 billion.

[nyc999]

What do you do? Marketing Consultant, Survey Research, Political Polling

Do you like it? Some days.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I have a very analytical mind, excellent math skills, good people skills (for the sales part of my job)

What kind of people do best in your work? Analytical, organized, driven and those who can see the big picture

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Minimum bachelors degree, ideally in business, statistics or psychology


What is a typical day like? Get to work around 9:30, read some email, and do either of the following - develop a survey/questionnaire/moderator guide, write detailed analysis based on results from research studies, develop recommendations for upcoming marketing/advertising efforts. Travel 2-3 days per month and usually have at least 3-4 client lunches/dinners per month

What kind of problems do you encounter? Clients too attached to the advertising/marketing campaign they developed although every indication says it will not be successful, meeting ultra-tight deadlines.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration - coming up with a great solution/plan only to have it shot down due to politics. Elation - seeing a campaign I work on or recommendations implemented that increase profits for my client.

[suzzer99]

Charlie, one of my favorite shows the last few years is Project Greenlight. Is it anything like that? Making movies looks pretty fun/interesting/challenging/exciting. Seems to favor people who are good bullshitters above all else.

Also, what exactly is involved in making that leap from where you are to being a "player"? One lucky deal or something?

[hyde]

What do you do? Fly hot air balloons

Do you like it? Every single time

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I am not qualified to do anything else.

What kind of people do best in your work? There is a 'natural' aspect like being an athlete. More like a race car driver than Michael Jordan though. I guess an ability to focus. An ability to assess risk. An ability to adjust plans on extremely short notice. I was an EMT once and sometimes it is the same. Without the blood.


What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? It is an FAA regulated license and way too easy to get. I would not let my children fly with many pilots....

What is a typical day like? I'm up at 4am or so and checking 5 or 6 weather sites, putting together a picnic basket of fresh fruit, pastry and champagne for a post flight celebration. (survivors banquet). Meet with passengers at 6am, launch at 7am, land at 8am, pack up the balloon and 'celebrate'. refuel by 10am, return phone calls until noon. nap. 5pm I am back on the internet checking weather, meet evening passengers at 6pm, launch 7pm.....done for the night at 10:30 or so.
rinse, repeat.
A good run of weather can be exhausting. But Mother Nature gives me plenty of days off and winters are relaxed.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Wind. Hate the wind. and occasionally trees...too many trees, not enough fields. Once a year I encounter a hostile landowner.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Wind, hate the wind,borderline forecasts. Sometimes we get all set up before being able to make the decision to fly or not. Some days I wish I didn't have to spend so much time on the phone, the sales spiel is simple yet the repetition can get difficult during the busy (and tired) season. But it is close to a one man operation.
Elation: It remains an incredible rush every single flight.

How much do you make? About 65K, varies depending on the weather and the economy.

How much can one expect to make in your position? the next level would require having more or bigger balloons. More balloons require employees, bigger balloons are not a good option in my area due to tight flying conditions, weight of the equipment and loss of intimacy of experience for the passenger( they become cattle cars). I've pretty much maxed out the one man show. There are a few larger companies, but the owners don't get to fly as often and I don't see the sense in that.
Downside: I have to work until I die.
Upside: I get to work until I die.

[/ QUOTE ]

[Sooga]

What do you do? High School math teacher in the suburbia L.A. area.

Do you like it? Teaching, absolutely. Teaching at this particular school, not so much. The job is great by itself, and the 180 6-hour work days every year ain't too bad either. Plus the benefits are good.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work? I think the principal reason there are so many bad teachers out there is that so many teachers are not truly passionate about their subject. I'll agree, if I had to spend 6 hours a day talking about and teaching a subject I had little to no interest in, I'd be pretty miserable too. But I love math, I love thinking about math, and I love to help others love math too.

What kind of people do best in your work? Like I said earlier, people who truly have a passion for their subject, and I'll add to that, people who like working with kids. As obvious as it seems, you have to like kids if you become a teacher. So many teachers I know get frustrated because their kids act immaturely and do stupid things. OF COURSE THEY DO, THEY'RE KIDS!

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you? Before a couple years ago, a Bachelor's degree would suffice. Nowadays you'll need usually a Bachelor's degree in your particular field, PLUS a credential (a couple years of coursework), plus all sorts of other certifications, depending on where/what you teach.

What is a typical day like? My morning starts at 8am, but I usually get to school about 6.45 - 7 to beat the crowd, and to do some last minute grading and prepping. I teach 5 periods per day, 55 minutes each, and I get out at 2:51. Of course, some days I have to stay after school for random stupid teacher meetings and such, but usually I'm home by 3:30.

What kind of problems do you encounter? Horrible administrators, pushy parents, disrespectful kids.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation? Frustration is usually caused by kids who just don't give a sh*t. Stupidity I can handle. Indifference I cannot. Listen, I know most kids I teach are not going to be math majors. If a kid comes to me, seems like he's truly trying every day, and just doesn't seem to get the material, well, I'm sure we can find some way to at least get him to pass the class and get on with life. On the other hand, if some dipsh*t kid just comes in, does nothing, and expects me to help him out.... well, f you, kid.

