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Saturday Morning Request for the Collective Professional Wisdom of Ricochet
A notable quality of Ricochet’s members is that quite some number of you are both extremely professionally accomplished — and remarkably modest about it. Few of our members brag, but since I’m a curious woman and good at reading between the lines, I’ve figured out that many of you have been quite successful at managing businesses, in particular — unsurprisingly, given the pro-business orientation of our site — and many of you have excelled in a number of other fields that demand an uncommon level of ambition, discipline, professionalism, and commitment.
As I mentioned on a recent editorial podcast, one of my favorite member posts in Ricochet history was Concretevol’s glimpse into his industry: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Concrete (But Were Afraid To Ask). I love learning about jobs I know nothing about — that’s why I also love Dave Carter’s explanations about how the trucking industry works, and really enjoyed Bryan G. Stephens’ recent post about his experiences as a psychotherapist.
I have a sense that we have many people here who have had fascinating professional experiences — but who rarely discuss them, perhaps out of modesty or the mistaken sense that they wouldn’t be of interest. I’d personally love to hear more about what you do: about your training; about the economics of your industry; about the skills and temperamental traits required to succeed in it; about the lessons you’ve learned from it; about the way your industry has changed (if it has), and if so, how you’ve adapted. I’d love to know about the biggest challenges someone in your line of work faces, and to hear your tips for navigating them successfully.
Of course, it would also always interesting to hear how these experiences have shaped your political opinions. But even apart from that, we have such an interesting group of people here: We seem, truly, to have among us a highly qualified expert on every subject under the sun. And not everything about our lives is political, so there’s no need for every post to be about politics.
So may I invite you to tell us a bit more about what you do for a living? I’d love to see a lively discussion about this in the comments on this thread, of course, but even more: I’d love to see posts about it in the Member Feed. This morning, I put a little post on the Member Feed about a common dilemma in my own industry, to get things started. (It doesn’t make what I do sound like fun, but might give you a bit of insight into the way “the news” becomes “the news you read this morning.”) Let’s keep that as a Ricochet Member exclusive, though: If my thoughts about that go too far on the loose, they do have a bit of “You’ll never eat lunch in this town again” potential.
So tell us more about your job. And to those of you who reckon what you do is boring, I’ll bet you anything you’re wrong. For those of us who’ve never done a job like that, I wager it will be a lot more interesting than you’d ever think.
Published in General
I suspected you might have some good stories to tell. I’m not disappointed. I suppose a Member Feed post about the phone company is not going to happen, but no one could argue with, say, a short story — just a work of imagination — set in that locale?
Go for it! There’s lots I want to know!
OK, this job definitely, absolutely, must have given rise to the funniest anecdotes ever. Off to the Member Feed with you.
I suppose a Member Feed post about the phone company is not going to happen, but no one could argue with, say, a short story — just a work of imagination — set in that locale?
Sorry. I still have some political things about which to scribble. Then my fiction will turn to a smart-alec private detective, sci-fi about first contact, and a vampire named Lefty (because as an abused child, his father knocked his left fang out). No phone company stuff.
Eric Hines
I have spent 23 year working for a Behavioral Health Provider that is part of the Safety Net in Georgia. It is government funded, either with Grant in Aid, or Medicaid/Medicare. We also go after some Federal Grants.
I started as a houseparent, and worked my way up to where I am today, in executive leadership.
I have also started two companies in my past, one to develop a video game, Ace of Angels (which we never were able to sell), and Kennesaw Mountain Markers, which modified paint ball makers fire control chips.
I manage commercial buildings & facilities in several states for a living. I enjoy the variety of working with different mechanical systems, contractors, reducing energy consumption, improving comfort, reliability, building new spaces and starting-up & managing operations. It’s rewarding to work in inspiring architectural buildings but also work behind the facade: enjoying the view from tops of buildings while working on cooling towers, cleaning chiller and boiler tubes, testing water samples from chilled water and hot water loops, taking infrared pictures of electrical panels and equipment terminals. I enjoy seeing how systems were controlled and built in the old days and appreciate that they are still serviceable. I can’t believe the rapid pace of continual change in communications and information systems – seeing how much the workplace has changed in our lifetimes.
