So, this thread is mostly only to make [some members] happy.

Basically I retired from the Army because I was tired of leaving home and dealing with [soldiers]. So, here I am, an ex-grunt doing menial labor. About a month ago I got a job with the local school district.

I took an unskilled labor position. It doesn't pay much, only $9 an hour. Hell, even the custodians get $1000 to $2000 per year more than me (although all I have to do is say the word and I got one of those positions). I can afford the low wage because I have a guaranteed retirement check coming soon.

I wanted this job because I wanted some no-brainer work with little stress. I also wanted to learn things that I haven't done before. Hell, I'll be plowing snow this winter. I've plowed lots of quiff in my years but I've always had to shovel snow, so that will be something new.

Sad thing is that at only $9.00 an hour I'm getting paid more than many of the people dealing with our kids. A secretary at one of the schools let it slip that she'll be working there over 5 years before she gets $9 per hour. Pathetic.

Right now I'm looking at getting a second job to pad the bank account in the short term. Basically just some more no-brainer work to keep me busy. If the right opportunity presents itself I may step up to a more stressful, better paying solution. If it doesn't, I'll enjoy non-stressful, low paying positions.

On this note, now that I am no longer a lacky of the government, post your job related blues or success stories. Or sob stories! Make it what you want.

I believe you could do quite well for yourself plowing snow.

Did you continue your math classes?

What about taking classes? Have you thought about furthering your education?

I'm definitely going to further my education (and career prospects for that matter). I just actually want the menial jobs and low stress in the short term. It might be hard for many to understand although I know some people know exactly how I feel.

That's funny. I'm joining the Military because I'm tired of menial jobs. Weird how stuff like that works.

Just applied for research associate positions at the following places:

Congressional Budget Office - DC
Fed Reserve of St Louis - St. Louis
Fed Reserve of Kansas City - Kansas City
American Institute for Research - San Mateo, California

I'm really hooping for the AIR one in San Mateo. I would love to live in/near San Francisco. But of course in this job market, I"ll take anything!

I know exactly how you feel, in a sense. I work a ton of hours in from May to October, many of them stressful. At the end of the fire season, I look for mindless work to make a few bucks and occupy my time instead of sitting on my ass and collecting unemployment for 6 months.

ok. I justify calling this job-related because my awards and scholarships have a greater sum than my tuition and fees, even if the difference is very close to zero.

Working hard to maintain my 99% average. Well, kinda. The people who are trying to maintain a 75% average have to work way harder.

Going to spend some of my winter break helping a prof put together a presentation for a huge conference, showcasing some of my work.

Hoping to turn one of my course projects into a longer-term research project.

Talked to a professor about one of my research interests that isn't taught in my university, ended up with two professors expressing an interest in co-supervising my independent study in the area.

If I end up going to grad school it's pretty much going to have to be either MIT CSAIL or Stanford because they're almost the only schools with active supervisors who work in the field I want to go into. And Stanford's the only school with a dedicated lab and research group. So that's a lot of work.

Hoping to get a good, well-paying internship next summer. Need to find the time to set up a good portfolio site but time is not forthcoming at the moment.

What sort of program are you in right now/what does "grad school" mean in Canada?

I'm a computer science undergrad (honors cs/honors math)

Exceptional intelligence paired with not being lazy seems to be working, for some reason.

The same thing it means everywhere else?

yeah, by grad school I mean a phd program.

Alright; for some reason I had thought that you'd finished undergrad already, so your reference to going to grad school confused me. I thought perhaps masters degrees (or something) weren't called grad school in Canada.

I take a paper, open Excel, copy the info from the paper onto the database, save the document, rinse and repeat for 8 hours.

Earns me 2000 dollars after taxes. It devours the remaining shreds of my mind but hey, it could be worse! I'll have time to complain about not doing something better when I'm 78.

I work in a deli.

I'm an NSF graduate research fellow, have published one paper in undergrad and one in grad already.

My friends are choosing between M3's or 911 Turbo's, and I'm here choosing between a $300 sofa and a $400 sofa, so I don't know...

Dole-scum ftw. seriously though I need a job.

Sometimes I'm working in CAD modeling, sometimes FEA analysis (structural, vibration, thermal), sometimes testing...

