How do you make your living?

[balloons]

in freshman & early sophomore years I used to buy old guitars on craigslist/garage sales/wherever, give a pretty rudimentary fixer-upper (usually no more than a thorough cleaning and polish + new strings + truss rod adjustment), write a much better ad, and resell them on craigslist/ebay for profit. wasn't raking in $$$ or anything but could often net a cool $50 profit and could sell 2 or 3 per month.

eventually stopped actively doing it because 1. 80% of craigslist customers are assholes, 2. had to check craigslist all the time to make sure I don't miss something valuable and flippable, which is a total chore, and 3. stress of harder classes / girlfriend / new interests sapped away all my time

still do it every now and then (sold a pedal just the other day) & even kept a some stuff I picked up along the way, but I'm more or less done w/ all that.

[stappard_]

In University I made a bunch of money flipping Apple software using the education discount. Funded a trip to Nepal with 20 copies of Final Cut Pro. At one point I'd meet a guy who drove a Lamborghini and hand over 4 or 5 at once. I never found out what the fuck he was doing in a Lamborghini buying bulk copies of Logic Pro at 20% below retail.

Eventually had to stop at the end of 2010ish as lots of others had piled in and destroyed the margins but it was a tiny little gold rush for a couple of years.

[Blastoise]

Sales associate at Banana Republic at a local outlet mall. I don't own a single thing from the store and they don't give me a lot of hours but for some reason I enjoy it. Hoping to get a job at the local movie theater, one of my friends is going to be an assistant manager this summer. Getting really behind on turning in an application though. Going to try to find a job on campus this fall but as a double major I'm already limiting myself. After school I'm hoping to teach English and write music for video games on the side, or ideally write music full time but that's unrealistic.

[papabear]

Currently a 3rd yr business major with an accounting concentration. I work at my school's art department as an assistant for the curator. Pay is low and job is boring. I used to work at a Levi's outlet. Retail is fun but pay is quite low as well. If anyone needs an intern in the US this summer please let me know! Been trying to get an internship for the past couple months but it's just rejection after rejection. :(

[can-]

[Prince of Scandinavia]

I used to play a lot of video games when I was younger and in high school. I would use bots in games like World of Warcraft and Diablo III. The bots farmed gold for me and I sold it for real life money. The first few months of Diablo III, I earned around $700-800 each month just by letting my bot run while I was doing other stuff. Mostly I would let it run in class and when I was doing my assignments. I let the bot run during the night when I slept back in the first week of Diablo III.

These days I don't really earn much money since I live off educational benefits provided by the state. I do look for some clothing items to flip once in a while, but it's nothing great.

[Ques]

I flip virtual cosmetic items in a video game called Team Fortress 2 using Paypal while going to school as a Foreign Languages major learning Chinese & French. Planning to work in the Foreign Service after I graduate.

[mc-lunar]

[sparkyoriental]

I'm in school for Computer Science and Math and I work as a developer in a couple of roles. One is mostly web dev and the other, which I just started, is in game design. In the second job I'm getting more involved in the HCID aspect of development which is very exciting because I'm not a huge fan of programming 8 hours a day.

I'm also funded for my personal research which is in mental health informatics (developing a mobile depression inventory system targeted at university populations).

In the future I plan to go to grad school for personalized medicine/medical informatics and develop systems to assist those with serious mental illnesses adapt to a regular life.

I'm really happy with my jobs/research/school. I've been lucky enough to find opportunities and advisors that align with my interests and I feel very fulfilled and challenged on a daily basis. Research, in particular, is the most rewarding and exciting for me.

In the past, I've worked as a copywriter for a publishing house, at a sandwich shop, preschool teacher (stress stress stress), and dung beetle penis extractor.

[eufemism]

i'm currently studying to get into the athletic training program at my university.

i've been unemployed for a couple of weeks but i usually just work through a temp agency. i've worked at a furniture factory, university office, etc. honestly just trying to get some money to fund my clothing purchases and other stuff.

[rjbman]

This summer I'm interning as a software developer. Got one more year left studying Computer Engineering then hopefully will land a software development job in a relatively big city. Looking at Xanadu, Denver, and Chicago in particular. During school I work at the IT dept, it's pretty laid back.

[can-]

dragging my ass thru a 16 hour work day, ppl plz send me prayers

[uxjtsu]

I tutor students in high school as a part time thing. Not enough to actually make a living but enough to keep me fed and clothed.

[JewTurk]

I'm currently a high schooler but I work two jobs (during the summers) and keep my job doing inventory at a local theater during the school year. Pays for gas/insurance/phone then the rest goes to savings and whatever scraps are left go to clothes.

Not making a notable amount more than minimum wage but during the summers I work almost 70hr/week between the two jobs so the summer is great for making money to supply myself with a wardrobe.

[iamacyborg]

[Blastoise]

Finally got the job at the local movie theater over a month after applying. They don't know when the next regional orientation will be so I don't know when I'll actually be starting.

