What do you do for a living

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AnthonyLauder
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby AnthonyLauder » Wed Jun 30, 2021 7:53 am

Like a few people here, I used to be a computer programmer. Initially, I was working on stealth technology (particularly, software for invisible submarines), then the company moved me on to nuclear weapons, which I found terrifying, so I left to chase money instead. This meant writing software for the oil industry and the finance industry.

I sold my software company 14 years ago (when I was 42) and have been retired since, focusing on hobbies. Getting into languages was, in part, a way to keep my brain active, since I saw other early retirees often get bored and fall into depression. Immersion into a bunch of demanding hobbies has stopped me falling into that trap.
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Le Baron
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby Le Baron » Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:46 pm

Ex-academic. Several research positions and a couple of teaching ones (which I didn't like as much) all to do with economics; but also politics and philosophy because I taught the PPE courses that so many politicians have followed to try and become all-rounders.

Some years ago I left that and decided to fully pursue my father's profession: tailoring, as a small business. He did an apprenticeship from 15 years old and 14 years in a Saville Row house before removing back to the north. I've been sewing bespoke jacket pockets and collars since I was boy as an unpaid assistant/slave to el jefe, alias mi padre, which at the time I didn't see as priceless training. I have some quite rich clients, but somehow never get rich myself. :| The work is satisfying though.
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luke
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby luke » Wed Jul 07, 2021 1:14 am

Le Baron wrote:Some years ago I left that and decided to fully pursue my father's profession: tailoring, as a small business. I have some quite rich clients, but somehow never get rich myself. :|

I thought Assimil promised, "my tailor is rich". What gives?
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jimmy
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby jimmy » Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:36 pm

I am teaching.
I am about to consdier two options:

1) open a website (personal but not a random blog and not also a corporational website,just personal , might be academic but not certain)
2) youtube videos or combined videos in my website.

has anyone had experience with these?
actually within its first step ,I do not want to make "earning money" as my first goal. But there is no doubt that I would it in halal ways.
later, carrier ? why not.

here hosting services vary in the range of 2$-8$ monthly as I overviewed (may be lower or higher for annual or longer renewal time periods).
I need experiences ,so,I would be grateful for your share of past experiences.
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zenmonkey
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Apr 12, 2022 12:40 am

My careers/jobs have been:

Looking at cells in a microscope I designed that sort of worked, to understand why certain cells stick and spread on materials.
Writing of the software for the said microscope which led to a lot more writing of code for people that didn't know what they wanted and talking to patients, doctors and clinicians.

Managing the research for those and then thinking about medical devices and physical therapeutics. Which led to more research, and the design of devices that got shoved into people. And that I was able to sell well enough that people in the pharma industry wanted me to get involved in special projects, which I did for a while under the label of marketing.

Then I had the chance to work with healthcare information and the web and vaccine distribution and the pharma supply chains. And people all over the world. Took a break to deal with sick parents and when I came back basically decided that large corporations had lost a lot of their appeal for me so got paid to consult on special problems in healthcare for a while and helped do evaluations during buying and selling of some companies.

My job for a while was answering questions like "if we pull this drug what do we need to do to our organization to make sure we can get the information to the end pharmacist quickly?" or "we are closing this part of the business, what can we do to avoid firing these 1000 sales-people?" or "We bought this company. Now what?"

There is a common thread in there. Somewhere.

For the last several years, I've been running a couple of startups from the technical and marketing side (CTO/CMO), I also run a program in an accelerator helping people get their ideas to become a business. I volunteer as a mentor and advisor to start-ups.
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby Cavesa » Tue Apr 12, 2022 11:23 am

My current job as I see it: to use my brain, hands, eyes, and ears to correctly diagnose the patient, to treat them the best I can, orient them towards other specialists for optimal multidisciplinary prise en charge, and to support them in their effort to live in as good health as possible.

My current job as majority of my patients see it: an automatic dispenser of job/school absence certificates and antibiotics, support in their efforts to avoid ever getting a job and/or integrating in their new country. Part time social worker and personal secretary.

Yep, I need a better job, and a better alignment of these points of view is on the list of requisites :-D
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby garyb » Tue Apr 12, 2022 12:49 pm

Interesting thread that I missed the first time around... and the second...

I'm another software person. I studied Computer Science and loved it, but mostly lost my passion afterwards and I spent around a decade building websites for small companies for not much money while I pursued other interests: music, languages, travel. I tried the "digital nomad" thing for a bit, but it wasn't for me. Then a few years ago I rediscovered my interest in tech and decided to take my career more seriously, and in that time I've been trying to catch up and update my skills.

I'm currently working for a bank, which is an improvement over my previous situation but still not the best, although recently I got the opportunity to do a secondment in a more technology-focused company which has been great and has helped considerably with the aforementioned skills updating. I'm keen to make a move once that finishes, but am still trying to decide on exactly what kind of move: whether to primarily pursue money and growth, or use my work as a means to live abroad for a while where I'd likely earn and grow less (although still well enough!) but gain other kinds of life experience and fulfil a long-held dream. Or maybe I'll strike gold and find something that offers both, but gotta be realistic! In any case, it's a good dilemma to have.

In the longer term I could see myself doing some kind of part-time consultancy or work in startups like Zenmonkey described.
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby Sprachprofi » Wed Apr 13, 2022 10:14 am

I usually give "computational linguist" as a profession but the assignments in that field are rare. E.g. I worked on the prototype of a machine translation system, I worked on a grammar system for Bliubliu, I created an AI-based Chinese course LearnYu as my own project that I hoped would turn into a startup (but didn't)...

Apart from such opportunities, I do course development and web development, so separating my interest in languages and in computers. I have become an expert on language course development with 800+ lessons and lesson plans developed for LanguagePod101, Myngle, Duolingo, Hodder (Teach Yourself, Michel Thomas) and other companies. A few years back, I authored 7 books on learning writing systems, the Script Hacking series, published by Hodder. In terms of web development, I have been hired to create a number of social networks and similar sites in Ruby on Rails. The ones you're most likely to come across are Amikumu (an app for finding language partners near you, esp. when you're in a foreign city or at the airport and have some hours to kill) and DiEM25. DiEM25 is where I've worked for the past six years. A European leftist-ecologist political movement with some unique policy ideas, combining grassroots power with VIPs. I helped build it up and I coded the Members Area and various tools, e.g. for groups, petitions, crowdfunding, and so on. I enjoy working there because even though the coding rarely involves language algorithms, I have complete freedom and I do get to practice my languages all the time, traveling to Greece or talking to team members from the Balkans, France, Italy, South America, all over the place :)
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Ogrim
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby Ogrim » Wed Apr 13, 2022 3:04 pm

I have a Master in Romance Philology and planned an academic career, but things happened and I ended up working in a governmental Department in Norway (dealing with international cooperation in research) and then moved on to Brussels, London, Spain and finally France, where I now work in the field of Human Resources in an international organisation, mainly dealing with recruitment and assessment methods.

Although I sometimes miss academia, overall I am happy with the path I have chosen. I've had the opportunity to live in different countries and work with people from all over Europe. It has also helped me keep up and develop my language skills, and I've even had the chance to use Latin in my current job, as certain universities (especially Irish ones) still issue their diplomas in the language of Virgil and Horace, so my colleagues always come to me to get a translation. :)
Last edited by Ogrim on Wed Apr 13, 2022 3:32 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Henkkles
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Re: What do you do for a living

Postby Henkkles » Wed Apr 13, 2022 3:14 pm

Did my bachelor's in general linguistics and switched fields and am now studying medicine in Swedish.
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