Android programmer. Picked it up back in 2011 when I was a couple years out of school.
Online communications for an organisation that focuses on local youths. Everything they organise, do, etc... we offer them a platform and also acts as a link between them and the local politicians. Since we're an online platform, it's a very important job (or so it feels) but it's not always easy to explain. So most of the times I just describe it as: "I post a lot of things on social media and our website as well as writing a newsletter, plus I go to a lot of events"
Trying to ditch all meta/big tech apps, tho, but almost impossible with this job. We rely on Instagram and TikTok a lot (our target audience is 16-30)... That's definitely a downside. Looking to expand to fediverse as well, but it's a slow process
I work in travel insurance claims. I'm in a third party administrator for underwriters. When you're on a trip and you get hurt or get sick, you give us a call and we get a claim started for you.
Electronics Technician and self taught programmer. My career has been building equipment to test locomotive traction motors and alternators. Lots SQL and PLC programming, electrical drawings, web programming for reports.
Freelance fehdreyer
I always enter “exotic dancer” when a form requires me to for some bullshit reason.
Long time IT/cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is all about curiosity and learning. I got there via the military.
E: too soon.
Wow it's really cool someone from a military background went into the field of cybersecurity!
Is this common at all in cybersecurity?
There's a lot of IT jobs in the military, and that includes cybersecurity.
Central heating and ventilation technician, that was my first one, it was awesome, learned welding and stuu like that. But during the winter I couldn't do it, every time so freaking cold.
Then I was a Rubber mixer for the aufomobile industry, which destroyed my sense of smell to a high degree so I switched again.
Next was frontend developer, then iPhona app developer and then finally I also studied computer science.
After that I I went back to the automobile industry, but with the CS background I'm in software development now. My profession is very broad. I'm Integrator, Software Factory Subject Matter Expert (basically architecture around devops), Configuration Manager. Not programming at all anymore.
I'm a lifelong cook. Been working in kitchens since I was 15 and I'm currently training to be the sous chef at my current location.
People shit on food service workers but the amount of practical real life skills I've acquired over the years has actually come in handy quite a few times.
IT Project and Team lead.
Protecting "my" engineers from the customers. :)
HAAAWOOO!
HAAAWOOO!
HAAAWOOO!
Werewolf? London by any chance?
Had to scroll way too far for this.
You work as a fog horn?
"You see old friend. I brought more soldiers than you did" Lol my first thought as well
Manager in the neuroscience lab where I did my PhD. Actually pretty nice because I know the lab and everyone so we'll I can often do the management in a few hours and then just focus on my research (finishing my thesis because behavior plus in vivo neurophysiology takes more like 7 years instead of 4 lol). Although, there can be some very stressful moments, big grants or so (and my boss is one of those breathing-science profs that will msg on WhatsApp on the weekend or days off lol, but yeah fuck that). I learned that I'm not good enough/invested enough to actually become a PI or prof, so this management stuff is pretty nice on the edge. I don't have the responsibilities but my opinion is often respected due to my research experience in the lab. Pay is shit tho.
Game developer (software engineer) We get paid less than conventional software but it's very rewarding work on its own.
I'm in IT. Wish I could have gotten into programming, but I'm just not suited to it for whatever reasons. I love tinkering on Linux boxes and figuring out networking issues. Interested in infosec, but discouraged by how many of those jobs involve working for the war machine.
I'm kind of in the same boat, thought I'd be programming but figured out early on that sitting at a desk coding for 8+ hours a day just wasn't my thing. Turns out I'm happier doing all the other IT grunt work e.g. setting up servers, backups, dealing with the network/wireless/firewalls, even provisioning and supporting user desktops gets interesting.
Musician. Graduated college expecting to go into STEM but the work made me miserable. A little less financially stable now but I would trade that for my mental well-being 10 times out of 10.
I'm a professional slut.... for data.
LOL I mean I can probably say the same thing and I gotta tell you. It's amazing the people out there that want to:
I'll use just a simple example of tracking incidents in your organization. It's so polarizing like people how do you expect to improve if you can't acknowledge your faults?
Extrapolate that to the current political climate.
It’s so polarizing like people how do you expect to improve if you can’t acknowledge your faults?
The scale of this problem is mind-boggling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002
spoiler for those who don't want to skim an article on a US military war game
Long story short, the US Armed Forces performed a practice war simulation, "costing US$250 million (equivalent to about $423M in 2023), the most expensive war game in US military history". The two teams were "Blue" (totally-not the US) and the "Red" team (totally-not Iran or Iraq). The retired Lieutenant General of the Red team made the reasonable choice to adopt old-school low-tech tactics to avoid the Blue team's sophisticated electronic surveillance network, as well as other asymmetric tactics like those used by real armies who have defended against US invasions. Red team won in one day. There were apparently a range of technical problems in the simulation which made it harder for Blue, so they re-tried with conditions to make use of the remaining thirteen days. However:
After the war game was restarted, its participants were forced to follow a script drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory. Among other rules imposed by this script, Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be destroyed, and during a combined parachute assault by the 82nd Airborne Division and Marines air assaulting on the then new and still controversial CV-22, Van Riper's forces were ordered not to shoot down any of the approaching aircraft. Van Riper also claimed that exercise officials denied him the opportunity to use his own tactics and ideas against Blue Force, and that they also ordered Red Force not to use certain weapons systems against Blue Force and even ordered the location of Red Force units to be revealed. The postmortem JFCOM report on MC02 would say "As the exercise progressed, the [Opposing Force] free-play was eventually constrained to the point where the end state was scripted. This scripting ensured a blue team operational victory and established conditions in the exercise for transition operations."
Wage slave and renter
Machinist. Over 20 years now.
Steel section bender.
Rodriguez?
I'm a Technical IT Consultant, consulting for a large cloud IT platform company.
On the client side, I take on new implementation projects, setups + configurations, maintenance, and help desk tasks that are beyond the help desk department.
Internally, I'm involved in our DevOps and custom app development teams.
Was a cop, now I'm in EMS. Much better mentality, even with a shittier job environment.
I work in insurance, specifically auto insurance. I used to work as a bodily injury adjuster, but moved to subro. I've been doing this for longer than I realized. My mom told me with a smile that I'll likely be in insurance the rest of my life. I went home and cried 🤣
Pays alright though. And I'm (currently) able to work from home which I know is a blessing. Just wasn't what I was dreaming about as a little girl, you know?
Virtualization Engineer. Finally doing what I am passionate about. I was a stock broker 10 years ago. It was a crazy ride.
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