Work 101: What do you do?

[berkeley]

Originally Posted by philjones

You sit around in the lobby and try to look like you belong?

been there.. done that.. thanks, Phil. You just dug up some bitterness in my soul... I forgot it was even there..

[berkeley]

Originally Posted by Berkeley

been there.. done that.. thanks, Phil. You just dug up some bitterness in my soul... I forgot it was even there..

Phil.. J/k..

What is your occupation? My job is hard to define, I've been trying to write my job description for my managers so that they know exactly what I do. lol. I'm a "network architect" for IBM, I design and implement connectivity between IBM and various business process outsourcing customers. I'm the guy that gets an IBM employee sitting in an IBM office in India, Brazil, Philippines, etc. connected to internal applications on our customer's (multiple) networks without actually being on their network. For example, If you need to be able to connect to SAP at another company without actually being onsite at that company, I'm your guy. If you are sitting in Chicago, but need to print in Bangalore, India... I'm your guy.

Put your location, if you like. I work from home in the Houston, Texas area and travel about 20% of the time.

How did you get into it? I've been into computers since about 1985, had every switch of every DOS command memorized before most people knew what DOS was... and I still go back to the command prompt when I am in a hurry to do something. Nowadays there are a lot more commands and a lot more switches, so I no longer have them memorized. I started out in desktop support and worked my way up from there. I have always been a logical thinker, and feel it is my responsibility to solve every technical problem in the world whether it is my job or not. lol. (The logical thinking seems to get me in trouble with religion though... truth should always be the truth, not this, if 2+2 doesn't equal 4 then you just don't pray enough stuff... if you pray more then it will equal 4. If something is the truth, it should be the truth whether you pray 0 hours a day or 24 hours a day).

Is it what you were originally trained in/got your degree in? I went through the US Navy Advanced Electonics school in the early 90's, and refined my troubleshooting skills there... this has naturally carried over to computers and networking.

Any interesting career moves/changes along the way? Nope, steady progression within the technical arena.

Originally Posted by seguidordejesus

Inspired by the Geography thread...

What is your occupation? Put your location, if you like.
How did you get into it?
Is it what you were originally trained in/got your degree in?
Any interesting career moves/changes along the way?

I write decisions for administrative law judges (two such decisions were recently affirmed by the U. S. District Court for the Western District of New York, meaning the claimants lost their appeal). I worked my way up into this position. It is not what I was originally trained in - I was originally trained by the United States Navy where I worked for Navy chaplains. I'm preparing for an eventual tentmaker ministry or foreign missions work teaching English as a foreign language (I have TEFL certification).

[tamor]

Originally Posted by philjones

You sit around in the lobby and try to look like you belong?

[nathan_slatter]

What is your occupation? Information Systems -- Systems Analyst

Put your location, if you like. Live in Conroe, TX -- work in Huntsville, TX

How did you get into it? I'm a computer geek and don't remember NOT having a PC!

Is it what you were originally trained in/got your degree in? No. I attended Texas Bible College for 2.5 years in the early 90's.

Any interesting career moves/changes along the way? Yes. I'm going to attend college, distance learning, and getting a Master of Religious Education in Middle Eastern History.

What is your occupation? - Service Account Manager for a large technology company: Service Escalation contact for large corporate customers

How did you get into it? - I applied for the job and got hired. lol

Is it what you were originally trained in/got your degree in? - No degree yet. Working on a Bachelor's in Middle Eastern culture

Any interesting career moves/changes along the way? - Not really no.

Originally Posted by nathan_slatter

How did you get into it? I'm a computer geek and don't remember NOT having a PC!

Boy, I do! I had to use the school computers from 85-89 because we couldn't afford one back then... I bought a Tandy laptop in 1990 while I was in the Navy... that was my first pc. It had a VIC-20 Processor and a 2400 baud modem that I used to dial up to BBS systems. I bought DOS version 5.0 the day it came out and was pretty excited about it.

[rgcraig]

What is your occupation? Admin Services Manager for a large spinal implant company

Put your location, if you like: Memphis

How did you get into it? Started out in clerical work, secretary (back in the day), executive assistant lead to a natural progression of being over admin services and admins.

Is it what you were originally trained in/got your degree in? Basically

Any interesting career moves/changes along the way? Started out as a minister's wife, but always worked in the secretarial field to help support us.

Originally Posted by Sheltiedad

Boy, I do! I had to use the school computers from 85-89 because we couldn't afford one back then... I bought a Tandy laptop in 1990 while I was in the Navy... that was my first pc. It had a VIC-20 Processor and a 2400 baud modem that I used to dial up to BBS systems. I bought DOS version 5.0 the day it came out and was pretty excited about it.

Thou art a geek