First off, before anyone tries to scold me about it - all my grading for the term is completed and my students are taking a quiz. See? Now you have a top secret look into what your teachers do while you take quizzes in class!

Being a member of a video game community like the one here on Giant Bomb always makes me wonder about the demographic of its posters. I know a lot of people tend to be college students, but I am still curious to see what careers/jobs other people have - and to answer questions about mine. I had a great discussion over on the Screened forums about planning for the film studies course I am teaching next year, and love talking about my job. So if you have questions or want to tell me about your job, do it!

Keep me entertained, people!

Im an unemployed bum :( I did three years of college and found out that, at least currently, they are only hiring in that field if you have years of experience. So ive been job searching while hoping in vein my completely lack of experience dosent put everyone off.

Is the actual English of High School students as atrocious as their Facebook statuses and text messages would have you believe?

Anyway, I'm personally in my Sophomore year of college. I hope to start a major in Business soon and then go for a Master's in Computer Science somewhere else. My job, currently, is as a student worker in the IT Help Desk, a position for which I am eternally grateful. I don't have to slave over greasy food or pound a hard floor all day! But I still have to help assholes who believe that their computer problem is also my computer problem. It's not entirely untrue but you must understand that there could be four or five assholes at any given time who need computer help and I'm only one lowly student worker. Yes, I have bosses, but they generally help with the bigger problems (and have another two things for me to work on). Still, this isn't a constant thing - I usually get some time to sit back and get on Giant Bomb for a half hour or so, or some days nothing goes wrong and I can just leisurely surf the internet while keeping a keen eye on the phone. There's also another co-worker in there sometimes. The biggest plus, though, is that I get to work full time over the summer. I don't know the pay rate yet but last time it was 9.50/hour, a fortune for someone my age who still lives at home.

Hey Mr. Hill, what are we doing in 5th period?

Yeah i've been wondering how it is in other places. Are your students actually trying to get better? Do you have to fail people often? I don't live in natively english speaking country and people here seemingly can't give less of a shit.

As for my work... Still school, don't know what I want to work with, don't know where to go. Will find out eventually.

I'm unemployed guy with a Bachelor of Journalism under my belt. Funnily enough, all it's been good for is being...under my belt.

That those can, do, those that can't, teach. I'm a spy.

@WilltheMagicAsian: More Kite Runner stuff, and actually getting my Google Earth lesson to work!

24 year old screen printer/Aspiring writer.

I am in the military and working towards my B.S. (in what i am not sure).

I used to be an English Teacher for 11-12th graders. In innercity Baltimore. Suffice to say, I'm glad to be done with it. My heart and soul couldn't deal with it in the long run so I changed careers.

Now I'm a law school student in Chicago. Hopefully this gamble works out because I'm going to have a hell of a lot of debt to deal with. Trading one devil for another I guess?

I'm a first year med student, who really should be studying for the mid-semester test that's on Saturday. Oh well, I've done all I can. They throw so much info at you that you can't really remember it all (they even told us that they expect us to forget at least 20%, and that's even for hard-working student), and I've studied enough to do reasonably well. I was a research assistant, but then I learned the cold hard, horrible truth: Science doesn't pay unless you do R&D for the army. It also isn't a very secure job. I could have chosen to pursue a PhD. I chose Medical School instead. I'm still wondering if I made the right choice.

Still, while it might not pay that much, and while it might not be that secure, Research Assistants actually have a pretty easy job - depending on who you work for. I worked for lab in which I did nothing but yeast transformations and PCRs - It took me minutes to set up the machines and I got to sit on my ass all day making sure that the machines did what they was supposed to do (it almost always did). Oh to be sure, it wasn't the easiest job in the world. You'd have to interpret the results, and you'd have to prepare your PCR mixture with some degree of care, but it was hardly stressful. Yeast is also a hardy bugger and one of the easiest micro-organisms to work with. It paid reasonably well for what really amounted to quite little actual work. Yeah, you'd have to clean glassware sometimes (although the students usually did that themselves). But it was also quite boring. The lab was constantly struggling for funding which is getting increasingly scarce and competitive. Everyone there was constantly on edge because they'd only have funding for a year and if they didn't get results in that time they were stuffed. It wasn't fun to be around them (although they were nice people) because they were always worried, and the stress on my employer was immense. Science is cool, but man are those early years of your career really, really, really stressful and you almost get no thanks for it and the odds of you discovering something truly amazing are slim.

Then again, doctors have to work long hours, are in perpetual fear of getting sued (which sends your indemnity through the goddamn roof), and have to constantly maintain a professional face in spite of dealing with meth addicts, stubborn patients who demand X or Y or Z, titanic loads of paperwork and a needless convoluted, complex, half-arsed administration and Medical Board. So I'm wondering if I made the right choice. I really am. I would like to say that I joined medicine because I wanted to help people (and I do), but I also joined for job security, and even that's fading away before my eyes.

