Where I work

[Drew Mendez WTR]

Hey everyone, I work at the liquidationchannel.com

I sit here and watch tvs, and count jewerly

I do get to interact with the TV hostess(es)

I'm security here so I dont work for them but they have some great stuff. I've already bought stuff for my wife and I, and I got a new watch. Enjoy

Tell me about your job...

[+C Lo Slice]

Sweet. My wife would drain me penny-less if I worked for a jewelry company.

I work for Disability Services of the Southwest (DSSW). It is a state-funded program that cares for the mentally and physically disabled. I was lucky enough to be placed by the company with my brother. He is 27 years old (23 myself) and requires 24-hour care. Basically, I get paid to hang out with my brother all day... Can't really complain about that!

Good topic, IMO.

[JamesL]

Where to start?

• My primary job is an engineer for Advanced Micro Devices.
• My creative job is my 15 year old software company I founded, Seahorse Software, LLC. Started with Palm OS programs, now am a purveyor of fine iPhone/iPad/iPod touch programs.
• My third job is a Moderator here (former job)
• (Oh and husband and father of two)

(Those are not particularly in order of importance)

[victoly]

I'm an environmental consultant (of which there are apparently a few in ARC). I got my degree in hydrogeology with a minor in computer science. I am the youngest licensed professional geologist in Texas (although I'm pretty sure that title is fading...). My company does soil and groundwater remediation for fortune 5 companies primarily in Texas. My specialization is in hydrogeology, which ties in nicely to reefing.

I've got a 2 year old who loves "his" tank and he is learning the names of corals as fast as I can acquire them.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+ludakris]

i dont have a job yet. I worked for the United States Army for 3 and a half years as a Infantryman. Did one deployment to Iraq from 07-08.(man i wish it payed more) I got out in 2009 and im going to college at TSTC Waco for Automotive Collision and Management. I will be graduating this summer semester and will begin to persue a job in north austin area. I can paint awesomeness and i can fix many types of damage if i had the correct equipment of course. Also will be learning how to do estimating. I cant wait to get out there and make some real money.

[bige]

I'm a stay at home dad. Have lots of hobbys though. Classic cars, classic bikes and build stuff for people. I build everything from bridges to piers to decks, pole barns, etc. Even dig out ponds. Last one I dug out was 350' long by 100' and 20' deep.

[+KimP]

All of my professional life was spent as a microbiologist. Now I raise my human fry all day (and night ).

[Robb in Austin]

@Kim; boy could I use some help!

Dad, hubby, student, RN/soon to be NP.

[Drew Mendez WTR]

Hey I have another one for you guys. I joined the Marines at 17 grew up there and got out last year, struggling to make and no degree. Where where some of you at this stage of life compared to now. I'm 23 now and my wife is 25 with a BS in media from UT and works at the mall for 9 bucks an hour.

I just feel like I'm not where my life should be at in terms of stability, and financially, I did have this idea that I would get out and ride the govt gravy train back to Afghanistan and swim in greenbacks.

VR Drew

Edited April 20, 2012 by Andrew Mendez

[bige]

Hey I have another one for you guys. I joined the Marines at 17 grew up there and got out last year, struggling to make and no degree. Where where some of you at this stage of life compared to now. I'm 23 now and my wife is 25 with a BS in media from UT and works at the mall for 9 bucks an hour.

I just feel like I'm not where my life should be at in terms of stability, and financially, I did have this idea that I would get out and ride the govt gravy train back to Afghanistan and swim in greenbacks.

VR Drew

Don't fret. That's what your 20's are for. Live and learn. I'm a stay at home dad, that's certainly not what I thought my life path was. Now I can't get a job because I haven't worked in 7 years. But ultimately I know it will pay off. I now am a pretty good carpenter and welder. Which now has lead me to 2 possible businesses that I have been working on.

[+Hydro]

Fun topic

i dont have a job yet. I worked for the United States Army for 3 and a half years as a Infantryman. Did one deployment to Iraq from 07-08.(man i wish it payed more) I got out in 2009 and im going to college at TSTC Waco for Automotive Collision and Management. I will be graduating this summer semester and will begin to persue a job in north austin area. I can paint awesomeness and i can fix many types of damage if i had the correct equipment of course. Also will be learning how to do estimating. I cant wait to get out there and make some real money.

Awesome, I went to the tstc for collision and paint too. I left there in 99, wow that makes me feel like I'm getting old lol. Offroadodge graduated just before I did, we barely missed each other. Is there an older loud red headed guy last name baetche teaching up there? Offroadode (Jeremy) works at berlis which is the best bodyshop in central texas to be at. Its air conditioned, its 2 stories and has elevators for cars, just an awesome place. He works on mostly high end cars, when I stopped by to see him there was easily a million dollars worth of cars being repaired.

