What is your job? OT

[Don Coatney]

I have a civil engineering degree but work as a heavy equipment manager for a large construction company. Just to think.... I once thought I would have more free time after graduating from college! I was definitely wrong on that one! 

Joe;

Congrats on graduating and finding gainful employment. If it makes you feel better I thought once I retired I would have more free time but I was also definitely wrong on that one. I have at least a years worth of work stacked up right now and it feels like I am not making headway. As soon as I complete one job two more get added to the list.

 

One of the things on my list is to bring my car home from Tennessee to Fort Wayne. I hope to have it here in time for the Soto convention this summer.

[GlennCraven]

Still looking?

 

 

Since moving to Wisconsin and getting married, yes. So since the new year.

 

I've had several interviews for state jobs in Madison (a 50-minute commute to the capitol) but not much else. And they interview a billion people it seems. Two weeks of phone interviews, then you might get an in-person, then a month or three later they finally announce they've chosen someone and it isn't you. Unless it is. But so far it isn't.

 

I've applied to work the counter at O'Reilly's, where the manager said they needed help. But either I botched the online "corporate cultural fit" test (I don't know how, weird though it was) or they got plenty of applications and didn't need me.

 

It's been rough. Getting a job at my skill, education and experience level is competitive, and though I've applied for some literally entry-level jobs in an effort just to get through the door, I'm not even called back about those. I'm sure they aren't inclined to hire a 47-year-old when they could hire a 23-year-old -- for every reason from salary to freshness of education to you-name-it.

 

I'm not hearing anything negative back from any of them. They just aren't hiring me.

 

One of the families at church had a husband with a similar problem in recent months, and he finally found a job. His wife said she just kept praying, "Don't let them notice how old he is" every time he went in for an interview. (He's 62 and though his hair is mostly grayed, I wouldn't have thought him to be over 55.)

[Dave72dt]

Don't feel too bad about the O'Reilly job. It's all about the money there. I did the online app for them and got rejected too and I'd been selling parts and new farm equipment, running my own business for years by then. Our local store has been going through help like water through a sieve. They're not paying enough to keep help, good or bad, and don't honor their verbal commitments when hiring. Store managers have changed about 4-5 times in the last3 years. As there regional manager once told an employee they wanted to make an assistant manager without adequate compensation, " any monkey off the street can sell car parts, we don't need to pay you more". Wasn't that hard to understand why that employee left the company. Fastenal didn't want me either in their new store and they've gone through several managers as well.

My wife has a state job with WI. She started out running her department when it was a contracted service for the state which they later made a state job, had to interview for the position and then had to wait several months to be confirmed in that position while still managing it and the same department in another facility whose manager had left.

[GlennCraven]

Yeah, the O'Reilly thing was to just get some hours out of the house and contribute SOMETHING to the household budget. Though if there was a chance of advancement I'd have stuck it out.

 

Through Glassdoor.com I had read that O'Reilly in particular (but most of the parts stores and really nearly all retail jobs) have become lowest-possible wages and high-turnover jobs. They'd probably pay minimum or barely over for counter help and assistant managers will work 50 to 60 hours a week to earn in the low $20Ks.

Edited May 8, 2014 by GlennCraven

[52b3b Joe]

Joe;

Congrats on graduating and finding gainful employment. If it makes you feel better I thought once I retired I would have more free time but I was also definitely wrong on that one. I have at least a years worth of work stacked up right now and it feels like I am not making headway. As soon as I complete one job two more get added to the list.

 

One of the things on my list is to bring my car home from Tennessee to Fort Wayne. I hope to have it here in time for the Soto convention this summer.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up Don, I'll remove that one from my thoughts too! Hopefully I'll see you and your car at the Desoto meet. I'm hoping to drive my truck if I ever get it done! If not, I'll be there one way or another for the show on Saturday. 

[Don Coatney]

Yeah, the O'Reilly thing was to just get some hours out of the house and contribute SOMETHING to the household budget. Though if there was a chance of advancement I'd have stuck it out.