@believer258: To be honest, it depends. Some students can't break themselves from the habit of writing the way they post to Facebook, but others can.

@TobbRobb: The district I'm in now doesn't have as many issues with student motivation as my old district did. For the most part, the kids want to do well and try their hardest. There are slackers, but it's pretty clear that the students know the importance of the stuff we do. I guess it helps me out that I am young and at least somewhat in tune with the stuff kids are into these days.

@Brewmaster_Andy said:

@believer258: To be honest, it depends. Some students can't break themselves from the habit of writing the way they post to Facebook, but others can.

@TobbRobb: The district I'm in now doesn't have as many issues with student motivation as my old district did. For the most part, the kids want to do well and try their hardest. There are slackers, but it's pretty clear that the students know the importance of the stuff we do. I guess it helps me out that I am young and at least somewhat in tune with the stuff kids are into these days.

You also have a beard. When I was in high school, the best teachers I've ever had had full beards. Beards are the way to go to motivate students to succeed.

I'm a hamburger. I want to be inside you.

@Brewmaster_Andy: Why did you decide to go into teaching? What's your average day like?

I don't have a job, but I'm a high school student.

@WilltheMagicAsian: There is truth to be found here.

I think the best teachers in my experience is the honest ones. A teacher who tells us why we do something and why he wants to do it a certain way, those are always the ones I end up liking and learning from.

Too many teachers just keep going on straight out of their schedule, and when asked why I just get some synonoym for "BECAUSE I SAID SO". So frustrating....

I used to love English literature/Language when I was at school, we had a new american English teacher back when I was at school and she was really nice. One year on the 4th of July we all agreed to come in with turkey sandwiches and party poppers which she seemed to find hilarious!

I'm currently working for a top secret agency . . ON THE MOON!

I'm a Bachelor of Computer Science Honours student in my final year, hoping to find an opportunity to work in some kind of research or software development position. I Just really want to make stuff though I'll expect to start out way down in the IT food-chain for starters. Personally interested in 3D visualizations though still a ways to go before I consider myself good at it. At least for the time being, I am also a casual tutor for a university. So at the very least I seem to be on the right track to secure my life.

@Sweep said:

I'm a hamburger. I want to be inside you.

I accept your offer. Come on over.

@iFail: Teaching was always something in the back of my mind, but it took me a long time to decide that it was the career I wanted. I was actually a Criminal Justice major in college and an English minor, but decided I didn't want to move on with law school and that I'd rather focus on the English part of my education. So, I took my state's exams, passed them, and started as a substitute teacher. I was an aide for the special education department before I taught full time, but had started work on my masters degree in education. I ended up getting hired to teach eight grade, then moved up to the high school level. Now I teach freshman, sophomores, and juniors (seniors next year!)

My typical day changes week to week, since I work at a vocational tech school. I have half of my classes one week, half the next. I teach three classes a day, 90 minutes each. I do all of my planning in the afternoons, as well as my copying. I usually get to work around 7am, begin teaching at 7:40, and teach until 12:45. Then I have a prep period, a duty period, and begin the cycle anew.

@TobbRobb: I try to be real with my students, and I expect them to behave the same way.

I'm a poor excuse of a defence solicitor..emphasis on poor

@Brewmaster_Andy said:

actually getting my Google Earth lesson to work!

That sounds awesome!

@WilltheMagicAsian said:

You also have a beard. When I was in high school, the best teachers I've ever had had full beards. Beards are the way to go to motivate students to succeed.

QFT

As for me, I'm 25 and work in the QA side of the tech field, and have a Kickstarter addiction.

I am a 25 years old writer in Quebec, Canada. I wrote a steampunk/adventure series in french that is actually being translated in English. Five books since three years. Thing is, we have such a small demography of french-speaking people compared to the rest of North America that I kinda need to get my work translated if I want to make enough money to live. I am considered successful here, but compared to the English demography of the rest of NA, I am absolutely nothing.

@Klei: Translated and will it be on Kindle? My french is a bit rusty but i'd be interested to take a look

Believe it or not, I graduated as a high school English teacher as well. English and World History, seeing as you can not become a teacher for a single subject in Belgium.

I graduated last year, and now work at the railway traffic control center in the harbour of Antwerp.

I'm a Education major :) I'm AYA social studies (Adolescent-Young Adult). I'm taking my time through school, it is my 4 year and I still have at least one more year to go. Frankly, it excites me and scares me at the same time but I can't wait to see what happens.

GO TEACHERS

When I was in high school, my English teacher said "Funner", and I got sad because god damn it.

