OK, what do you do for a living..?

'Did you do' in your case, Neil...

Well, I'm a retired teacher of sciences and now a Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages - so that's completely useless when it comes to fettling etc. (unless you want a copy of F.W. Tilley's death certificate, I suppose). Actually, Alfred Bates' death certificate might be marginally interesting - he drowned, you know...

Anyway, I've married hundreds of couples in my time but I've given that up now - can't be ar$ed with all the hassle of weddings...

 

Seeing that I brought it up, I better put a proper answer here.

Well I started working life as an instrument fitter in the Australian airforce. This trade can actually be quite usefull with fettling as there was a fair bit of fine mechanics in it. After many years with aircraft I took an electronics engineering degree and have worked most of the time with design of mobile phones. This was mainly with the RF part (receiver and transmitter, RF = radio frequency). I have recently started a new job with medical equipment. Mostly insulin delivery devices. That's it in a nutshell.

Now if someone was interested in tracing family history in England, you might the person to ask?

 

Yes I did have a proper job once. When I retired in 1999 I was contract manager for the local water supply company. This was planning the work, supervising and paying a contractor for laying water pipe in the northern home counties. Civil engineering of a sort but of the cruder kind because we built very little structure. I always reckoned to bury my best work. I guess I managed around 200 guys out there digging trenches and shoving pipe in the ground and worth around £6 million a year.

I started working for the Wallasey Corporation Water Department in 1961 as an engineering learner. That was essentially a drawing office job but as the works was a small afair I got involved in most things to do with water supply. Moved to Stevenage to work for Lee Valley Water Company in 1965 as a technician and within 6 months was working from their head office as a trunk mains installation engineer. Did that for maybe 5 years and then back to Stevenage as Senior draughtsman. From there to Luton and senior technician where I did most everything for planning any works but mostly mains installatins and managing the drawing office. Left there in 1980 to become contract mains supervisor and a few years later to contract manager.

I am still actually gainfully employed. I now work 20 hours a week as a customer advisor (Read shop assistant) for B&Q in Luton. Handy because I get 20% staff discount for tools and fettling materials. Been there for just over ten years now.

The other thing I do here is tracing my family and that of my partner. Got mine back to around 1600 in Bute Scotland and part of Sylvias back to around 100 BC. Takes some doing but now I have a lot of experience in searching the records and working out relationships. I pay a fair bit of cash to two or three genealogy web sites where I can access Birth marriage and death records and also census returns. Good game sometimes when you get a hit and can add family. Found quite a few living relatives as well which can be cool.
::Neil::

 

I have been working on the wines & spirits business the las 16 years. When I started with this job I did it as production manager for the local subsidiary of the Joseph E. Seagram Ltd company and specifically I was in charge of local whiskies, gin and vodka; the company was sold to the British Diageo and to the French Pernod Ricard and I was dismissed; my last commission there was to sell the local assets (very sad). Then, after a while on a crapy local winery, I was hired by the British Allied Domecq plc and I worked with them other 3 years until also this company was sold to Pernod Ricard and I was asked to stay, but two times was enough for me and I decided to look for a job in a nice local company and I was lucky: I worked the last 5 years at Pascual Toso, a local family owned company which has many leader brands on the market and they consider that to sell the company would be an insult; specifically I'm in charge of the wine operations which include three wineries, 300 hectares of vineyards and about 200 people. At the university I studied agronomy and my degree title is engineer in agronomy. Nice job but I'd like to go back to the whisky industry because at that time I had the same profit but with only 25 people!
Juan

 

Well when i left school i worked for a firm making boilers the type you used to see on counter tops in coffee bars and the like as a apprentice coppersmith with a bit of fabricating and welding thrown, getting fed up with this i then worked for a large enginnering company making heavy duty large type axles for the military\haulage doing various tasks turning\drilling milling type stuff. This firm boasted to be one of the oldest in the uk having a working forge since 1150, working on the site ended some 10 years ago now.
Present day i work for scheinder electric making medium voltage switchgear for use worldwide really. I test various components for HV and discharge before allowing them to be used on units for assembly. The insulation is a moulded polyurathene type i check all this stuff for heat distortion again before release all this type of stuff has to be checked by law since it takes up to 28,000 volts sometimes i test it to 38kv so if it takes that it will be ok in the field taking a good deal less thats the theory anyway but they do come back sometimes very charred!!!!

pete

this is the kind of stuff we do on site
http://www.schneider-electric.co.uk/sites/uk/en/products-services/electrical-distribution/products-offer/medium-voltage-secondary-distribution-products/medium-voltage-secondary-distribution-products.page

 

Our fields mixes, Pete!
As I said in another post, I'm an electrician technician, so among others, I have alot to do with the Schneider group. But then again, they incorporate so many companies.

