What do you do for work?

If you have a college degree, any chance you can parlay that into OCS? I know the Marines are one of the harder branches to get a commission in - bottom heavy with enlisted but hey... Officers and Enlisted live totally different lives. And THANK YOU.

 

When I graduated college in 1996, the goal was to get to a "Six Figure Salary" or $100,000. But if you adjust for inflation, $100,000 in 1996 is now just under $200,000. It's like the keep moving the goalposts with inflation and they move them further and faster than you can carry the ball down the field.

Just got a 10% raise? Not so fast... 2% right off the top for inflation. First raise in 3 years? That's 6%. So in total your big 10% raise is really only just 4%. I have worked places where our "annual merit increase" was less than what the cost of health care insurance went up. Looking at you Ricoh-USA Copiers and Fax.

 

I’ve bounced around… BS in Graphic Design, worked for a few sign companies, joined the Marines as an aircraft mechanic (preferred to go enlisted prior to potentially going to OCS), did my 5 and got out. I’m currently an aircraft mechanic, no A&P, but making enough to be comfortable.

 

I've been lucky in that regard re insurance, and while the actual plan has been better my company is pretty good about the portion they pay of the overall cost. That said I'm lucky to get a 2 percent raise which ain't cutting it.

 

Special education teacher. I’m 30 years in and looking forward toward retirement. I need to wait few more years until age 60 or I’ll leave a chunk of money on the table. Love my job and the kids ( not administration and parents so much), but I have a lot of other things I want to put my time into. My kids are grown and all have their own lives and careers. My youngest (24) finished her Masters and a credential a year ago and is just about to start her second year teaching high school. I figure it’s time to do a few things that are about me. The wife says work is getting in the way of doing things we like.

 

Retired tug boat captain. Pulled the plug in 2015 at 59. Now, I just play.

 

Teacher
High School
Special Education
EBD/ID
Emotional and Behavioral Disorders/Intellectual Disabilities
(My staff and I are kind of like our district’s QRF for those of you with military backgrounds.)

 

High school EBD, I’d say you’re more like a Tier 1 operator mixed with a bit of family counseling and life coach skills.

 

X Art Director in TV/Film. Mainly created 3D animation, VFX and composited scenes…my moms has my Emmy’s to prove it on a bookshelf somewhere.

Also had my own biz making Network Graphics Packages for editors to use throughout their promos for various different cable shows.

Fast forward, I now own a landscape company in Atlanta. I don’t live there and it’s automated in a sense, I live at my mtn house my gpa built before I was born

Pretty much piddle around on the side of a mtn at about 5300’ up and rode shut out of motorcycles…or hell anything that goes brapp.

 

Retired law enforcement 44 years total. State Trooper, Deputy Sheriff and Federal Officer.

 

I think that line of work takes a certain kind of human being. I appreciate you being one of them.

 

Electrician. I've been lucky enough to do some pretty high profile jobs. Here is a custom light fixture that was made for a customer.

 

I'm in the residential solar industry selling in 30 states (both coasts and down south). Happy to help anyone here save money on their electric bill and eventually not pay for it.

 

Automotive new model development engineer. Technical expert in development and manufacturability of interior / exterior trim appearance parts.
Was a powersports ATV/SXS design engineer for a short time. Dream job. Gave it up for the family + work life balance. Don't regret it.

 

Engraved myself a new coffee mug full of snark..

 

So, you are a cattle rustler?

 

Cloud Engineer dealing with corporate compliance, identity access and management, security and governance in AWS.

 

After graduating highschool ('04) I had no idea what I was going to do. Got a job at a local gun shop, they were hiring CNC machine operators. I knew nothing of the trade, so my dad handed me his dial calipers and told me to find things to measure, sketch the thing and list the measurements for him to check them.

The following week I went for the interview and they offered me the job. I'm sure there's gun owners here, maybe you're familiar with the name Yankee Hill Machine. I worked there for 6 years, running and setting up CNC mills. I primarily made AR-15 upper receivers...nearly 170,000 of them a year...and hate myself for it.

I took what I learned there and moved on to an aerospace job shop, where I made a lot more money, making parts for commercial jet engines, parts for fighter jets, parts for automated cow milking parlors, the farmer down the road who broke his tractor, the guy the boss owed a favor to, you name it. I even put parts on the ISS. It was a very, very small shop and the owner was a very difficult guy to be around, so he got away with a lot. Taking advantage of his people, treating us like garbage, etc. After 3 years I walked.

I still work in manufacturing, I've been with my current company since 2014. I started off as a CNC lathe operator, tried my hand at production supervisor, back to the lathes, now I work in a specialized department that designs and builds custom turn-key systems for a variety of customer applications - some industrial, some biomedical, mostly food. Overall it's been a great place to work, especially my new position. Been doing it for a little over 3 years now and don't want to change a thing. Manufacturing stagnates very easily. My current job has so much variety, it's like every week is something new. From CAD design, to manual machining, electrical, plumbing (compressed air and fluid delivery), assembly, installation...I get to do it all.

I even get to travel now, when it's time for the customer to fire up their system, part of my job is to go out to finalize the installation, teach them how to use it, and help them fine tune it to make conforming product. Last year I saw Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Washington, Georgia, Detroit, Denver...never would have thought a highschool almost-dropout CNC operator would get to do the kinds of things I do now.

 

Traveling Construction Superintendent. Been to and worked in 48 of the 50 states. Alaska & Montana are the only two I haven't been to. Been doing this for over 28 years. Met my wife on the road. She asked me out. Still not ready to slow down yet.

 

Sold trailers for a while but ended up back in a white collar position. I’m an IT consultant for a large utility company. Basically, I get to tell developers what to do