What do you do and where?

[Selby]

Extremely.  Northrop and Grumman do billions of dollars in business here.  The ships are almost unreal.

True that.  Anyone who is in the Navy and wants to go to the top will spend alot of time in the Norfolk area.  Pretty much all of the Navy's major operations are based out of there.

That being said I'd hate having to live in some of the areas out there.  Last time I was there was almost 10 years ago and it was pretty miserable as far as traffic\population was concerned down in Va. Beach.

[Cheddar]

True that.  Anyone who is in the Navy and wants to go to the top will spend alot of time in the Norfolk area.  Pretty much all of the Navy's major operations are based out of there.

That being said I'd hate having to live in some of the areas out there.  Last time I was there was almost 10 years ago and it was pretty miserable as far as traffic\population was concerned down in Va. Beach.

Its really not that bad.  Yeah, you have to deal with the bridge tunnels, but we are going to be building a new one in a couple years and fixing much of the traffic. 

Despite working in Newport News this job is a rare opportunity; you do not need a degree or any certs to get it.  Its a bit like getting into the military; you jump through some hoops ala tests and background checks.  60k in Hampton Roads is a fortune- and the 60k is base pay.  We had a few guys clear 6 figures last year!

[climbjtree]

Update on what I do and where:

My contract with the Marine Corps ended June 1st, 2007, and on July 5, 2007, I enlisted into the Army with a Special Forces contract and a $14,000 signing bonus. In a week, I'll go to Georgia to attend an airborne course and then on to North Carolina for the secret squirrel stuff.

[Viin]

Cool! Have fun with the parachuting, it's a blast!

[Murgos]

Make sure you snicker at the Rangers when they go "Whoosh" and slap their thighs.  Oh, wait, you'll be one of the rangers, well, try not to get to pissed off at the Marines snickering at you then.

[climbjtree]

Whoa, whoa. I'll laugh at the Rangers, because I won't be one of them. They do fall under SOCOM, but are something seperate from Special Forces (Green Berets).

[Strazos]

Nice going, Climb!

[Oban]

What::

Telecommunications, currently wireless.

Where::

North America

[Furiously]

Nineteen Days and I will be a stay at home baby-raiser. I'm sure I will be posting a lot less.

[MrHat]

Nineteen Days and I will be a stay at home baby-raiser. I'm sure I will be posting a lot less.

Damn, how did you work that out?  Also, did you interview first?

My interview went horribly.

[Sky]

What he didn't say is that he's kidnapping the babies he's going to raise. And sell on the black market.

 

[Engels]

/don tinfoil hat

I wonder if companies are now studiously filtering all known f13ers from beta participation after the well-publicised Sigil expose.

/remove tinfoil hat

[Murgos]

I just got into one a couple of weeks ago.  I wasn't in the sigil beta but I've been on well over a dozen others and as far as beta's go for the stage this one is in it's very playable other than very predictable stuck in geometry bugs.  Also, at the stage it's in, it's just not fun and needs a complete graphics and UI overhaul, but that's jut My Opinion.

Of course, it could just be that I don't rate highly enough as an f13'er to be on 'the black list'.

[Furiously]

Nineteen Days and I will be a stay at home baby-raiser. I'm sure I will be posting a lot less.

Damn, how did you work that out?  Also, did you interview first?

My interview went horribly.

We looked at Mrs. Furiously having three months off in the summer and that we were both paid about the same. through careful negotiations, we came to this agreement. And why would I want to steal babies? I already made the perfect one.

[bhodi]

We all know it's about quantity, not quality:

[schild]

4chan.

[Engels]

Got a new gig at Dept of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington, doin the usual one-man tech support stuff.

[Ironwood]

Nineteen Days and I will be a stay at home baby-raiser. I'm sure I will be posting a lot less.

Damn, how did you work that out?  Also, did you interview first?

My interview went horribly.

We looked at Mrs. Furiously having three months off in the summer and that we were both paid about the same. through careful negotiations, we came to this agreement. And why would I want to steal babies? I already made the perfect one.

I wish to hell this had worked for me.  It would solve so many problems.

[Falwell]

Foreign Market Advisor, J.P. Morgan and Chase. Indiana,  Age 32. MMO nerd who aspires to be the town drunk.

[Signe]

Foreign Market Advisor, J.P. Morgan and Chase. Indiana,  Age 32. MMO nerd who aspires to be the town drunk.

Don't worry.  You work in finance.  I'm sure you'll achieve your goal.  If you don't jump out of a skyscrapper window first, that is.

[Evildrider]

Professional Bum.  Used to work in Hotel Sales, recently went back to college for a Computer Science degree.

[Signe]

You used to sell hotels and now you're learning how to make back ups?  Wowsers.   

[schild]

Between Baltic and Mediterranean?

