Just curious, what do you guys actually do for a living?
Scrolling through comments here, you can tell there’s a huge mix of people, some clearly technical, some more creative, some who sound like they’ve been in the working world for decades, others who feel like students or early in their career.
No particular reason for asking, just genuinely curious what kind of professions make up this community. Feel free to keep it as vague or specific as you’re comfortable with.
Drop your profession below, and if you want, one thing about it people usually don’t expect.
Was a wage slave all my life until I retired. The best I could do in life is sell my time for money. I didn’t care who I sold it to.
I studied bioinformatics, got into IT, got pushed into sales, got out cause I hated that. Now I’m a barkeeper. Not yet sure what I’ll do next. Maybe IT again, if I find a company that sucks less.
Also the sysadmin for a small non-profit, which is a lot more fun than any corporate job I had.
CEO. Disaster/healthcare management consultant. Critical care paramedic.
Well. Technically I am a CEO. My company is smallish, but we are a proper joint stock company (who I am the sole owner)m I founded it in 2020 and we consult in disaster management and healthcare management so for the “hot end” of healthcare.
I am still qualified as a critical care paramedic but only work in that field part time now.
pretty good , keep goin sir
Former machine learning researcher. Worked on image search, then language modeling for general search. But then VC started throwing money at it and the landscape just kinda’ changed. The research was still great in academia, but a bunch of dipshits took a useful technology and decided to use it as a way to funnel money from everyone into their own coffers.
Now I build stuff to monitor power lines and prevent wildfires.
One thing people don’t usually expect: machine learning isn’t magic. The computer doesn’t just “do the work for you”. There’s a lot of planning, theory, and experimentation around seeing if and why something works.
i assume AI, since its related.
But then VC started throwing money at it
I had no idea the Viet Cong was still active in 2026.
After the Kháng chiến chống Mỹ, I can’t say I blame them.
I don’t know what that is, but it looks like Vietnamese script so I’m inclined to agree that’s probably relevant.
I was just playing off your joke. It’s the term for the Vietnam War in Vietnamese. “Resistance War Against America.”
Ah okay. Barely related but I read recently that Vietnam is one of the countries that thinks highest about the US. Super strange, considering.
I was a special education teacher in an inner city school district for 11 years. I started in high school my first year and then went to elementary the last 10. It was to weird being 22 teaching 17 year olds.
Anyways, did 3-4 for a couple years, then 5-6 a couple years, finished in k-1. I was diagnosed with kidney failure a few years ago and retired early because I’m on dialysis. I invested very well so I’m good financially, but I miss working with kids, not so much getting fucked over by the school district, but that’s a wother thing.
i had a formr coworker that refused to work for district a while back, because the pay was so low, and its a district that is very sketchy. i dont blame her, she was doing the job im doing and part time at private school, which is equal or worst than public school. she went into tech, but i dont know if has programming/coding skills, right before AI was the craze.
IT, did a lot of work in a high traffic (big scale & high redundancy) environments.
Im ‘always’ right of course but I don’t give fucks enough to discuss with everyone.
Since I’ve died once I’m clearly now technically undead.
Stay at home dad 😊
Cybersecurity (AppSec), was a software engineer for many years before that.
One day there was an incident and I tended to the recovery…
Space shuttle door gunner. It’s a surprisingly easy lateral move from my old job as a submarine screen window repairman.
Hey I’m a billionaire space cowboy. We probably know the same guys. Do you Bob, from accounting? He’s a putz.
That you, Maurice?
Former rock star, now retired, living on my private island, occasional public speaker, industry leader consultant when bored.
Just kidding. IT of course.
Damnnn , I was two seconds away from asking you how you broke into the rock star industry 🤓
“AROO!! AROO!! AROO!!”
No, not really. I’m an English teacher & childcare provider.
Used to work in IT, but preschoolers are generally easier to please.
Graham crackers and juice vs id10t errors. Lol
I have no idea what is called in English. I just work at a car park. Just above minimal wage, it pays my bills, finances my hobbies, is stable and once I’m out of the door at the end of my shift it is not my problem anymore.
Parking lot attendant, unless you drive the cars too, in which case valet parker.
