Just felt like doing some Data mining. What jobs do you guys have (preferably tech-related).. if you don't have a tech job, what kind of tech job do you dream of?

Do you like your job? What does the job entail?

What education did you have before you got the job?


I currently work at Subway while I'm between college and Basic Training. I'm going into the Air National Guard to do Infrastructure, which is basically the military's term for "Network administration". I have a two-year degree in Information Technology, but once I'm done with basic, I plan to attend USM and get myself a fancy CS degree (and I'll be damned if there's no SICP in my textbook list) with a minor in Education.

I want to be a teacher and teach Computer Science (preferably programming). However, if I'm offered a decently-high paying Sysadmin position at a company where I'm guaranteed never to have to touch Windows servers, I'll take it in a heartbeat.

Share your career info and your dreams below.

I have been working in the support department of a hosting company for a few years now. However, I was just hired as a Front End Developer and will be leaving the hosting company in 2 weeks. I am in my first year of College.

I'm a Marine in avionics. I troubleshoot the electronics off the bird and try to keep the pilots happy. Haven't gone to college yet though I do have a pretty good amount of credits.

When I get out I'm hoping to get a hands on job with electronics. Maybe surface mount soldering and what not. I enjoy the non physical side of computing more, which is why I'd like to keep it a hobby.

(02-12-2013, 01:05 PM)trgc Wrote: I enjoy the non physical side of computing more, which is why I'd like to keep it a hobby.

Interesting view that, I'm guessing you feel doing your hobby day-in/day-out would make you lose interest? I'm utterly hopeless at Electronics, so that's less of an option for myself.

As for me, I'm still in Sixth Form (last year, equivalent to 12th grade if that means anything), studying Computing, Maths and English Lit. I have no job on the side but I could do with getting one.

(02-12-2013, 01:51 PM)NeoTerra Wrote:

(02-12-2013, 01:05 PM)trgc Wrote: I'm a Marine in avionics. I troubleshoot the electronics off the bird and try to keep the pilots happy. Haven't gone to college yet though I do have a pretty good amount of credits.

When I get out I'm hoping to get a hands on job with electronics. Maybe surface mount soldering and what not. I enjoy the non physical side of computing more, which is why I'd like to keep it a hobby.

Do you mean like embedded systems?

I mean anything physical with electronics. Whether it be circuit board construction, prototyping, repair... it's an art and I enjoy it. However I enjoy the software side more, but in a not day in day out kind of way. Programming, administrative tasks, muh younix, all things I enjoy but like to do on my own. Perhaps I'd start my own business in these areas, but I'd never work for the man if I can help it.

I'm a farmer, raising ornamental foliage, shrubbery, and palm trees, for sale to real estate developers, interior decorators, and others.
The current market niche is in hard-to-kill office plants, which means I grow plants that even an idiot can grow if you can remember to water and feed regularly.
Luckily for me there is ample rainfall here, and time-release fertilizers are my choice of nutrients for the plants, so propagation is as easy as making cuttings and sticking them into cinder-soil. They root up in a couple of weeks and are ready to ship in a few months.
Since the plants are not food crops I can use pest control measures which are not approved for use on food crops, and thereby am able to pass inspection for export.
It started out as a hobby, and grew to what it is today, but I still don't work very hard, and many days I don't work at all.

I'm still in highschool so I don't have any of the cool jobs like you lot.

Last summer I worked as a laborer for a construction company and now I work in a bakery.

I wish I could get a better job :(

I am a cashier at the local Wendy's. I hate my job with a passion. There simply is nowhere around here to get a technology job. I'm going to move to the city soon.

I guess this thread is being revived.

I'd be a sysadmin or web designer/developer. Another thing I dig is game development and infosec.

