What's your Day time / main job

[dmccombe7]

I was just curious as to what everyone does as a full time job. I'm guessing most of us are playing bass as a hobby or part-time. Maybe i could do a vote on bass as full time or part time or other

I'll start :-

Retired now but was an Engineering Manager for Gas / Chemical company.

Dave 

[Kiwi]

I'm a bum.

Well, I was.  And before that I worked as a strategic planning consultant.  If local planning authorities had ambitious development plans, especially in commercial centres, I would be the guy to tell them how much, how fast, how to avoid creating more problems than were solved and how good and/or bad the PR might be.   Then I'd set out a plan on how to deliver the best bang for buck with as little shit hitting the fan as possible...and if it did hit, what the options were to deal with it.  I also had carved out a niche for pragmatic but outside-the-box thinking on transportation infrastructure planning given my background included implementation as well as big picture stuff.

Now I'm involved in a few small business ventures - an English school with 13 employees which is taking a lot longer to establish than we hoped due to the economic climate, a recruitment firm with two employees, and later in the year I'll be setting up an export business for curtain walling initially but it'll expand to include other things too.

[dmccombe7]

Wow just noted you are in China Must be the furthest member on BC 

Dave

[Kiwi]

Just now, dmccombe7 said:

Wow just noted you are in China Must be the furthest member on BC 

Dave

Closer now than previously, I was in NZ from 2009-2013...further from western civilisation though. :( 

[BreadBin]

I'm production manager at an engineering-y company

[dmccombe7]

1 minute ago, Kiwi said:

Closer now than previously, I was in NZ from 2009-2013...further from western civilisation though.

A seasoned traveller then. Out of curiosity what country were you born in.

[Bassfinger]

Technically an industrial geologist, but in reality I've drifted slightly to the equipment side of the business and now deal with arranging finance, valuations,  calculating whole life running costs etc for drilling and support equipment.  Going to look at some gear in Denmark on Tuesday with a view to putting together a report for a French finance company.

The good news is that although I'm nominally full time I work from home a lot, and in practice I'm only working 12 or 13 days a month, so plenty of time for bass practice.

Edited March 8, 2020 by Bassfinger

[Kiwi]

13 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

A seasoned traveller then. Out of curiosity what country were you born in.

England, but moved to NZ when I was 10.  Then moved back again to the UK after university.  Then back to NZ because of the 2007 recession where I had what was probably a nervous breakdown due to triple redundancies.  Then back to the UK because my job was too specialised and then I got fed up with all the travelling.  Also with the lack of support for my area of expertise and increasing encroachment by imposters, who exploited the trust and naivety of decision makers and bluffed their way through situations.  Here's an example:  Consultants wrote a strategic plan for me while climbing the political ladder in the organisation who I contracted for.  After 18 months and about 120,000 quid extra in spend they were supposed to deliver a vision for what could be achieved.  The actual document mentioned what the vision could do, why it was important, what it meant to other stakeholders and how to deliver it but it never actually stated what the vision was.  I picked them up on this and they resisted, drawing on political connections higher up in the organisation to save face.  So, with the agreement of senior management and discussions behind closed doors, I ended up writing the vision myself and took their name off the final document.

One day I asked myself 'what is the point?' and realised there wasn't one.  At least not one that included financial security, stability, hope, job satisfaction, kids and a sense of optimism.  My wife was also self employed, earning the same as I was and working half the hours which kind of threw into sharp relief that I didn't need to be a wage slave in order to be financially productive.  

So here we are.  Still stressed, still financially insecure, with the added burden of two kids, a significant mortgage and trying to keep the school afloat. But noone else apart from myself to blame for my problems now.  lol  

Anyway, after the coronavirus thing has blown over, there is still hope.  

[Kiwi]

10 minutes ago, Bassfinger said:

Technically an industrial geologist, but in reality I've drifted slightly to the equipment side of the business and now deal with arranging finance, valuations,  calculating whole life running costs etc for drilling and support equipment.  Going to look at some gear in Denmark on Tuesday with a view to putting together a report for a French finance company.

Asset management?

[Bassfinger]

7 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

Asset management?

Indeed, although I'm kind of one step removed as my company is either a facilitator or a straightforward contractor.

[mikebass456]

Previously a quality manager in various packaging companies around the area.  Now working two days a week as a systems coordinator for a small printing company, largely on the quality and health and safety documentation.

