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I'm on year 2 doing IT administration and support at Tanknology. They are a company that does EPA and government compliance testing on petroleum tanks whether they be above or below ground. I'm newly married with 3 kids and a new house. Thinking about a career change becoming a teacher. I still dabble in photography and micro brewed beer as well. :D

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...I went through my younger life not knowing what I wanted to do when I grew up. Well, here I am.... I'm kinda grown up now.... and I'm doing what I had as a hobby as a way of paying my bills now. Recently, as in 2 months ago, I got into this hobby of salt water aquariums. I haven't been more excited to learn new things in a long time and I'm now considering going to school to get a degree in marine biology. I think it might be my calling. Anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading.

Ex microbiologist - full time network engineer. Follow the money....!

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I do agree here. I wouldn't go make less money somewhere else. I'm comfortable where I'm at but working on linux problems doesn't excite me like it once did. I've said for a long time that if the worst thing you have to complain about at your job is that you wish you were paid more money then you've got a good job. Everyone wants to be paid more no matter how much they make. My goal is happiness in the work place and I have that now. The challenge for me is going to be finding a job that I could do without sacrificing salary or happiness. For instance, I could make more money if I wanted to learn under water welding.... but i'd be working 70h long weeks away from home for weeks on end to do it. At that point I wouldn't care about how much money they paid because if you cannot enjoy your life then it's not worth it.

My younger brother is a CCIE and he just bought a Cayman GT4. :)

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  • 6 months later...

Totally resurrecting this one, as I start my new job tomorrow. I've been in supply chain since graduating from Texas A&M in 2007. I got lucky while working for my previous employer, and thrown in to their major enterprise system overhaul project. I learned a lot about project management, and am now extremely proficient in a lot of SAP modules (we switched from an microsoft legacy system to SAP EPP, so have experience in warehousing, production, planning, purchasing, transportation and some accounting modules.)

I'd love to travel a little more, but being the single mom and primary caregiver to a 3.5 year old, it's just not going to happen. This job will require travel to China and California some, but maybe 10% or less - so I guess that works. It also offers a flex schedule and the ability to work from home whenever, though I'll be in the office at least 4 days per week. The one day I work from home I will probably do water changes on the tank biggrin.png

The new job hired my on as a PM, and I'll be heading up many of their SAP projects within the group. I got hired on QUICKLY - which is pretty cool.. I reached out to their veteran/military recruiter on a Thuesday 30 minutes later I had an e-mail from the head of the department. I spoke to the boss (department head) of my new manager on a Friday; my new manager e-mailed me Sunday;I had an interview Monday; and woke up from surgery with a job offer Tuesday. That was November 2. We decided on a Jan 9 start date as they shut down for two weeks over Christmas, and I had more medical nonsense to tend to. I absolutely hate working desk jobs, but they pay me really well, so I deal with it. That and my other job sort of gives me an outlet when I need to get away.

My "holy sh** that's so cool" job is a UH60M Blackhawk pilot for the Texas Army National Guard. Started off as a crew chief, and decided to move to the dark side. I've been playing Army and in flight school since May 2015, so going back to the civilian world is going to be a shocker. Currently grounded due to said medical issues, but hope to be flying again by the end of the summer. I've been in 7 years, currently owe them 5, and will probably suck it up the next 8 after that for retirement. It just depends on a lot of things. My mother is moving back to town this fall, and would be the caretaker of my tank, dogs and kiddo if I deploy so that's not an issue. I'll probably hire someone to come by and do tank maintenance (or pay someone close to the house on here) to go by and make sure everything is running ok, do water changes etc. This is probably the biggest reason I want to automate as much as possible.

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My "holy sh** that's so cool" job is a UH60M Blackhawk pilot for the Texas Army National Guard.

Very cool! I grew up an Army brat and pops was a medevac pilot (UH1), mom was a nurse. They actually met in Vietnam - very "China Beach" or "MASH" if you will. One of my best memories as a little kid was taking a field trip to the heliport on base and having my dad be the one leading the tour.

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I'm the CTO of Cratejoy. We're the platform for subscription businesses. We have a marketplace for subscription companies at our .com, and a platform for subscription company owners (management dashboard, api, integrations etc..)

Prior to that I've worked a number of programmy jobs, I was CTO for a couple of Zynga games, lead developer on a poker analytics site, worked on the top debt settlement software (at the time), ... helped automate a brick factory. There's quite a list.

