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Work - what do you do for a living ?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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portinfer

Aquatic shopper...
Jul 3, 2003
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Hi everyone
I'm curious about what you do for a living and whether you enjoy it or not.

This may seem like a weird question but I'm sort of trying to decide on a few things at the moment and would be interested to hear how people balance putting bread on the table and enjoying life.

Cheers
Ed
 
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"For most of my adult life I've been trying to fit into a society that has made littlie sense to me. And I have undoubtedly made even less sense to it. You see, I was born a hunter. Some folks are born musicians, or artists, or athletes. Others are born to make money, heal people, design buildings and bridges, tend bar and sail ships. There are those born to no particular calling at all, and slide through life untroubled by such pullings. Although I find it hard to believe that there are men (and women) born to be accountants, sell insurance, be ushers, or in general wear wing tip shoes, they are at least able to make their way in life. When they are out of a job they can, with a degree of assurance, run down to the unemployment office and ask "Have you got anything for me today?" There is no employment for blue water hunters; take my word for it.
I've tried all sorts of jobs, white collar, blue collar, no collar. I've even worn wing tip shoes. Every serious job I had ate me alive. The more money I made the bigger chunks it took out of me. Not chunks of flesh, I could have lived with that. What is taken cannot be seen with the naked eye. What is taken is pieces of the spirit, slices of the soul, cuts of the heart. What is taken is who you are.
In all my time spent in the ocean wilderness, it has never once asked for nor taken a piece of me. Quite the reverse: it has healed that which was wounded; it has given freely of its gifts and asks only that I pay close attention to it. Upon my entry into the ocean, it fills my spirit, cleanses my soul and repairs my tattered heart."

With aknowledgement to Carlos Eyles "The last of the blue water hunters"

"I was born a hunter" Old Man Dave
 
I teach elementary school. First requirement, you gotta love kids even when the better choice seems to be to strangle them. Second, you are in competition with television, like it or not, and you better be a standup comic.

Is a good trade! Now it does limit your "normal" kind of hunting as when deer and the like are in season, you are at work. However, having two months off in summer allows you to hunt the Arctic, Africa and the southern Hemisphere . . . not to mention the sea while the water is warmer. :D
 
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Spent most of the last 15 (out of 26 years flying) or so years as a crew member of the Saudi Royal Family's private flight and the last 10 of that as senior personell, I loved that job to bits, fantastic employer, good pay/expenses and an average of 6 hours of daylight per day to play in the sea. Since I came home last April,I worked in Tesco for a few months :yack then did a couple of months working with BA before getting married.
Life has been good to me so far, Ive had the good fortune to have dived nearly every day for a good 24 years and I wouldnt change a thing :)
 
Hey Sarge,

I taught grade school for a dozen years, and scuba for the past 20, before becoming a stay-at-home dad. I now work part-time at the local YMCA and teach an occasional diving course, but have no idea what I will do when I have to go back to work full-time. :confused:

What grade(s) do you teach?

Jon
 
Do?, try to dive and body surf as much as possible. Actually, it is a very good question, one to think seriously about. I look forward to what other divers post.

I spent way too much time in school (guess what activities slowed me down) getting a marine fisheries graduate degree, 10 years as a fishery professional, two years cruising a sailboat, diving almost every day, two years as a grunt learning to do marine air conditioning and refrigeration, and the last 14 as a business owner, getting heat and cold into other people's boats. Mine has neither, much more reliable. And yes, I enjoyed it all, but especially the freedom of not having a boss.

On the "balance" thing, bread is important, but other things are more so. If you have the opportunity to do something wild wonderful and crazy, especially if it deals with the ocean, and ten times more so if you are young, GO FOR IT. It only gets harder with age and you will never regret it.

Connor
 
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I've done many things. Now I'm an Addiction Counsellor. I love the job. I'm faced with some of the worst things imaginable, but get to see people move into better states of life, or at least meet them when they're in the process of attempting it. These people are my heroes, and I get to be inspired by them daily.
Cheers,
Erik Y.
 
Very good thread Ed..
I am a Pediatric Surgeon,since 1985 when I was 24 I began to put the bread on the table.So 6 years when attending the Aegean University I just put the bread but no more than the bread (too hard work ,less money,less bread)After the 1991 I finished the training prog. and became a surgeon,and began to put a little bread more.Yes I love my job since the beginning,at least I have an advantage that I am dealing firstly with the children maybe,this is the most beautiful part of my job.
When coming the balance thing Ed;
To put the balance between your job and hobbies,between your family,friends and between each of them is always hard and sometimes it is impossible.
According to me I have succeed this but maybe it changes to the others.According to my wife,my teenage daughter,according to my partner at the office,according to my parents,friends,patients..
Well human being is a bit egoistic I think and the comment of the balance thing changes to our position.
Aydın
 
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its depends
i am working as a computer company I.T administrator
10 hours a day 5 days a week
we also have a kinder garden that manage my wife
i am also doing a cuissin katering and metal design works

i userlly go to dive weekands or very earlly in the mornning
eyal
 
I'm an engineer. After being in school for (what seemed like, but really wasn't) a long time, it was nice to be able to make some money and finally buy some stuff that I wanted (i.e., have the option to take up sports like freediving). Being a poor student gets mighty old quick. ;)
 
I work for a Capetown radio Station as a sports presenter on the breakfast show, from 5 am to about 10 am every day. For the remainder of my day I do freelance Video production work, when I'm fortunate enough to have a project. Otherwise I go and dive. I'm really fortunate to have a job in radio which allows me the time.