 

Through Glassdoor.com I had read that O'Reilly in particular (but most of the parts stores and really nearly all retail jobs) have become lowest-possible wages and high-turnover jobs. They'd probably pay minimum or barely over for counter help and assistant managers will work 50 to 60 hours a week to earn in the low $20Ks.

Some of the home improvement stores pay close to sixteen bucks/hour for full time employees who know the product lines.

[GlennCraven]

Some of the home improvement stores pay close to sixteen bucks/hour for full time employees who know the product lines.

 

I've been keeping an eye on Home Depot, Lowe's and Menard's. Plus a regional group called Blain's Farm and Fleet, which is headquartered here in Janesville. I'm not sure there's any area in which I could bill myself as already being an expert, though I could learn anything I need to know about … anything really.

 

There have been some part-time stocking jobs, but the ones that sounded full-time and better, particularly at Blain's, were often of the manager-trainee variety and one of the stipulations for accepting the job was that you be willing to accept a position with ANY of their stores once you were considered fully trained. I'd be glad to work at any of their stores within commuting distance, but if they said "North Dakota" or "North Carolina," I'd be screwed. And so would they, if I took the job promising something I couldn't do.

 

I thought of applying for a manager's job in the Shooting Sports section at Gander Mountain, but was concerned I didn't know enough about archery. … I really know very little about archery. … Now there's a part-time job in firearms I might try for.

[navyboy]

Just seen this as well.....It's no secret what I do lol.

Edited May 9, 2014 by navyboy

[deathbound]

My first job I guess was on the dairy that we had till I was 18 (age 7-18). When I got out of high school we sold the dairy and I went to work as an Ironworker for local 135 till things got bad in that industry about 1983. In 1983 I went to work for National Oilwell in the corporate office over seeing all the moves within the company world wide, ordered all the reprograph machines world wide. I did all the reprograph copying for the company as well. Took over their stored records department in addition to the other jobs I preformed. In 2005 I came down with Guilden Bree' a nerve disorder which left me in the hospital for a while. I couldn't drive for over 3 1/2 years after I got out of the hospital. I couldn't go back to work so the company took good care of me and got me my SS disabilty a long with my doctors. So now I get my retirement from the Ironworkers and draw SS disability. My job now is getting the grandsons up in the morning and taking the youngest one that has CP to his therapy 4 days a week in the mornings and drop him off at school at noon. Turn around and pick his brother up from school at 3:30 and get back home by 4 to get the three year old off the school bus. So I guess you could call me a transportator. The only time I have to work on my two 48 plymouths is after 4:30 and on the weekends when I am not needed doing other things around the house or helping family member with their projects. I have been blessed just being alive.

 

Glad to see another Union Iron Worker on the forum (me.....Local 433 Los Angeles). Prior to this, worked as a commercial diver in the Pile Drivers Local 2375, prior to that, retail sales for Home Depot (nice 401K) & working for a swimming pool contractor (double duty after the divorce), prior to that, worked at a truck body manufacturing shop. Hope to pull the pin in about 12 years.

[bobjob55]

   I  WAS. ... A tractor / equipment mechanic and machinist ....with over 40 ish years experience ...currently retired on 

Doctors orders ... can't seem to get up off the floor anymore ... grunting and groaning way too loudly ... need help getting up ,, ECT... 

NOW ,, I just sit and wait for my money  each month to pay my bills ... currently ,, it's way to hot outside to work past 9:00 A.M. got some more things for the TOYS a few months ago .. 

[BenFrog]

I am a full time auto mechanic. I'll begin teaching auto mechanic next month in Quebec. I'll have more time to work on my projects since I won't be tired of getting my hands dirty at home

[Don Coatney]

Lots of new members to I am pushing this thread back to the top.

[mattimuss]

I'm a "geek".  I manage an IT department for a college that is part of one of the California State Universities.

 

I'm more of a "jack-of-all-trades" in the IT environment, doing everything from system builds to server administration.

 

Been doing this since around 1998.

 

Have done a bunch of other jobs during my working years.