As with kiwi, the missus is self employed working from home, earning about twice as much as me.  No kids, mortgage or loans to pay, so I've decided to take a sabbatical year out of work when i get to 55 (next year) and take an equivalent years salary as a lump sum out of one of my pensions to just play in as many different music opportunities as come up, while looking for something completely different to retrain in for the remaining few years before the state pension kicks in.......all suggestions welcomed!

[jezzaboy]

For 20 years, I worked in a company manufacturing industrial cladding eventually becoming one of the managers of the facility. It nearly drove me nuts as there was a lot of stress involved and my wife said it made me a different person.

It closed in late 2003 and I got a job in transport with one of the companies who did work for me as an lgv driver. I thought it would do me me for a year or so till I get my head together but I`m still doing it. After having numerous jobs driving for various companies, I currently work for a multi national company delivering bathroom and heating items to mostly new builds across Scotland. The job is easy but the place I work is full of numpties, god knows how they are still in business.

A few thing I have learned in this job.

Don`t buy one of those shiny new builds, they are thrown together and are mostly crap. And plumbers are the biggest bunch of moaners I have ever worked with despite earning really good money.

[lownote]

I learn people stuff.  Specifically I teach corporates how to make phone video.  Job that didn't exist six years ago.  Afore  that I learned people how to tell lies to the public through the media.  Afore that I told lies to the public, while in the BBC. I am also now a semi pro music photographer.  Well, if being given free tickets to gigs in return for pictures counts as semi pro. 

Edited March 8, 2020 by lownote12

[Cuzzie]

Work in Healthcare.

Never had grey/white hair till accumulating NHS time and kids - wouldn’t change it

[Reggaebass]

I started out as a steeplejack doing high rise works , then qualified as a carpenter and joiner/cabinet maker, many years later I became a property developer and retired at 42 for a while, but I’ve been working for the NHS with their property team for the last 12 years dealing with compliance  and refurbishment of their properties.

[Len_derby]

Teaching assistant in a primary school. Very rewarding but poorly paid. I supplement my income by door-to-door delivery of local free magazines. Plus, of course, any money from playing music.

[Cuzzie]

Just now, Reggaebass said:

I started out as a steeplejack doing high rise works , then qualified as a carpenter and joiner/cabinet maker, many years later I became a property developer and retired at 42 for a while, but I’ve been working for the NHS with their property team for the last 12 years dealing with compliance  and refurbishment of their properties.

Good man - welcome to the club

[Kiwi]

8 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

many years later I became a property developer and retired at 42 for a while

I'm really curious, how much did the late nineties property boom contribute towards your success?

[dmccombe7]

12 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Work in Healthcare.

Never had grey/white hair till accumulating NHS time and kids - wouldn’t change it

Oddly enough my hair didn't turn grey / white until i moved into management then it just seemed i was blonde one day and grey the next. Even old pics it seemed to be overnight. That's why i retired early as i could at 55.

Dave

Edited March 8, 2020 by dmccombe7

[AndyTravis]

Head of year at a high school. Currently looking after year 9 (13/14 years old). 
Hard work, rewarding at times. 
 

Used to work in music retail, which was a hoot...but eventually it started to drain the life out of me.

 

Originally intended to be a police officer, never saw it through. Another option was steeplejack - following in Dad and Grandads footsteps, but dad warned me off it at about 16/17.

Edited March 8, 2020 by AndyTravis

[Merton]

Internal Sales Manager at a company that makes various instrumentation for measuring pressure/temperature/level/force/flow across pretty much any industry. 😴

[Kiwi]

1 minute ago, AndyTravis said:

Originally intended to be a police officer 

Me too, went through the entrance exam, did a shift with my local station in Fareham (four hours gave me a weeks worth of interesting stories) and was offered a place at training college.  But was offered one of 25 limited places on a uni course in NZ and decided I could come back to policing later if I wanted...which never happened of course.

[dmccombe7]

3 minutes ago, Merton said:

Internal Sales Manager at a company that makes various instrumentation for measuring pressure/temperature/level/force/flow across pretty much any industry. 😴

I was an Instrument Engineer before moving into Engineering Management. What company are you with. Curious to see if i know their kit.

Dave

[Reggaebass]

5 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

I'm really curious, how much did the late nineties property boom contribute towards your success?

There was an abundance of work, especially in East London with the regeneration of docklands and the Thames riverside developments 

[hooky_lowdown]

Creative Director / designer, though I'm semi-retired now.