You can see a lot of economic principles in action on a daily basis: demand-side management, regulation, return on investment. Talking to contractors, getting feedback on how the economy is doing, overseeing tenant improvements, seeing businesses succeed and expand, as well as go under. I’ve seen people laid off callously and marched off property like a common criminal, but also act with incredible grace & kindness toward one another.
For the most part, I love what I do.
I was 17xx/13B. I bet our paths crossed. 407L system. TADIL-A. 603 TCS, Elf-1.
This reply is for Eric Hines. Since I am posting on an itty bitty phone, who knows where it will end up.
Cruise? What cruise? Was everyone else invited to a cruise? How come no one invited me?
Gesundheit!
Sadly, mine is pretty vanilla. I have a degree in Network Security but so far most of my work has been in IT contracting. It runs the gambit from “my computer is running slow” to Net admin work for small and medium businesses with some shop work on the side.
Funny you should mention that. My computer is running slow, you see …
(You must get that even more than the doctors and the lawyers, huh?)
Entirely possible. 17XX (a job code, this particular one means Weapons Controller–someone who tells fighter pilots where to go and what to do when they get there) with 601TCS, 601TCW (a squadron, and the wing I mentioned above), other colorful locales. On the ground at Riyadh during Elf-1 (the AWACs operation that kept an air watch on the Iran-Iraq war). Ride back to Germany in a KC-135 whose heating system had failed, with nothing but my dress blues. It gets coolish at 35,000 MSL.
Two weeks during a Winter REFORGER on the Inner German Border with a 10-man medium that had lost a knife fight the night before we deployed.
Eric Hines
You have no idea :) Standard Response:
(However, if you really do need IT help, I give the free Rico Friend discount)
I am a radiologist but I was a pediatrician before that. When I quit full time radiology work I started writing The Great American Novel which of course was about a young pediatrician. The opening line was: “Take in a big breast…Breath! Breath! I mean breathe deep!”
I am now retired but spent 33 years in the oil field as an Operations Geologist, chasing drilling rigs around the world. A few of my colleagues and I are putting together a collection of our stories. This is the intro to this endeavor that I have written:
For some 20 years after WWII, Esso Exploration (now ExxonMobil) had roving 3-4 man geological teams scouring 6 of the earth’s 7 continents looking for oil. These adventuresome men would head out for weeks at a time to map surface geology and locate oil seeps. Their fieldwork led to Exxon leasing huge tracts of land in North Africa, Europe, and South America that would eventually lead to major oil discoveries.
In the mid-late 1970’s, Esso Exploration increased its exploration efforts in Africa by opening an office in Walton-on-Thames England. A group of 6 young men, followers in the footsteps of the Rover Boys were hired to man drilling rigs as wellsite geologists. In the early 1980’s, Esso Exploration continued worldwide exploration efforts by opening a Far East Division in Houston, TX and hired 3 more groups of men, 6 each in successive years, to continue in the tradition of having company geologists on all Esso-operated exploration drilling rigs.
(1 of 2)
(2 of 2)
The work of these men covered many countries and continents. As you can imagine, we encountered many cultures, interesting characters, and harrowing and humorous situations. We’re becoming old men by now, and we want to get our stories on paper before we forget them, because we think they not only convey a unique history, but also are interesting and entertaining.
If you have worked in the oilfield you might have heard someone ask you if you know the difference between a fairy tale and an oilfield story. Well, the answer to that is: A fairy tale starts out, “Once upon a time”, but an oilfield story starts out, “Now this ain’t no shit!”.
The stories we will share are our “Now this ain’t no shit” stories. Enjoy.
