How do you make your living?

[saniityhd]

What do you work with? What are you studying? Why do you do it and what do you think of it?

[stappard_]

I work in IT for an investment bank. I don't particularly like it but in the absence of a better idea it means I get to live comparatively comfortably in London for someone my age, so I can't complain too much. I have money to travel and buy stuff within reason, which is the upside.

I have a pretty pronounced feeling of drifting through life right now, which I need to sort out, but the utterly unromantic notion that any career change now will mean a sizeable pay cut for the foreseeable future doesn't help.

[purkinje]

walk dogs

mow lawns

landscape

parental block grants

[Syeknom]

Software consultation/development for a company that provides banking solutions. Sometimes I work on-project for months sometimes I develop in-house. Unsurprisingly I do not enjoy it, but it pays above average for my age and level and is very cushy.

Right now I'm paid to stay home and lie down though.

[ramseames]

I'm a construction surveyor. Do shift work for mining expansion in northern alberta. Work 4 months in the summer which funds the rest of my year. Money is good for what it is but the trafeoffs associated with it balance things out. Eventually ill finish school as a civil eng and hopefully won't end up back on a site up here but who knows.

[oucho]

I am starting a company making bags and I model part time, I studied history at uni but that's 4 nerds

[prawnzee]

welfare
10char

[saniityhd]

Oh yeah by the way, if you work retail, tell me, would like to know how to get into that line of work etc. So if you have the time, Ill chat you up.

Bout myself: I currently study history of ideas at uni, the course ends this summer, so now I am trying to get into retail or atleast work my way up to being able to get a work in retail. If I have no success, Ill just take whatever job I get.
Good to see the thread going by the way.

[seth83292]

Starting July, I'll be a research assistant studying interference RNA

University: Molecular biology/Genetics major.

[oucho]

[zayg]

jobless and internshipless because i'm a loser that nobody wants to hire apparently

studying global supply chain management at some mediocre private school that coaxed me into going with a bunch of money

[smiles]

Just about to graduate uni with degree in art history. Working for a stylist this summer, hopefully going to kings college london this September.

I enjoy art history and I don't feel like I'm gonna be stuck working as a barista forever cause I didn't do something business/engineering (though those majors are obviously cool in other ways too)

I'm graduating with no debt or anything so I'm pretty much cool to do whatever for the next few years.

[saniityhd]

[maj]

after two years in the lego mines working in a castle dealing in chicken i finally retire to a comfortable position at sainsburys working for more than a should be getting for what i do now.

this is my hat



as far as long term goals i finish school in 2 months and hopefully get into uni, if not it's on the long road of retail/sales/intern/apprenticeships till i get somewhere moderately comfortable, which could mean still being a teacher but working up from a TA. if uni works out i'll have a tidy teaching job with a semi ok pension and be set, if not pipe dream job is a buyer in some boutique which focuses on sportswear.

[wiggly--woo]

i'm a leech whose never had a job.

currently studying geography at uni, will probably go into teaching to spread the geography goodness to the next generation of geography lads and lasses. though really i'd be up for any job that doesn't involve sitting at a computer in some 70s concrete office block where smoke breaks and pre-packaged sandwiches are the highlights of the day. my ideal job would be to work as a football (soccer?) journalist (keep meaning start a blog or something but never get round to it). my less achievable ambitions would be to become a novelist, screenwriter, film director or something like that. i'd love to be an english version of gasper noe or von trier or someone like that.

at the moment though i'm basically just living on the dole and being an all round proud member of #BrokenBritain. had educational maintenance allowance (money from government) for 2 years, now on second year of student loan and grant and second year of additional grant from my university. i see myself as being unemployed but with a better lifestyle and proud parents. i do get involved with volunteering schemes and 'helping inner city' kind of stuff though so i'm not a complete tool. i also take french classes for no apparent reason but they're free and make me seem more interesting than i actually am.

[can-]

I am a manager at a large food and retail location in manhattan. The company that designed and runs it swings a huge dick, they design hotels, restaurants, retail spots all over the world so it is not bad to be linked up with them, it massively subsidizes my food and drink costs because there are so many great restaurants and bars in the city where I can just walk in and introduce myself to get treated really well. I bartend and pick up catering gigs to keep cash flow up.

In the medium to long term id like to start putting capital from renting out units into different food ventures which I'd build and either step back from or sell the keys. that's the dream at least

[silvaeri]

I'm current a super senior finishing up a degree in graphic design in the coming year. Focusing mainly on web design/front end development with some interest in UI/UX.

To pay the bills I currently work as the Technology Assistant at a department called the Center for Teaching and Learning at my school. I'm basically a glorified receptionist/office assistant but I get paid more than the others and I also develop/maintain/update their website and do all in-house technology troubleshooting. It's a cushy gig and I'm currently being brought on as their "Design" intern as well due to the previous one graduating currently. So I've been taking over all her work and being brought on to a new web development project. It's nice because I get more hours/$$$ and now have something to fill the internship credit requirement for graduation.