I’m a cashier. Are you proud of me mom and dad?
We are. Love, mum 💐💛
Why would that be a bad job? You provide a service to the community, that is better than a lot of other, so called prestigious, jobs. You didn’t make the world a worse place at the end of your day. So a lot better than many others.
For one thing, the pay is shit. For another, it’s at a gas station/convenenience store (corner shop) so I indirectly work for the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel industry sure makes the world a worse place.
OK, respect for taking responsibility, but I don’t consider cashier at a gas station to be a job responsible for climate change. At a certain point we all have to participate in the system to not starve. That is by design. So again: don’t beat yourself up too much about it. Vote, demonstrate, but cashier is not a job I see one should be ashamed for.
nothing wrong with that, one of the chain “bougie eco grocery stores” chronically have cashiers understaff, recently heard they cutting the budget and rotating through employee like paper. just to put you at ease, there are people that dont have jobs now and constantly complaining about finances for some reason(they refuse to take any jobs, aka cherry picking). alot of stories/posts about this on other platforms.
I used to teach, now I wait tables. I’ve also been a computer tech, event security, summer camp counselor, and lay minister.
I’m thinking about switching it up again. Maybe electrician?
Electrician gang rise up
Get amped!
My profession is whatever job I can get with a HS diploma. Right now it’s a crane operator, I climb 1-3 stories to troubleshoot problems for a warehouse in 34f or -15f. Actually not bad, coworkers on my shift are pretty cool, pay is good, benefits not bad. Just allot to learn with the program and system they use. Still in training, wish my luck keeping this job till I get a college degree or trade.
Mood. Over the last 8 years I’ve been: a server, retail worker, a cashier, a barista, a cake decorator, a software designer, currently I’m a dishwasher.
Almost there same haha. Retail, cashier, order filler for warehouse, restaurant cook, more retail, brewer, even more retail, plastic molder and now cranes.
That sounds like so much to me! I’ve only ever been a warehouse worker at ups for 5 years straight now. Only job I’ve ever had. Job hopping sounds exhausting
I just want to add that dishwashing has been my best experience. I work at a gay bar and everyone is super nice and I’ve made a lot of friends since starting. Surprisingly it pays a living wage but there’s not a ton of hours because they want to keep people off of insurance, which makes sense (they are a small business). I’ve also barbacked on weekends and holidays. I’m also learning to prep cook so I can work more hours. I’m trying to keep one job that can pay me more, than two jobs splitting my time and I get paid half as much. I know FedEx has a union does UPS have one too?
Fedex does not have a union, you are killing me right now. Yes, we have a union. I’m actively involved.
Ok lol thanks for informing me I was wrong. FedEx has union, UPS has shit.
I’m a crane technician, I work for myself repairing all kinds of cranes apart from towers.
Crane operation in Australia is a great profession that i have seen carry many people into retirement.
Why wouldn’t you stick with it? A good crane operator can keep a job site running so smooth. The only downside is no one notices until the primary operator is out sick and someone who isn’t as good is operating that day.
The only reason why is because of moving, don’t like the state (USA) I’m in and want my son to have a better education. I was nervous and being hard on myself that I wasnt doing a good job, but boss man told me I was doing a good job and heard nothing but good things. Have to learn other departments for the company eventually.
Yeah i get that, im in the process of moving now because we don’t want our son growing up where we are living now.
It’s not a great place
i was looking at rad tech, which at least in my area makes at least equal to some grad program/degrees, without the unncessary blood, sweat, time and money of going through 4 years+ grad school. for stem which is “high” for bio /health related field(except for nursing and MDs)
I knew a guy I worked with that was doing this, he said he went to school, but maybe they just paid for his schooling/training. Said he had to go to different places for it.
Maybe I’m remembering wrong, but good to know in case something happens.
interesting did he go to Community college, because those have multi-year waitlists. 1-6+years, some people mentioned they got a degree rather than wait that long, or go to the expensive route, only 4 year universities teach this, only certain ones do. but it can be many times more than CC, like 10-20x more.
Maybe? He just said this company was working with him. Perhaps he knew someone that was helping him
