Tell us a bit about ur job/occupation/business

[z0mb13]

Interesting, I'd really like to get into private equity, especially on an international scale.

My business is similar. I'm a recruiter. It's somewhat brainless, even though it takes a certain type of social intelligence and instinct, but it's all about people choosing to work with you rather than any specific skill. It's amazing how far it'll take you being an honest broker.

I know of some head hunters that specialize in PE/banking. Networking is EXTREMELY important in the PE world because of the close knit nature of the PE players. PE is definitely an industry where you don't want to burn bridges.

 

[z0mb13]

Work for the Department of the Navy doing overhaul and maintenance on the propulsion plants on the Nuclear Powered ships (air craft carriers and all submarines).

Days can be anything from easy and not that exciting, to busy and not bad at all, to stressful and needing concentration. Most days are pretty easy and stress free. Money is good as well. No college degree and I make more than a lot of people with them.

Parts i hate...its the government nothing runs smooth. Things change all the time. Can be forced to travel. Forced overtime. Forced to do things not comfortable with.

Still i get to do things not many people can say they have seen/done

Wow that is so cool.
Can you share if its true that government equipment in general are very poorly maintained? I heard a saying if a helicopter is not leaking oil you shouldnt get on it, because there is no oil at all!

 

[JulesMaximus]

Edit-I was just kidding. I wash cars for a living... lest anyone think I am someone important.

 

[Nerva]

Out of work hf analyst, cover Asian and US equities. No one is hiring. Life sucks.

 

[velillen]

Wow that is so cool.
Can you share if its true that government equipment in general are very poorly maintained? I heard a saying if a helicopter is not leaking oil you shouldnt get on it, because there is no oil at all!

I cant speak for all government equipment. Our nuclear powered ships are rather well maintained....the nuclear side especially. Some minor issues everytime they pull in but nothing that really effects anything. But they do break down from time to time which is when it gets stressful, and gets fixed asap.

The non nuclear side gets a lot less attention and it depends subs vs carriers. Subs are pretty dang clean and dont leak anything that ive noticed. Carriers are constantly filling and draining their bilges.

 

[z0mb13]

I am a Cost Accountant for a company that makes pick and place handlers for the semiconductor industry. We sell to the biggest players in the market.

My job requires working with engineers, operations, sales, purchasing and upper management going all the way up to the CFO.

I'm kind of the go-to guy for a lot of the problems that come up daily.

Applied materials or novellus?

 

[Farang]

I know of some head hunters that specialize in PE/banking. Networking is EXTREMELY important in the PE world because of the close knit nature of the PE players. PE is definitely an industry where you don't want to burn bridges.

Right now I mostly recruit engineers for early stage startups, my clients are mostly venture capital firms who need talent to launch their investments. The world definitely gets smaller in the startup community

But I love business, in terms of how people structure systems to make money (companies). It'd be really cool to pick winners and losers as some kind of PE analyst. Recruiting sucks for the most part, honestly.

 

[z0mb13]

Out of work hf analyst, cover Asian and US equities. No one is hiring. Life sucks.

HF as in hedge fund?

Are you serious? Where are you looking? You should really move to Asia

 

[z0mb13]

Right now I mostly recruit engineers for early stage startups, my clients are mostly venture capital firms who need talent to launch their investments. The world definitely gets smaller in the startup community

But I love business, in terms of how people structure systems to make money (companies). It'd be really cool to pick winners and losers as some kind of PE analyst. Recruiting sucks for the most part, honestly.

I see you are based in Seattle. Do you recruit for silicon valley startups?

 

[z0mb13]

I cant speak for all government equipment. Our nuclear powered ships are rather well maintained....the nuclear side especially. Some minor issues everytime they pull in but nothing that really effects anything. But they do break down from time to time which is when it gets stressful, and gets fixed asap.

The non nuclear side gets a lot less attention and it depends subs vs carriers. Subs are pretty dang clean and dont leak anything that ive noticed. Carriers are constantly filling and draining their bilges.

I assume nuclear power always stays on (like the warp drive in star trek). DO you ever turn it off? How do you maintain/refuel the nuclear power?

 

[Farang]

I see you are based in Seattle. Do you recruit for silicon valley startups?