[Editor’s note: While Ricochet’s Code of Conduct prohibits the use of profanity, in this case — and it is a rare and singular exception, so no one else should be encouraged by it — I’m letting it stand. This is one of the very rare cases where the word so obviously serves a real literary purpose that to delete it would be a greater vulgarity than to use it. –Claire]
I’m an Army officer in an Airborne unit. I served in a combat arms platoon before becoming the logistics officer for my company. Aside from the occasional parachuting, it’s a pretty sleepy job. I am seeking to transition to another specialty in the military that would allow me the opportunity to learn Arabic or Kurdish.
Prior to the military, I was a manager at a house painting company for 4 years. Of all the odd jobs I had over the years, it was the most satisfying. Working in the sun all day painting mansions and the pay was phenomenal.
Being unsure of how long I’ll stick with the military, I have of late been seeking other skill sets; the latest being studying Russian and brewing beer out of my home.
A space navigator — you never cease to amaze me! As Fred Cole would say, “Awesome!”
It sounds more impressive than it is. Like I said a lot of number crunching, of a sort similar to that done in a lot of data-intensive fields. Fortunately linear algebra was the one form of mathematics beyond algebra I was good at.
We sat in one of the back rooms, and would take radar observations of the vehicle of interest (generally the Shuttle), an assumed starting position and various models of the environment (gravitational model and atmosphere mainly, most of the rest was too insignificant to matter) and run them through programs yielding a best estimate of the position and velocity of the vehicle at a specific time (the state vector). This would get sent to the Orbiter and loaded into the onboard computers.
It was cool to be there, but the reality was we had plenty of time to get results. I used to tell the new engineers I trained to remember you always had half-a-rev (45 minutes) to come up with the right answer. Since the nav software spit out an answer in 15 to 45 seconds you had a lot of cushion — unlike the folks dealing with powered flight dynamics who had to come up with the right answer in less than a minute.
Seawriter
Come to Knoxville this year for a TN game and an adult beverage with yours truly!
Good stuff Byron, where are you based now?
Try a post where you describe generally what you do and ask for questions. People will tell you what is interesting that way! :)
KP! I don’t think you saw an earlier comment of mine on a different post but I took my first spin as a tower crane operator the other day. :)
Great advice. And Bruce, it really worked for the cement-head here. His post went viral. But, of course, he did have a more interesting field than just medicine.
I work mostly in this building:
View from the inside (this is actually the one in Georgia, but basically the same thing). That bit hanging from the crane is about 100 tons. We laughed during a Boeing tour when they talked about how their cranes can life 20 tons.
Scared as I am of heights, I could actually do that, up to a point. Getting to the cab would be the worst part.
What my resume says I do: Risk management for variable annuity and insurance products
What my job description says I do: Model and trade financial derivatives
What I actually do: Stare at a computer screen waiting for the world to melt down
What I tell people I do (if I want to have a conversation): Investment risk management
What I tell people I do (if I want to shut down the conversation): I’m an actuary
What I’d rather be doing: Shooting guns or singing barbershop harmony
Speaking of the world melting down, have you read Larry McDonald’s book about the Lehman Brothers collapse called A Colossal Failure of Common Sense?
No, maybe I’ll check it out. I have some fun stories from that particular failure. Like trying to submit a claim against them while everyone was being fired (literally — people were walking out of the building carrying boxes, reporters snapping pictures outside, NYPD standing guard). The representative from our company walked in and wandered the halls trying to find someone to accept it, but no one there knew who was authorized to do so. Finally some CPA took it. Our receipt was scrawled in crayon.
I’m a janitor. One of those fun jobs where you get to clearly see your accomplishments every day, as you do it, and then have it all undone before you come in the next day. Don’t think I’ll make a career out of it, but things could be worse.
Fortunately I work the early morning shift, so most of the “fun” things that make good stories get cleaned up long before I get there. Though people really could learn to flush the toilets, just sayin.