[Don Coatney]

Once again we have several new members so I will ring this back to the top.

[Ulu]

hmmm...I never posted here?

 

OK, I'm a professional computer bum & I engineer various stuff.

 

I wanted to be an architect.

Mom wanted me to go to the Baptist Bible College & become Oral Roberts or something.

Dad sent me to engineering school to become Werner Von Braun instead.

 

An engineering professor told me that engineers who could not program computers would have a hard time finding work in the future, so I studied FORTRAN and BASIC, and started into COBOL; then I got a real job programming computers (!) and I left engineering school just before the senior year. We were making pre-fab trusses and walls for tract houses on a semi-CNC production line. I wrote code, did calcs, programmed our Sharp microcomputer, and drew trusses.

 

So I ended up being an engineer anyhow, later doing tool design, programming, and manufacturing engineering at Manlift.  I designed aluminum extrusions at Kawneer and did product and application engineering, I was a project coordinator for a big construction co, and later I ran the prototype shop for a big machine shop (a local job shop) , and also did prototyping and CNC programming at Vendo. I got sick of big companies too.

 

Dad taught me to fix cars as a kid. We did engine swaps and swapped bodies & did various re-builds of cars and bikes. I worked for some pro shops while in college, building engines and doing brake jobs and electrical work. I was also a Teamster for a couple years when all the engineers got laid off here in the 80's. I ran heavy equipment, serviced it, and managed the yard activities.

 

For the past 20 years I've been working for a small (10 man) consulting structural engineering firm (Advanced Structural Design) where we design mostly schools and public buildings, plus a few random stadiums and churches. I draw buildings, check drawings, do informal calcs (no state license, so I can't stamp & sign anything) and handle all their computer issues.

Edited January 1, 2015 by Ulu

[MartinsB3B]

Cnc Tech. Done two year program on how to program and run cncs, now working for the family business traveling around different states going in machine shops repairing their Mills.

[Ulu]

I'd like to do a CNC mill. I've only done turret press, press brake and tubing bender, plus flame cutter & some pretty basic general production line control.

 

Before CNC was popular, I made patterns for pattern follower type burners and welders. Some were 2" long and some were 12' long.

[plymouthcranbrook]

I had mentioned earlier in this thread that I had joined the 47% after 40 years of Commercial Printing.  Now I work summers driving a train in a Six Flags park. Best Da*n job I ever had!

[pflaming]

"I commute to work in the oil fields in Taft California, but my wife thinks I play the piano in a ho house" .

[Plymouthy Adams]

PP...really man...for your own well being...GET BACK ON YOUR MEDS

[plymouthcranbrook]

"I commute to work in the oil fields in Taft California, but my wife thinks I play the piano in a ho house" .

My wife inherited a home on Taft Highway in Dustin Acres a couple of years ago. We have since sold it  but the desert was very interesting to visit. Met a lot of great people. 

[Ulu]

My ex inherited interest in an oil well and gas line in Texas.

She divorced me.

The well turned up a bust.

She's since re-married 5 times.

Divorced 8.

Now lives in my daughter's attic.

I should make a movie about this someday.

[Plymouthy Adams]

^{My ex inherited interest in an oil well and gas line in Texas.}

^{She divorced me.}

^{The well turned up a bust.}

^{She's since re-married 5 times.}

^{Divorced 8.}

^{Now lives in my daughter's attic.}

^{I should make a movie about this someday.}

 

^{this must be some of that new fang dangled modern weird as snakehead VOODOO math...}

[Ulu]

She was divorced when I met her. I was married to her twice. Then She married some other poor schnook twice too! There was another guy too, in between.

 

Also guys she didn't marry, or did. 

 

Soap operas aren't as complicated because they have to be believable, and I may not have the entire history, as I didn't really follow her around the past 25 years.

 

So lessee...AFAIK she was actually married 7 times total but only to 5 guys. And therefore there were actually only 7 divorces.

 

That I know of. 

[pflaming]

I didn't realize you were married to Elizabeth Taylor? WOW I'm impressed, I think!