I work with maintenence on a petrochemical plant at the Swedish westcoast at a place which is the very heart of Swedish petrochmical industry.
A funny thing is that one of the plants here actually are one of the top manufacturers in the world when it comes to HV-insulations, making low-density polyethylene (cross-bound).
I'm sure that's the insulation you are testing, and not polyurethane?

Luckily I don't live at the same place as the concentration of these plants. I have half an hour of drive before I get there.
I'm a pure country boy, and hate to see people or houses in my proximity if I don't choose to do it myself.

 

Juan, you most certainly work in a place many of us would envy!
I can understand that you would like to be back in the Whisky industry, though.
Even if Argentina is well known for it's wine... well a good Whisky is always better.
Not to mention a good beer, as I know you have said yourself somewhere.

 

Hi christer i am pretty sure it is a polyurethane insulation least thats what i have always been led to believe for the last 20 years its a mix of Polyol and MDI Di isocynate which is not so heathly a chemical this is a hardener. All the chemicals come in from Dow in germany mixed in a specially made machine from dow again then poured in various moulds heated to 100 degrees C for all sorts of busbars and gas enclosures. It is a quite specialised process and different from those used in france which is some sort of epoxy resin so i have been told again. Any of this sound familiar needless to say its ever so boring but its a job!!!

pete

 

Hmmm... Are we talking about the same kind of insulation here?
Polyurethane, diisocyanate and molding sounds more like heat insulation rather than electrical ditto.
Since you initially was talking about testing various components for HV and discharge, and testing the stuff with high voltage, I was assuming you were talking about electrical insulation!

 

Well i know its electrical insulation i am testing here christer not for heat certainly i know this material and process was only used on 3 sites across europe but that was maybe 10 years ago since i talking to the chemist from dow who i see from time to time when problems arise with the process

pete

 

I build and service railroad maintenance equipment in the US. From small rail drills to radio controlled Cantenary installation equipment. My territory is border to border and coast to coast with Puerto Rico thrown in for good measure. I have, on occasion, gone to South Africa and Australia when our senior guys couldn't go. Now I'm the senior guy. I've been doing this for nearly fifteen years.

In my previous life, I built spray painting equipment for, at that time, the largest finishing equipment company in the US. I was on the thirty years and out plan, hoping to retire at 48. Unfortunately, the doors closed just prior to my 24th year there.

Restored a lot of hit and miss engines as a kid and been messing with bicycles since I was 4 years old, so I've got an extensive mechanical background.

So here I am.

 

I am in process improvement for a Chemical company.

 

Hi guys! Popped in to this new forum also and I guess a lot of you are familiar with me from either CCS or BBL but I dont know if I ever have mentioned what I am working with. I used to work as a Graphic photographer at a newspaper/book printing company and at some point I started to study to be a book keeper (economics) and got a job at a small company with only some 50 employees to handle the payroll part. Did that for some 9 years and when there was changes at that company I all of a sudden had to search for a new job. I was lucky to find a job at a software house at their helpdesk and have been working there now for more than 8 years. The job is physically not very heavy (sitting on a chair all day) but mentally it is a challenge as I have to try and be kind and understanding to customers that have problems with their software. Mostly they are angry at us, because in their oppinion it is our fault even if they have done something wrong . Somehow I still love this work, maybe because every now and then some customer thanks us for helping them out. Another problem that makes this a bit challenging for me is that the office is 260 kilometers from home, so I have to travel a lot to get to the office. Have managed to make a deal so I can work 3 days from home and 2 days from the office in normal weeks, but some weeks I still have to travel directly to some customer and help them out or teach them in some part of the software so I have seen the road a lot and I don't enjoy living in hotels anymore as I do that every week.

BR
Anders
~Light Bringer~

 

landscaper i own my own biz,a collecter on the side............

 

WoW: This is a tall order. The brief version is everything from logger to truck driver to hotel management and 15yrs of aerospace and lots of others in between. Now retired. Mike...

