How do you make your living?

[thecanadiancook]

I worked in restaurants through high school and during my undergraduate degree. Odd jobbed at a slaughterhouse and as a lab tech. Currently doing a masters so I get paid to teach a lab and mark undergraduates.

It also helps that I was a thrifty little saver up until I discovered buying clothes as a hobby.

[zayg]

I work in "Asset Management" in logistics for a medical device company. The company is on the cutting edge of technology and has an extremely unique business model that involves the distribution of equipment that costs thousands of dollars to customers and patients. Due to warranties, these must be replaced ASAP after failure. I am responsible for making sure the equipment is accurately tracked across the entire network as well as creating and bolstering existing processes for the returns team. I work a bit with IT to fine tune systems to help these processes. I also do a bit of analytics, and am currently involved in the planning of the rollout of a massive service advisory.

Unfortunately, the job mostly involves me just answering emails and doing banal stuff in Excel. It is extremely soul sucking and doesn't pay particularly well. I'm feeling a bit stuck and unmotivated. I know I should be better than this but it can be hard to put in the effort to show that I am when I find it hard to care. Fortunately I do get showered with a fair bit of praise from my superiors because I guess nobody else who took this job prior to me was able to figure it out, let alone make so many improvements. At the same time...I find myself slacking off due to being so tired all of the time and on other days finding it so hard to get out of bed due to SAD now that the cold started, that I just work from home a ton, which I worry is frowned upon.

I plan on applying to teach English in Japan soon so I could start when my lease is up in August. My life is too boring and I haven't really had any of the interesting experiences that I was hoping I would have by this age. I feel like some extreme culture shock could give me a motivational thrill.

Plus, it is a completely new environment in which I can work on my photography. I plan on applying to grad school for photography while I am there so I can start that when I come back. Don't let people influence you to take the "safe choice" when it doesn't align with your life goals. Sure, going to school for business was "safer" than going to art school like I wanted to, but now I basically have to restructure my entire life as I'm in a worse place than I was a few years ago due to the choices I've made. No regrets though, I made some excellent friends in college, found a place I'd like to settle in future years thanks to it, and started to take my photography more seriously as it became a true creative outlet for me and not just a hobby to pass the time. Who knows what I will do for a living if I do go the photography route, but I think that doing something I love will give me the motivation to at least explore more options instead of just wanting to get the hell out.

[meatjacket]

I am the Jack-of-all-trades at Target. Cashier,Guest Services, Food Avenue, Starbucks, Cart Attendant and occasional GSA (front end manager). I have only a few bills which are once a month so most of my income is for fun :-)

I plan on moving up, but it will take some time. If not, i can always move to another area/store to concentrate more on retail

[silvaeri]

Been a while since I first posted in this thread, figured I'd update with my life.

Had a few different jobs throughout school including Jimmy John's bike courier, glorified office assistant, glorified code monkey, and /legit/ bike courier working for a local courier company in mpls.

since graduating in may i picked up an internship as a front-end developer at a local design firm and interned there for about 3 months before being brought on as a contractor of sorts. It's a really weird job position and i'm not too happy with how they've handled my employment. but i've heard from a reliable source that the rumor is my company will be out of business pretty soon, so i'm dusting off the resume and talking to some other firms in the area.

in terms of actual work, i enjoy being a front end dev, especially with a design school background. i get to interact with the designers and take their visions and translate it into something that actually works and functions. it's hard and i struggle a lot with self doubt because i have no formal teaching in programming, it's all stuff i've taught myself and continue to teach myself. so i struggle a lot with imposter syndrome and feel like i don't know enough to actually get paid any money, and as a result i'm woefully underpaid currently.

yeah.

[mahi-mahi]

I work in a Mexican restaurant, been doing it Since I was ten. What I really hope to do is go to college and become a teacher. I'm so passionate about education and helping others out. I used to be a fuck-up, big time. Bad grades, shit attitude and was in a bad place. But I got out of it thanks to my teachers. And I hope if I can even help one kid that was like that, it'd be worth all the struggle. Plus, I want to teach!! I want to know and love my job, and help the next generation.

[harmsalmon]

just got off my first night back working at an upscale gastropub/wine bar in downtown Stl. worked there for abt 8 months before I left for school and now I'm back since i'm here for winter break. its run by cool people, staffed w cool people, serves cool people - good gig. i just wash dishes/bus tables/do whatever the servers and bartender don't want to do but still make good money. being back made me realize how much i actually miss it and dread getting a shitty campus job. didnt really miss getting out of work at 3am after a 10-hour work day though.