what do you do for a living

[Bree]

I am a webmaster for a certain Big Blue company. I build enterprise websites and develop web applications using Cold Fusion and Oracle among other things. Currently I am primary production support for 6 different applications and a couple dozen websites on the AT&T account... our largest customer.

I also have a little business sewing patches and doing leather repair mostly for bikers. I have been equipping my shop for the day that IBM send me a pink slip and a request to train my replacements from Mumbai. I dodged that bullet recently and bought a few more months but the day of reckoning is coming.

Then I will join all the leatherworkers reveling in the poor house!! Hopefully I can get a production operation running quickly and efficiently and make enough to pay the bills... and have a little fun doing it.

[Washroad]

As a young newlywed many years ago, I worked in the operating room of a large hospital in Newport Beach, CA. John Wayne came in one day looking for a particular surgeon that was working on his neice! How cool!

Then, went to work in a cable factory 'cause the hospital didn't pay enough and the woman I was married to complained about a lack of money. After a couple years in the cable factory she complained again and I started driving trucks.

I hauled lumber, gasoline, various building products, heavy equipment, asphalt, rock and sand, roofing granules, lots of stuff. She still complained. I divorced her.

I went back to college intending to become a paralegal and during that time I met my current (and LAST!) wife. We finally moved in together, moved to Truckee, CA and spent a year in a beautiful place. Worked very hard and made no money to live on and came back to Orange County.

We decided to have her finish her degree in Accounting as it would take less time than my goal. I continued to drive trucks and hauled groceries, cookies for Nabisco, and finally couldn't stand trucks anymore.

Now I'm a dispatcher/warehouse supervisor in Anaheim, CA and I've been here 18 years this month.

My fiance finished school and at the same time her company was bought out and she received a bonus good enough to put us over on saving for a house so we bought one in 1999. We got married in 2000.

My wife in now the Accounting Manager for a high-tech company in Anaheim.

I get to play with leather when all other stuff is done. I usually go out to my garage/shop after 9pm and can work for a couple of hours.

OK, I'm at work and I'm gonna go do some of it!

[Go2Tex]

I am a webmaster for a certain Big Blue company. I build enterprise websites and develop web applications using Cold Fusion and Oracle among other things. Currently I am primary production support for 6 different applications and a couple dozen websites on the AT&T account... our largest customer.

I also have a little business sewing patches and doing leather repair mostly for bikers. I have been equipping my shop for the day that IBM send me a pink slip and a request to train my replacements from Mumbai. I dodged that bullet recently and bought a few more months but the day of reckoning is coming.

Then I will join all the leatherworkers reveling in the poor house!! Hopefully I can get a production operation running quickly and efficiently and make enough to pay the bills... and have a little fun doing it.

Bree, don't worry. With your credentials, you won't be living out of a van any time soon. Your story rang true with me, though. I dodged that bullet myself 2 years before I retired. Never so scared in all my life. I was literally 3 days away from walking out the door with the box of personal effects in hand when they changed their minds and decided to let me stay. From that moment on, my theme song was, "I'm a survivor, I'm a survivor...." and nothing much mattered after that.

[wildrose]

Wow! This has been a really interesting topic to read!

Like most, I don't do leatherwork full time. Right now, I'm working part time in a coffee shop. The humor there is that I don't drink coffee and knew very little about it when I started there (latte? what's that?) But it's a great place with a terrific crew. I'm lucky there. I've also been really fortunate with the leatherwork this past year. I do that in the mornings while my son is in pre-school.

My husband is in the computer field and has a good job at Virginia Tech, and he also teaches a few courses at the local community college. So that leaves me with more time to spend with our son. At some point in the future though, I'll likely find something full time, hopefully in the education field (my degree is in Spanish and secondary ed, but I don't really want to teach full time).

The longest I was anywhere was 10 years at Raritan Valley Community College in Somerville, NJ. I loved that job, where I worked with a lot of foreign students and administered a variety of tests, along with record keeping tasks. My pet peeve there, though, were the "it's not my job" and "why bother?" staff, those who would do only enough to get by. I can't work like that. I give my all where ever I am.

[Jdavies]

I work part-time on a ranch/feedyard and part-time saddlemaker. I used to be a full-time saddler but after we moved out here to Montana I took some part-time work. I am very close to going back to full time again which will be great. I still love the horses and cows, but when you find something which feels so fullfilling such as leatherwork (for me anyway) I find myself thinking of it all day long. As does everyone on this site I'm sure.

[jbird]

I work part-time on a ranch/feedyard and part-time saddlemaker. I used to be a full-time saddler but after we moved out here to Montana I took some part-time work. I am very close to going back to full time again which will be great. I still love the horses and cows, but when you find something which feels so fullfilling such as leatherwork (for me anyway) I find myself thinking of it all day long. As does everyone on this site I'm sure.

I hear you I am at work and I find my self thinking of my leather work.

Josh

[Greybeard]

I hear you I am at work and I find my self thinking of my leather work.

Josh

+2

[sdkid]

Been a service tech at a Caterpillar dealer for 2 1/2 years. I have been pulling wrenchs for a living since 1990.

[McJeep]

Medically retired after 20 yrs of flying in the back of Auroras (canuckian P3's) as a sensor op in the Cdn Airforce - arthritis :0/ Been in the financial biz as a Certified Financial Planner since then, Am presently taking that shingle down as I really don't do the Herb Tarlick thing well and apparently that's what people want rather than facts. Got a few different irons in the fire right now - who knows where they'll take me ;0)

Leather's gonna stay a hobby :0) I hope? LOL

[Russ]

I'm another one of "those guys"...sergeant on a City police force, just hit 20 years. I've got a small embroidery business on the side, and any profit I make in that goes to my leather hobby. I'm implementing my 5 year plan of figuring out what business I want to own when I retire and move to New Mexico. I can assure you it probably isn't going to be owning a saddle shop, like I thought it was going to be. I'm not sure even five more years of practice can overcome my deficiencies.