Public accountant. I love my job but the hours can get a little out of hand at times.
What is your occupation?
I am a scientist specialising in Biochemistry and I work in research as a laboratory supervisor. It's alright I suppose. A lot of long hours and stress, but I can't really picture myself doing anything else.
Game Character Artist. It has ups and downs based on where you work, who you work with, which project you're on, in the same was as any other job, I suppose. I've run the gamut of working for myself, working freelance, working for AAA studios, working for an indie studio and a whole lot of unemployment time, all in the last few years. Before that I was working in QA for 2.5 years while practicing art in my spare time to get into my career as an artist. The game industry has a lot of problems but I can't imagine doing anything else.
I'm an illustrator! Aside from your standard print freelance, I got the opportunity to work for a (very) big AAA game company here in NY for a few months and now I'm painting backgrounds for an upcoming animated show. I like freelancing, though promotion is stressful... I think I'm going to see where this TV thing takes me. Studio work is a nice balance.
I'm 21 and I work part time at a grocery store! Exciting!
No but for real I work part time for a online-ordering department of a local grocery store (After being a Courtesy Clerk, basically a mix of janitor and bag boy, for a few years and a Produce Clerk for a few months at another place where I got laid off.) I dont enjoy it very much but its a job that helps me pay my way through community college.
I was an international English Teacher for 7 years in South Korea, Thailand and China. I loved it and hated it and will never regret it. Now I'm not really anything as I try to convince people that my references are real places and not made up shit, though I'm looking to work in college foreign exchange programs, if not as a teacher any longer (not licensed for the US and not into going back to school for years when I'm 35 already) then at least as education support.
It used to be crazy easy to get the English teaching gig in South Korea (Patrick mentioned once on a podcast that he knew folks that went that had no business teaching anything to anyone) but the standards are generally higher now. All three of the countries have their advantages and disadvantages as you deal with culture, work, homesickness and all that. Korea was the best balance, while Thailand was the best life but worst work/pay and China was the best work/pay but the worst life outside of work. I'd recommend living outside of your home culture for at least a year to anyone, and if you have interest in teaching and are willing to actually care about your job (you ARE a teacher, you SHOULD care), then it's a very viable and cool way to do it. Just be careful of scams as there are tons and you can end up stranded.
@frustratedlnc: I worked part time briefly at a CVS for some extra money, and it didn't seem SO bad (I was just a Pharmacy Tech though -- the pay was shit, but the responsibility kind of matched it). None of the pharmacists seemed to love it so much though. Care to dish what was so terrible? I never got a chance to ask before I had to quit just because we hit a period of heavy OT at my actual job which is:
USPS letter carrier. I really like the work, but at times kind of hate the job. It comes with a lot of the red tape bullshit that you would expect from a government job, but more than that I find the constant us vs. them mentality between carriers and management to be exhausting (due to rather childishly absurd behavior on both sides). The pay is good though, and the benefits are nice, and I love getting paid exercise.
I got my bachelor's degree, then I tried to be a freelance graphic designer for 2 years, then I sold computers for 5½ years, then I got into a game development training program and got a job as a game designer at a large studio for 6½ years, and a few months ago I went indie as a game designer, writer, and artist. It's a bit stressful, as the game I'm working on is still months from release (and it's quite a quirky, niche title), but right now I'm having the time of my life. <3
I am a high school history teacher.
I love the job. I am the advisor for the schools gaming club. Plus the pay in my district is pretty great, especially for a 26 year old with no wife or kids.
The biggest downside is I spend a LOT of time off the clock working on lessons, and a lot of my own money on things for my classroom.
Chef.
I worked QA for a few years at Free Radical and tested the totally awesome and my proudest claim to fame; Haze.
*cries*
I'm a Research Assistant at a university for a project that aims to increase physical activity in girls that are in inner city schools. The problem is our grant money is about gone so I'm looking for a new job.
P.S. Job hunting is the absolute worst.
@sarcasticmudcrab: Free Radical seemed like an awesome company and they made great games. Shame 1 flop was immediately enough to sink them.
@sarcasticmudcrab: Free Radical seemed like an awesome company and they made great games. Shame 1 flop was immediately enough to sink them.
It was more the cancellation of Battlefront that did it, Haze pretty much broke even but millions had been invested into a game that never got finished so it was pure loss, sad times!
Paralegal at a PR company, but they're moving my department to Maryland in November, so no idea what I'll do then. I dislike my job, but with that being most of my career experience, and my degree being in English-Writing, there's not many options out there for me.
Just gonna ride it out until my fiance graduates from Med School, I guess.
@sarcasticmudcrab: "Haze pretty much broke even" - this is why you don't preorder games.
Programmer. Kinda - I was a math major in school and got a job at a math focused computer software company. I just kinda fell into the programming side of things. My job is weird.
@sarcasticmudcrab: "Haze pretty much broke even" - this is why you don't preorder games.
They got paid a shit load from Sony for exclusivity, it wasn't all from sales. I don't even know if pre-orders were much of a thing back then. Hey I don't know the deets exactly....I just know it wasn't due to Haze's failure that FRD went down.
I agree though pre-order is a bit silly in this climate.
Sorry for off-topic.
@alex: I can only imagine you in this type of scenario
@sarcasticmudcrab: Oh really? That's interesting to know.
I'm a stevedore. Essentially I sit in a crane all night, occasionally lifting shipping containers off/onto the ship while watching giant bomb content. I used to drive those forklifts like the GTA 5 sequence but I mostly just drive the crane now. It's pretty dope. Good money, flexible hours and I have a lot of down time. The negatives are working overnights and public holidays and we will potentially be made redundant in the not too distant future when they automate the cranes.
I love this thread. So cool to see how diverse the GB community is, even though it seems like a disproportionate amount of engineers. As for me, I'm a copy editor and graphic designer for a publishing company that focuses on behavior change. It's great, pays well enough, and certainly is a lot more ethical than my last job helping run political campaigns / public relations for garbage PACs.
I'm an automation engineer for Scania in Sweden, so my job is to automate stuff, I guess? I build automated systems and write the PLC programs for them.
It's great fun, it pays good, I have awesome colleagues and I get to learn new technology all the time.
I work in IT, doing a bit of everything. At the moment, Application Support and Project Transition work. Its okay, my workload is either very light or insanely heavy. It has its ups and downs but pays the bills.
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