What is your expertise?

[jazmunda]

I've been a waiter, a bar tender, a delivery driver, a security guard, a cleaner, a student, a telemarketer, a bean counter, an IT professional, a manager, a husband and a father.

Hated some, loved some, made great friends, made a little money, made no money, made lots of money, needed a lot of weed and alcohol to get through some and would never trade some others for anything in the world.

And I have no regrets. Each path I travelled took me to where I am now and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

[bateman]

And I have no regrets. Each path I travelled took me to where I am now and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

I know regrets are pretty useless, but I do regret not doing some things sooner.

[RealCool Daddio]

These are awesome responses, by the way.  I had a feeling this thread would be good.

My expertise- guitar repair.  That's what I do, and that's what I've done full time for 11 years now.  I was doing it part time before that.  I have also been a farmer, piano salesman, cook, garbage man, and even ran a collectible record store for a few years.  A long time ago, I sold, uh, illegal substances.

Wow. Never would have guessed these things about you, General.

As for myself, I am in upper management, IT.  Currently oil and gas, previously in off shore banking.  5 days a week, I am a suit.  Before that, I played bass in a punk band.

[BobGrau]

Paperboy, fruit picker, office dogsbody, media student, gardener, librarian, warehouse, fish factory, credit union, occupational therapy, kitchen porter, night manager, breakfast chef, housekeeper, loft insulation surveyor, grouse beater, supermarket booze pimp.


Don't judge me. Just hand over the weed.

[Cynnie]

I can make money ..its a talent

[Heather Wade]

Paperboy, fruit picker, office dogsbody, media student, gardener, librarian, warehouse, fish factory, credit union, occupational therapy, kitchen porter, night manager, breakfast chef, housekeeper, loft insulation surveyor, grouse beater, supermarket booze pimp.


Don't judge me. Just hand over the weed.

You win.  I'd never be caught dead pimping booze at a supermarket.   

[Cynnie]

Ive done everything from working in a sweat shop to be general manager of huge company ..whatever i gotta do, im not a fancy prima donna

[Heather Wade]

Ive done everything from working in a sweat shop to be general manager of huge company ..whatever i gotta do, im not a fancy prima donna

What was it like at a sweat shop?     Curious. 

[jazmunda]

I know regrets are pretty useless, but I do regret not doing some things sooner.

Oh I do have some "regrets". Things (or people) that I wish I had done or done sooner. Sometimes we need the regrets and failures so that we can learn and use it as motivation to succeed. I don't regret any of my "regrets" though.

[Treading Water]

Car hop, banquet server, geriatric nurse's aide, accounting clerk, receptionist, office manager, veterinary technician, asst. dog groomer, dog trainer, kennel/dog sitter, office manager, and -- back to accounting clerk/receptionist.

I enjoyed the aide and vet tech work, but burned out on all the dying involved - people AND animals. 
I also traveled a while with a friend of mine who showed dogs, but he ran away with the wife of one of his clients and I never heard from him again.

I fostered dogs for a while.  Mostly I just kept them.  When I looked around one day and saw I had FIVE 80+ pound dogs living in a house with less square footage than an average trailer, well, I stopped taking any more in. 

[area51drone]

I have been a paperboy, retail store employee, university tech support, computer lab operator, software engineer for large business and for a couple of start ups (speech recognition and fiber optic telephony), janitor (yes, I've cleaned up other people's literal shit), consultant and now I run an online retail store, specializing now selling things on amazon.   Is still develop software for my business to make it as efficient and as cut-throat as possible (since that's kind of what is required to sell on amazon).   If there is anyone else who does a lot of sales on amazon - ie its your full time job - PM me, I'd love talk to you.   I guess I also make/backend code websites now and then for friends and for my business when it's necessary.  Oh, and I forgot, I own and operate 13 pinball machines in a local arcade.

I'm a happily married man who doesn't need your services redacted, but to be 100% honest the first thing that popped into my mind when I read that was "what's the number?"  LOL.  Nothing wrong with that profession, or being in porn even.  Do what makes you happy, pays the bills or both.   I bet you have some really funny stories to tell.

[Heather Wade]

That, I do.  Dig the arcade... had no idea you were quite the business man, 'Drone!  Very cool.
Looks like everyone has done a bit of everything, and we have some very smart cookies in our midst.

