151 replies to this topic

[kevkojak]

Just curious.

I know some people on here quite fiercely protect their private life and keep online and real life distanced, but others are happy to chat about anything and everything.
Others are in the middle. For instance I don't know Bond's real name (he still PM's with 'Message From BOND'), yet I know all about his Vodka/Red Bull and Ladyboy exploits! (still promised to pop to Manchester and get a session on! Should be interesting!)

Anyway, I thought if we admitted how we earn our bread there might be some mutual forum back scratching opportunities, which always go down well! (Example - I seem to recall a certain member who works for a very well known supermarket and had his hands on a copy or two of the last Call Of Duty game about a week before it was released)


So, me first.
I work in jewellery. Something I fell into about three years ago quite by accident. I was earning a decent salary (for a 25 year old anyway) working as a logistics and loading manager in the warehouse of a huge kitchen supply firm which went tits up. No redundancy, no pay out of any sort and completely out of the blue, so it left us totally in the mire. I applied for every position going for the next two months and found myself on the rock 'n roll with not much work around in my sector, so applied for a part time job in a local jewellers to tide us (myself and my now wife) through Christmas.
I thought I'd hate retail, but actually took to it really well. The downer was the pay - basically minimum wage with a few bonuses chucked in, but it was obviously made more bearable working with Rolex (although no other high end Swiss brands), and fed the passion for watches I already held. Anyway, I stuck that out until a whisper came through about 18 months ago that the Rolex agency was being pulled and was made redundant.
Bit of a kick in the teeth, but it actually turned out well.
I learned everything I could about retail while I was there and now co-own and run my own gaff in Bolton. Signed a lease last October, opened the doors in December and things are going great.
Watches aren't a huge part of our business - it's 90% jewellery - but because we buy and sell second hand jewellery, we've seen the odd watch sneak onto the books (and straight off again, into my watch box!)

So, if anyone needs repairs etc doing on the cheap, or valuations or just 'what should I pay for this', drop me a line and I'm happy to help forum members. Oh, and don't ever pay full price for a Swiss military related brand (Er, Army? Victoria...something?) Best not say the name!

Anything I can ever do to help out forum members (newbies and old guard alike) I'll sort it out.

Next:

[Uncle Alec]

Repair and sell spares for Riley cars made between 1945 - 1957. Also part-time job editing owners' club magazine.

[tall_tim]

I work for a Scottish based Environmetal Protection Agency. My job has 3 parts - pollution prevention in the form of regulation of permitted sites such as abattoirs, quarries, shipyards etc. pollution control - tracking down sources of oil or sewage pollution, or after car crashes and then we also do survey work, either along river systems identifying diffuse pollution (9/10 of which are agricultural related - pesky cows sh1tt1ng in the water) or offshore on rigs, which is for radioactive substance control.

Fantastic job, pretty much left to our devices, can go out when it's nice or stay in when it's wet. We also have on call rota - we are classed as first responders alongside police, fire etc (not really necessary imo, but means good overtime pay), which occasionally gets me out on the middle of the night to oversee a car being recovered from a river or advising on where a beached whale should be buried (both in the last month).

Edited by tall_tim, 14 February 2012 - 10:29 PM.

[mulliner86]

I make continuous timber handrail, and the odd piece of furniture for home.

[feenix]

The job I do now doesn't even have a title, so I don't know what you'd call it.

So, in place of that I'll tell you what I have done before I came into this job. I started off as a security alarm engineer, then moved sideways into fire alarms, a little more sideways into fire extinguishers, from there to nurse-call and door entry systems, then back into security alarms and CCTV.

Not very interesting, but far more interesting than what I do now

[norfolkngood]

i was a Surveyor for 18 yrs and gave up to do my dream job which was to be a antiques dealer which i used to do as a hobby ! but now full time for myself ,i deal mainly in vintage and rare photographs and postcards but i have been known to buy the odd vintage divers helmets ! so anything really and get to go to a different auction every day to look at watches i sell to the so called experts on tv and your right they are NOT as good as they think

[Dick Browne]

Interestingly enough, I work in software... All of which would be of no interest to anyone if it were not for the fact that my company was bought by Dell a couple of years back. The upshot is that if anybody wants Dell stuff, I get a number of discount vouchers each year which I never use and can pass on.

In my spare time I do repair and restore watches, so if you've got anything which doesn't need the quality of Ryte Time, Bienne, etc, or you don't want to pay those prices, let's talk. Who knows, I may be able to help

[trackrat]

I took early retirement at 57, from my job.
I started of as an electrician and ended up as a robotics engineer, not very exciting but it was a natural progression from being an electrician.
I just do what I want now, and that is why I am keen to learn about watches.