Anyway, I'm currently a full time college student majoring in 'I dunno'. I hear it's a great degree to get. I also dance on street corners in my off-time for money. Wearing a taco costume.

I'm an English and Film Studies double major, published writer, and an aspiring writer/filmmaker.

@BrockNRolla: So how close is it to the 4th season of the Wire?

I'm 27, and a Financial Analyst. I suppose Financial Analyst in the context I know it is a nice way of saying I'm a spreadsheet jockey. I have a BS in Accounting, which I was thankfully able to parlay into something not quite accounting after working for a large, evil empire as a contractor for 3 years after I graduated in '07.

I'm in college right now for Computer Science and Engineering, and Computer Programming and Database design. I just recently got a job doing C++ programming and website development at a smaller programming firm.

Coincidentally, I am currently in the middle of getting my teaching license, though it'll be for Broadfield Social Studies, not English.  I already have a BA in History, and am now working on that as well as a Masters in Education.
 
@TobbRobb said:

@WilltheMagicAsian: There is truth to be found here.

I think the best teachers in my experience is the honest ones. A teacher who tells us why we do something and why he wants to do it a certain way, those are always the ones I end up liking and learning from.

Too many teachers just keep going on straight out of their schedule, and when asked why I just get some synonoym for "BECAUSE I SAID SO". So frustrating....

I have a useless Creative Writing degree, which I then parlayed into an accounting job of all things. I did that for eight years, lost my job to a restructuring, and now I've decided to return to my passion and I'm currently working on my first novel.

@Turambar: It's much easier to work toward content goals in English than in some other subjects. I tend to break my curriculum into concepts (like characterization, thematic elements, etc.) and use different novels to explore those concepts in practice.

I'm a university student taking philosophy. I work in a Deli, but I'm trying to break into game development. Hooah.

What do you make kids read? I have friends in college who never heard of Of Mice and Men. I would understand if these kids were from another country, but they aren't! And they don't know who John Steinbeck is! It was an eye opener for me.

I was a paralegal working in childcare until about a month ago, now I'm a brand manager for a major national pub chain working from home. Funnily enough video games aren't the distraction you'd expect them to be. I'm currently waiting for a call on Skype from my boss, and he's taking his sweet time.

Software engineer here, been in the field for over 3 years. It can be very stressful trying to get a project out on time, usually way behind schedule... lots of overtime. Good money, rewarding when a project is done, but I'm still learning to be ok with working a lot of off-hours.

@SSully: I teach Of Mice and Men, The Odyssey, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Catcher in the Rye, The Kite Runner, A Raisin in the Sun, The Things They Carried, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Hobbit, 1984, Animal Farm, Anthem, Lord of the Flies, The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Call of the Wild, Great Expectations, and a lot more.

@Kaineda77 said:

@BrockNRolla: So how close is it to the 4th season of the Wire?

Sadly, on a fair amount of days, quite close.

@Brewmaster_Andy: Where have you been all my life???

@Brewmaster_Andy: All in one year? Maybe my school just sucked but that's a ton. We didn't even do that many books in AP. I wish I had a teacher that made us read Animal Farm though. I'm curious but I doubt I'll ever get around to reading it on my own despite how much I liked 1984.

Also, I have to ask. What makes things like Shakespeare and Catcher in the Rye worth teaching? Is it just for the history? Cause man, I think Catcher in the Rye is sooooooooo dumb.

That said, I'm an english major hoping to find my way into covering video games (yeah, yeah, fuck you haters).

Its probably a list of books that he teaches to all of his students. Anthem is a little heavy for freshmen lol I didn't originally like reading Shakespeare but his works gives incredible context into 16th century England and its just good english to read. I loved Catcher in the Rye, its like looking into a warped window in which we see the actions of a boy who is in a spiraling uncontrollable fall that life gives him.

I have a B.A. in Media Communications, and worked as a freelance videographer for a number of years. I worked in the restaurant business before that and through college. I don't work anymore because of some insanely complicated circumstances.

Former pro-am game journalist turned school counselor in training. The past few years have been an amazing experience and I've been able to be apart of two different worlds and meet some incredible people. Now I have some more stability but I will probably never get to see E3 or any private events again... well, maybe...

But I found that being in education, despite how troubling it can be, is so much more rewarding to me. Helping these kids and seeing them develop cognitively over the course of just a few months has been a far greater experience than rushing through an 80 hour game to write about it.

I'm currently in my freshman year of university, majoring in English and Secondary Ed. While I really enjoy my education class and I love my tutoring job, I still feel a strong pull towards journalism and criticism. I'd really, really like to write about movies, music, or video games for a living. The pull between those two is actually making this freshman year a really stressful experience, as I don't know if the classes I'm taking will end up being useful to me in the future at all.

That those can, do, those that can't, teach. I'm a spy.