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[tubby]

Time served engineer(milling turning etc), started my own business 23 yrs ago, retired at age 55, 3 yrs later started another engineering business, this time just me and the wife. Should never have gone back, can't wait to retire again.

Barry

[OMK]

Downsides to the job are the hours (shiftwork) and some of the grotty holes you have to work in at times- tunnels aren't the cleanest of places!
Andy

Subculture. That's a neat handle - now that I know what it means.

Mate, been there, done that.
Along similar lines, I too have worked in some pretty grotty conditions. You remind of one time where I'm pulling cables in a cramped roof space. The headroom was no more than 18 inches, so the only way to move around was by crawling on your belly. Cap that with the sun beating down on the roof and sweat pouring from just about every pore, then add a six-inch-thick layer of fibreglass insulation. The heat is so unbearable that you can only work wearing just shorts. And all the while you're vying for some elbow room in order to pull the cables... with all that grotty fibreglass against bare skin.
Just before she died, my wife inadvertantly set me going as a professional pubic hair remover. Word got around and before you knew it things just took off. Thing is, although you sometimes work in grotty conditions your job sounds dead interesting. Like you, I'm a hands-on sort of bloke. And I never thought I'd hear myself saying that I sometimes miss all those grotty jobs.

[Bryan Young]

Best job of all early retirement from mod, except the wife keeps finding irritating jobs for me to do!!!

So you did manage to "get out from under". Pleased for you. Best thing I ever did was to convince the MoD that I was past my "sell by" date. Now I can concentrate on learning how to be a modeller! Cheers. Bryan.

[bbdave]

Firstly i was an egg collector on a chicken farm then tate picker,stubble burner,bush beater after that i got a paper round then after school i became a fully time served electrician i worked on mainly MOD contracts also industrial and nuclear sites then i had a few years in forestry, then i fitted fire and intruder detection systems for Chubb and ADT and now i work on a small holding with horses cattle and sheep.

[Garabaldy]

i was a paper boy then i worked in the bakery section of my local co-op then i left school.  I worked in Halford bike  hut for 2 months then i got a  job as a trainee draughtsman at a commercial diving company and im still there nearly 4 years later. 

[RipSlider]

I design big computer systems - most in the region of £100m - £1billion. (software, hardware, algorithms, interfaces - all of it )

I'm in an odd situation where I'm essentially a contractor, but I have groups of guys who I feed work to. At the same time as doing design, I sometimes do project management as well, usually on the same projects - mostly in the sales phase.

I get to see some very interesting companies, government departments and lots of interesting problems, but I also get to see a *lot* of very senior people being stupid. A prime example being a very senior civil servant tacking £140million of completely un-needed money onto a budget for a project becuase another department was buying a different type of database, and this guy wanted one "bigger and better than theirs" - so the entire thing got re-designed to stroke a single guys ego.

And you wonder why govermnent projects over-spend. Although I'll be honest - the only place I've NOT seen this happening is at the MoD. I know they get a lot of bad press, but the people I've come accross seem to have their heads screwed on pretty well.


Steve

[JohnneyBoy]

Nor sure what my job title should be... "Pain in the A..." I write shed loads of software in various languages, heavily involved in web development and advise on computer security. Have a background in electronics, that's where I started in computers, many years ago. I have worked for some interesting organisations, Reuters, Sun Microsystems, various Well known Investment Companies. What do I want to do.... Live in France, in the country side. Just come back there from a two Holiday, it was great...

[hopeitfloats]

and if you happen to get a house that the tour de france passes by ...... well save me a room. :)

[Bryan Young]

I design big computer systems - most in the region of £100m - £1billion. (software, hardware, algorithms, interfaces - all of it )

I'm in an odd situation where I'm essentially a contractor, but I have groups of guys who I feed work to. At the same time as doing design, I sometimes do project management as well, usually on the same projects - mostly in the sales phase.

I get to see some very interesting companies, government departments and lots of interesting problems, but I also get to see a *lot* of very senior people being stupid. A prime example being a very senior civil servant tacking £140million of completely un-needed money onto a budget for a project becuase another department was buying a different type of database, and this guy wanted one "bigger and better than theirs" - so the entire thing got re-designed to stroke a single guys ego.

And you wonder why govermnent projects over-spend. Although I'll be honest - the only place I've NOT seen this happening is at the MoD. I know they get a lot of bad press, but the people I've come accross seem to have their heads screwed on pretty well.


Steve

Are you good at maths then? If you are then this forum needs your skills! (mine included).

[galleyboy]

Fog sweeper on the river Humber...thankfully it's a part time job 

[Didge]

Tube train driver for 35 years. Medically retired in 2006 because my left wrist is gimpy following an incident where some old woman in a car separated me from my motorbike at 40mph. >:(
Now a part-time caretaker in my village hall.

[White Ensign]

... to put it in a short way: My job is....... lousy..... 

Disposition managing desk in a testing dept. of a vendor for automobile industry. Whatever you do, whatever you try to arrange- you`re always some hours to late. Very stressfull- but my collegues are the best you can find.  ::)

Jörg