I got out of tstc when I was about 20 and moved to austin and worked at caliber collision and champion autoplex as a collision estimator and production manager. I decided I didn't like the body shop anymore so I started a remodeling company with no experience at all lol. Within 5 years I had a crew and we were building houses. I invented some products for gardening which turned in to what I'm doing now, that got me away from construction which I miss sometimes.

My job now is running

Hydro Innovations which sells several water-cooled gardening products including water chillers and water-cooled a/c systems to distribution companys in the gardening industry. www.hydroinnovations.com

Icehouse Distribution which distributes our products and several other companies products directly to retail stores. www.icehousedistribution.com

I also do some work for our chiller manufactuer which we will soon be partners in. www.chillking.com

All WYSIWYG is my new hobby/project that I'm just getting off the ground. I'll be selling Qted fish and tank raised corals locally and online with a Divers Den type business model. www.allwysiwyg.com

I get bored easy so I like to stay busy

[+Hydro]

I'm 23 now and my wife is 25 with a BS in media from UT and works at the mall for 9 bucks an hour.

I just feel like I'm not where my life should be at in terms of stability, and financially, I did have this idea that I would get out and ride the govt gravy train back to Afghanistan and swim in greenbacks.

You got plenty of time to do something great. When I was 23 I decided that what I went to college for (autobody collision) wasn't what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.....I was pretty bummed. I basically started completely over with a new trade that I knew nothing about (remodeling houses). I sold a nitrous mustang and paid cash for a wore out ford ranger and used the rest of the money from my car sale to buy some business cards, stickers for my crappy truck, and some hand tools. I literally hustled up work everywhere I could. I was slow at first and barely scraped by for a long time, I was able to hire a couple guys after a year or so but there was many times they were the only ones taking home a paycheck. I grew up poor and although my parents clawed there way to middle class they were never able to help me financially. It was really scary at times wondering where my next job would come from and how I would ever pay my bills. This went on until my late 20's before I started completely over again. My point is that you got plenty of time to do something great. Just stay aggressive in whatever you persue and challenge yourself every chance you get. Oh and BTW enjoy being 23!

[KevinB]

I worked in event production in college, earned my bachelor of fine arts (majoring in graphic design). After getting out of college I got a job as a junior art director at a design firm in San Antonio. I was fired in 3 weeks after what I felt was not much of a chance to get into a groove. I then moved to Dallas with a job as an art director for an insurance company.

I spent 18 months there feeling like the job was torture. I then moved to the Austin area after getting a job at an event production company which is where I still work, 6 years later. I still enjoy what I do and where I work. I mostly work on PowerPoint and keynote presentations, although I do get the occasional work that's a little more creative. However I also wear the hats of: audio engineer, video director, cameraman, and scenic carpenter.

My favorite type of design is logo design, which is why I decided to redesign the ARC logo shortly after joining the forum. I'm glad my skills can be put to use in a great community.

[offroadodge]

@LUDAKRIS

Well Steven summed it up pretty much. I graduated TSTC '96-'97, i can still rememeber the instructors Mr.Lovejoy (retired now) Archie (paint) and I think MrsMills or Miles does all the paperwork. There were other instructors but those were the most influentual. The colliosion repair industry is a dieing trade cause of insurance companies trying to cut corners. At the shop im employed we dont have to worry to much about who is gonna pay for what cause most of the time if the Insurance doesnt pay for it the customer will, being that i work on mostly cars ranging from $65K-$250K + usually the owners dont care what it costs. (Lambogini,Lotus,Aston Martin,Bentley,Ferrari,Mercedes Benz etc)

They just want it RIGHT. I have worked in dealership atmospheres and independant shops, the shop im at now will be (baring and unforschene occurance) the place i stay for the rest of my life. We use caroliner and celete equipment and can make a car look like it never been wrecked down to the way the factory seam sealer looked. When you get outta school give me a ring or PM, i can give you a tour of our facilities.

[jestep]

Joined Navy out of high school. Was a nuclear operator, reactor electrical division, on the Lincoln for Desert Shield and Southern Watch in Iraq and Afghanistan. 9/11 happened on my anniversary date for joining the Navy which was certainly less that welcome. Now am an owner of a local credit card processing company (http://www.merchantequip.com/). I transitioned from working on a nuclear plant to self learning computer programming, web design, server and database administration, which then bled into online marketing and sales, so I now run the ecommerce, marketing, online sales, and IT divisions of our company.