Still in highschool, but I've got a job as a software developer at a local startup. Hoping to eventually get into electrical engineering :)

dbcooper Wrote:What jobs do you guys have

software developer / devops

dbcooper Wrote:Do you like your job? What does the job entail?

yes. at my current job i started out as a webdev bug fixer. front and backend doing everything from css, sass/stylus/less, js (nodejs and client side), php, mysql, reddis, etc. my company does a wide variety of sites in many different technology stacks. it was all under the gun problem solving. challenging work when some of the bugs are only reproduceable on a certain platform/version. but i've recently moved to the devops team. devops is just a hip way to say modern *nix sysadmin. i've been writing automation scripts for our jenkins-ci server to automatically build docker images for stage and prod environments based on post commit hooks. then deploying the images to our mesos cluster with chef scripts. things that took a team of people an few hours to setup now happen automatically with the simple power of POSIX shell scripts :D

dbcooper Wrote:What education did you have before you got the job?

i got an associates degree in SAP (software application programming) to actually learn the art of software development.

then i got a bachelors degree in CS (computer science) with a minor in graphic design to actually get a job.

It's interesting the diversity of users we have here, honestly. Anything from highschoolers to sysadmins to Wendy's workers.

I'm still a highschooler, myself. This is my senior year though so I'm going to have to start working to help support the family next year because the good ol' government is taking away our tax money this upcoming summer because of god knows what.

Fun times all around. I'd like to work at a company that supports Open Source software, if possible, but those seem to be few and far between. I think an absolute requirement for a job for me, though, would be that I was able to independently work on my own projects without the company being able to claim ownership, since I've heard that's a thing that some companies will do.

Currently I'm an IT Business Analyst. I do really enjoy the job. I am the glue between the business and the development folks. I find out what the business needs and document it into a specifications document.
I have a BS is Computing and Security Technology. Prior to this gig I had done web and application developement

I'm a Software Engineer for a Norwegian tech company. My formal title is "Digital og Web Utvikler" (Digital and Web Developer).

I do enjoy my job very much. My focus is integration, so most of my day is spent figuring out how to cleanly get disparate systems / technologies that were usually never designed to work together with other systems / technologies outside of their own ecosystems to play nice. It's fun work thanks to the interesting problems that need solving. It helps that I like learning new things, because oftentimes I'm learning new languages and frameworks, sometimes in as little as a day, other times over the course of months. I've had the same job for two different companies now, and this most recent company requires C# and .NET, so I'm learning a lot about those as well as how to get my Windows-related productivity to be on-par with my Linux-related productivity.

So far as education is concerned, my formal education is lacking. I didn't complete my degree due to life circumstances that warranted accepting a job prior to the completion of my studies (not to mention several deployments to Iraq), but I've had a lot of experience and a lot of personal study time. The biggest thing was sitting down and figuring out the most effective way for me to learn things quickly and in enough detail to do at least as good of a job as someone with formal education. I started my formal education in linguistics and adult language learning prior to making the move (changed major and school) to software development where I interned at Intel on their WiDi team and earned college credit for my contributions to various Linux distros (on top of extra credits provided by professors who recommended open source contributions). So yeah, my education is very broad and there are plenty of gaps in it, so I try really hard to learn as "completely" as possible in order to make up for that. Everything else is note taking and doing the thinking part :)

(15-09-2015, 01:23 PM)darthlukan Wrote: My focus is integration, so most of my day is spent figuring out how to cleanly get disparate systems / technologies that were usually never designed to work together with other systems / technologies outside of their own ecosystems to play nice.

That seems like a pretty enjoyable job, actually. It's something I would definitely say I have a talent for already and allows for (or requires, really) a lot of creative thinking.

@ashen - I like it a lot and it does require a lot of "out of the box" thinking. There's a scene in a movie (Apollo 13, I think) where the scientists on the ground are sitting in a room full of equipment and one says something like: "We've got to get this(holds up round thing) to fit into this (holds up square thing) using nothing but this (motions to table of weird supplies that was never meant to be used together)." That's how I feel almost every day. To add to it, you've also got to deal with people and their notions of "how it should be done", so there's an element of conflict resolution involved. If you're prone to loud outbursts of anger in the face of difficult problems and nagging people that have no concept of what the problem is in the first place trying to tell you how to solve the problem, then I'd say look into something else. If, however, you're one of those people that could be stuck in the middle of a warzone with people parts getting blown up all over the place and still remain perfectly calm, then go for it!

