what do you do or did you do for a living?

[deep creek]

Joined the army in 1966.Did a tour in nam as a convoy guard,out in 1968.started my apprenticeship as a pipe fitter .Worked mostly in the nuke field. Retired in 2007 and started a small pest control business mainly bats and swallows. I hunt and trap all winter with some ice fishing tossed in.Had my right knee replaced in 2014 and still chaseing elk.

[chambers]

Engineer designing HVAC systems, oversee construction projects working with sheet metal and piping trades.

[Vann]

My dad owned a roofing business so naturally that was my first skilled trade. I left school at 16 and went to work full time. After 10 years of full time roofing I worked a kill floor for a year. We started at 3 am, after I finished with the slaughtering in the morning and finished cleaning the slaughter house I would go up front and work as a butcher. I did this just so to learn how to process my own meat.

My next job was at a pvc compounding plant, I worked my way up to lead man then I moved over to maintenance. So for the last 6 years I've been a multi craft maintenance technician.

[LaPoint]

After tech school for electronics engineering technology (1981) I worked in that field for 2 different companies for about 5 years. The first was Sperry Univac semiconductor, writing testing software and doing process development work for MOSFET semi-conductors. The second was for a small company (IXI Labs) involved in the magnet media handling and copying business. After they went belly up I went back to school for Law Enforcement and have been a cop ever since. The first 17 years as a uniformed patrol officer. The last 10 years have been as a School Resource Officer (SRO). First at an alternative learning center now at a middle school with 900 kids. I went to the schools to get off of a rotating 12 hour shifts as our kids were just entering middle school. I soon realized that the problem with kids today is their parents, or lack there of. During the summers I go back on patrol. I kind of like it now. How long til retirement?? 3 bad days.... not necessarily in a row!

[TheDoctor]

Started off Army, still in the reserves, 25 years so far. Sometimes I think I've had enough of that. Used to be a dental lab tech. Got smart (I think) and went to biomed school. Now I'm a self employed, though far too often underworked BMET.

[trails4u]

First job at 14, delivering newspapers....then pumping gas, basic service station auto repair work. Automotive machinist (engine builder) for a few years...then wholesale auto parts sales. Finished college...built ATV trails for state/fed agencies for awhile, then landed permanently with the USFS. Now I do wildlife work, some soil and watershed restoration work, some firefighting....and whatever any day may bring. Also serve on a regional/national incident management team, doing GIS (mapping) work for major wildfires. Chase three kids and an unruly wife. :P

[smoked turkey]

Retired Electrical Engineer (BSEE, MSEngMgt), PE (state of MO). Worked in the power field for a large public utility company. Started off as a low and high voltage system design engineer, then into high voltage substation design. Was demoted into management for most of my 30 year career. Good job, but current job is the best I've ever had!

[Ural Driver]

After I got thru the obligatory teenage jobs, I drove spikes for the N&W railroad in and around St. Louis, was a deckhand and then First Mate on a tugboat (on the Mississippi River working from the Twin Cities down to Dubuque and back). Did 4+ years in the Army (paratroopers) and for the last 37 years I've been a Police Officer......There were a few other things tucked in here and there, just to keep things interesting.........

[waksupi]

Lots of stuff. Welder, concrete finisher, construction, farmer, cowboy, farrier, lab technician, landscaper, guide, tanner, 30+ years of museum restoration, gun building. Bet I forgot some!

[DougGuy]

Started in the shipyards in 1970 lied about my age by the time they caught me I was 18 and they let me stay. Built and repaired a bunch of US Navy warships, went on to oil rigs and offshore, fitter/welder, took up pipe, topped out as combo fitter and welder, heavy THICK high pressure vessels and piping, chemical plants, refineries, power plants, paper mills, made it into pharmaceutical stainless when cancer more or less retired me in 2013. Now doing a little steel work and welding part time if the $$ is right...