[Yorkshire pud]

thought printing was mostly dead... I was a 4 color stripper for 20 years... hated every minute of it.

Not entirely dead; it's just changed and moved venues.. China has taken a huge amount of commercial lithographic printing work, they can produce and ship a lot of it back to the UK cheaper than it can be done here; crazy but true. What has changed over the last two or so years is the rise of large format inkjet printing onto substrates and three dimensional objects that was unavailable in any quantity five years ago. What has developed is the printing of white ink and the use of LED UV curing. White was notoriously difficult (I was involved in some R&D work for an ink supplier in 2007) because it could be thick enough to be dense, or thin enough to go through the head nozzles, but not both. But time and more R&D move on and now it's possible with the use of zinc oxide and using clever stuff in it's execution.

Printing onto 3D objects was restricted in many instances to pad printing (used to print Rolex watch faces), but now inkjet printers are available that can print directly onto such as golf balls, fridge magnets, small wooden boxes, metal parts, key fobs etc...

I don't consider '3D printing' to be printing, it's simply material building, the same as brick laying.

[Mind Flayer Monk]

I can make money ..its a talent

You mean make money with like a printing press? That is quite a talent.

[b_dubb]

i've driven delivery, dug ditches, strung electrical lines, sorted freight, unloaded/loaded freight from 727s, prepped food, washed dishes, painted house numbers on the curb, been an assistant for a professor, operated high volume commercial printers, graphic design, computer troubleshooting and repair,  painted houses, web designer, web developer, import agent at a customs broker, and ... dum dum dum ... worked as an actor [extra] in a major motion picture.  and yes i was actually on screen for a few seconds.

[Jesus Undercarriage]

Factory worker, Electronic assembler, Hi-Fi and speaker upgrader, printer, tree surgeon, slide guitar player, I recently quit everything and moved 300 miles to London to learn how to make acoustic guitars with hand tools. I love it, if only I had found this sooner!!
Great to see other guitar repairers on here, we should have a guitar repairing/making thread

[Jesus Undercarriage]

Fuck it.  I have a resume 2 1/2 pages long of office support staff positions I excelled at.  Used to work for my friends' bands loading & unloading gear on the weekends (Been known to back-up sing on occasion, as well).  Can't do that anymore because of my injury & pain.

Now, I am reduced to working a fetish phone sex line.  There.  Now everyone knows. I don't give a shit today.  Sling your stones and arrows or whatever else is handy.  Go ahead and hate me, think less of me.  Doesn't matter to me anymore.

What's my expertise?  Survival.     I gotta eat, man.

I don't think anyone thinks less of you at all.

[NXOEED]

Visual artist. I make paintings.

[jazmunda]

Nice work. What type of paints do you use?

[NXOEED]

Thank you kindly. These are acrylic. I use acrylic most of the time, because the bulk of my shows are live art gigs and I need to be able to either sell or get the piece home by the end of the night. But I do occasionally paint with oil, if I have the time.

[jazmunda]

I thought it looked like acrylic. I love the texture of acrylic paintings. I don't know how to explain it.

[Marc.Knight]

Thinking I know more than everyone about everything.

[NXOEED]

I thought it looked like acrylic. I love the texture of acrylic paintings. I don't know how to explain it.

I do too,  especially on wood.

[Heather Wade]

NXOEED, your paintings are disturbing and unsettling.  I love them.  Thank you for posting them.

[NXOEED]

NXOEED, your paintings are disturbing and unsettling.  I love them.  Thank you for posting them.

Thanks so much.

[Grov505th]

2D/3D Imagery analyst and Cartographer, but I have worked retail and was an Air Traffic Controller once a really long time ago...

[Marc.Knight]

Writing nonsense on a forum.

[West of the Rockies]

Writing nonsense on a forum.

Hey, nice work if you can get it!  I do that for free....

[Cynnie]

You mean make money with like a printing press? That is quite a talent.

I wish ..cause then i would be artistically talented ..which i am not

[Cynnie]

What was it like at a sweat shop?     Curious.

Hard , i worked in a sewing plant when i was 15 sewing fancy pajamas ..it was stressfull and monotonous ., then i worked in a cotton mill when i was 16 ..now that was scary , the machines are huge and loud and everything is greasy and dusty .you could easilly get maimed
And you get bitched at constantly for not being fast enough