Just left my stuffy corporate job working in Telecom for a company that does managed and cloud-based IT services. I work as System Admin I doing whatever needs doing with around 70/30 split of Windows/Linux environment. For the most part, I handle WAP and firewall configs, AD or Exchange issues, and network provisioning. The best part about the job is full access to CBT Nuggets and they pay for any certs you want to go for (provided you pass the exam). No matter how much I work with Windows, I can't bring myself to like it, so I have a full Cygwin X environment to keep myself sane.

(04-10-2015, 04:52 PM)darthlukan Wrote: Apollo 13

That is Apollo 13 for sure. :)

This seems an exciting job. Exciting on the inside, as: like you said:

(04-10-2015, 04:52 PM)darthlukan Wrote: still remain perfectly calm.

Software Developer/Engineer working in the stock market domain with main focus on service operability. Most code written in Erlang, Scala and Java. I love it but I see a future where
I branch out and start something new.

I'm two months into an internship at an astrophysical research center. I work for a guy who is designing the active optics system for a large telescope. Active optics is the system that moves the mirrors of the telescope around in real time to account for disturbances in the atmosphere. It's been a lot to learn but super cool so far. I've worked on geometric simulations and ray tracing, which suits me because I prefer a good deal of math in my work. Been using python, C, and CUDA C++.

I spent a summer working remotely for a startup building golang web applications, it was quite fun. Sadly, I had to give it up due to school (highschool). Now it's summer again and I'm doing freelance work with my own company (mostly making simple web pages for small businesses).

(04-06-2016, 04:35 AM)jaagr Wrote: Software Developer/Engineer working in the stock market domain with main focus on service operability. Most code written in Erlang, Scala and Java. I love it but I see a future where
I branch out and start something new.

That sounds really interesting, I'd love to get into the "stock market domain" once I'm out of college, particularly high frequency trading. I assume you're pretty well versed in the actor model of programming, have you seen <a href="http://www.ponylang.org/">Pony</a>? It's still very new, but already much faster than all the languages you mentioned. I'm excited to see it grow and curious on your opinion on it with your job experience.

(04-06-2016, 10:06 AM)mpr Wrote: I'm two months into an internship at an astrophysical research center. I work for a guy who is designing the active optics system for a large telescope. Active optics is the system that moves the mirrors of the telescope around in real time to account for disturbances in the atmosphere. It's been a lot to learn but super cool so far. I've worked on geometric simulations and ray tracing, which suits me because I prefer a good deal of math in my work. Been using python, C, and CUDA C++.

Wow, what an awesome gig. Are you guys doing some machine learning stuff? I'd assume that'd require some pretty serious computing power.

(14-09-2015, 08:32 PM)ashen Wrote: It's interesting the diversity of users we have here, honestly. Anything from highschoolers to sysadmins to Wendy's workers.

I'm still a highschooler, myself. This is my senior year though so I'm going to have to start working to help support the family next year because the good ol' government is taking away our tax money this upcoming summer because of god knows what.

Fun times all around. I'd like to work at a company that supports Open Source software, if possible, but those seem to be few and far between. I think an absolute requirement for a job for me, though, would be that I was able to independently work on my own projects without the company being able to claim ownership, since I've heard that's a thing that some companies will do.

Glad to see a fellow highschooler around here, and yes the diversity is an aspect I've come to love about this place.

As for your job search, I personally just had a few projects on my github to show I could code well and applied to very small startups (1-3 people), and offered my services for pretty cheap (double minimum wage) and had a few offers within two weeks or so of doing that. Most small startups are run by people like us who love the open source movement and are glad to help an aspiring programmer out (as long as you have a good foundation). I wish you the best of luck!

I'll answer your questions once I'm done with another post, but I just wanted to say that we would love to see your study on Pony being faster than akka or erlang proc actors... It's also a veeeery bold statement to make not knowing our infrastructure. And think your concerns; there's alot more than speed on your req. spec.