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I've jumped ship since I last posted in this thread and I now work as a Systems Engineer for a HIPAA compliant hosting company. I guess you could say I "save lives" by "slaving over a hot keyboard". My work is easier than my last job, provided me with far more stock options than my last job, gave me my second unlimited PTO policy I've had the pleasure of enjoying, and a substantial raise over what I was making at my last job. I'm part of a smaller team of engineers here and my boss practices "servant leadership" which is a new concept for me. It basically means he's not here to tell me what to do but more to treat me like an adult and help me if I need something done.

Still working in downtown Austin so I come into work very early in the morning to avoid traffic. My goals are short-term to get Amazon Web Services certifications and in the long-term to start my own business. Another goal of mine is to start making and packing my own lunch so I don't spend $30/day downtown on the expensive food there is to eat for breakfast and lunch around here.

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An AWC architect associate is one of the most sought after certs this year. If you're interested in taking a crash course - there's actually some really good, and relatively cheap options. I'd recommend acloud.guru or Linux academy. Acloud is one of the better training courses(regardless of cert) that I've seen. Linux academy had a free week of access though last week as well.

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Since my last update things have only changed location. Still just shooting x rays and ct scans. I'd like to go to medical school, but I fear that ship sailed on me 2-3 years ago. Would have been a lot easier to do before kids

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An AWC architect associate is one of the most sought after certs this year. If you're interested in taking a crash course - there's actually some really good, and relatively cheap options. I'd recommend acloud.guru or Linux academy. Acloud is one of the better training courses(regardless of cert) that I've seen. Linux academy had a free week of access though last week as well.

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Thank you for the tip, that is actually the exact certification program I'm using. I worked with AWS a lot at my last job provisioning servers and monitoring them but now I'm working to have it on paper to say I know how to do those things. The base salaries for AWS cert holders starts in the low six figures range so it's no wonder they're sought after like they are. I hope the market doesn't become flooded with people doing it but I've seen that happen before and knowledge + experience usually trumps the college kiddos pretty quickly.

Linuxacadamy videos are super long and boring IMO and they cover every aspect of the AWS stuff. If you're looking for thorough that is good but if you want to pass the exam the cloud guru site is more on point with what you need to know to test out.

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Since my last update things have only changed location. Still just shooting x rays and ct scans. I'd like to go to medical school, but I fear that ship sailed on me 2-3 years ago. Would have been a lot easier to do before kids

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I have a 32 year old friend who is a single mom that went through 1.) Army flight school 2.) college with her son (whose dad is not involved) and is about to take the MCAT in order to apply for med school.

I think you can do it!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Born and raised in San Antonio, went to UT and graduated in 2006 with an Economics degree. Been working in banking/private wealth management for 11 years now. Positives are pay and getting to know  alot of high net worth execs/techies in ATX and SA. Negatives are I get to see their ridiculous  balance sheets and fancy homes/toys that Ill never get!

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^^ You can get them, you just have to find other means of income.  I've noticed that many jobs and occupations people have don't allow for a very good work life balance.  That means that if you're working 60h weeks and not making enough salary to play the way you want or having enough time to do what you went then what's the point?  I don't live to work, I work so I can live.  I think people either become trapped in a way where they cannot do anything except work and then come home to do chores/cook.  I desire not to live that way.  Doing small things on the side that you enjoy doing many times lead into other things that can make you extra money, but again, you have to have the time to do these  things.  For instance, if you love tweaking aquarium hardware there's a potential that other people will pay you to work on their stuff (probably because of a lack of their own time/energy because of their jobs).

I'm looking at taking a contracting position right now that will double my salary that I'm currently making.... and I'm already doing well enough to play the way I want.  The only "toys" I could want right now are having a house that I design and built on my own (don't want to rent or buy someone else's house in a neighborhood next to other houses) land or some sort of pricey super car.  I'd have a new 911 Turbo if I could afford it right now but my Mitsu "boxes" will do for now.  I'm not tooting my horn, I'm just trying to instill the fact that life doesn't have to be like what everyone else does.  I've worked hard to make sure I can maintain my happiness AND do work that is lucrative.  If I cannot do that I cannot enjoy my home life.... and that's really what's important to me, not working. 

I work hard so that I can do whatever I want when I'm not at work.  I've also adopted the idea close to 7 years ago now in this city that I refuse to work 9-5 hours.  This blows about 2h of my time a day in traffic.  If you count your hourly wage for 2h that's a lot of money to not get paid to just be stressed out at other people not paying attention during their commute and causing traffic.  My hours are 6AM-3PM and this allows me to avoid most of the annoying stuff.