Not yet. I've just started trying to find good folks to work with down there (I usually try to find people who already have relationships with the companies, and then source candidates for their clients, as opposed to working with companies directly myself)

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I'm a patent attorney that specializes in patent prosecution, client counseling, IP monetization, and licensing.

Things I like: I learn something new everyday. Literally. The only thing I have ever done that has not ultimately lead to boredom. Pays the bills quite well too.

Things I don't like: Being in the service industry is a pain. You work when your clients need you to work, which is all the time. No ability to plan anything, much less take a vacation. Things are better when you go in-house, but there are still numerous challenges.

 

[z0mb13]

I'm a patent attorney that specializes in patent prosecution, client counseling, IP monetization, and licensing.

Things I like: I learn something new everyday. Literally. The only thing I have ever done that has not ultimately lead to boredom. Pays the bills quite well too.

Things I don't like: Being in the service industry is a pain. You work when your clients need you to work, which is all the time. No ability to plan anything, much less take a vacation. Things are better when you go in-house, but there are still numerous challenges.

Lol yes I can understand your pain. When we do deals we outsource the legal, financial and tax DD (due diligence) and we make them work according to our schedule

 

[velillen]

I assume nuclear power always stays on (like the warp drive in star trek). DO you ever turn it off? How do you maintain/refuel the nuclear power?

You are getting into things way above my job haha. The reactors are "on" in the sense they can be ramped up to full rather quickly. But they do turn them "off" to allow us to go inside and perform work. A running reactor would kill a human quickly. But with it "off" the levels are actually pretty low. Actually levels inside a carrier's rc (which are bigger) are less than those on a submarine (much smaller rc)

Doing work depends on what the work is. A lot can be done just by simple isolation. Turn this valve and drain the system and you can work on this pump/valve/component. For more serious repairs (replacing a valve or having to break into the valve) freeze seals are used which is a big ice plug in the pipe + isolation so nothing can get out of the open piping/component. Of course its a lot more complicated than that since you cant just say turn off one system without having to change other systems. But that portion is a bunch of smart people who know how everything works in a nuclear plant.

As for refueling...that again isnt something i know much about. But the jist of it is they take the reactor vessel head apart, pull out the spent rods, put new ones in, and put it back together. My yard does submarines but the east coast does subs and carriers. On a submarine the actual refueling portion takes 6 months. Thats when everything is setup and ready to go. An actual refuel takes about 18 months on a submarine.

 

[gorcorps]

I'm a process engineer on a continuous annealing line at a steel mill. Steel goes in cold rolled and comes out annealed and ready to ship to the customer. We make high surface quality products for major appliance and auto makers.

It's my job to help uncover basically anything that is causing the line to run poorly or creating defects. After that I work on projects that help the line run better overall.

I like that it's pretty different every day, but it's not always GOOD surprises. I also like the freedom that the salary folk have there. Most of the people are good to work with but every once in a while you have to deal with somebody that just ruins your day.

 

[z0mb13]

You are getting into things way above my job haha. The reactors are "on" in the sense they can be ramped up to full rather quickly. But they do turn them "off" to allow us to go inside and perform work. A running reactor would kill a human quickly. But with it "off" the levels are actually pretty low. Actually levels inside a carrier's rc (which are bigger) are less than those on a submarine (much smaller rc)

Doing work depends on what the work is. A lot can be done just by simple isolation. Turn this valve and drain the system and you can work on this pump/valve/component. For more serious repairs (replacing a valve or having to break into the valve) freeze seals are used which is a big ice plug in the pipe + isolation so nothing can get out of the open piping/component. Of course its a lot more complicated than that since you cant just say turn off one system without having to change other systems. But that portion is a bunch of smart people who know how everything works in a nuclear plant.

As for refueling...that again isnt something i know much about. But the jist of it is they take the reactor vessel head apart, pull out the spent rods, put new ones in, and put it back together. My yard does submarines but the east coast does subs and carriers. On a submarine the actual refueling portion takes 6 months. Thats when everything is setup and ready to go. An actual refuel takes about 18 months on a submarine.

How long a nuclear sub can run for between refuels?

 

[velillen]

How long a nuclear sub can run for between refuels?

i think they say 20 years? google would give ya an answer on that haha. And they only get one refuel during their life.

