WHAT DO WE ALL DO FOR A LIVING????

[hayley]

Hi

Just thought i'd start a new topic to find out what we all do job wise... A way to get to know each other a little better...

I'll start.

I'm a garment technologist manager - I fit babies and childrens clothes. I have to ensure all garment conform to British Regulations, eg buttons, poppers, rivets etc are nickel free, buttons are 2 thread lockstitched attached, necks stretch to a min measurement, liase with customers and over seas factories to ensure the garment fits well, made well and basically sellable.

x

 

[Amanda]

What a good idea!! And don't you sound posh Hayley!!!

I'm a Field Support Analyst. I work in the UK & Ireland IT Operations department of Office Depot (you may all know it better as Viking Direct or Guilbert/Niceday). We have 3 buildings in Leicester where I live, and I am responsible for all IT/Telephony/Server/Switch equipment in one of the buildings. Im my building I have the Finance, Accounts, Payroll, Credit, Training and Development (programmers) departments, so my job is never the same on 2 days! I can be dealing with a credit person one minute who doesn't know the difference between a monitor and pc, and the next work order is for a Financial Director who knows more about his applications than I do, but is still asking me questions!!!!!

I work in a team of all men, so sometimes this is the most challenging part of the role!!!!!!

 

[*sam*]

This is a good idea Hayley

I'm a playworker for a before and after school's club, there are ten staff at our club (three clubs in all) and we look after kids who's parents aren't able to take them/pick them up from school. We give them breakfast, have a bit of play, then take them to school in the morning. Then i the afternoon, pick them up from school and take them back to the club for play/activities/ tea etc. Then their parents/ guardians pick them up. I absolutely LOVE my job, all the kids are great! The only bad thing is I drive kids to and from school in an awful daihatsu efi van. (if you don't know what one is, then just imagine a bread bin on wheels and you'll be pretty close!) It's so embarrasing, everyone makes fun of me. The club's called 'School's Out' and it's pasted all over the van to make it even more tradgic! And yes, loads of people sing 'school's out for summer....' as I drive past!!!!

I also go to college, I'm doing access to primary school teaching and I really enjoy it, I will be going to uni next Sept to do a degree. Hopefully, by the time I'm 30 I will be a primary school teacher (and hopefully a mother!)

 

[Anna Marie]

Wow.. you all sound very important and its clear you all LOVE your jobs.. thats so great. I am very envious!!!

Sadly I don't really have a career any more, I currently work as a Lettings Manager in a small Property Lettings and Sales company. The job is OK but after all the recent issues with my boss I have lost a lot of respect and my motivation has deserted me too. It has its good moments, I am out and about viewing and valuing properties and my dog comes to the office with me and everywhere I go - and the hours are only 10 - 5 so its not all bad.

4 years ago I was living in London and earning stupid money in internet advertising, but then I met my OH and he was offered a job in Malaysia 2 weeks after we met.. so 2 months later we go to S E Asia and I said goodbye to my career. It was an expat community so I helped out at the international school but generally I did lots of cycling, swimming and sunbathing!!! It was tough cos I was a high flying career woman before.. then met him and became an expat house-wife type.. bloody awful but I loved him so I stuck it out.

Unfortunately when we came back to UK we were moved again - over here to the midlands where it seems the attitude is "don't employ an over 35 year old woman as she will go off and have kids ...." so I was turned down for a few advertising jobs that I was far too overqualified for.. hence I ended up in property.. my father and brother are in property in a different part of the UK so it is in the blood.. I am just not enthralled by it!

So there you have my career history [well the past few years anyway!]... I am hoping that if / when i ever do have a little sproglet I am able to say "sod off" to my boss for good!!!

Sam I thought about becoming a teacher - I would love to but I think I am too old to do all the training.... good for you - I think it must be so rewarding!! The bread bin on wheels had me laughing my head off.. can picture it now!!

Tankett.. your job sounds very intense.. I did a bit of IT for some of the advertising co's I worked for, just networking and server stuff - I liked it but it was just too much work on top of all the stuff I was actually supposed to be doing.. well done to you for sticking it out in a very male profession!

Hayley, your job sounds fascinating.. you must have such a good eye for childrens clothes.. hopefully you can recommend stuff for a sproglet one day!!??

xx

 

[hayley]

Tankett - your job sounds so hard! i would not have a clue... i can turn my compter on and just about get around excel and word...

Sam - yours sounds fun - but I don't think i'd like to work with children... In my job I have dolls aged 12 mnths to 10yrs to fit clothes on.. I like the fact they can't answer back!

Anne Marie - your high flying job sounded fab! something i'd like to go into actually... selling advertisement! i've been told i could sell ice to eskimos....