You'll be able to read more about my take on that in my other post.

(04-06-2016, 04:46 PM)jaagr Wrote: I'll answer your questions once I'm done with another post, but I just wanted to say that we would love to see your study on Pony being faster than akka or erlang proc actors... It's also a veeeery bold statement to make not knowing our infrastructure. And think your concerns; there's alot more than speed on your req. spec.

You'll be able to read more about my take on that in my other post.

Awesome, I look forward to it. I'm mainly going off <a href="http://www.ponylang.org/benchmarks_all.pdf">this document</a>, which I found quite interesting.

(04-06-2016, 12:57 PM)jmbi Wrote:

(04-06-2016, 10:06 AM)mpr Wrote: I'm two months into an internship at an astrophysical research center. I work for a guy who is designing the active optics system for a large telescope. Active optics is the system that moves the mirrors of the telescope around in real time to account for disturbances in the atmosphere. It's been a lot to learn but super cool so far. I've worked on geometric simulations and ray tracing, which suits me because I prefer a good deal of math in my work. Been using python, C, and CUDA C++.

Wow, what an awesome gig. Are you guys doing some machine learning stuff? I'd assume that'd require some pretty serious computing power.

We don't do any machine learning; tracing light rays through optical systems is pretty much a solved problem. Training algorithms wouldn't get us better answers. We do however leverage a lot of computing power. We have CUDA C++ code that runs on the gpu. The optical systems we need to simulate are huge, and we need to do it in real time.

For anyone interested, the math involved is some differential calculus, some numerical methods, and some linear algebra. Would be happy to answer more specific questions.

Actually studying in a course tied to this enterprise:
https://www.globant.com

So, trying to get a job there. Then, once i find (or found?) a job, starting a new career in some university, depending to where i live.

I'm studying Systems Engineering in my city, but, since i need a job to keep studying, i should get one and then restart my life.

Edit: Please, correct my english if it's wrong

You guys have some seriously cool jobs.

I now work in the "Plans and Resources" section of a small Communications Squadron for the ANG, it's a federal govt position, but I have to wear my uniform to work every day.

Basically, I:
- Handle all IT acquisitions for the base - I review costs, purchase sources, etc, and have to sign off on all IT purchases, as well as work with Contracting on large purchases.
- Manage long-distance circuits. We have fiber coming to and from our facilities and demarcing at multiple locations, and I have to keep it all straight, escort contractors coming to do maintenance on demarc points, know which circuits go where, keep billing info and records straight, and all that jazz.
- IT Asset Inventory: I have to keep up with an IT Asset inventory that includes anything that processes, connects to the network, etc. From Tablets to laptops to routers to monitors. Each section has an ITEC that is responsible for that section's assets. I have to go from section to section periodically and audit their accountability, make sure they all get their annual training, and am the only person who can edit the inventory, which has over 4000 assets.
- Project Management: It seems like every other week, some new project gets released by NGB or AFSC or some other higher agency, and they're sending people or equipment out to our base or need someone there past midnight, or we have to fill out some survey. This takes up the majority of my work time, just keeping projects straight, gathering information, escoring contractors, etc.
- Lifecycle management: the Air Force really doesn't like us using or having equipment that's out of warranty. Every year, they ask for numbers on equipment going out of warranty the next year, and send us pretty much whatever we ask for (when it comes to common stuff like laptops/desktops/printers/etc)


I like what I do, but I really want to get a development/programming job. Starting on my BaS in Software Development next month should help.

I haven't done much work. I only sold newspapers, and worked as a gardener for a few summers, but aside from that I've always been studying.

Soon I'll be in the second half of the first year of uni, (compsci). With zero interest in work for the forseeable future, I'm defenitely going to be heavy in debt after my (at least) five years.

I've been working as freelance web developer for some time. I don't really like web development, but that's what gets me income in a flexible way as I study. By the time I write this I'm a software engineering student.