[Evildrider]

You used to sell hotels and now you're learning how to make back ups?  Wowsers.   

Haha, not as good as that :( 

I worked for contracted hotel chains (Hilton, Ritz-Carlton, Marriott, etc.) and corporate meeting planners to find them rooms and convention space.  Bascially as a go-between/3rd party rep.  I actually started there just doing telemarketing and raised up into sales and ended up spending more time then I would have liked there.

[stu]

I just finished six years of active duty with the U.S. Army where I worked on CH-47 Chinooks. Now, I'm a full-time student, age 26. Word!

[Endie]

I just finished six years of active duty with the U.S. Army where I worked on CH-47 Chinooks. Now, I'm a full-time student, age 26. Word!

That's the way round to do it.  I'd have appreciated my first university course so much more if I'd not had to do it when 18-22.

[DraconianOne]

That's the way round to do it.  I'd have appreciated my first university course so much more if I'd not had to do it when 18-22.

I appreciated my first (and only) university course when I did it.  It's just that these days I can't helping thinking that it was a collosal waste of time. 

[Murgos]

I just finished six years of active duty with the U.S. Army where I worked on CH-47 Chinooks. Now, I'm a full-time student, age 26. Word!

That's the way round to do it.  I'd have appreciated my first university course so much more if I'd not had to do it when 18-22.

It's what I did.  Taking classes and being in an academic atmosphere after having dealt with life's BS for a while first put things into sharp perspective.

[cmlancas]

In a good way or a bad way Murgos? I hear people who do that fall on one extreme or the other.

[Murgos]

I thought it was great.  I saw right away that I was going to get out of college what I put into it.  If I really wanted to learn something and move in a new direction than my life had been taking me it was there.  All I had to do was go get it.

I grew up working as a deck hand on fishing boats (Where everyones greatest ambition in life is to get drunk) and enlisted in the Marines when I was 18.  Now I'm a design engineer for aerospace avionics.  That transition would have been impossible without college.

I believe it is possible to make college a waste of time, I also believe that if you do so it was entirely your fault.

[Yegolev]

I did the opposite of Murgos, and I agree with him completely.

[cmlancas]

I'm desperately hoping that my degree will help me somewhat in my quest to find a job that I like. Many people I talk to say that it doesn't and I'm wasting my time.


Either that or I'm stuck in retail forever.

[Endie]

I believe it is possible to make college a waste of time, I also believe that if you do so it was entirely your fault.

Absolutely right.  I was so pleased with myself that I got honours in my undergrad while quiter literally not turning up for a single class in second year, and doing 5 hours a week of classes in 3rd and 4th years.  Now I realise that I was tremendously stupid in wasting my time like that.  I'm doing a second masters now, and love the learning and stimulation of it, but can only imagine what it would be like if I could devote my days to it instead of just snatched evenings.

And cmlancas, on a purely functional, utilitarian level, having the degree might not get you a job, but not having it sure would shut you out of a lot of positions.  The stats for earnings figures, comparing earning levels for graduates and non-graduates, really back that up*, even when you adjust for the skewing of social class backgrounds involved.

*Does not apply for all degrees.  Peace or Gender Studies degree holders should ask other members of their commune for detailed advice.

[cmlancas]

Well, I am English Lit. At least people will know I'm somewhat literate.

[DraconianOne]

The stats for earnings figures, comparing earning levels for graduates and non-graduates, really back that up*, even when you adjust for the skewing of social class backgrounds involved.

If such things are important to you. ;)

I could have worked harder at my degree and got a better grade.  It wouldn't make fuck all difference in terms of my career as it wasn't a vocational degree.  Also, never been asked for the grade in any interview even though I tend not to put it on my CV (although have been asked on more than one occasion how I think my degree would help in my role).  After I graduated, I started working and within 6 months was in a permanent job.  However, there were people my age doing what I did who didn't bother going to college and went straight to work.  They had a car, a house, money in the bank and were advanced in their jobs and taking on senior roles.  I had student debt, lived in a bedsit and was just starting out.

These days, those same people are still not being hampered by skipping further education and have moved into management and even more senior roles. 

On the other hand, more junior jobs in my area (unsurprisingly IT related) are looking for more vocational degrees before getting into positions - computer science or whatever shit it's called these days.  Having had to train some of these graduates and having had to work with some, they seem to struggle more with grasping the difference between what they learned in theory and how it actually happens in practice.  Welcome to the real world of an IT professional, my friend - you should have chosen the blue pill.

Don't even get me started on the plumbers/builders/sparkies I know at home - our local builder (who is very good and works very hard) has three cars, two motorbikes, a nice house (well, he's a builder) and goes to the Maldives with his wife twice a year. 

Personally, I think I should have ignored my teachers and parents and gone to film school like I wanted to.  I'd probably still be doing what I'm doing now but at least I would have done something that was more vocational!