I used to have a really interesting job... before I settled down! I was a croupier on a cruiseship. Trained as a croupier at stanleys casino then after approx 2 yrs experience I flew to Singapore to meet a cruiseship aged 20. I'd never even seen one before - never mind stepped on one! I was in total shock at the size of it... I spent 6 months travelling Australia, New Zealand, Fuji, Hong Kong, Vietnam and many more places... loved it! I did this for about 2 1/2 years - spending between 6 mnths and 2 weeks away each time... and visiting so many places from the med to the far east... We wore an evening off the shoulder dress at nite and dickie bow, pencil skirt, white shirt in the day... I ended it all to study fashion - which took me 5 years... and then the rest is all boring!

x

 

[Lindsay]

I feel as though I am invading, tell me to sod off if you wish!!lol

I am Marketing Officer for Sure Start, a government initiative to make a difference to the lives of children and their families. We have a number of centres accross the town which all provide services to the children and families in their locaility areas, we work closely with our partner agencies such as the health team and employment agencies in delivering services.

I co-ordinate the marketing of all the centres, so every day is different. I can be organising events, Christmas is brill cos we do parties and santa sleigh rides for the kiddies!! Press releases, preparing articles to go into newlsetters, writing strategies, giving childcare providers in the area marketing advice as to how they can boost their numbers and the list goes on and on!!! I like the fact that I work with children but don't have a hands on role, think they would drive me mad 24/7!!!!

That's enough about me, it's really good to hear what everyone else does too, a great idea of Hayley's!!

Xxx

 

[Anna Marie]

Wow Hayley - sounds very glamorous.. all those fab places to visit too!!! I would love to go back to Oz and Singapore I liked but not as much as Malaysia.. never been to Hong Kong or Vietnam.. would love to.. so many places to see and not enough time and / or money to do it!!

Yeah funny how when we settle down other things are more important than money or career / fame.... now I just want a quiet stress free life with my OH, my dog and cats in the country but obviously accessible to friends and family.... I used to joke about how I would always want to live in NY or London when I lived there but now I cannot imagine anything worse... I love the countryside! My friends and ex's from London laugh so much when I tell them I wear my wellies more than my high heels!!! They didn't believe it!!

I do miss the money and the feeling of importance etc but I soon realised that there are more important things in life.. like love, health and happiness.. I was earning a fortune but only meeting unsuitable men and spending all my money on clothes, shoes and holidays.. and nights out on vodka!!! All seems very shallow when I look back so I am very glad I gave it all up for my OH..

So will you all still work when you have your little sproglets and become full time mums or go back to work full / part time?? Hayley.. you'll be first one to go on maternity leave!!

 

[Helen]

Hey all

I'm an HR Manager at a software house. Loads of techies around (mostly blokes like Tankett says). Met my OH there, he is a techie too. He's left now and is techie somewhere else, but at least I can talk work when I get home now!

Really like all the legal stuff that goes with the job, so find it facinating reading the Working while PG section. Some peoples bosses are completely ignorant of the law and it amazes me and infuriates me.

Done other stuff. Been a system admin (techie) and a Quantity Surveyor - counting bits of steel, wearing a hard hat and Rigger Boots and tramping round huge building sites. Nowhere near as glam as Hayley!!!

 

[Bagpuss17]

Very interesting read indeed, we're a diverse bunch.

I work in IT too, I'm a database administrator in the financial sector. It's a male orientated world but that said there's a good proportion of women in IT at our company compared to any other I've worked at.

I did a degree in IT so I'm used to the blokes and they're a good bunch at our place.

I really enjoy my job, it's challenging and it pays well too! Always a perk.

 

[Blackfairykitten]

hey just quickly nosing. can't stay away! lol

I'm a ward clerk at my local hospital. I ensure the smooth running of my ward. By offering support to all staff from doctors to theatres. The truth of it i answer phones, get notes and xrays ready for people coming in, make sure people get referred, have xrays, get appointments etc. I work on a ward where people come and get planned surgery the majority being hip and knee replacements!

 

[melanieyeah]

ok well after all of your professional sounding jobs i dont think im going to say what i do. very basic, but lets just say I work with xbox 360s and playstation 2's and nintendo DS's lol.

 

[rach]

look at you lot with your exciting important jobs
well i work in a clothes shop as an assistant started as christmas temp 5 years ago then part time sales assistant then i went to full time supervisor for about 2 years then back at beginning of summer i hurt my back and had to have 4 months off and decided to go back as part time sales assistant as my back wont last all day in work anymore (i have narrowing of disc space which causes my one disc to press on root of sciatic nerve) so basically will always suffer with sciatica now and standing on feet for 8/9 hours a day is not gonna happen anymore 4/5 hours is about all i can manage now. saying that i suppose its better for me now as i have more time to spend with my son and new baby when he/she arrives xxxxxx

 

[nicki]

Hi All,

Why does evryones else's jobs sound so much better than your own!

Well, i'm an air hostess and have been flying for nearly 8 years (in Jan) I started off with Caledonian Airways and wore a tartan kilt and loved my job, i've been lucky enough to see some great places and meet alot of great people (crew not passengers!!) but when Cale transformed itself into JMC it started to go downhill, I now fly for Thomas Cook (same company just a different name)
Over the years it lost its appeal and i won't be going back after babes here (I hope) i can't believe how people speak to us, they are so rude and i've had enough of being insulted, sworn at, pushed,poked, prodded, shoved, abused, threatened etc etc. and the shifts are getting silly, the longest i've been at work and in the same knickers was about 30 odd hours!!!!!! getting too old for all that!

