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  #61  
Old 27-11-2008, 05:25 AM
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troypiggo (Troy)
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I'm a structural consulting engineer. Boring, I know. Only job I have ever had since 1992 graduation, happy in it, part owner of the company now, and will be here til I retire
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  #62  
Old 27-11-2008, 06:10 AM
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My official title is 'Field Solutions Engineer'

I install & service medical imaging equipment, including MRI, CT, Xray and Nuclear medicine. Been doing that for 12 years.

Prior to that I did some other stuff, including 13 years in the electricity supply industry, where I did my electrical apprenticeship, got my certificate in electronics and worked in high voltage substations as a protection fitter.

Mark
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  #63  
Old 27-11-2008, 06:20 AM
I.C.D (Ian)
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Ask to leave school Christmas 1966 first job was with the Army as a causal civilian (roustabout )in 1967 got full time employment in May 1968 as a trainee overhead linesman with the then Hunter Valley County Council left the county in late 1980 and when into the mines as a CHPP (Washery operator) while their leant to drive the big rear dumpers and loaders ,did all the shift doggy day afternoon and weekends (don’t miss night shift and weekends )at the present time I am on long serves leave have 36 weeks to go then retiring .I am driving school bus at the present time for somethig to do I will do that till I am 60 .And in between all that I was a Nasho never got the chance to go to Vietnam

Ian C
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  #64  
Old 27-11-2008, 06:52 AM
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OneOfOne (Trevor)
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Worked for 25 years at the Telstra Research Labs beginning in electronic design, moving on to software development, optic fibre and finally got out in 2000. Did some really interesting work (the 1000W laser was fun) and some boring work.

A few months later got my current job as a software developer (Delphi). The company I work for makes electronic price labels. Each label has a 4 bit micro and LCD price display on the front. When we get a price change file overnight we send the new prices to the labels by modulating the lights in the building with the data. When they come in the next morning the prices changes are done. Very challenging (aka complex) stuff with a code base of 280,000 lines of code.
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  #65  
Old 27-11-2008, 07:49 AM
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drsimmo (Simon)
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I work at the Anglo-Australian Observatory
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  #66  
Old 27-11-2008, 08:04 AM
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I work at the Anglo-Australian Observatory



Adrian
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  #67  
Old 27-11-2008, 08:41 AM
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I qualified as an audio engineer only to find out that there was no need to be qualified and that I could have saved that 20k I paid for my diploma.

I now run the audio visual departments for the Novotel and Pullman Hotels in Homebush. If you ever attend a conference at those hotels or the Swiss Grand (I left the Swiss a little over a year ago) in Bondi, it was probably me that organised it.
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  #68  
Old 27-11-2008, 08:41 AM
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Hi all,

I'm a molecular biologist at the University of Queensland, currently working on a project where we are trying to increase sugar yields and produce high value sugars in sugarcane (as a feedstock for biofuel production).

Cheers,
Stephen
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  #69  
Old 27-11-2008, 09:54 AM
§AB
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Big W nightfill. Casual position so i can work/not work when I want to and wages are better than full/part time
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  #70  
Old 27-11-2008, 10:10 AM
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dannat (Daniel)
daniel

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third year science teacher

before that about 7 years in pathology as lab scientist

TerryB - i worked for 3.5 yrs for Oxley (now)

Doug - how long in Cyto? people tend not to last too long as the ones i knew get burned out - how's your eyes?
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  #71  
Old 27-11-2008, 12:51 PM
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Code monkey (programmer). Give me a spec and I'll code it.
I love the dark and drink far too much coffee.
Goes hand in hand with Astronomy.
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  #72  
Old 27-11-2008, 01:55 PM
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Who, me??

Journalist/IT ... Almost all the time since leaving school spent on the NSW north coast, cupla stints in the metros, but the country always beckons. Recently moved to the dark side (long story) and now working in IT, though more the management and infrastructure thing and support (have you turned the PC off and on again?) for the company-wide publishing system. Plus a bit of TAFE teaching.
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  #73  
Old 27-11-2008, 02:27 PM
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Max Vondel (Peter)
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I worked in the Hospitality industry, waiter, barman, roomservice (Hilton Hotels) while a student, studied chem eng, elect eng and then Bible College. Finally finished Nuclear Medicine Technology. Now I run (GM) 3 businesses - Labsupply Australia- A laboratory and scientific supply company specialising in interchangeable glassware (we manufacture our own equipment)- Fantasy Glass - glass adult toys (glass dildo's!!!) and Sydney Glassblowing College (teaching basic recreational glass blowing techniques).
Besides, I have lots of other other interesting business idea's - some of them astronomical!!!
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  #74  
Old 27-11-2008, 02:29 PM
shredder
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After school, I went and did an Engineering Degree at UNSW.

And was so thoroughly brain dead at the end of it I just had to go and see if UTS was any better, where I ended up doing a 2nd Engineering Degree.

Now I have two degrees, that I can barely remember the names of...

I work in the IT industry, and have probably worked for over 35 companies to date (a lot of consulting work), anything from Submarines, to Banking and Finance, to Telecommunication, and Steel Production / Process systems.

