Bread and Butter Jobs?

After graduated i worked for 1 year and 5 months as a design engineer for a company that builds material handling systems. (bagage handling, express parcel, warehouse&distribution)

I worked at the department Special Design Engineering, just sitting behind a desk all day making 2D and 3D drawings. But it makes you put on weight. Im now almost just as heavy as my robot. :) Damn that company resaurant!

Ive been given an interesting offer and now i start as a maintenance engineer in medical oxigen equipment for homecare, next monday. Im now being offered the chance to work myself up to head technical service and facilities, as im the only one with a higher education. The technical service is now run by 3 people without a manager, but cant continue like that with the growth of the company.

Work will be part in the workshop and part administrative. Going to visit hospitles and patients at home. Would be good not sitting behind the desk anymore all day.

(Message edited by tough_as_nails on April 18, 2007)

Right now Im a mess/ration accountant for one of the army camps around this area. I dont mind the mess accounting side, but the ration side gets a bit boring and stressful. Hopefully I will find another job in a couple months time.

You might want to consider doing all kinds of jobs for interim agencies too. I dont know how big that industry in the UK is but in Belgium and the Netherlands its huge. Both Mario and I loved the flexibility, the regular changes, always something new to do and to learn... If we hadnt needed to take up regular jobs because of the mortgage (have no regular job ? forget about mortgage) otherwise we would still be doing it !
A lot of my administration skills were acquired at interim jobs. Some of the stuff I learned there: to repair copy machines, to juggle phone calls, to arrange business trips, how the Flemish parliament works (and that government officials rarely work), how many people die during new medication trials, the names of all kinds of cardiac medication, how to keep a workshop real clean, how to file invoices, how to make people pay their invoices, how to make most efficiently copies of just about anything, how computer viruses work, what a dress code is and how you dress on casual Friday, to exchange toners and cartridges in any kind of office equipment possible, how to make coffee and make everybody understand why the brand I prefer is actually the best, how to keep office supplies in order and keep co-workers from raiding that cupboard, how you can glue a stack of paper into a nifty note-book, how to film company meetings whilst sleeping through them, and how to annoy my co-workers best.
Useful skills those.

i must admit, ive had a few interesting jobs in the past. i agree with babeth, while you are young, by all means learn a trade, but rry as many things as you can while you are still young enough... once the kids/morgage etc arrive, it somewhat limits your ability to try something new workwise.

well i did a mechanical engineering course and a btec in engineering (forgot wot its was actually called :p) i learned CAD and CNC and i worked at a company for just less than a year when i realised all i wud be doing is pressing a few buttons a machine for the rest of my life and i dint like it as i was getting bord within the first few weeks so im now a fabricator & welder makin all sorts of stuff. fabrication is kinda a fun job as its somthing new nearly every day. plus i can make stuff in my own time and get abit of extra cash (£)(£) :p Depends what your into realy dunt it?

Im also mainly a CNC engineer. But work from writing programs by hand, no fancy CAM software sadly. Testing, making and finishing parts. But also do lots of other jobs, manual milling and turning, grinding and welding. As well as building the milling machines we make, wiring and pneumatic plumbing. Since there are only the 3 of us we basically have to do all jobs, can be quite varied.
Plus get to do bits for robots, when the boss isnt looking. Actually hes fairly good, can stay after work and anything i want really.

Well, Ive had many interesting/boring jobs since erm... about 19...

I worked at a kennel, lasted 2 day, didnt wanna go back after having to hold a healthy dog down, so the vet can inject it to put it down... then i worked as a cleaner, was only over xmas period, erm.. then i worked as a self employed window cleaner, that lasted 7yrs, then worked at a chinese take away, was there for 10yrs...

Erm... oh... the last 4yrs had been mostly agency work, and seasonal in various warehouses. Packing bananas, lugging boxes, packed tea and coffee, administrators on transports, and now an order picker.

While I was between jobs, Id decided to take fork lift truck lessons and passed them, now just a case of keep pestering the manager to let me loose in the warehouse with a reach truck, and i hafta admit, after 3wks of it, hed weaken! LOL...

Im thinking about doing a bit of training on first aid too, and erm.. write a novel before i get too old and decrepit! *chuckles*

My shortest job was working as a washer-up in Peco in Beer, aged about 14. I lasted 1.5 days!

Dave

Went to University (http://www.rhbnc.ac.ukwww.rhbnc.ac.uk) and did a degree in Computer Science and Marketing Management.

Ran my own company whilst I was at university and then sold it off as a going concern when I left.

Then joined BT as a network designer before being headhunted by another part of the business after a couple of months to become a Technical Design Authority.

Now spend my time travelling around UK and Europe helping customers refine their requirements for large scale secure enterprise IT infrastructures usually in the £20million+ space in the market. Currently working almost entirely in the UK Government and Financial area. Current trends there are towards consolidation and virtualisation of infrastructure.

Oh, and I play robots when I get the chance !

Ed
http://www.teamstorm.comhttp://www.teamstorm.com

(Message edited by storm on April 20, 2007)

(Message edited by storm on April 20, 2007)