I'm currently working in a Thomas Cook travel agents (part-time) because we get grounded when we become pregnant (after 12 weeks) which is ok but because they all go on training courses to sell/book holidays etc I can't do that so i'm a general dogs body which is extremely boring and spend most of the day twiddling my thumbs, not used to sitting around doing nothing!

 

[hayley]

You lot in IT sound very very intellegent! I always wonder can you ever know everything about the computer world? As long as I can turn it on, send an e,mail, zeta fax, use word and excel i'm happy... i can cut n paste - and thats about as technical as i get.....It it true thou that there are so many more man in IT than women...

Lindsey your job sounds very interesting - i bet your doing something different every week... and you are welcome ito our conversations anytime... more the merrier...

Nicki - wow an air hostess.. thats really exciting! have you been all around the world? do you get time off when you land? sounds like a perfect career....

I plan to work as long as possible.. i am due the first week in August - ideally i'd like to work upto mid July... but i do a lot of driving! i work approx 50 miles from home and at peak hour this can take me anything from 1 hour to 1 half... if there is a crash then i can be stuck for 2 hours....i'll have to see if i have a good pregnancy and if driving doesn't get me too down.... I would like to take between 5 and 6 months off work then go back 3 days a week for a few weeks. I've already told my parents i'd like them to look after the baby twice a week...(which they are okay with) so when i'm back full time - i will only have to put the baby in the nursery 3 days... I'm also going to look for a nursery cloose to my work as i'd hate to be too far away from the baby in case i'm needed.

Do you all intend to go back to work.. or become a house wife? which i think is probably more work!!!

 

[Dippy]

Before you all start to boo and hiss, I work for the Inland Revenue!! I am a glorified pen pusher really and work in a department which deals with corporate and business tax - we investigate the tax returns of large organisations to make sure they are correct and issue hefty tax bills if they are not. Don't know how I ended up doing this for a living as I did a history degree and always hated maths at school, but it's got great perks (flexi time, pension and 6 months paid maternity leave) and the monies pretty good too. Not very glamerous though I'm afraid

 

[nicki]

Hi Hayley,

It's funny when I tell people what I do for a living and people always think wow, that's great and glamorous and think i'm really lucky.
In a way I have been lucky to visit places and get paid for it but to be honest it is really hard work & not that glam. when you're scooping up puke and poo or saving someones life (sometimes they die - not nice).

For the majority of flights we have to get up at stupid o'clock i.e 4 or 5 in the morning, the earliest flight I used to do we checked in at 3.15am so that meant getting up at 1.30am!! or we would get lovely night flights, the worst one we checked in at five to midnight (we check in a hour & a half b4 departure).
Our average days were 12 hours and our shortest would be 7 or 8 hours and longest could be anything!!!

If we are flying short haul route e.g Tenerife/Turkey/Cyprus etc we would fly there have an hour to turn the plane around and fly home again, we would only stay if we went long haul (caribbean/mexico/canada/maldives etc)and we would get anything from 12 hours in a hotel to 9 days, it depends what we get rostered.

I have had some fantastic trips and we do have a laugh downroute & i have been naughty and drunk & smoked to much on many occasion but on the flip side if you have a crew you don't get on with it can get very lonely sitting in a hotel room on your own for hours on end. Swings and roundabouts.

When I was single it was great (all those pilots to flirt with!! ) but it got to the point that I just didn't want to be away from home all the time or would never see my friends coz I was working, 3 years ago I went from the Feb. through to the August without having one weekend off, that was a horrible summer! the following year I went part time coz it was getting too much.

I could write forever telling you all some of the stories but I won't bore you! I will just tell you this one though, i still find it funny - I used to fly on Tristars (huge aircraft) they have 3 engines, one on each wing & one at the back on top of the plane. I was minding my own business when a rather grumpy woman yanked my kilt ( ) and said it was far to noisey in the plane and could I tell the captain to do something about it, like turn the engine off!!!! I told her that probably wasn't a good idea as we were at 35,000ft up in the air & we kinda need the engines to run!
Unbelieveable

Dippy - hey a jobs a job, I don't see why people get funny coz others work for the inland rev. or are traffic wardens etc.

Nicki.

 

[sarahj]

ok time for the truth from me! i would love to tellyou all about some fab job but the fact is i do not have one!!! im a full time house wife! i have 2 kids and im trying for a third as my husband has not got any children of his own. i am a special constable at the weekends!

sarah x

 

[beanie]

I'm a probation officer, but am not issing work too much at the moment

 

I have been many things in the past, sales assistant in a shop, admin support and HR assistant. All very boring and non-qualified

Now I am a housewife and soon to be stay-at-home-mum
I hope to not return to work after little one is born and my M/A runs out, but we shall see how it all pans out. Want to be at home to watch my little monkey grow

 

[Layla]

I was a hairdresser but i have not worked since getting pregnant, trianing to be a childminder now tho, so i can stay at home with baby and still earn money