These days I am a ... what does the business card say... "Enterprise Architect".... hang on the other one is different "Chief Technical Architect"... yeah that sounds better (we print them ourselves)... all of which means I get to sit at a desk, staring aimlessly out the window, while trying to remember what the heck it is I am here for again... all while giving the obligatory "ohh that sounds complex, better let me think about it, and get back to you" kind of answers whenever I get asked a deep n meaningful question...

You just got to love those bull#$#& IT job titles...
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  #75  
Old 27-11-2008, 02:46 PM
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I own my own Pest Control / Termite Inspection Buisness in Wollongong , i also do a lot of work for Flick.
Can be a bit messy and a bit frightening ( climbing under house in snake or wombat infested areas ) but touch wood i havent been bit yet.
I love my job , working outdoors , meeting ppl , sure beats working in a office ....
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  #76  
Old 27-11-2008, 03:07 PM
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dugnsuz (Doug)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dannat View Post

Doug - how long in Cyto? people tend not to last too long as the ones i knew get burned out - how's your eyes?
17 years, eyes fine, the rest are the burned out bits!!
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  #77  
Old 27-11-2008, 03:17 PM
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[quote=styleman333;384489]I own my own Pest Control / Termite Inspection Buisness in Wollongong , i also do a lot of work for Flick.
Can be a bit messy and a bit frightening ( climbing under house in snake or wombat infested areas ) but touch wood i havent been bit yet.quote]

I'll have to give you a call next time I have a wombat infestation .
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  #78  
Old 27-11-2008, 06:34 PM
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Kal (Andrew)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shredder View Post
These days I am a ... what does the business card say... "Enterprise Architect".... hang on the other one is different "Chief Technical Architect"... yeah that sounds better (we print them ourselves)...
No no no! Enterprise Architect sounds better - theres the space shuttle enterprise, along with the starship enterprise
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  #79  
Old 27-11-2008, 08:55 PM
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I'm enjoying this thread; it's a bit like 'Why I Live Where I Live' on Australian All Over, and that is a topic we might visit in the future.

After I left school I went to uni, because that's what bright kids do, but without any clear view as to what i wanted to do. The memories of exactly what I did are a bit hazy but, anyway I failed. So I joined the public service and wound up in DSS dispensing the dole. After a few years it became apparent that if I stayed I would get an ulcer and/or become an alcoholic. My wife's job was likewise at a dead end, so we bought a 4WD and set off to travel and work around Oz. That was great but eventually it had to end. We returned to Wollongong and both went to uni.

I had seen plenty of pollution and land degradation so I majored in physical geography and chemistry with the idea of fighting the good environmental fight. In second year I did a subject called 'Environmental Prehistory of Australia' and it changed my life. The third year geomorphology subjects all bought home how much we explain the present and predict the future by understanding the past.

I ended up starting a PhD in geochemistry, specifically using stable-isotope ratios in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. This may sound an obscure field, and in a way it is, but it the one of the few techniques that provides quantitative information about past environments - the temperature record for the past several million years was obtained from stable isotope ratios in of marine micro-organisms extracted from deep-sea cores. (BTW isotope techniques have a great variety of other uses, from plant breeding to detecting drugs in sport.)

Unfortunately I had a major nervous breakdown while doing the PhD and it is now gone. About 8 months later,as I was picking myself up, the technician in the lab I worked in quit to move to WA and I wound up getting the job.

That was in 2002 and at that stage we had one stable-isotope mass spectrometer (IRMS). My workaholic, high-flying boss now has two IRMS, doing different types of work, an ICP-MS, a HPLC, one of the few GC-GC-PFC in the world, a new prep lab and next year a state-of-the-art 'clumped-isotope' mass spec, but still only me. The place could easily justify 3-4 tech staff. And that brings me to the only real gripe I have with the job; I could work 24/7 and still not do all that needs to be done. So I (basically) draw the line at 7/5, with only a few unpaid weekends. However, it makes me feel bad when perfectly good students can't get there thesis completed on time because I can't do something they need done. The situation isn't my fault but it's my door they knock on.

On the up side I get to participate in really interesting (to me anyway) research, meet lots of interesting people and keep up with recent developments. I knew about the Hobbit of Flores a year before the paper was published, but we were sworn to secrecy (I don't have any scoops at the moment but Mike is in Indonesia now digging for the next discovery.) I am, or have, analysed samples as part research that has looked at the past climate of Flores during the time the Hobbit lived, the environment of northern Oz over 12,000 years, the sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific and Indian oceans over the past 5-6000 years, the movement of organic matter from land to sea and what caused the mass extinction at the Permian-Triassic boundary etc etc.

It is also a pleasant place to work. Even though people work really hard the place maintains a pleasant ambiance. No one clock-watches me, I organize my time to achieve the tasks I am set and I get respected for my abilities and knowledge. Although our undergrads are almost all Australians the postgrads, which is who I deal with, come from every continent. It would be nothing to be talking to a Brazillian, Chinese and Iranian at the same time. And I really enjoy meeting all these people.

I can also walk to work. The campus is known as one of the most beautiful in the country and is pleasant to walk around, especially when the students aren't about. Of course when they are around there is another type of beauty an old man can apprecialte .

One skill I have not mastered is brevity. Good night.
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  #80  
Old 27-11-2008, 09:34 PM
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nice work Astral thanks for sharing
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