Before radio, I taught skydiving for a living...it was great for a while, but my advice to anyone would be- If you have a passion for something, such as the passion of which Old Man Dave speaks...do'nt do it for a living, it will burn your passion out !! My feelings anyway !

Jeff.
 
Commercial fisherman for 12 years during that time I travelled around to different parts of the world Japan, Canada, Torres Strait, New Zealand, Iceland, Fished everything from tropical shrimp to deepwater orange roughy and a lot in between, did some boat deliverys from Japan and Iceland back to NZ.
Moved to Ireland in '96 and worked as a Fisherman,Maintenance Engineer , Cook ,and Barman and now work for the Irish sea fisheries board as a Marine technologist.
I do some seatime in a year on Commercial Vessels usually to do with mitigation measures (reducing or assessing catches of cetaceans etc) and more recently ways to develop fisheries such as exporting live prawns.
I like my job it has a good mix of office and practical skills to work at plus I get to use all the stuff I learned fishing over the last decade or so.
 
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I went to school for 8 years to become a Chartered Accountant. Worked for 5 years as a Tax Consultant in Canada and the USA. Hated every minute of it, ever SINGLE minute. There's nothing like being trapped inside a tomb, oops I mean building, 10 to 12 hours a day to really drive you batty.

I'm now splitting my time between homeschooling my son (grade 2) and being a beach bum. Very much learning for both of us with a little bodyboarding and freediving thrown in the mix.
 
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Hi Jon,
With a short (year and a half) break playing with 8-year-olds, I've spent my time with 11-12-year-olds. Our California curriculum for that age is Ancient Civ and it is a ball. However, I am wondering if maybe I'm getting stale. I'm being nudged by my current principal to go to the next lever with her at her new school. That would mean Dark Ages to the Rennaisance, I think. It has possibilities so I am giving it serious consideration. I also hope shortly to start teaching Methods courses at the University level, part-time . . . so I can afford to go hunting and spearfishing more often!
 
After graduating college in 1960 with a degree in construction engineering (which I never used) I spent 20 years as a US Marine Officer, the first three as an artilleryman and the remainder as a jet pilot.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, I was a banker for a while and then a stock broker for a while, trying to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. For the past 20 years I have been a part time college teacher of economics and finance for a couple of universities that cater to students who wanted to continue to work full times while going to school at night. I was usually able to get all the classes I could handle, so sometimes the part time job felt more like full time, but it was nice to have the flexibility to schedule a lot of classes during the winter when diving was poor and then fewer classes during the summer when I wanted to dive more and/or take cycling vacations in Europe with my wife. A year ago I quit teaching so as to get in all the diving I could in the years I have remaining, and it was really great last summer. However, the rain storms have been so severe and frequent lately that I haven't been able to take advantage of the free time, and I'm hoping that changes very soon.

When I was much younger, I could always rationalize a bad month/year with "well, there is always next month/year." At some point, one becomes aware of the fact that there are not so many next years left, so each this year takes on more importance.

SO DAMMIT, STOP THE RAIN :)
 
Spearfishing Expedition Guide....

IE: Loading the boat, unloading the boat, driving the truck, making sandwiches, pulling up anchor chain, setting up tents, peeling shrimp, cooking dinner, cleaning the dishes, cleans the fish, setting up the survival pack, maintaining the equipment, knows the tides, the one who prays to god for good weather 1 week straight before each trip, holder of sunscreen, keeper of the extra mask, carrier of the extra weight, guy with the extra gun, retrevier of caved up fish, morning coffe maker, the one who decided to change spots after of two hours in the water with bloody fish, and the most important job of all...

the one who remembered the toilet paper.....

GTB
www.gonetobaja.com
www.spearfishingvideos.com
 
Can't really settle into one job as I get bored quickly. The longest I have worked for one company is when I did my apprenticeship, 5 years in the metal trades.
Then took to sales and marketing also working part time as a vocalist/guitarist. I hate being in a supervisory role and quite often quit because I have been promoted.
3 Years ago I found a job where I only work 4 days a week back in my old trade in maintenance. We work 10 hours a day and have a 3 day long weekend every weekend. Next week end is a long weekend so I get 4 days. Cool.
 
Un-employed college student right now. Im kind of dreading my next job, whatever that's going to be, as I am like Poida. I get bored very easily, and after a few months i begin to hat whatever im doing. I'm going to try to go by the local dive shop this week, and see if they're hiring for the summer, but I doubt they would want to hire some 'skin diver'. Its either that or the dollar store...
 
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