[alby]

i've worked at gap outlet for two years and plan to continue as I go off to college not 30 minutes away from it, which I guess is nice. GAP is raising all their employees wages this year which is cool. also have a full time summer job along with gap doing warehouse work. it'll be long weeks but I will have a lot of money (at my age!) by the end of the summer, which is neat.

going to school for computer science and hope to land a solid job after school where I can live with a few cats comfortably

[pips]

I work in media/advertising as a multimedia artist. First real job out of college and I've been here for almost three years now. I deal mostly with digital and social media, which explains why I spend a lot of my time sitting on the internet. The clients the company I work for have are big multinationals (you're probably using several of their products in your day-to-day lives) but it is not a creative agency but mainly a media buying and management agency so I'm thinking of transferring to a full service creative agency. There is no growth here as a designer but I'm in a bind because the benefits the company gives are excellent and I love working with my team. But really, I'm planning to switch companies probably at the end of the year for the sake of ~personal growth.

I have a love/hate relationship with advertising because at the end of the day you're manipulating people into buying something they don't really need either by creating pointless problems or making them feel worse about themselves that will magically be solved only by your product. At the heart of today's advertising is not creativity but capitalism and fake values. I enjoy it because I love seeing how design works with commercialism to produce something worthwhile especially if the message is good and being part of the team that conceptualized it. But then if you look at ads that's not what happens most of the time. Sometimes I cant help but roll my eyes when I sit in brainstorming sessions and the so-called market insights that client gives you to address are basically non-problems but then we have to spin in into a huge fucking deal just to push a product.

Dont get me wrong, design is my life and I wish I can do something fulfilling on the side while I sell out to the gods of capitalism. I'd like to own and manage a small hostel in the future or something that has to do with designing spaces for living. In the meantime I try to do small personal art projects when I find the time.

Sorry this turned into a long winded rant; it's a Monday and I'm looking at a week full of social media work.

[Capt]

I'm a Data analyst for a company that crunches flight data from airplanes to help with airline maintenance. It's pretty cool and I seem to be traveling to the UK every once in awhile. I'm mainly just stoked that I found something that's within my field of study.

[AmericanPie]

I'm currently a student, but outside of that I work as a photo assistant/second shooter and also work for a company that does youth sports league photos. You know the ones, the ones your parents made you do when you were on a sports team as a kid, and you had to go and hold the football and smile, so your parents could have a wallet photo of you and a 5x7 to send to your grandparents. In short, I take pictures of kids for money, using a a telephoto lens, and yelling at them while I do it.

[eskdc]

Hardware engineer in Silicon Valley working on computer chips. I freaking love everything about my field and my job, which is not something you'd hear often from people in my field (I work with tool-chains and I'm working towards being a CAD tool Application Engineer). I'm still at a point where I'm learning something new every day, and that's pretty damn cool to me. It still blows my mind how much computers essentially design the next generation of computers these days.

It's pretty cushy salary-wise, but hours can be really long especially around deadline time. Only thing I don't like about it is that the wage growth over your lifetime is pretty low unless you go off with your own company or get into upper level management. But...considering I know many people who got into six figures within their first 5 years of working...

Currently though, I'm paying the bills using unemployment and student loans for my master's...

[BobbyZamora]

pixel art for indie videogames

more "beer money" or "part time job" than "living", though.

[deadkitty]

I make pizza.

I also do heaps of data entry, stocktake, graphic design, etc for another restaurant. I used to do prep there, but not anymore :(

[ballast]

market research analyst for an advertising technology firm.

basically crunch numbers and forecast digital advertising/marketing trends for the upcoming 2-3 years. collab with other major research/tech firms on research. speak at tech conferences about my predictions. i love spreadsheets and "big data" so it's a pretty fun job for me. my background is as an advertising strategist so this slots in pretty neatly. data visualization is really interesting to me.

pay is okay for silicon valley, but the perks are great, and i have a great view of the bay bridge from my cubicle. good thing is i work a consistent 8-5, which is amazing compared to working in advertising. i honestly love what i do, and it's pretty cool when my research gets picked up by publications, although fielding questions is kind of nerve-wracking.

think i'm being groomed to become a product marketing manager though so we'll see how that goes.

[rublev]

I'm unemployed.

[bels]

I use the heat differential between my red hot tears and the atmosphere to generate electricity, which I then sell back to the grid.

[kewks]

i am a store manager for this retail store called Aritzia.. it's great! i work with such awesome gals and i love coming to work every day, plus it's like 99% of my wardrobe which helps too. pay is pretty great imo for retail, plus seasonal bonuses

[gnarph]

Software development (although I am still a student). Currently work on an app which makes money because people pay real money to buy fake money to gamble with, allowing them to win more fake money.

[Thomnd]

Neeeeooooowwww