What do you do for a living?

I find that so interesting. I have often wondered about who makes the tools that make the tools. They are totally dependent on you getting the tools right so that they can get their product right. About as symbiotic as it gets. I hold old-world quality machinists in high regard. Heck, I hold new-world machinists who can program a CNC in high regard! Bought many a fine machine made in the factories located in Fond du Lac!

 

I'm an Aerospace Engineer, developing technology so that the US warfighter maintains lethal overmatch capability.

I was a designated technical subject matter expert, but a few years ago I transitioned over to manager, building the bench for the future.

 

I am a technology director for a public school district. Been doing this since I was 19, but was made director when my former boss left a couple years ago.

 

Go back to school for a degree in a STEM field you enjoy?

 

Same, my dad worked but was home every night except maybe 3 times I remember when he went away for work one night. He retired after close to 30 years with the phone company at age 54 and still worked until this year at 71 doing other things. My mom was the one who did the housework, shopping, took me and my sister to things etc.

Plus you don't see single income anymore. My wife and I could never dream of having kids financially for one reason anymore and we both work, plus I have a second job.

 

I’m 28 and we live off a single income. I work construction and my wife stays home with our 2 kids. Day care would be too expensive.

 

I'd bet you are the minority though..at least my little sampling.

My friend does the same thing, his wife has a great job and he was a social worker. As an aside, it's disgusting how underfunded and underappreciated his former profession is..but I digress. Short version she got a promotion and they did the math, with 2 kids in childcare it was significantly cheaper for him to not work.

 

I honestly wouldn’t know. Besides this website and my few friends from high school, I don’t socialize with anyone really. I know my truck is probably the nicest thing I have though. We don’t live too fancy or anything but we also don’t worry about money. I wish I knew the secret. I guess we just got lucky with my job and can afford to live like this??

 

I know very few in your situation, so it's a fantastic thing to have going for you.

Same with me, we do have some toys like a pool and my bikes but that was over time. The first few years after buying the house were thin, both for that reason plus it needed a lot of work.

To be honest I also live in a high cost of living state. Not my ideal but presently I'm making the best of it

 

Safe & vault company - pretty cool job and obviously with everything going on in this shit show of a mess we call California, business is ridiculous with no end in sight if things keep heating up.

On one hand I feel bad considering everything that’s going on, but on other - I’m blessed I’m not one of the millions wondering if they’ll be able to pay rent at the end of the month. I seriously feel for those people considering I know what’s it’s like to be broke and barely scraping by or hemorrhaging money by the day.

Not surprising the suicide and depression rates are skyrocketing. Sad.

 

I'm a highway maintenance worker and snowplow driver for the state of Colorado. I love it, every day is usually something new. That, and they let me operate heavy equipment.

 

Between the two of us, we do pretty well--we aren't wealthy or anything but can afford what we want within reason. Kids would change that for sure. The eating out, newer vehicles, buying what we want when we want, etc. would have to be cut back a lot or eliminated.

We're on the same page, though, no kids. We both work in education so it's kind of nice to come home to no kids after seeing hundreds all day.

 

I'm in IT. If you're computer inclined, like to learn new things, and like to systematically solve problems the bar is pretty low for entry - it'll mostly be a battle to get your foot in the door. Google even has a free IT academy and they claim that they, apple, facebook, take seriously enough to hire from.

IT is an interesting field because you can work pretty much in whatever industry you want and potentially be doing similar things - that's what I like about it. I've done hospitality, automotive, hardware design, communications, music, social networks, etc, etc... There are some sub fields, and being a young guy, you definitely want to get into what I consider forward facing work. Despite the horror stories, even at startups, nobody works more than 45-50 hours a week. As somebody said, the technology there is net-new every 18-24 months so nobody is going to have a ton more direct experience than you - they'll just more more wise in the ways of IT.

It's not physical labor, you have comfy chairs and offices, every company I've worked at has had good benefits (usually 100% paid for medical/vision/dental), most have good side benefits, usually start with 3-4 weeks of PTO a year - many have open PTO policies, and many you can work remotely.

And to be blunt, the ultimate carrot is the industry is out to automate pretty much everything that can be done. Which side of that do you want to land on?

I'm dying trying to hire fresh-from-school guys for $120k/yr, if they're good at doing what they do, they can be well north of $200k/yr in their early 30's. It plateaus a bit after that. I've had some guys transition into software and if you're good, you can get a new set of TRD Pro's every year with just your bonus check.

 

second this. I’m single and do decent living alone, but I see some of my coworkers married - one income and having kids and it just baffles me. The math just doesn’t work lol.

 

Civil Engineer / Construction Manager. Manage multi-million dollar transportation construction projects in Miami.

 

What helps us is we're in a relatively low COL area. Salaries are a little higher in the more populated sections of MA, but they don't make up for the dramatically higher housing costs. Closer to Boston, my house would probably go for triple what it is worth here but I'd only see around a 50% gain in income.

 

Username checks out.

 

System Engineering.

 

Mechanical engineer

 

I started life as a Plumber's apprentice. My dad was a Plumber, and worked weekend side jobs. He started taking me with him when I was 5 or 6, taught me the trade over the next 13 years, almost every weekend until I graduated high school and went into the Army.

My time in the Army as an Electronics Technician got me interested in technology, after 3 years I used my GI Bill to earn a BS in Computer Engineering. I got a summer internship with a large computer chip company in 1992 in the IT field, and have been in that line of work ever since. I've been laid off a few times, had some extended periods of unemployment, but I've worked for some good companies. Worked for employers in technology, banking/finance and healthcare/insurance. Always "Big IT", very large employers. I've done server administration, backups/restores/archives, storage systems administration, data center management, and for the last 7+ years, Major Incident Management. Next month will be my 30th anniversary since I started that internship waaaaaaaaaaay back in '92. I am not getting old... I am not getting old... I am not getting old.............