 

i am a fire prevent engineer
and do this job in my own office

bevor i was a building site
construction engineer, even in
my own office, but the job with
the fire is hotter

Best regards

Eugen J.keusen

 

Hiya,

Popped over from CCS,as i have a lantern aswel, I use CCTV camers to inspect below ground services, mainly sewers, but in my time i have inspected water pipes, fuel pipes, cable ducts and so on. Keeps me out of trouble and keeps my stoves and lantern in paraffin

Cheers

 

I am a landscaper as well, and do some EBaying in the winter months.

 

I am a computer network specialist. Have been in what is now known as "high tech" since 1961, long before that term was invented. I typically consult to, and participate in the design of large, high complexity networks. The project I'm involved with for the past 5 years is the creation of a country-wide, mission critical network for monitoring and controlling the national Medium-Voltage electrical grid. Quite coincidentally, I deal with the same type of HV gear described by Pete Sav, although my area of responsibility is the networks over which the remote control units communicate. (Our transformers have cast epoxy resin insulation, Christer).

I did a lot of other varied projects, many in military command and control networks, and also some specialized development for controlling Internet Routers.

I live in a small village, and have an orange grove in the back yard.

Yonadav

 

Hi !
Since graduating in silversmithing and 3D design in 1977 tried various different avenues of work.The only common link is working hands on with wood or metal.
I lay claim to decorative iron working, Teaching silversmithing , Making induction coils ,MIG welder ,Film and theatrical set building and dressing ,Exhibition joiner , Barn and house conversions .
And last eleven years same job in same place ! Wow !
At Harrogate College 3D Technician for the Art and design department helping students create and make their 3D ideas and sculptures.
And
teaching Silversmithing and / or Coppersmithing hollow ware to be exact
like :- Bowls ,boxes ,jugs ,teapots ,spouts ,handles ,
hinges.

I also sell at antique and collectors fairs about four or five times a year as and when I can get enough stock. yes ! Lamps included ! Been doing fairs and collecting since 1992.
Oh ! and I also collect flyingducks that you hang on a wall. last count 46 !
....mick

 

Hi well iam a neurological surgeon.

Ha Ha..!!!!!

no just a joiner iam afraid mostly roofs but also inside work ist fix 2nd fix [ect]

kenny..

 

I'm a retired history museum director. I spent a career managing the 30+ state owned historic properties for the New Jersey State Park Service. Prior to that I worked in Vermont, doing a similar job for small history museums.

I now have a part-time job with an engineering company as a "traffic enumerator". I'm one of the guys in the reflective vests, counting the cars at busy intersections.

Though not a job, I spend a fair amount of enjoyable time on CPL and CCS, but if you're reading this, you probably do to.

Paul

 

I am semi retired but happen to work full time in the plastic welding industry. STUPID me!! as I am now on CCS & CPL and can't find enough time.

Regards

Ian

 

Hi All,

Presently retired / retrenched / redundant but at 60 + I don't particularly worry about what I am classified as.

Been everything from Laborer to Pest Control with a few other odd ones thrown in there.

At the moment enjoying the latter stages of life with the Wife of 36 years.

I guess I'm a sucker for punishment.

... Colin

 

For my innumerable sins, I am an engineer!

 

What kind of engineer, John? - mechanical, electrical, IT...

 

Electrinics Technician for Tata Steel Formerly Corus and British Steel.
Time served Electrician moved into electronics 25 years ago
Ironic realy Electrician with a preference for paraffin lighting

 

Wanted to be a gynecologist but I couldn't get in

 

Tough day at the orifice, was it..?

 

Archaeologist. Pretty tough go of it the last couple of years, but if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life. Been working in this field since I was 15, and have just kept it going. Lately, I've been travelling to work in a helicopter, a privilege I don't take for granted, and I've seen isolated environments in northern Manitoba and Ontario that are simply breathtaking. I guess what I'm saying is that its not always about the money that we do what we do for a living. Couple of weeks ago, I saw a huge flock of birds from above, that we could not identify. Closer inspection (circled helicopter down for a look)revealed over 200 Bald Eagles! Unreal - I had no idea they group together like that. Archaeology can be more of a thrill than a job sometimes, but its what I do. It also compels me to research and catologue the heck out of any lantern, lamp, or stove, I find. This is how I discovered the forums and all of you good people out there!

Cheers!

Chris W - Winnipeg Canada