Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic What do you do for a living?

I'm the secretary for the head of the Maintenance Department for a school district. It's not glamorous or anything like that, but it pays the bills and I usually can squeeze out at least one hour each day to surf the internet.

I'm a homemaker. It is my dream job. I actually dressed up as a homemaker for Halloween one year when I was about eight or nine. I wore an apron and carried a whisk broom (although my mother never wore an apron); I got so mad when people kept telling me what a pretty witch I was.

My second job is as a school teacher. I homeschool preschool, kindergarten and second grade.

I am not a housewife. My house is obviously not married. My house usually is clean (which means there isn't a thick level of dirt), but cluttered (but there is a constant covering of projects and toys, no matter how hard I work). Oh, well! It's just for a short season of life.

Elisabeth

These days I'm an employment counsellor (the link says most are employed by government, but these days most in Canada are employed by not-for-profit agencies). I work with an agency which specialises in helping newcomers to our city find their way around the labour market and get jobs. Our services are free to anyone who is unemployed and seeking work.

So most of my clients are from other countries (mostly Latin America, the Middle East and China, with some from Eastern Europe, Russia and elsewhere). Today, for instance, I saw a Lithuanian, a Croatian, a Canadian who lived in Israel for ten years, a Chinese man, two Colombians and two Iraqis. Many of them are learning English as a second language, and most of them have very high levels of qualifications and hugely impressive experience... except it's not in Canada. And they know very little about looking for work in Canada, or what a Canadian resume looks like.

What do I do? I find out their needs and their barriers to employment, assess their situation and work together with them on a plan to help them find employment, drawing on my knowledge of community resources (as many of these free as I can find) and my own agency's services to help them move forward. Sometimes they also have personal issues which they need to deal with - especially if they're refugees who have escaped from life-threatening situations (I have clients whose relatives or spouses have been kidnapped or murdered), and I work with them to find ways of dealing with these as well.

And I love my job


Wendy

I'm a software engineer (aka computer programmer) in the communications industry. i've been working for QUALCOMM (yes, the name on the San Diego Chargers' football stadium) for 13 years and am currenty working on a product that tracks the hours that truck drivers spend driving and on-duty using a satellite communications device.

I am a librarian. I spend my days helping children find books they like to read. Best part is when one of them returns the books and says how much they liked it.

I finally got a job that I really feel happy about it. I'm a Child Development Program Assistant in a military base. I always loved kids so this was just perfect for me. Not to mention that I get weekends off!!! I work 6h and a half everyday, sometimes more when they need more help. I work with preschoolers ages 3, 4 and 5. My room has 40 kids and 6 teachers but not all the teachers are there at the same time... normally we have 4 or 5 during the hours we have more kids since my room is a full time preschool. I'm getting a lot of training and practice and it's really interesting! At the end of my 1 year and a half training I will have the equivalent of an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Developmet. The best part of the day is when my kids come and hug me and say they love me or when I can see I taught them something

I have a 25 minutes drive to work but I have to wake up at 5:40am so I can be there at 7am (I'm not a morning person so I'm really slow in the morning ). I love what I do and I'm planning on going back to college and get an English and Literature Bachelor degree because I'd really like to become a teacher So keep your fingers crossed for me

Raquel

I’m also been involved with dancing for many years. I’ve been a professional dancer, owned my own dance studio (which I only recently passed on to two of my pupils) and have adjudicated and lectured all over Australia. I love adjudicating and lecturing and still take an occasional booking.

Tricia

Interesting thread! It's neat to find out what other FOLCs do in their non-L&C time.

I'm a mainframe computer programmer for an insurance company, which means that I don't get to use my creativity at work very often. I have to save it all up for writing fanfic and feedback. I'm also an amateur musician who plays bass in a gospel/bluegrass band. We play twice a month at a local restaurant and at churches in our local area. It's just pocket money, but the other people in the band are so nice that I'd probably do it for free if they asked me to. We have a lot of fun and make people smile.

Not long ago, our fiddle player (she plays "fiddle" and not violin - it's a very important distinction) started a piece called "Ashokan Farewell" and an older couple began waltzing to it between the tables. And they weren't one of our regulars! That was one of the many really good memories from this gig.

Dang, Elisabeth, I totally envy you. I'd give anything to be able to make my home my job, but hubby says we can't afford it yet.

LOL! I get what you mean, my hubby says we need to belong to the Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things.

I have two jobs:

The first is as a substitute teacher (pays well, but theres a surplus of subs in my school board right now, so I don't get called much). My favorite question I get asked nearly everytime I'm in a class I've never been to before is "Ms. Smiley, is that really your name?"

My second job which I've held since second year of University to pay for school is as a jewelery salesperson at the largest Canadian owned jewelery chain. I've worked now at three different locations in this city ( I get traded about and fought over when a store needs extra bodies- it's great to feel loved!) Favorite question here? "Wheres the washroom?"

I have two jobs. I am a franchisee for a small retail store and I'm also the Admissions Officer for a small career college. Weird mix, I know, but it's working for me and I love it.

Irene

I'm work at a major metropolitan newspaper.

