My profession is in programming. Initially, my dad tried to teach me Javascript. It was a struggle and couldn’t get it.
A few years later, I took up computer science in college and that’s where it all clicked: I can imagine the end result. It’s a matter of being curious and finding (or I daresay… hacking) my way to that conclusion. Programming languages have a very funny way of allowing you to do just that. In studying computer science, I discovered the art of engineering all kinds of software-based solutions.
Because my way of solving problems is more deductive than inductive, I have to consciously build foundational knowledge and routines. Constant learning and insatiable curiosity is required for me to identify when my hunches are wrong and discard them accordingly.
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I always enter “exotic dancer” when a form requires me to for some bullshit reason.
Long time IT/cybersecurity.
Cybersecurity is all about curiosity and learning. I got there via the military.
E: too soon.
Wow it’s really cool someone from a military background went into the field of cybersecurity!
Is this common at all in cybersecurity?
There’s a lot of IT jobs in the military, and that includes cybersecurity.
It is now. When I got into it, I was doing communications, mainly radio and satellite. I had no idea what I was going to do, and as it turned out, computers and learning really struck a chord with me.
I used military grade cryptography in the Navy, but I learned a lot about cybersecurity on my own. All the “puzzles”, and learning new things everyday like new technology, new vulnerabilities, etc.
Now they have specialists in the military and other government agencies that teach it. Although, given the current political climate, I wouldn’t want to be part of that with that.
As much as people learn it in school and the military now, I feel to be really good at it, you have to know at least a little of everything. I like to look at it like a technical jack of all trades.
You’d be surprised how many people there are from all sorts of backgrounds and interests, that had no idea they would be making a living out of hacking.
Any tips on how to break into the field as a SWE?
Learn everything you can, about everything you can,
and check out places you can practice your learning like Hack the Box or one of the other platforms.And go from there!
I’m a lifelong cook. Been working in kitchens since I was 15 and I’m currently training to be the sous chef at my current location.
People shit on food service workers but the amount of practical real life skills I’ve acquired over the years has actually come in handy quite a few times.
but the amount of practical real life skills I’ve acquired over the years
Are there any particularly unexpected ones?
There’s a couple for me.
Prioritization of tasks. The flaming pot is more important than the smoking oven.
The ability to move through a dense group of people without disrupting anyone.
Sense of urgency. You need to move with intention and do it quickly.
Injury assessment. You’re not going home because you got 1st degree burns. Grit your teeth and push through. If you cut yourself it’s a different story but unless your skin is sloughing off your fine.
Central heating and ventilation technician, that was my first one, it was awesome, learned welding and stuu like that. But during the winter I couldn’t do it, every time so freaking cold.
Then I was a Rubber mixer for the aufomobile industry, which destroyed my sense of smell to a high degree so I switched again.
Next was frontend developer, then iPhona app developer and then finally I also studied computer science.
After that I I went back to the automobile industry, but with the CS background I’m in software development now. My profession is very broad. I’m Integrator, Software Factory Subject Matter Expert (basically architecture around devops), Configuration Manager. Not programming at all anymore.
Well sir, I step in front of cars and sue the drivers.
Jean Ralphio?
I got run over by a Lexus
I get to cut up human organs for a living. Whenever something is removed during surgery, it comes to me. It can be mundane but there are fun and interesting things too. The job is very hands on.
No, I’m not a surgeon. You wouldn’t want me to attempt to perform surgery on you. I’m not a physician of any kind.
What’s your job title?
Are you in pathology?
Gimme an M! Gimme an L! Gimme a T!
What’s that spell?
Histotech also known as the deli person.
So… more like a butcher?
I am a jack of all trades, master of none. I’m a nobody, who likes to have fun. I’m easily distracted and lose focus a ton.
I am an amateur scientist, a cook, an author of unwritten books, I can’t solve your problems but I’ll still take a look.
I’ve been a toy soldier, a quick thinker, a recycling inventer and a useless tinker, who was once known as a legendary drinker.
I’m naturally shy but occasionally I’m bolder and i see beauty beyond the eye of the beholder as a student or mentor to both younger and older.
A person “who” cares, doesn’t matter about “what”, “when” I’m needed, “where” ever that may be, and sometimes “why”. z.
I’ve walked a mile in your shoes and I ran so far away just to be the man who walked a 1000 miles to fall down at your door.
I never give up, never surrender, never gonna let you down, never gonna turn around, bright eyes, every now and then i fall apart.
A party of one, a party of five, a party of me, oh, ah, ah, ah, ah, staying alive, staying alive. As long as I know how to love I know I’ll be alive, I will survive.
I want it all or maybe just a little bit off more than I can chew on that it’s a piece of cake and eat it too rich for my blood is thicker than water you talking about?
Chances are, the odds are even, shirts versus skins. don’t stop believin’ that as far as I’m concerned, everybody wins or was kung fu fighting, thunderbolts and lightning, please.
Online I go by Lattrommi, the first and foremost, last but not least, mostly a man, still part beast, from the state of ohio in the united states of north america on this planet earth within the sol system somewhere along an arm of the milky way galaxy.
If you read all this, I hope you have a nice day.
Really channeling Chris Boden there.
