Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls What do we do at work?

I did a lot of sitting in the office and trying to come up with ideas. I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore. Anyway, we're back from Santa Fe and had a wonderful time. Traveling is sure interesting!
Cheers to all
Artemis

Hmmm...CompLit? Compulsive Literature? Computer Literature? Comparative Literature? Or perhaps it's Compulsory Litigation? Just curious...

Yvonne

Comparative Literature. Americans love to shorten and nickname things.

Artemis

ROFL! I put 'Comparative Literature' in as a joke - never thought it would be the correct answer. I imagined the 'Comp' would be Composition.

Not that I'm laughing at the degree itself, you understand - just my own ignorance.

Yvonne

This sounds like a more accurate rendition of what its really about.


alcyone

Wow...it looks like we have lots of history folks and teachers here!

My undergraduate degree is in Psychology, but I decided halfway through my senior year that I wanted to teach instead. So, I went to grad school in history (I got an assistantship to pay the bills) and earned a Master's degree.

I spent the next three months living in fear that I would end up unemployed, only to have a fabulous teaching job fall into my lap. For the past 14 years, I've taught history to 8th graders. At first, I taught ancient history, but now I teach American.

I LOVE working with 8th graders--I just wish I could say the same for the administration. Sigh!

It's great to get a sense of what all of you do in the real world, and I look forward to getting to know you all better now that summer is almost here. Maybe I'll even have time to get back to that fanfic writing...sigh!

I'm a mechanical engineer, you're not alone Jo =]

Studying Civil Engineering. Freshman year.

I've got a BS in Animal Science, decided I didn't want to pursue vet school, took a few additional undergrad courses, and now I'm in limbo as an applicant for an elementary eduation Masters program. I'm working fulltime at a boarding kennel with an unpredictable schedule, and substitute teaching from time to time when it fits my schedule. I also house/pet-sit several times a year.

I'm a historian/admin by trade

Wow, this was interesting to see this resurrected. I sure am a talky one and I'm still doing what I said earlier.
But I'll add beta reader to my resume.

Artemis

This is an interesting thread. I have two degrees, history and computer science. I always wanted my degree in CS and just fell into my history degree. I already had half of it done by the time I graduated high school. I currently work as a software developer for a company that produces slot machines. I don't work on the slots nor do I understand the addiction and "fun" people have by playing them. It's a very interesting industry though.

I clicked on Teaching because that's the closest to what I do (I'm a high school librarian). There's a bit of teaching involved, mostly of how to use the computers. (Think kids are tech-savvy? You won't after you examine a broken in 3 pieces CD-ROM textbook and find out that the student who broke it jammed it into the floppy disk slot of a Commodore 64--I kid you not). Sometimes the hardest part of the job is keeping a straight face (especially when a kid does something along the lines of informing me that they were born in 1894, or when they try to give me a persuasive argument as to why the library needs a copy of the Kama Sutra ). The other hard part is obtaining books without funding (it keeps getting taken away to pay for other things, but I usually manage to get a little Title I money for magazines and a few of the latest popular books). I use a book swapping site to get other stuff and take the cost of postage off my taxes. And believe it or not, I absolutely love it (even when the kids are being obnoxious and the administrators are being clueless). I've been a librarian for 12 years, always in the same district but at three different schools.

The Kama Sutra??

I'm an internet security specialist for a cable company, and deal mostly with copyright infringement, spam (and yes, you need a thick skin when reading some of this garbage. geesh), and botnet/virus issues. Mostly self-taught geek, but have had some Microsoft certifications in the past.

My college training was meteorology, but Calc III and I didn't get along.

Currently, I'm a "Stay-at-Home Mom", so I chose "other". I'm not a "Home-maker" because I'm not here to make a "home" but because it's pointless to pay strangers my entire income to ignore my children for 8 hours. My youngest heads off to school in September, so I'll be heading back to work, at least part time. Since graduating from college almost 20 years ago, I've worked retail (mostly), in a bank (trust department), as an admin assistant, and as an office manager. I'm hoping to get a job at the local liberal arts college (as a Classics major, anthropology minor, I have no discernible "job skills" other than work-ethic and thinking), so I may be able to have my summers semi-free. Otherwise, I'd have to quit to look after my kids again, because there's no way I'd dump them in the city's "camp" or at the Y because neither has any real supervision of the kids, and I love my kids more than any job I'm likely to get. I don't want to work at the public schools, because, frankly, after spending the last 8+ years around kids, I'm ready for some adult interaction.