[remb1000]

Welder

[Roger the Dodger]

Well, the regular members here know I work in landscaping and gardening, but I've never really expanded on that so here goes. For many years I was a chippy in the building trade. When I hit 44, I decided to retrain, and find a job doing what I always hankered after, namely horticulture. Around this time, I answered an add in the local paper for a maintenance man/gardener to a local building developer, who has a small estate. I applied for this job (I was working for a remedial company dealing with wet/dry rot at the time) and got it on the understanding that I would be allowed to attend the RHS courses run at the Berkshire College of Agriculture. I studied there for 4 years on a day release basis and ended up being fully qualified in all aspects of garden maintenance and construction, garden design and of course, plant propagation and husbandry. I'm very lucky in that I can combine both present and former jobs. Mostly, I am based on the estate caring for, and maintaining the gardens and grounds, which run to about 8 acres...2 acres of formal lawns and gardens, and 6 acres of paddocks...this is just about manageable on my own with all the machinery I have at my disposal...I do get to play with some awesome machines...diggers (small Tekeuchi, and larger Yanmar versions)...tractors (from little 17HP Ford diesel garden tractors to full blown Ford, or New Holland as they are now known farm tractors with a variety of wicked attachments such as front loading shovel, post hole auger, paddock topper, snow plough etc. We also have a couple of JCB loadalls which we use for moving pallets of materials around. Occasionally, I will be asked to do some maintenance on the house, or knock up a bookcase or similar, sometimes, I will go to a site the company is working on to do a bit of second fix carpentry. It all helps to keep the hand in! This is my most favourite job to date...I've been here for 14 years now. The estate is only five minutes from home...I work in the countryside with all of nature around me...many of you will have seen pics from the estate...mainly in the 'Bug Thread' in the photography forum and most recently in the 'View from the Office Window' thread in this forum. I love this job and wouldn't change for the world.

[BondandBigM]

kevkojak, on 14 February 2012 - 09:09 PM, said:

. For instance I don't know Bond's real name (he still PM's with 'Message From BOND'), yet I know all about his Vodka/Red Bull and Ladyboy exploits!

Everybody has to have a hidden talent

Had a go at all sorts over the years. When I left school I was working in a small privately owned shoe shop, mostly ladies back in the day when they would buy a matching set of bag, shoes & gloves. They did have a very small Gents and kids department as well, just me several older women and a couple of Saturday girls but my father deemed that to be for nancy boys and got me a proper job so I served my time in a big engineering factory.

Once I finished my apprenticeship I left home and that was the start of a bit of adventure, worked in various engineering places as well as bars, nightclubs odd jobs, sales really anything that paid a few quid I gave it a go. Then in the early 80's I got a job with another company that over the years opened or bought facilities pretty much all over the world hence my travels. I originally started just doing odd jobs in the machine shop then moved on to again having a go at just about anything that was going. Through that I got to go to most places and in later years got involved in purchasing which also got me various trip here and there.

I did that off and on until about 6 or 7 years ago then had enough, never home, in the UK we had places up and down the country so when I was home I was spending more time on the M1 than anything else, got divorced again and went on a vodka fuelled bender............for about a year

Met Big M, more party then she said it might be an idea to get a job again, so I took the first thing that came along and was working in a place making bits for JCB's. At this point ex wife was chasing for money house cars watches, you know how it works so basically sold up gave most of it to her and went on another vodka fuelled party. then my old company got in touch wanting me to go back again so Big M and I packed up and took off but as usual it was the same sh!t different country so after a while made a few quids again and yep you guessed more vodka partying and we legged it to Oz for a look to see what that was like. Didn't like it, $25 for a Vodka Red Bull and Bondi Beach was disappointing.

Home again a few odd jobs the last one of which went bust and I was paid off again then couldn't be ars@d so more partying and a concerted attempt to become a full time p!sshead alky but then Big M cut my allowance off refused to bankroll the party any more so back to work, this time making making and inspecting widgets for the likes of Brembo, Bosch and so on. Then about a years or so ago got laid off and started in another engineering place making high pressure fittings which I still do but getting itchy feet again so who knows

That's the short version,I've worked in America, Canada, Norway,Italy, Holland, Czech Republic, Middle East, Hong Kong, Singapore then splice into the above amongst other things 3 ex wives, Russian hookers, ladyboys, several lady friends, Corvettes, a load of Armani, some watches and lots of Vodka, the occasional arrest in far flung countries, almost being shot by a cop in LA, a couple of p!ssed off husbands here and there, lost in China, some serious boozing with President Stanislav, Big M passing out in various locations around the world and you get the general idea

So in reply to your original question, "what line of work are you in"


I'm an engineer

[Phillionaire]

Emergency services for me. Get paid to stick my nose into other people's business. Good fun, and always unpredictable

Moved from the big city to the bush, and the 710 and I are having the time of our lives...

[levon2807]

I left school at 15 to work for the local archaeology service. After a year of that I went into the National Trust for Scotland working my way up to management over six years. When I finally got there the Trust had massive redundancies including yours truly.

From there I had a couple of years with Historic Scotland but found them too bureaucratic, did some private historical research for restoration projects and wrote briefly for a local magazine.

With steady work not forthcoming I finally bit the bullet and decided to become self employed dealing in antiques.

It's been a massive learning curve over the last 4 years but im turning a profit, building a good client base and most importantly I have a super relaxed life doing something I love!

So if you're ever short of cash for a new watch you can flog your antiques to me

[Adz]

Cool thread !

Mines is one of the more mundane jobs but i do still enjoy it, it has its challenges.
Ive been a VW group technician for aprox ten years currently working in a skoda franchise for a certain Mr clark

[gaz64]

Regular soldier for 3 years on leaving school (infantry). Started training as a psychiatric nurse in 1986 qualified in 1988 became and have worked(sponged a living of the state) as a nurse in acute psychiatry elderly care and young onset dementia before arriving in my current job in high secure forensic psychiatry. I am involved in trust wide policy groups as part of my union activities

I have been a TA soldier for 15 years serving in Iraq (x1) and Afghanistan (x2).