How do you make a living?

[Dennis_Peacock]

I'm a Unix Systems Engineer. I work for a major data warehouse company that deals with the worlds largest financial companies. My primary focus for the past several years is Data Protection Engineer and we currently backup on a monthly basis about 2.9PB of data......In case you want to know how many backup tapes that is? We rotate over 6,000 tapes per week.

BTW,
1 PB (Petabyte) = 1,000 TB (Terabytes)
1 TB (Terabyte) = 1,000 GB (Gigabytes)

We manage and run over 900 Unix servers. Our data center space is just over 7 acres.

Other than that...I like building custom furniture and cutting firewood for winter heat. I also used to do and enjoy ornamental horticulture....wished I had stayed with that.

 

[arlen]

I was a one man shop plumbing contractor for 10 years.
Air Force 12 years active and Air Force Reserves12 years,
discharged June 15 for medical reasons awaiting retirement in 12 years.
Going through a VA disability board.
Currently on unemployment.

 

[stihl025]

Rail traffic controller... aka: train dispatcher for Norfolk Southern, Pittsburgh Division.

Former 911 dispatcher
Former newspaper photographer

Volunteer firefighter going on 18 years

 

[husky455rancher]

last 5 years ive been building large trucks for the us government, other governments, tv news crews, military stuff like that. i used to build all the bodies from scratch. after i had my share of the fab area i went to the systems area and did the intergration for a little over a year. again all from scratch. the last 2 years or so i been doing cnc on a 5x30ft router table, a hydraulick punch press and a laser. i dont really mind the work, and the good thing now is there is very little in the company i cannot do. so theres always something for me to do. but in all actuality the cnc part keeps me busy 99% of the time.

 

[bore_pig]

Journeyman Electrician. Employed now as a maintenance electrician at a coal-fired power plant. 1 1/2 years at the plant. The previous 8 years were as a construction electrician.

 

[Bowtie]

Looks to me like the blue collar worker is winning hands down. And you damn right I am proud of it!!!

 

[Jkebxjunke]

Looks to me like the blue collar worker is winning hands down. And you damn right I am proud of it!!!

Blue collar makes the world run and green collar ( im guessing) feeds it.. never heard the green collar term before.

 

[Bowtie]

Blue collar makes the world run and green collar ( im guessing) feeds it.. never heard the green collar term before.

Green collar? Guess I missed a few posts.

 

[sundance]

Mechanical engineering degree 33 years ago. Worked for a company doing in situ uranium mining for 6 years. Since then I've been a project manager supervising crews doing inspection and repair work on the steam generators in nuclear power plants.

 

[larman]

been doing constrution work for last 7 yearsbefore that worked for a wooden truss plantbefore that worked sawmills 2 diffeerant ones so i got a strong back and a weak mine lol cut firewood for myself dont have time to cut enufe to sell

 

[taxidermist]

Full time firefighter for Ann Arbor City Mi and a Taxidermist on the side.

Rob

 

[PA Plumber]

Nothing fancy here; just do a little plumb'n.

 

[ktm rider]

I work for the Federal Bureau of prisons as a Powerhouse Operator.

 

[FerrisDiesel]

Full time Firefighter in RI.....on my 4 days off I am a lawn maintenance engineer , thats big talk for landscaper, and I am also trying to start my own tree and firewood service.

 

[lawson's tree s]

owner operator of a tree service for the last 10 years.

 

[Nailsbeats]

Welder/Foreman/Engineer for our family owned fab shop. Been climbing for 15 years for our family owned tree service. I also sell firewood and do some excavating, land clearing, and logging.

 

[zanderson]

Another student. Firewood company pays for school (or at least its supposed to..). Trying to get my MBA.

 

[czeigler]

9-1-1 Dispatcher

EMT / Firefighter and wood cutter in my spare time!

 

[strongback]

The breadth and width of occupations here is nothing short of stunning. And yes, Bowtie, it looks like the Blue collars have it (so far).

I'll go through the posts and update the numbers when I get some time. It looks like I'll have to break out another category for public service (fire, police, ems) as they seem to be well represented. I'll probably break out the part-time farmers too.

I'm too busy fulfilling the obligations of a woodaholic on the weekends to check on Sat and Sun, so I'm fully two pages behind on my tabulations but I'll get to it...eventually.

I agree that it is the blue and green collar folks out there who keep our economy churning and I hold the highest respect for them. I only expected that there would be many on this board who, like me, were blue/green collar at heart, suffering under the stanglehold of white collars and taking it out, as "weekend sawyers", on the wood.

No one who knows me outside of where I work would ever imagine that I make my living with a mouse and keyboard and not a wrench, welder, hammer or saw.

 

[strongback]

I just realized that I just got my first little yellow rep thingy! Thanks. I hope you've enjoyed reading this thread as much as I've enjoyed "hosting" it.