I'd rather not go the retail route again, but I know that the job market doesn't look favorably on women who raise their own children at home, and who don't Facebook or Twitter. :rolleyes: Luckily, I'm not too proud to take a job below my skill level. Personally, I'd prefer an office job to being on my feet all day, trying to convince people to buy stuff they really don't want or need.

My dream job: getting paid for my writing, but I'd have to finish writing my LnC stories and get back to writing original stories. I'd be able to work from home and set my own hours. Sigh.

If I had to live my life over again, I'd probably have taken a "trade" skill in college, like "script writing" or "culinary arts". While I learned a lot at college, and I do well at Trivial Pursuit (the old version, don't ask me anything that's happened in the last 10 years, because, frankly, I don't care). College wasn't worth the price-tag, especially since I don't ever plan on going to graduate school or get a teaching degree. Being a librarian would be the only degree worth holding my interest, but since books are sadly becoming a thing of the past on a more daily basis (and I live in a small town with more librarians than the ever shrinking library budget), I might as well just throw my money into an endless pit than purse it.

At least I'm not bitter.

You don't necessarily need a degree in library science to work in a library. I don't have one (my degrees are in Humanities, Sociology, Theater Arts, and Social and Behavioral Sciences). I am classified as a library clerk (but because I run my own library, sans assistance except for the students I am assigned each semester, I do the work of a librarian).

Virginia, it is challenging (and frustrating) to coordinate family needs and work opportunities. I have a PhD in Chemistry. I did research for a few years, found I really didn't like it so I got certified to teach high school chemistry. I taught high school chemistry until my children were born then stayed home with them. I've been fortunate in the past years to have the opportunity to teach chemistry part time at the university. I never know if I have a job but at least it's nice when it happens.


Joan

Cool thread to find! It's fascinating to see what other folcs are up to.

Technically I am a full-time student (make that a 110% time student...) at an art school in Sacramento. I'm majoring in Media Arts/Animation (I'm getting my BS degree, which always makes me giggle a bit ), though I'm considering focusing more on editing or motion graphics since I'm gonna have to decide that soon.... But I chose "artist" because that's pretty much all I do and I do some freelance work on the side as well. I was working part time as a tutor in a local high school, but that job ends with the school year's end, so there's that. Plus it was conflicting with my class schedule, which is a bear right now. College is tough but at least it's fun and I'm learning what I want to learn. (It'd better be worth the price tag, anyway....)

Currently though I'm looking for work. School is $$$ and gas is even more $$$$, and if I can get a job in the industry while still in school I'd take it, even if it meant changing my schedule around a bit.

Isn't Industrial Lights and Magic (or whatever Lucas's company called) somewhere around there? Or was that part of the package deal sold to Disney? Good luck, Mouse!

Sort of... all of Lucasfilm's companies (including ILM and Skywalker Ranch) are located in the San Francisco area or Marin county, which is about 2 1/2 hours away from where I live (1 and 1/2 hours from the heart of Sacramento) depending on traffic, which isn't altogether that bad of drive time (I used to make it a few days every week until I transferred). I actually knew several people who worked there and/or had connections-- which was awesome!-- until Disney bought Lucasfilm. Now they technically own all of their subsidiaries (along with about 50% of the movie industry entirely :rolleyes: ) and are currently in the process of laying off about, oh, 300-or-so employees who spent their lives working at Lucas, and giving their jobs to Disney employees. I'm not quite sure what they're doing with ILM specifically, since it is more of a visual effects company, but I'm sure they'll find a way to stick their fingers in that too. Whether or not any of the businesses will stay based out of SF, I don't know yet.

I mean, I love Disney, but they're just about two steps away from controlling the entire universe as we know it. I'm always surprised when people don't realize how much they actually own the rights to.

Oh, and thanks!