What do you do in real life?

[hebrides]

Hi there. I know there's a "what do you look like in real life?" thread, and I had thought there was one about what you do too, but I can't seem to find it right now, so I've decided to start a new thread.

I know what some of you do in real life, but I'd be curious to know about more of you, and I bet some of you are wondering the same thing.

I'll also admit that I'm starting this thread in part because, as some of you know, I need for various reasons to look for a new job, including ones outside my comfort zone of academia. So I figured that by getting feedback about what other people do, it might help me to think of some fields I haven't looked into yet.

But really, I'm not just being selfish; I really do want to know

So anyway, I guess I'll start. For the moment, anyway, I teach college-level English composition and literature. I also do some tutoring, especially with student-athletes, and I've been looking into various administrative/counseling jobs at colleges and writing/editing/proofreading jobs in the (big, scary) real world.

How about you?

[musiced921]

I'm a middle school music teacher and am working on my masters degree in music education. I've been teaching for 5 years now and I'm hoping after my masters is done to teach at the college level at night while teaching middle school during the day.

I've actually been interested in learning more about music in films and am juggling the idea of taking some classes on it. The problem is that it involves composing music which I'm not very good at and can't say I like any of the music I hear in my head that is my own. My hopes are to teach a class about music in film at the college level as some sort of elective.

I'm also interested in teaching about newer more modern music to up and coming music educators because 95% of the music schools severely lack a class like that and spend WAAAAAAY too much time talking about Beethoven and Mozart (which don't get me wrong, they are great and I appreciate them, but there is a point when enough is enough and we should learn what else is out there besides what they did hundreds of years ago).

[TV's Frink]

I work.

[Q2]

I work.

Is that what you call it?

[steelio2006]

going to school to get my associate's degree in general technology.

[TV's Frink]

Is that what you call it?

[Metrostar]

Short version: I work with adults with intellectual disabilities. I provide direct support Monday to Friday while they are at 'work.' I assist them with their job, hygiene, social skills and various other things. My six clients have cooking group every Wednesday, which involves shopping and preparing for a healthy lunch and I take them bowling on Friday mornings. Three of my clients have Downs Syndrome and another has Cerebral Palsy. There is a lot more to it than that, but hopefully you can imagine. It's an extremely rewarding job and I would really recommend something like this to anyone who wants to do something different.

[reave]

I own a custom woodworking shop. We specialize in custom cabinetry, furniture and staircases. If anyone in the states needs any custom woodworking, feel free to contact me. Business is slow and we will travel

[hebrides]

Very interesting stuff, guys! Keep it coming

Oh, and reave: do you ever do any work with antique metal drawer pulls? If yes, please PM me -- I might have a few questions for you...

[havok1977]

Well I became an Electronics Engineer a bit over ten years ago, but the tech field where I live does not have much room for circuitry and appliance design; and so in those days it all came down to two possible career paths, since software development was never my favorite topic I decided to go for IT with an emphasis on computer networks and telecommunications, to the extent that I got my masters in that field while living down in Australia a couple of years ago.

Nowadays I'm back working for the mid-size telco company at which I spent almost 5 years before going back to school, doing R&D for any new tech that might be of interest for expanding or evolving our current offering; with stuff like cloud computing and networking security being a couple of good examples.