 

[Red Squirrel]

LOL that is way too technical for me.
Thanks a lot for the info!

Haha yeah there is a LOT of stuff to know, I only know a fraction of it. The thing with my job is I don't really need to go too deep into the technical details but have to know what stuff is and have a general understanding. We do go a bit more technical with the DMS though.

A lot of people do not realize what actually goes on to keep a telco system running, phones, internet, cell, etc... It's actually pretty awesome the first time you walk into the CO and see everything.

 

[GrassR00t]

I have a small IT Consulting business. We mainly focus on managed services for small and medium size companies in the Seattle area with some exceptions being the larger companies that have offices in other states that we also maintain.

The pay is great but the hours can be very long and EVERYONE's issue is an emergency to them. Overall though, I can't image working for someone else after being self employed for so long. It is most definitely a love hate career.

 

[brianmanahan]

computer programmer

i program computers

 

[Buttzilla]

I work for a medical device startup in the bay area. I'm current title is Training Lead/Project Manager, however, as with most startups, I wear many hats.

My primary job is to train technicians on how to install/service our product, create training content (docs, guides, manuals, videos). I'm also the guy that handles most, if not all, our irate customers.

Funny cause my background is biology.

Bloomberg just did a segment on us, check it out!

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/anti-gravity-innovation-DTcrwgr9S0W0kKSaDh~dgA.html

 

[Toastedlightly]

I work at an engineering firm as a Process Engineer.

Our work is client focused. I work on projects at manufacturing plants, commercial buildings, mines, and almost any other sort of non-residential area you can think of.

I like the variety of projects that I work on as it really exposes me to many different facets of industry. I don't like being forced into tight budgets that are structured around rigid requirements that take lots of work to change.

 

[thestrangebrew1]

I'm currently a government employee working in social services. My actual title is a Family Services Rep. Basically means a less paid social worker. In a nutshell, I process applications & determine if people are eligible for welfare.

In CA, everything's gotta be CAL something, as in Calfresh (food stamps), CalWorks (TANF) and Medi-Cal (Medicaid). This isn't what I went to school for. Prior to getting laid off, I established a career path in urban planning as a land use planner & GIS. GIS kinda fell by the wayside ad more land use applications needed to be processed and the boom hit, but once the bust came, the work stopped really fast here & I was the 1st to be let go.

I'm very fortunate & count my blessings that we can still live somewhat comfortably after taking a $30k pay cut and was able to be hired on within the county I worked in. Its just extremely difficult to get back into the field.

As far as what I like about where I'm at, I'd have to say it feels good helping the people who REALLY need it. But these are few & far between considering how busy we are in this economy.

What I dislike: Everyone's an emergency in this line of work, and every client doesn't realize we've heard just about everything in the book. And when Im done with an application they complain that that's all they're getting. Its an extremely stress full job & there isn't much to enjoy about it.

 

[zCypher]

I work as a network support analyst for a big ISP in Canada. My job involves logging into network equipment to check both the physical port the client is connected to and their logical interface which dictates what IP address they will have, what QoS they will have, so on and so on. There are a lot of things that can impact their service. The role typically means answering calls from front line tech support agents who have (hopefully) exhausted all of their troubleshooting with the client. In my case I have been fortunate enough to participate in some exciting projects, so I only actually see about a day of calls in any given week.

What I can't fix, I bother people in various other departments to fix for me. I go far out of my way to get the issue fixed and regularly have 3-4 different departments working for me when normally, a broken process would dictate that I should simply submit an escalation into the abyss to forever be forgotten. There are a lot of amazing people that work here, and a lot of great career development opportunities.

It's a rewarding job for me as I get to actually fix stuff, make a difference in improving processes in the company, and I get appreciated by my colleagues and leadership. Stress is very minimal. The only thing that sucks is because it's tech support for an ISP, we operate 24/7/365. Schedules can be a bit messed up, but usually things work out ok.

 

[RedArmy]

I work for a defense contractor doing testing on aviation software...can't really go into too much detail but it's not bad. I technically work for an Avionics company who subcontracts to a defense contractor who is subcontracted 2 more times but just saying "Defense Contractor" is much easier.