A little from column A, a little from column B

I was actually thinking of starting a thread like this myself. I remember a lot of Massassians were starting college the same time as me. I was kind of curious how everyone was doing, including the older crew.

Its interesting to see where we've all gone about, since the days of talking smack on the zone.

Yeah, but it's engineering school. I think that last round of finals did something to me. Still, this is only my first co-op out of three and the pay just goes up from there.

My take-home is less than that, working full time.

Laundry operative for the local NHS trust... rather worse considering that im paid to handle the dirty linen before its dropped into industrial washing machines. Also have to tolerate a supervisor whos always got his head up is ownbackside. But the pay is good so I can't complain too much.

Yep.

Apparently, if I get good reviews after I'm done I should have an easy time getting into another UPS job. Except I live in a small town and the center here rarely hires. >_>

Full time student studying finance, management information systems, and international management. Next semester I'll be a part time IT auditor for a multinational financial services firm.

Manager and Product Manager of a Apple Premium Reseller/Apple Centre in Cheltenham UK

can we get free/cheap apple stuff, anakin?

pleeeeeease?

puweeeeze?

I really f***ing hate apple. Sure, they have good products (which I use daily, and appreciate), but their products are shamelessly marked up by at least 41% on EVERY F***ING ITEM.

"A USB cable with a little crappy apple logo? That'll be 39.99, please."

"A standard mouse with a scroll wheel (that has an apple logo on it)? That'll be 49.99, please."

True that. Luckily for me, I dropped £1200 on a PowerBook G4 and it still looks great now, and still runs fast. It plain rocks.

So don't get stuff with the Apple logo on it instead of getting all pissed off.

Currently customs work.

I thought someone like Kirby or Mort would get the joke in my post. It contains two Michael Moore references. At least someone got my Terminator reference.

you're too used to having isaac follow you around the forums wookie.. expecting the same here

business analyst/technical lackey on oracle software, work for a medium sized investment group

Web Developer for Xfire

That was a long time ago. Kirby and Mort get most of my jokes here which is both funny and ironic although Mort seems to think I'm just now developing a "good sense of humor".

Dude, clothes are often marked up over 100% of cost... and that's when they're discounted below "manufacturer's suggested retail price."

Depends on region.

In east region their last day is the last day in the year the operation is open.

Also depending on region is whether or not their hire date (when they started as driver helper) is the start of their seniority.

I work for UPS, I might also have a job at a local cafe.

I make like $12.00/hr at UPS, so I have a great hourly rate.. I just don't work the hours I need, and I work third shift which kind of blows.

When I finish my third semester at school I can take my airframe and general exams (there are like three exams for each, except for general which I think only as two. They're all over 6 hours long) At that point I can skip the bid list for Utlilities and take the next available position. I'll lose a dollar an hour.

Then I can finish school, and hopefully find an open mechanic's position at another operation or maybe this one. Haven't decided.

I think at that point, I'm just going to start taking classes in whatever the **** pleases me because UPS airlines will pay for whatever, they don't care. Oh, and I get to jumpseat where ever I want for free.

Current top scale for mechanics is $45.00/hr. (at 5th year) This isn't including bonuses for things like having your IA, powered taxi tests, working at night, and all sorts of other odd *** pay perk **** in their contract.

Yes I agree, that why I choose not to stock all the crap Apple want us to stock and stock sensible products that are at half the RRP and I make twice the margin on, and guys ig I made more than 11% margin on apple kit it really wouldn't be a problem, I do get a lot of samples of speakers, cases, tablets, software, and other misc things. There are some perks in making decisions on what shiny things we get to stock!

Most clothes are marked up by at least 300%, its insane, its a bit like batteries, the AA/AAA batteries I think we make about 600% margin on, its great

I'm a Color-Box Ranger

Forever

I operate a machine which is the last step in a litho-laminate packaging plant before we send it to our customers.

Doesn't beat the prescription optics industry. Takes about 3 dollars to make a pair of lenses that are sold for over 300.

I'm a software engineer.

At my current job doing fairly large scale Web Development using php/mysql.

I'm thinking about getting into porn.

My official job title is Storage Area Network Specialist.
In practice that means a lot of staring at a Tivoli console all day and waiting for drives/fans/ports to fail on one of a thousand or so storage devices and calling up support and getting them to fix the damn thing. Also a lot of answering calls from admins and working on problems, eg they can't see the storage they just requested, they don't know how to mount SAN in [Windows/AIX/SUN/OS4/Skynet] or calling in and blaming an outage on us when it was actually them quiescing a database that did it.

If you've seen that Website Is Down video, there are many many similarities.

However, due to massive reorganizations within my department and various interdepartmental mergings, I am very likely to need a new job come mid January.

gbk: Want to hire me?

That doesn't near factor in the cost of the CNC machine, the insane amount of energy it uses, the time spent developing the programming, and the retooling.

I don't know anything about the biz, but ... Yea... CnC machines last a long time no? Once it's paid off, $$$$$$$$$$$$ if the lenses do actually cost nothing.

Depends on application.

The short answer is CNC machines last until something substantial breaks. At which point you usually have so much money wrapped up in them that you very quickly start losing money on it.

I wouldn't imagine that there is a lot on an eyeglass polishing machine that a user could break, it's mostly automatic. The programs are written by someone else or generated on the spot by the computer. The tooling however has to be incredibly expensive for the finishes it leaves, even if it is only for plastic.

Actually, I was referring to my company's proprietary lens casting technology. No CNC machines involved. Just two glass molds, ultraviolet light, and alot of monomer.


If I had the budget I'd hire you in a cold minute.

Damn. Thanks for the vote of confidence though!

I've been having a hell of a time finding anything around here that doesn't want 10 years of professional experience and being a total cert-h0r.

Any advice on how to break into admining/&c? Entry-level type positions don't seem to exist.

Failing that, I may go back to uni and try to pick up a few certs to prove what I already know. What would be some good ones to shoot for?

Thanks for anything.

I have a personal hatred for certs. They only prove two things: you have money, and you can cram for tests.

The only advice I can give is to look for admin work in smaller companies. They are usually more flexable than the big guys.

Yeah that's about my feelings on them as well.. but gads are they listed everywhere in reqs.

The latter is about where the last two technical jobs I got came from, basically freak accidents that someone mentioned them to me because they certainly weren't listed anywhere I had been looking. This one I lucked out on as well because I knew someone who worked here and he recommended me.