[CleanThug]

I got hired at a theater too recently and it's a pretty dope job

[birdman caw]

this thread is actually really inspiring. keep on keeping on care-tags

I wait table at a sushi restaurant. i will probably be waiting table for the foreseeable future. would like to land teaching job or copywriting gig or whatever or I publish some kind of fiction something and hit the bigtime

[Bobbin.Threadbare]

I am a writer and researcher by day. I am the menswear and home editor for a big brand here in the UK and I also write freelance reports for a large trend forecasting company on digital tribes, consumer values and emerging technology. Former fashion magazine alumni and technology blogger.

Also one half of STORY mfg where I get to go and learn tradition dyeing, weaving and manufacturing techniques and apply some careful futurism.

[moussele]

I barely attend law school and have been working in finance and retail in the past. I'm currently working as a marketing consultant for a leading import firm for industrial components.

[jrisk]

I've been at this new job for a few weeks now. I'm a junior developer at a local web design company. Small company but not new enough to be called a startup imo. Since I'm lowest on the totem pole I tend to work on the myriads of tiny little jobs, fixing things here and there for all our clients' sites. I'm glad I ended up with this job because it's low-pressure. When I don't know how to do something it's "Okay, let me show you" instead of "You really don't know how to do that??" I am learning buttloads and I am incredibly busy which is great. The workday doesn't feel long enough sometimes.

[oucho]

I make forum signatures for millionaires and earn about 100k a year from it

[can-]

I'm accepting a position as general manager at a relatively new restaurant in the coming week. it's a really good fit, the owner is a really amazing guy, the chef and sous are both super passionate and I've been able to be completely transparent about my anxieties regarding the position throughout the whole process since this will involve a serious amount of learning for me.

glad to be leaving my current job where I report to a large and corporate hospitality group full of shareholders, pr groups, marketing teams etc. I started off in the industry working for a small family business who took excellent care of its employees before focusing on the bottom line, and in many ways this feels like a return to that.

I'm also going to be running my own beer program which is so so exciting!! they only have five lines but the current program is atrocious and the chef is looking to bring in more local craft beer, and I happen to be extremely well connected with NYC metro area breweries and suppliers. it's a major cherry on top.

[Bryan]

I'm a busser and soon to be runner @ Tavern on the Green. First job, pretty much only got in cause of my inside connect who's big fish there or something. I work with so many great people (many of whom think i'm gay as i recently discovered) and I always get complimented by the managers/servers on how good of a job i'm doing :') + the customers are always happy & cool

god bless america

[JtotheWhat]

I spent a few years working in banking and hated my life, left that for another offer and worked for a consulting company within the lumber/forestry industry that paid a very very nice salary but required living in the middle of nowhere. Decided I wanted to go back to school, the original plan was to get a degree in Poli Sci (which I enjoy very much) and then goto Law School somewhere else but I am in my last semester of undergrad and really miss making money. I work part time (20-30 hours a week) at a locally owned clothing store, they don't sell anything I'm too hyped on (Wings + Horns is probably our ' best ' brand) but the people are mostly awesome and on weeks when I hit my sales goals I can make pretty good hourly wage with commission bonus, it's not uncommon to get between $20-$25/hr and at Christmas time, etc. even between $30-$40.

My GF lives in Korea where I used to live and I really miss it there, I want to go back but the only way I can is really to be an English teacher, which kinda bums me out cause I could make twice that salary even working for my family here. It's also not a very ''respected'' job there, which I'm sure can attest to. Still it gets me there and I have a couple business idea's I kindof want to try in Korea and the teaching job would give me a fairly comfortable living salary with enough free time to pursue other ventures. Maybe this isn't the right thread for this but I'm fairly open to opinions on this situation.

[bels]

Have you considered opening up a MTO leather jacket business.

[Indieguy]

Student grants and occasionally working as a runner in a 'hip' luxury fast food restaurant. It barely pays enough to make it worth while considering I really should be studying instead.

[mittens]

.

[evilfriends]

Thanks for digging this up ! Really interesting stuff.

I'm studying electrical engineering in university right now (perpetuating the german stereotype). Not 100% sure if engineering is the right way to go for me but I'm going to try and give my best and see if it works out. Additionally I work 10 hours a week in the shipping department of a small local business working in manufacturing mechanical components. It's very physically demanding but keeps me in shape, which is good thing. I basically climb ladders and carry heavy boxes all day, but my colleagues are great people and a lof of fun to work with. Also the hours are very flexible and I'm paid well enough, the fact that I can basically come and leave whenever I want is a huge bonus.

I used to work in retail in a grocery/department store but social anxiety made it hell for me... glad to be back in the shipping department where the work itself is harder, but less mentally stressful.

Considering I live with my parents and don't have much else to pay except gas, it's a pretty good deal since most of my income is disposable and can be used for whatever I want.

[CMYK]

I'm a Product Manager at a very small software company in Boston. It's a really nebulous job title that can span a lot of different things depending on the company. My day to day work consists mostly of managing our engineering team, deciding with our CEO and sales team how we prioritize what to make next, and doing all of our visual and UX design.