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On 2/11/2017 at 11:07 AM, FluxCapacitor said:

^^ You can get them, you just have to find other means of income.  I've noticed that many jobs and occupations people have don't allow for a very good work life balance.  That means that if you're working 60h weeks and not making enough salary to play the way you want or having enough time to do what you went then what's the point?  I don't live to work, I work so I can live.  I think people either become trapped in a way where they cannot do anything except work and then come home to do chores/cook.  I desire not to live that way.  Doing small things on the side that you enjoy doing many times lead into other things that can make you extra money, but again, you have to have the time to do these  things.  For instance, if you love tweaking aquarium hardware there's a potential that other people will pay you to work on their stuff (probably because of a lack of their own time/energy because of their jobs).

I'm looking at taking a contracting position right now that will double my salary that I'm currently making.... and I'm already doing well enough to play the way I want.  The only "toys" I could want right now are having a house that I design and built on my own (don't want to rent or buy someone else's house in a neighborhood next to other houses) land or some sort of pricey super car.  I'd have a new 911 Turbo if I could afford it right now but my Mitsu "boxes" will do for now.  I'm not tooting my horn, I'm just trying to instill the fact that life doesn't have to be like what everyone else does.  I've worked hard to make sure I can maintain my happiness AND do work that is lucrative.  If I cannot do that I cannot enjoy my home life.... and that's really what's important to me, not working. 

I work hard so that I can do whatever I want when I'm not at work.  I've also adopted the idea close to 7 years ago now in this city that I refuse to work 9-5 hours.  This blows about 2h of my time a day in traffic.  If you count your hourly wage for 2h that's a lot of money to not get paid to just be stressed out at other people not paying attention during their commute and causing traffic.  My hours are 6AM-3PM and this allows me to avoid most of the annoying stuff.

^^^ I get what you're saying and agree, but think maybe I couldve elaborated more. I'm luck that I enjoy what i do and get paid quite well as a Private Banker.. it took me 7 yrs to get this gig and I actually have the flexibility to travel alot with my wife and work 35-40 hrs weekly.

I was more emphasizing how crazy wealthy my client's are.. alot of them are in venture capital or took their company public, so they have awesome 10mm+ mansions on Lake Austin and are 40.

Never gonna get that wealthy and neither are most ppl... but im ok with that! But boy... id get a 10000 gallon tank if I ever did!

 

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  • 7 months later...

I'm the project manager of a small concrete company.  We do mostly commercial work and usually the smaller more complicated stuff but we also do foundations and flatwork.  There's not much around the city of Austin that we haven't had our hands in.  Chances are if you are walking a sidewalk or up a ramp in this town we have done part of it.  That being said if anyone needs anything concrete related please shoot me a pm.  We really do try to stay away from residential work for specific reasons but I can try to guide you or give you what I think it should cost.  Maybe even point you in the right direction on who to use.

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holy cow, how did i miss this thread? *lol*

Network Security Engineer @ AT&T Business Solutions (who bought my group from DXC, which was a merger of HPE/CSC, after HPE and HP split..... fun huh?)  I wear like 8 hats at work though, im not just a firewall dude :) 

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Electrical & Instrumentation manager for Encana Oil & Gas for the eagle ford office. Currently still hold my louisiana electrical license. I worked 2 other fields in louisiana and mississippi before i was moved down here.

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I'll play. Currently a high school biology teacher at St. Michael's Catholic High School. Back to my first love, biology. Started as a marine biology major at UNC-W before switching to geology for the $$$. Went to UT for my masters and then did a stint as an environmental hydrogeologist at Radian and then at TNRCC (now TCEQ) before the big life change. The last 15 years of teaching has been ridiculously rewarding. 

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Ok. Guess I'm up. I started out to be a marine biologist back in the 80s but was advised at the time that all I'd end up doing was "documenting the decline"; switched to molecular biology but hated working in the lab. About that same time I contracted a really nasty case of mononucleosis and dropped out of school for a while. My recovery was slow and as I was slowly getting back into working I started volunteering doing some work with abuse survivors. When I went back to school, I ended up getting an undergraduate degree in psychology and a graduate degree in clinical social work. I've been working for a number of years as a private practice psychotherapist. I'm at a place where I'm slowly inching closer to the big 60 in age and am getting back into my early love of marine biology. I'm hoping to get my scuba certification in December (I asked my wife for lessons for Christmas this year) and am hoping to get to spend more time becoming a "citizen scientist".

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