So then...what do we do for a living?

[Lates]

Technician since leaving school.
4 year stint in strip and building accident damaged cars.
Workshop control/technician in an MGR dealership .
Production operator while building the site up.
Customer and technical support engineer while still working on the site

[Phil]

Right, I'm only 24 but here's my list,
When I was 14 I got a job after school washing/valeting buses and coaches. My responsibilities would sometimes include parking all the coaches up in the shed after I'd washed them, sometimes I'd be the only one there so responsible for locking the whole yard up! Quite a responsibility especially when you are responsible for parking a luxury coach on your own that cost £175,000!!
When I left school I applied at my local VW dealer for an apprenticeship, I had to sit the VW entry test to even get an interview, which I passed and got the job. My parents decided to move house so I had to leave this job as I couldn't afford to live on my own. I soon landed a job at a back street garage on Exmoor, now in the second year of my apprenticeship the garage got badly hit when foot and mouth disease striked and I was made redundant. I managed to get a job at another garage and this turned out to be an ex austin rover dealer! They had all the Austin Rover signs on it, it really was like going back in time! I completed my apprenticeship here, but sadly they kind of neglected my training requirements and I got very little hands on experience and even though I'd completed my apprenticeship successfully I felt I was not as qualified as I should have been. When I approached my boss he explained that if I felt that way I should try to work for a main dealer. I was incredibly nervous about this as I would be very inexperienced and be applying for a job as a technician. I bit the bullet and applied at a Honda dealer and got the job, I was given all kind of tasks in my first week and I didn't know where to start I got a lot of tellings off about my speed as I was so scared of doing something wrong I was super careful. After a month or so I finally got into the swing of it and all was well. I stayed here for a couple of years before moving out of mums and went back to where we'd originally moved from as I missed my mates and got a job at another Honda dealer without even having an interview. This was an 80 mile round trip every day so needless to say I didn't stay long but the year I was there I got promoted to workshop controller but the travelling was too much and I left upon being offered a job at our local Honda dealer I've been here for 2 years I am now trained to Honda diagnostic standards and am now Workshop controller. So its all good!:lol:

[Per Ardua]

The clue is in my username...

Per Ardua Ad Astra.

Joined the RAF as an engineering Officer in 2000 after finishing a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Loughborough.

Left the RAF briefly in summer last year before re-joining in May. In my 'sabatical' I worked as a Technical engineering/administrator for a company that overhauls aircraft Gas Turbine Engines.

My RAF Career has taken me to Coltishall in Norfolk, Brize Norton (where I was a 'JEngO' on the VC10) and now to RAF Wyton where I been a structure manager for the E3D and now I'm the RAF's Rolls Royce RB211 and Conway Engine Engineering Authority. But what that actually means, I have yet to find out!

[Andyb123]

Ok so am now 53 and been slaving away for over 30 years so much that i caint remember what Ive been doing these past years, I do know that am looking forward to retiring though.

Ok so were do I start, left scholl with no 'O' levels, got a job at a local analytical lab as a trainee, they sent me to college got G&G, after 6 yeras of study. Moved around various labs, did work in food testing, petrochemicals, surface coatings, fine oragnics and pharmaceuticals. Went onto Uni at Liverpool Poly got my Masters Degree in Analytical Chemistry, got into environmental analysis and then did a PhD through the Open University.

Now Director / Owner of an Environmental Analytical Lab after many job changes through 5 redundancies, been a real roller coaster 30 years but would not have missed the fun.

Even got to work abroad in such places as South Carolina, Ohio, Florida in the USA, Italy, Bulgeria, Yugoslavia in fact did spells in a lot of European countries over the years.

[Jamie]

Originally Posted by Lates

4 year stint in strip

!!!! you mean like the full monty ?

[briantilley]

After leaving school with A levels (remember them...? ), I got a job with a bank as an IT developer, or computer programmer as we were called then. I moved through various roles in IT and business operations in the finance industry, ending up as an IT strategy consultant / project manager. I was lucky enough to take a pension at age 50, so since then I have been making a little pin-money at photography, which had been a 30-year hobby.

[Lates]

Originally Posted by Jamie-Biker in a suit

!!!! you mean like the full monty ?

That would not be a pretty site

[trebor]

Ok you can have a guess at mine after some fairly easy clues:

In the top 3 hated professions behind only traffic wardens and dentists !

A conversation stopper in the pub, especially when self employed people are about !

Friends and Family who you havent seen for ages come out of the woodwork to ask for help ?

Do you know what it is yet ?

I work for HM Revenue Customs (Inland Revenue prior to the merger in 2004 )

I have been there since school and now have 36 years service ( i am 53 ) reaching senior officer grade.

Done various jobs in that time, in the early days collecting money by knocking on doors, appearing in court ( not as the defendant !), investigation work and more lately i work on the IT side of the department as a business planner. I work in Telford and take the 75 up and down the M54 most days with occasional days in London, Newcastle and Southend.

Pretty boring really, i often wished i'd gone for a trade, but too late now after all this time as i am well on my way to a pension.

Anyway i am completely harmless so please keep talking to me now you know the truth !

[Lates]

That kinda killed the thread

[trebor]

What did i tell you ? Am i banned from future meets aswell ?