I primarily work with communications and simulation pods for the military that they'll load instead of AIM-9s or AIM-120s

The contract for my new job just arrived in the post this morning. Start training on Monday as an "inbound sales advisor" (working in a customer service call centre) for Shop Direct. The Brits on here will probably know them as the people who own Littlewoods, etc., and who just took over Woolworths.

Very happy to not have to go to the job centre anymore, but the reality of starting full time work after living the student life for so many years may be starting to sink in.

I'm a (total newbie) IT support specialist for a telecoms development company. The company is awesome, the users generally competent and I have so much learning to do that, although it's sometimes a little stressful not knowing 100% of the time what to do to fix certain problems, it certainly beats being as bored as I was doing admin work.

I just got a job as an Adjunct Professor at Paul Smiths (where I got my bachelors from). I'm basically just a glorified lab instructor, but it's a fun job.

I partied my way through college and now make damn good money designing and building custom BI software for big companies.

See kids, studying and hard work is overrated.

You mentioned Microsoft, right? With your academic work alone you should have no problem getting an interview. From there you'll have no problem getting the job.

I have been unemployed since graduation, which has been almost 6 months ago now. Between phone and in-person, I've had about 12 or 13 interviews. I'm currently waiting to hear back about a position I just interviewed for on Tuesday.

Job: I work at blockbuster. Enough said. I'm leaving soon being that they are screwing me with four hours a week. Yes four.

Bidding my time at community college because its cheap, then transferring to berklee school of music.

I landed an entry level support/implementations job for a software company earlier this year. Actually I wouldn't even give myself a job title because it can go anywhere from support to actually doing development and everything in between. It's a real handful. On top of that, if any of you remember, I'm still working hard on kidsmealdeals . com. At least racing season is finally over and I get some of my life back.

Aerospace Engineering FTW

I'm a computer janitor basically. I sit around and wait for service tickets to come in on hardware that needs to be replaced/printers that need to be fixed. Sometimes I go a few days with nothing breaking, other days are filled with service calls. I don't even do that much troubleshooting, most of that is done by the help desk. It's pretty boring but pays well.

work for a very small company that does minor repairs on, and then re-sells electronic testing and aerospace equiptment. usually its a little mundane, but every once in a while we do some cool stuff. a few months ago we won a contract to clear all the equiptment out of a closing NavCom building(some part of the department of defense?). the work environment is the best i have ever worked in. its basically dress however you want, and as long as you get your crap done its all good. we get an hour paid lunch every day which is AWESOME!!! and the pay is not too bad.

I work for a social media marketing agency. We handle the social media presence of other companies, reach out to people who are talking about them, and run different marketing campaigns for them. We have some pretty cool clients and it's a 6 block walk from my apartment!

P.S. what are you, my mother?

P.P.S. Yay, let's all jump head first into the rat race!

There is only one person in this thread who definitely belongs in higher education. I'll let you guess. And in another sense, he really doesn't, because higher education is almost exclusively filled with hoi polloi who were told their entire lives they'd starve to death in the streets without a college education schooling if they didn't freeze first.

Congratulations on having one of those "Career" things. I'm still working on trying to get mine.

And you know this about everyone... how? I have an idea. Don't presume to know everyone's life history and get the **** out of the thread.

It's not an assertion of familiarity with everyone here. It's an assertion that colleges pretty much everywhere are not nearly exclusive enough, nor are they exclusive with regard to the correct traits. They largely serve as sifting mechanisms so companies can improve their bottom lines. I would argue that the people who belong there are those who actually have something insightful to contribute to academia—not the masses who go there to get certified and fatten their wallets a little.

for once I agree with Emon, thats a pretty ****ed up statement. Everyone has the right to a higher education. Just because some are not extremely intelligent on Jon'C's level does not mean they do not deserve the opportunity to continue their education.

In short, your a ****ing idiot.

College is filled with people like this.

People willing to express their opinion? People who believe education should be offered to everyone? People who believe in equal opportunity?


So the Jon'C's of the world should have the high paying successful jobs, and the average student should be destined for blue collar work and no retirement? Whats next, proposing we euthanise the elderly too? Should we switch to a feudalistic society where there is no chance for an individuals advancement? Or would you rather we form a dystopian society?

Really are you that much of a moron? Brave New World was a book, not a reality buddy.

Hey now there's an idea!

Was this supposed to be coherent?



Yes.



So you're up on current events, then. That's nice.