Long time guitar and bass player, played many years in the bars and toured with Jimmie Van Zant, did guitar repair professionally for many years, sold the first Stratocaster I ever built to Stevie Ray Vaughan, played all his guitars, just play at home these days, bars are not much fun after you quit smoking and drinking.. Computer literate, build em tweak em got certs in network and server, been a gunsmith until FFL got stupidly expensive, I do some barrel and cylinder work now.

[Iowa Fox]

Retired Army Parachute Rigger now working in the Logistics field.

Those were the days. Go upstairs at the Sport Parachute club, Ft Bragg at night and pack chutes. Then downstairs and drink beer for the rest of the night. I guess your only young once.

[shoot-n-lead]

Well, my story begins by growing up on a farm and doing everything that entails. By the time I was grown, I knew there had to be something else for me. While in school, I worked at a small box plant and upon my graduation, I got a job with Uncle Sam. Put in more than 30yrs at that, been planning to retire for the last 2yrs...and I am just getting around to it as I really didn't have anything lined up and I have really feared being bored. My last day of record will be next week, on April 29, 2016...but my last actual day on the job was April 4, so I have effectively been retired for 15 days. For years, I have bought and sold late model compact tractors and boats, off and on, as time permitted...so, I plan to resume that as soon as I get this stuff around the house caught up.

[alg3205]

I have worked in the financial operation of health care since 1979.

[tinsnips]

Plumbing,heating,ac,refrigeration,business owner for the last 38 years. Before that college an in high school I work at a cheese factory and service station. Six more years an I will be retired for good. My two boys work for me now so they can deal with the business. They will be the third generation, our business was started in 1956.

[smokeywolf]

Newspaper boy, box boy, bus boy, service station attendant, truck driver, bodyguard, police officer, machinist, electro-opto-mechanical engineer, maintenance engineer, consultant.

OOPS! Forgot a couple. Set lighting rigger, horse trainer and purchasing manager.

[Reverend Al]

Started out working 5 years for a local newspaper in the Circulation Department until the business closed. Needed a new job so I went to my local sporting goods store where I had been buying a lot of my shooting supplies and asked them for a job. That was the beginning of a 38 year career in retail sporting goods with 3 different stores where I sold guns, ammunition, reloading equipment and supplies, and hunting and camping gear and clothing. Finally called it quits and retired when my knees and back gave out ... I just couldn't stand at the counter for hours per day any longer. Been retired now for 5 years this June ...

[Wheelgun]

Farrier, started with my dad when I was 16. Was part-time through high school and till he quit, he decided 30yrs was enough. Been shoeing full time last 9yrs, I'll be 30 this yr. Went to college majored in animal science with marketing option and another in history. I was raised on the family ranch/farm, 5th generation, we raise pure-bred Charolais, and raise and train Performance Quarter Horses. The Wife and I also build custom holsters and tack.

[kentuckyshooter]

I have done a little of this and that to get by. My step dad is a one of em jack-o-all trades so i learnt a lot growing up. Odd jobs aside for a steady pay check ive worked retail both stocking and selling. Drove a truck otr for a little bit. Worked in a factory or 3. My curent employment is with an automotive die cast facility (read that as factory). I have been here a year and a half hired in. Over 2 years counting my time as a temp to get in. Quality department the whole time. Last fall i managed to become a ''lab rat''. I was trained to operate the ct scaner to check parts for porosity. Then got moved and trained for cmm. In there we have machines that physicaly measure the parts and compairs it to what it should be acording to the blueprints. Its also the cmm orerators job to confirm die repairs. Along the way i have tryed to learn as much as i can. I figure the more i know how to do the harder it is for them to get rid of me lol. All jokeing aside i love my job even if the hours are long and days off few. All the fine detail work it involves will give u major ocd though. Lol. Guess its a good thing though cause i can apply most of my job skills to my casting and reloading.

[54bore]

Logger/Timber faller

[762 shooter]

Land surveyor. 46 years.

762