But unlike Lois, I don't have a death wish, so I became a news copy editor instead of an investigative journalist. I edit stories for spelling, grammar, content issues, ethical issues, make sure we aren't libeling anyone, etc., and I also write headlines for the stories I edit.

Copy editors are basically the unsung heroes of the business. WE put the paper out every night, 365 days a year (unlike the Planet, we haven't closed because someone blew up the building) but we don't get our names in the paper.

I recently left my 2 year preschool teaching position due to circumstance and also my desire to finally go for my dream of becoming a doctor. I start premed classes in a couple weeks-which means I have to find some work!

Mona

Mona confessed:

A doctor! That's a tough row to hoe, but if that's your dream then go for it with all the gusto you have! And I'm not sure I could go for a pre-med degree and work at the same time. You have my best wishes and my sincere encouragement.

Hogwash! Don’t you believe it. Many years ago, when I had roommates, one of them had Cerebral Palsy. She could walk but her walk was ‘bouncy’. Her speech was quite difficult to understand. She was definitely challenged, and even though she was told that going to college would be a difficult thing to do, she plunged ahead and went anyway. She now has a master’s degree and has a very successful career working at a major university. This lady has always been an inspiration to me, and so I’ll say again, “Brava, Pat, Brava!”

So if you want to go to college to be a journalist, go for it. You are never too old. I don’t know what kind of disabilities you have, but there are many ways to work as a journalist. Go for it!


Oh, I don’t think you offended her. I think, like me, she is trying to encourage you!!


I will.


Mine, too. It didn’t work out that way for me, but I’m glad that some people still have and realize that dream. That bit about the pretty witch was so funny. It reminded me of Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched. You should have carried a mixer or a toaster...


I’m so glad that you are going for this dream. I thought about doing this several years ago and I kept putting it off. And now I’d be hard pressed to pay for medical school. And at my age (don’t ask), I never get the loans paid off. I am, on the other hand, preparing to work on my master’s of nursing. And you do need to work as much as possible while in pre-med, because at some point, you won’t be able to work while in med school (if you are in the US). And did you know Bakasi is a medical student?


I always like finding out what everyone does. I hope we get more replys.

I'm a physicist. *pushes glasses up nose*

Actually, I'm in my last year of undergrad @ MIT and I'll be going off to grad school next year. Who knows where. <-- big point of stress in my life until spring

The plan after that is to be highly underpaid as a postdoc and pay off loans, work like mad on pumping out publications so I can get a faculty position, then spend the last of my child-bearing years trying to earn tenure instead.

I figure, I'll be ready for all that personal life stuff when I'm fifty. My family plans hinge on a combination of deep-freezing eggs, possible clones mixed with frog DNA, and a cure for death within the next 30 years. I'm optimistic.

Well, I retired (early ) over a decade ago now (gosh is it really that long ago?), so I've achieved a long held dream of being at home, too. I was never one of those people who worked for social reasons - it was always just to pay the bills - so first chance I got to stay at home, spending time with hubby and Homer, I leapt at it.

But, back in the day, I worked as a court clerk for a legal firm. Positives were that I more or less worked on my own - really, I was the only one who understood what I did , so my bosses just let me get on with it rather than admit they were lost . Mostly preparing court papers and liasing with the courts on gaining decrees.

The negatives were that it was in the area of debt litigation - we prepared court cases against debtors for major utilities and loan companies - and my sympathies were usually more with the debtors than the companies. Now and then it was a little depressing aggressively chasing people for payment who were in dire circumstances through no fault of their own. It wasn't so bad when you were chasing the obvious scroungers.

LabRat

I have the same job Elisabeth has - wife, mom, & homeschooler - except that my kids are fourth graders this year. I've been home with them for eight years now and formally homeschooling for five. I also teach two classes at our homeschool co-op - grammar and composition on the 4th-5th grade level.

Once school is out for the day, I transition from "teacher" to "chauffeur" and spend my afternoons in my car, running the kids to their various activities. And throughout the day, I'm also "cook", "housekeeper", "pet care-giver", "nurse", etc., just like any stay-at-home parent.

There are definitely good days and bad, and there are some days when I really miss working - being around adults, chatting around the coffee pot in the morning, having projects with a beginning, middle, and end, being thanked by the recipients of my efforts. (And my husband does thank me. My kids might thank me one day, but right now, making them do math does not inspire much in the way of gratitude. Go figure.)

But there are also plenty of days when I'm bowled over by how very privileged I am to spend my time learning and laughing with my children every day. When I see their eyes light up as understanding dawns. When we're able to snuggle up on the sofa and read one more chapter, just because we want to. When they ask some question or make some observation that makes me realize that I have as much to learn from them as they have from me. That's good stuff .

Caroline

You guys all have the coolest jobs, I envy some of you greatly. I work for a marketing reasearch company. I used to do surveys over the phone, but now I supervise a team of interviewers. Not glamorous by any means.

LLLovesCK, I was trying to encourage you.
I also stay home. I always did clerical - bookkeeping work. When my son took sick I became his caregiver, giver of medicine, in charge of Dr visits and orderer of medicine. He is off chemo and doing very well right now, but I don't think I will ever work again. I make quilts for kids. Not bed size quilts, although I do make them for my family. I also have a beagle who loves to have the ball thrown for her ALL day.
Sue