What's your job ?

[David]

I had a few jobs....sales...approved driving instructor mechanic...ran a vehicle delivery company. Also worked a bit in action vehicles . Remember boone? Was on that a bit.

[Wreckless Rat]

I have a few...

Senior project manager for a network/comms company, and I do some freelance work in 'business development' - basically tendering for new framework contracts, and trying to build up the coffee business.

I really should have tried harder at skool... or tried at all really.

[Horse]

I really should have tried harder at skool... or tried at all really.

I wonder about this 'should have tried harder' concept. Partly because I was lazy and relied on doing the bare minimum, but mainly because I don't want a high powered 'successful' job.

And if every employee had 'tried harder' and achieved equally, where would those currently at top be?

[Mr. Dazzle]

I wouldnt say I have a high powered job. Certainly I get paid a lot more than average, but also a lot less than the kind of high powered job you're probably talking about.

I do love what I do though. I also have the luxury of doing the kind of job I want to do, rather than doing the job I can get.

All because I tried hard at school

[Horse]

All because I tried hard at school

Fair enough. Partly I never had an aim or desire.

Thinking about it, I wouldn't have the job I do now without having put a huge amount of time and effort into a hobby, which led to me getting an interview when typically my CV would have been in the bin in seconds.

At one point, I could look around the office and within a few metres were umpteen people with degrees, several Masters and PhDs, and a professor. My day release HTC is a bit low in comparison. For several years I was almost in fear of getting 'found out'

My 'success' here has come from being able to utilise skills that were needed, along with the attitude of giving everything a try.*

* T&Cs apply

[Wreckless Rat]

I wouldnt say I have a high powered job. Certainly I get paid a lot more than average, but also a lot less than the kind of high powered job you're probably talking about.

I do love what I do though. I also have the luxury of doing the kind of job I want to do, rather than doing the job I can get.

All because I tried hard at school

I earn a lot more than the UK average, and a lot less than I used to, but still much more than "average" and I left skool with sweet FA.

As you get older, skool qualifications mean less and less - well certainly for my generation anyway. I think that's likely a bit different now - but I also think the tide is turning. Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Success imho isn't dependant on trying hard at skool, although leaving skool with decent qualifications certainly makes it easier in many ways to be successful as an "employed minion".

[Horse]

Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Our place they add one word, to make it a 'numerate degree'.

[The Spin Doctor]

'colouring-in' degrees

LOL tea in keyboard moment

[Trinity765]

I wouldnt say I have a high powered job. Certainly I get paid a lot more than average, but also a lot less than the kind of high powered job you're probably talking about.

I do love what I do though. I also have the luxury of doing the kind of job I want to do, rather than doing the job I can get.

All because I tried hard at school

I earn a lot more than the UK average, and a lot less than I used to, but still much more than "average" and I left skool with sweet FA.

As you get older, skool qualifications mean less and less - well certainly for my generation anyway. I think that's likely a bit different now - but I also think the tide is turning. Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Success imho isn't dependant on trying hard at skool, although leaving skool with decent qualifications certainly makes it easier in many ways to be successful as an "employed minion".

My two best friends from school left with a small handful of O'levels/CSE's (as it was then) and both went on to do very well. Both of them became directors in the corporate sector, one of them retired in her 40s. They had, as teenagers, the personality attributes that got them that far - it was never taught to them. They both really wanted to succeed and did. While I hover just above the national wage I wouldn't want to be either of them or have had their lives and I see life as pretty fair.

[Wreckless Rat]

I wouldnt say I have a high powered job. Certainly I get paid a lot more than average, but also a lot less than the kind of high powered job you're probably talking about.

I do love what I do though. I also have the luxury of doing the kind of job I want to do, rather than doing the job I can get.

All because I tried hard at school

I earn a lot more than the UK average, and a lot less than I used to, but still much more than "average" and I left skool with sweet FA.

As you get older, skool qualifications mean less and less - well certainly for my generation anyway. I think that's likely a bit different now - but I also think the tide is turning. Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Success imho isn't dependant on trying hard at skool, although leaving skool with decent qualifications certainly makes it easier in many ways to be successful as an "employed minion".

My two best friends from school left with a small handful of O'levels/CSE's (as it was then) and both went on to do very well. Both of them became directors in the corporate sector, one of them retired in her 40s. They had, as teenagers, the personality attributes that got them that far - it was never taught to them. They both really wanted to succeed and did. While I hover just above the national wage I wouldn't want to be either of them or have had their lives and I see life as pretty fair.

Very true. I'm not that money driven. Sure, it would be nice to win the lottery or something, but I've never really dreamt of a big house etc - being brought up in a cold old farmhouse, a small warm house with hot water and a toilet that doesn't freeze your arse cheeks is all I really wish for in that respect. I still need to have a cold bedroom - I guess that's a vestige of having a bedroom cold enough for ice to form as a wee nipper.