[DerrickH]

Im an underwater basketweaver....j/k. Work at Teco Westinghouse Motor Co. Tech support and inside sales and a little bit of project management. I worked for a company called Longhorn Regional Service Center before but the guy they hired in to be the director was the biggest A hole Ive ever met so I decided to get closer to Austin. Other than that, mainly worked in the automotive maint stuff. Was ASE certified and all that jaz but have since let it go. I rarely turn wrenches any more.

[Long]

great topic.....

At 23 I was lost also with nothing.. Bumming off my girlfriend (now wife) meal ticket at Jester just to eat. Barely making it at UT almost quit but forced myself to finish with low GPA. I am now a ME going on 19yrs at Lithonia Lighting. I have design lighting for HPS, T12, MH, T5 and LEDs. My stuff is hung all over the place Lowe's, Home Depot, Empire State, toys r us. All I can say is enjoy life, hang in there, be good to your supporter, and do not feel bad if your job does not pay well. Just try to do the best you can and don't stress over $$ to much.

[+ludakris]

sweet stuff. more auto collision guys. archie is still there...mr carter, mr klibrink, mr campbell, mr fowler, mr stayton, mr bandy and mr marshall. id be glad to take a tour of ur shop offroaddodge. were learning the frame equipment now. car-o-liner, blackhawk Kansas jack, measuring systems (shark, car o liner, p188, bench systems, velocity) everything under the moon. waterborne paint, solvent based, work in a cross draft booth and down draft booth. learn air brushing. im just excited to be so close to graduating and cant wait to see what job i can find out there. was gonna start at carmax and hit up caliber and also collision king. id be more than happy for any more suggestions. sorry if i am hyjacking the forum

[Drew Mendez WTR]

This turned into a mechanics thread **** you all lol jk lets see how many of you are mechanics when my car breaks down bueller bueller ....good stuff guys thanks for the advice and sharing

[Radney711]

I have done a little bit of everything but the career that i have stayed with for the past 8 years and probably for the rest of my life is surveying and engineering. I work for a company called SAM Inc. where I am a senior survey cad tech and and a Geospatial Lidar tech. I drive a million dollar suburban that looks like a urban assault vehicle because it is retrofitted with all the Lidar equipment and has high rails for when we get on train tracks. It basically fires lasers out of 2 rotating sensors on the back of the vehicle the bounce off the first thing it hits and returns, in which we get a distance and bearing to that one spot and it creates a point at that spot. Since this thing is rotating at 200Hz a sec and firing at 200khz a sec it collects billions of points a minute. What that does is create a 3D point cloud of whatever we drive by accurate down to the hundredth of an inch. You could put a virtual Reality helmet on and walk through a perfectly mapped out world. This is used for construction and planning of big projects that clients need to know where exactly everything is for clearances, ground water runoff, and many other uses. I am in the process of learning our aerial Lidar and will soon be the eye in the sky

check it out www.saminc.biz

[Drew Mendez WTR]

hey I've worked with LIDAR over afghanistan, I cant really say to much here, but I created maps, intrepreted imagery, did route and bridge studies, hydrology reports, soil comps, helecopter landing sites. Terrain Analysis for foot soldiers and trucks and tanks. Line of Sight studies, weather forecasting, effects of weather on operations. You name it I've had encounters with it

[Radney711]

hey I've worked with LIDAR over afghanistan, I cant really say to much here, but I created maps, intrepreted imagery, did route and bridge studies, hydrology reports, soil comps, helecopter landing sites. Terrain Analysis for foot soldiers and trucks and tanks. Line of Sight studies, weather forecasting, effects of weather on operations. You name it I've had encounters with it

That's Awesome! That is the real cool stuff you can use it for! We are always looking for people that have LIDAR experience. It is truly the future of surveying, you wont be seeing people with tripods on the side of the road much longer lol.

[+brian.srock]

I work at Rules Based Medicine a Biotech company off Mopac doing Custom Data transfers and SQL analytics for some of the biggest pharmaceutical companies out there. Prior to that I did SQL analytics for netspend and mpower prepaid banking. No college background and 100% self taught. I feel you as an 11B though and thats where I got my start which wasn't the brightest idea I had but my parents couldn't afford for my college and i'm not smart enough for free money. I'm 31 and hopefully by the time i'm 35 I can start my own business.

[+ludakris]

lots of vets here also..sweet..someone to relate to

[wa1tx]

I was in army at 18. Got out at 22 and worked in law enforcement for 10 years while going to school. Work in IT now. I work for a medical device company at present in IT.

To all the vets. One of my best friends works at the workforce commission. His sole job is to place vets in positions. If you are looking for work PM me and I will get you in contact with him.