How much do you make? 52k a year, which is kinda low for the L.A. area.

How much can one expect to make in your position? Assuming you have the maximum number of years experience, and the maximum number of 'units' (extra stuff you take; seminars, conferences, classes, etc), then you can make somewhere between 80k - 90k.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
Charlie, one of my favorite shows the last few years is Project Greenlight. Is it anything like that? Making movies looks pretty fun/interesting/challenging/exciting. Seems to favor people who are good bullshitters above all else.

Also, what exactly is involved in making that leap from where you are to being a "player"? One lucky deal or something?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes and No...PG didn't highlight how many idiots one would have to deal with on the development/executive side of things. It was really more of a on set production type of show. Most development takes a lot longer...so the action isn't always there. Kind of depends on who you work for. Some producers just want to crank out [censored] 24/7 even if it is pure crap in order to make a check...others are more picky and prefer to develop stuff longer and avoid putting out Saw 9 etc.

The leap...hmm really depends on what you want to do.
I'd say most assistants want to either be a writer/director/producer/dev exec/or maybe a agent or manager. For those last two working at an agency or smaller managment company and just putting in the years would probably get you somewhere unless you were retarded.

Networking and making friends in the industry is obviously huge..the majority of jobs you get are based off of knowing the right person at the right time etc.

For writing and directing it is simply coming up with something people either respect or want. Many writer and directors simply use an assistant gig to make contacts, improve their craft, be somewhat involved on a basic level in the industry..and pay the bills while they write/direct at the same time.

Working as a creative exec or in development in some form at a studio usually just means paying your dues at several good assistant jobs for several years, making contacts, and then getting a little bit lucky and moving on to a position at a smaller production comapny or at a studio. There is NO job security though...can be crazy hours...not exactly the job I would want to have in my late 30's early 40s especially if I had a family or kids.

The time in between grinding as an assistant and getting there can drain your soul.

[octopi]

[ QUOTE ]
My office (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d17/jhd_123/Sunrise_2.jpg)

What do you do?
Oil and gas drilling and completion consultant.

Do you like it?
Yes.

What makes you in particular well-suited or poorly-suited for your work?
Able to relate to people from grunt laborers to multi-millionare investors to tech related specialists equally well. Innovative solutions to problems based on experience and intuition.

What kind of people do best in your work?
Intelligent working stiffs that were brought up hands-on in the business and put out extra to get ahead.

What qualifications are necessary for people considering work in the same field as you?
Ranges from 8th grade failures to Petroleum Engineers.

What is a typical day like?
Drilling is 24/7 so you live on site. Reports go out @ 6:00am each day. You pace yourself to be up and around when needed or when your weaker/less trustworthy workers are on duty. You get the materials/services on location and direct them to do their jobs. 10-40 days to drill a typical well these days.
Completion is usually 7:00 am-6:00pm 6 or 7 days a week. Same as above.

What kind of problems do you encounter?
In drilling, operators (well owners) taking unnecessary risks to try to save money. Unforseeable downhole maladies that bite your butt.
Completion is easy compared to drilling, except the risk of being around high pressure. I typically work with completion pressures of 2,000-7,000 psi. Sometimes the plumbing leaks.

What are the biggest (most common) sources of frustration and elation?
I still get a buzz out of perforating and bringing in a 200 bbl/day oil well/5mmcfpd gas well.
Frustration? A picture is worth a thousand words.....
Very frustrating (http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d17/jhd_123/BLOWOUT3aa.jpg)

How much do you make? $900/day drilling or $700/day completion plus all expenses.

How much can one expect to make in your position?
Salaried with bennies for a major makes about 90k. Consulting see above (+++ for offshore or overseas).

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for posting this. This is sort of what my dad does (former FMT specialist, now field manager of some kind for Baker. He's a Grade 11 failure, btw), and I have a hard time relating to it and what he actually has to do. I appreciated this.

[cbloom]

[ QUOTE ]

Frustration is usually caused by kids who just don't give a sh*t. Stupidity I can handle. Indifference I cannot. Listen, I know most kids I teach are not going to be math majors. If a kid comes to me, seems like he's truly trying every day, and just doesn't seem to get the material, well, I'm sure we can find some way to at least get him to pass the class and get on with life. On the other hand, if some dipsh*t kid just comes in, does nothing, and expects me to help him out.... well, f you, kid.


[/ QUOTE ]

I used to think I wanted to be a professor/teacher, but when I was a graduate student I taught a class for freshmen, and more than half of them just didn't give a sh*t. It was such a great pleasure to teach the ones that wanted to learn, whether they were smart or nut (it's a fun challenge to figure out how to get through people who want to learn but are struggling), but the majority of the class was doing horribly, not paying attention, never came to office hours, never asked questions, it was totally disillusioning /images/graemlins/frown.gif