I’m a Microsoft 365 admin. It’s the easiest job I’ve ever had and it pays 6 figures. I don’t even have a bachelor’s, but no techie person likes Microsoft 365 so they avoid it like the plague, which I saw as an opportunity.
Microsoft 365
6 figures
What
Where do I apply ???
Just search for “Microsoft 365 Admin” jobs. Glassdoor lists the range as 88k-131k. I’m in a low cost of living area, so I assume bigger cities would pay even better.
IT Project and Team lead.
Protecting “my” engineers from the customers. :)
HAAAWOOO!
HAAAWOOO!
HAAAWOOO!
“You see old friend. I brought more soldiers than you did” Lol my first thought as well
You work as a fog horn?
Werewolf? London by any chance?
Had to scroll way too far for this.
PROFESSIONAL HOG CRANKER? WOW BROTHER, YOU’RE LIVING MY DREAM! AROOOOO
Manager in the neuroscience lab where I did my PhD. Actually pretty nice because I know the lab and everyone so we’ll I can often do the management in a few hours and then just focus on my research (finishing my thesis because behavior plus in vivo neurophysiology takes more like 7 years instead of 4 lol). Although, there can be some very stressful moments, big grants or so (and my boss is one of those breathing-science profs that will msg on WhatsApp on the weekend or days off lol, but yeah fuck that). I learned that I’m not good enough/invested enough to actually become a PI or prof, so this management stuff is pretty nice on the edge. I don’t have the responsibilities but my opinion is often respected due to my research experience in the lab. Pay is shit tho.
I manage an infectious disease monitoring lab in industry. Pay’s a whole lot better out here, and my team is amazing and self-driven so I can do minimal people managing.
Oh that’s sounds nice. Not sure how to word it well, but: is that a bit interesting to do long term? Is it following the advancements in science in a nice tempo? Do you have room for innovation yourself?
What I do specifically is called wastewater based epidemiology. While the term has been around for a few decades, it really took off in concordance with COVID. Previous PCR techniques like qPCR are heavily inhibited by co-elutors from wastewater extract. We use digital PCR which is way more resistant to inhibition due to the partitioning. We are using cutting edge technology and our R&D dept is constantly looking into additional targets we can test for. As a company we also do some non-pcr-based wastewater testing (drugs of abuse by LC/MS is a big one).
Additionally we also do next gen sequencing to track the COVID variants in communities.
Game developer (software engineer) We get paid less than conventional software but it’s very rewarding work on its own.
Musician. Graduated college expecting to go into STEM but the work made me miserable. A little less financially stable now but I would trade that for my mental well-being 10 times out of 10.
What kind of jobs do you do as a musician?
I’m a professional slut… for data.
LOL I mean I can probably say the same thing and I gotta tell you. It’s amazing the people out there that want to:
- Control the narrative of the data
- Suppress the data
I’ll use just a simple example of tracking incidents in your organization. It’s so polarizing like people how do you expect to improve if you can’t acknowledge your faults?
Extrapolate that to the current political climate.
Do you work at my company?! Holy shit that’s spot on.
They’re all the same. All companies are the goddamn same…
It’s so polarizing like people how do you expect to improve if you can’t acknowledge your faults?
The scale of this problem is mind-boggling: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002
spoiler for those who don't want to skim an article on a US military war game
Long story short, the US Armed Forces performed a practice war simulation, “costing US$250 million (equivalent to about $423M in 2023), the most expensive war game in US military history”. The two teams were “Blue” (totally-not the US) and the “Red” team (totally-not Iran or Iraq). The retired Lieutenant General of the Red team made the reasonable choice to adopt old-school low-tech tactics to avoid the Blue team’s sophisticated electronic surveillance network, as well as other asymmetric tactics like those used by real armies who have defended against US invasions. Red team won in one day. There were apparently a range of technical problems in the simulation which made it harder for Blue, so they re-tried with conditions to make use of the remaining thirteen days. However:
After the war game was restarted, its participants were forced to follow a script drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory. Among other rules imposed by this script, Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be destroyed, and during a combined parachute assault by the 82nd Airborne Division and Marines air assaulting on the then new and still controversial CV-22, Van Riper’s forces were ordered not to shoot down any of the approaching aircraft. Van Riper also claimed that exercise officials denied him the opportunity to use his own tactics and ideas against Blue Force, and that they also ordered Red Force not to use certain weapons systems against Blue Force and even ordered the location of Red Force units to be revealed. The postmortem JFCOM report on MC02 would say “As the exercise progressed, the [Opposing Force] free-play was eventually constrained to the point where the end state was scripted. This scripting ensured a blue team operational victory and established conditions in the exercise for transition operations.” :::
I’m in IT. Wish I could have gotten into programming, but I’m just not suited to it for whatever reasons. I love tinkering on Linux boxes and figuring out networking issues. Interested in infosec, but discouraged by how many of those jobs involve working for the war machine.
I’m kind of in the same boat, thought I’d be programming but figured out early on that sitting at a desk coding for 8+ hours a day just wasn’t my thing. Turns out I’m happier doing all the other IT grunt work e.g. setting up servers, backups, dealing with the network/wireless/firewalls, even provisioning and supporting user desktops gets interesting.