Several of the school brain boxes, do things like... drive buses, one works in McD's (or did the last I heard of him) - some have done well for themselves. Even the ones who have excelled, I am pretty sure I wouldn't swap my life for theirs.

I work from home, I live a quiet life in the styx, which suits me, the antisocial fker that I am.

[Mr Moofo]

I am a pastry chef, left school after my GCSE's straight into a working apprenticeship, loved it, went from not having much fun at school or doing great to being in a kitchen full of older (18-25 year olds apart from the head and sous chef) and had loads if fun, was hard, but loved it. I started in the hot kitchen and spent around 5 years on that side, then went to work in Lyon for 7 months and sort of fell in love with the pastry side, did a few restaurants back in London then got a job at The Ritz Hotel in 2007, started as a Demi chef de partie (2nd lowest position) and I am now currently the head pastry chef, be so for around 7 years I think.

I get paid to play with chocolate and sugar.

Amedei Chocolate mousse, almond praline by lewis wilson, on Flickr

I used to design and develop cakes for Mr Kipling. Not many people know that ....!
After that I moved onto engineering biscuits and twiglet technology. I kid you not ....

[Mr. Dazzle]

I used to sit next to a guy who did a PHd in chocolate moulding Apparently the machine which makes Twirls is way more sophisticated than one which does fancy structural plastic parts. Supposedly chocolate is crazy hard to mould in machines and Twirls are the epitome of difficult chocolate.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

I tried at school, to say I worked hard would be a lie, but I came out with 7 O levels and a CSE, I got a job as a lab assistant at 16, then I discovered something, I don't like work, it's boring and repetitive, and nothing in the last 37 years has changed my opinion, so I do what will earn me the most money for the least effort - which in my case is IT networking and security, apparently I think differently to most people and for this reason I find the work easy (been told this by a number of people, including one of the people who wrote Checkpoint Firewall courses and books)

So in brief, I don't think "tried harder at school" is the recipe for success (or at least the western capitalist interpretation of success), I think having the right attitude is the recipe for success, I don't have that attitude, but then again my idea of success appears to be different to most peoples, I'm happy with enough money to live on, a motorcycle to ride and a woman to shag.

[Mr Moofo]

I used to sit next to a guy who did a PHd in chocolate moulding Apparently the machine which makes Twirls is way more sophisticated than one which does fancy structural plastic parts. Supposedly chocolate is crazy hard to mould in machines and Twirls are the epitome of difficult chocolate.

Funny you say that - I could have done a Phd in food technology - and it would have been at that sort of level. But I hated academic research. It was the same when I finished my biochemistry degree and was offered a PhD in the endocrine system of pregnant guinea pigs!!. Had it been the migrating behaviour and the affect of the ring climate on Bald Eagle, I would have jumped at it!
I can remember sitting through lectures on heat transfer through UHT pouched pureed pork casserole ....

But I did my time in chocolate - and its a sneaky little bastard. Nasa may well have sent and recovered Apollo 13 with the computing power of a pocket calculator - but chocolate is much more difficult than that!
Chocolate needs to be tempered - because it actually has a crystal structure - this effects have it sets and how much sheen it has. Moulding choctaw in generally much smoother to the bite.
Something like Twirl ( or Aero - but it isn't chocolate) will use "re-work"- so it nucleates and sets up quicker - but it is grainy , and a bit crumbly ...
But then again it matter how long you conch the chocolate , cocoa solids, cocoa butter content etc ....

[Trinity765]

I used to sit next to a guy who did a PHd in chocolate moulding Apparently the machine which makes Twirls is way more sophisticated than one which does fancy structural plastic parts. Supposedly chocolate is crazy hard to mould in machines and Twirls are the epitome of difficult chocolate.

Did he tell you how they get the chocolate coating onto a Maltezer while keeping it perfectly spherical?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Chocolate needs to be tempered - because it actually has a crystal structure - this effects have it sets and how much sheen it has. Moulding choctaw in generally much smoother to the bite.
..

Yep...I was working with him on Thermoplastic carbon fibre, the polymer in that is also semi crystalline and needs the correct heat treatment. Apparently if you've mastered chocolate jet engine parts are a doddle.

[MingtheMerciless]

Many good jobs used to say "Degree applicants only" - with the plethora of 'colouring-in' degrees and correspondence diplomas in climate change etc, it's starting to wane.

Oh I'm so using that one at work, where the HR/Management fascination of employing "Grads" stops them employing time served people with plenty of experience in roles where that's vital like Project Management. Grads are usually cheaper as well.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Grads are usually cheaper as well.

Real reason

[Yorick]

I never wanted a champagne lifestyle, but I did want to retire early, so worked towards that.

My best man, has the champagne lifestyle as both him and missus are company directors. To keep this when they retire, they're having to work until 65.

I'd rather have a 3 star pension at 55 than a 5 star pension at 65.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Having spent most of my life twatting about I'll be lucky if I get a 1 star pension at any age.