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What's everyones occupation here at HybridZ!?


Guest caseyjones

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Now .....A tech at a Toyota dealership. Should have been a Lawyer.

6 years at various automobile manufacturers, customer/technical positions.

Engineering College.

etc,etc,etc.

 

 

ps.. stay in school.... get the degree.

Edited by jasper
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I've been a career counselor for 20 years at the Career Center at the University of Denver. I focus on helping students find internships and persuading employers to offer internships. Love working with students. I hope I can continue working there until I drop dead in my 80s. :)

 

John

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So after 3 years, this thread is resurrected.... What amazes me is how many unconventional jobs are among those reported. Some folks have highly specialized careers, others not. But very few are traditional cubicle dwellers, or retail clerks, or hold the various typical assignments. Many are self-employed or consultants, and even the institutional employees often have exotic field jobs.

 

I don't REALLY spend all day eating bonbons and playing tetris, but even so, I seem to be in the minority that favors a defined-benefit pension over an international life of mystery....

 

Now let me ask a related question: how many people relocated far from where they grew up, specifically to take the job which they now occupy? And how many made particular effort to find local employment?

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I live in the southern tip of California, the farthest point in the contiguous USA I could get from where I grew up. I wanted a position in Hong Kong.

 

I now service the Asia Pacific Region from my offices in SoCal.

 

I saw the writing on the wall in Michigan growing up that the cultural attitude there was wrong for me, and for sustainability of local enterprise. I have been proven correct.

 

My job title: Freelance Asian Breast Density Inspector and Philanthropist.

 

Why get a local job? Haven't you had enough of those people already? :D

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I would be completely OK with getting a job here in pointless mid-west. Why? Cost of living is lower than the pretty locations (places within 1000miles of a major body of salt water) which gives me more money to spend on cars... rolleyes.gif

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I was in a class with a guy who was a California Native, who was currently working/living in Chicago.

He made a valid point about 'The Midwest' which I took to heart living and growing up there.

 

"Why the hell do they call it 'The Midwest'? I mean, I hate New York and how they think everything is derived and revolves around them? Ever been to NYC? It stinks---I mean, literally has an odor to it. I grew up in Huntington Beach, and I moved EAST to come to Chicago, and frankly 5 months out of the year it more resembles the Mid EAST than anything else. What does Mid West mean anyway? I moved to the Mid East."

 

So, I don't say 'midwest' any longer. Phil converted me. And he still is stuck in Chicago, complaining about white crap that falls from the sky and worrys about his water pipes freezing.

 

Believe me, not everywhere in SoCal is LA. I paid almost as much (75%) for my cottage in Michigan for vacation as I did for 2.5 Acres of land and my house in SoCal.

 

In 13 years living here in SoCal, that little purchase (even with the dive) is worth FAR more than I paid for it.

The place in Michigan? I remind my wife every summer when she wants to go on vacation that the money we spend on that two-week vacation hut each year would pay for a LOT of 'Wife Come Along' Examination Junkets in Asia... :D

 

Outside of housing, that's about it for "cost of living"---Michigan's Taxes aren't much lower, and state sales tax is close to comparable.

 

Oh, but hey, if I was in Michigan right now and lost my job I'm SURE I could pick up another one within a week....NOT!

 

Job situation there is similar to what it was when I left in 84. PLUS my kid's college education will be a FRACTION of what I paid back in the 80's. When a dollar really was worth something (like 268 yen!!!)

 

And seriously, that is why I've stuck it out here, some of the best colleges and post secondary schools with the LOWEST COSTS in the nation. Sorry U of M, but you ain't worth it. Cal Poly, UCR, or Cal State Fullerton will work just as well for the boy, and a cost significantly lower than your extortionary rates!

 

But you ARE correct about vehicle costs being higher. I have to own four Z's to keep in circulation at all times. I mean, while you guys in the Mideast get to take your cars off the road for 5 or 6 months solid to work on them and get them looking pretty, I got a show this weekend, a club drive that weekend, I mean it's incessant: drive drive drive drive! I spent over $800 a month on auto-related expenses last year. Tires, oil, more tires, gas, Insurance. I mean all I ever DO is drive the damn Z. I NEVER get a chance to take it off the road and just tear into it and get it looking good. I just rotate to the next one and on the odd weekend when nothing auto-related is coming off, I get time to repair what broke or needed attention...just in time for the next club event, car show, racing event. It's brutal and not for the faint of heart. So take you time relaxing in that -20 garage watching blood ooze out of partially frozen knuckles, of breathe heavily of the heady odor of volatile organic compounds unleashed in the basement while you refinish that panel. You not only are saving money on not driving your car half the year, you're content to live in 'god's country' middle indiana.

 

Oh waitaminit, That's Michigan's UP. INDIANA??? You just got dead grass and miserable weather. YEECH! That's like Omaha in February, without the river or the hills! Forget THAT! :D

Edited by Tony D
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Tony D....that was great haha. My family is originally from Massachusetts and we can attest to the brutal winters, the bugs (ticks are NOT fun as opposed to what everyone else says), and the damaging effects of salt covered roads. And I hear you on the housing expense. Our 10 acres out in Temecula are my parents retirement, no joke! And it was cheaper to buy the land with the house than buy a new track home.

 

School out here are great though. I have a great scholarship at Chapman but kinda wish I had applied to state schools too.

 

Anyways...enough of the thread stealing.

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You are less than 20 minutes from me in Temecula.

 

Seriously the primary reason I took the position here in SoCal over the comparable job with the same company in Staten Island New York was...

 

Well, do I REALLY have to explain it?

 

That original company has been sold six times since I left for another job in 1993. The situation here in SoCal is that (Unlike "Falling Down") skilled labor or professional employment is continuous and mobile. You can find a job if you are looking. Having grown up in Michigan, I knew unemployment to be a 'second job' for a lot of people.

 

I didn't want to go through life like that, I wanted a place where....IF something happened, there were plenty of opportunities. Hell, for a brief stint I was even a principal in a small business here in SoCal. Had I not been litigated against and forced to get out of the partnership to ensure the business would survive (it still is in operation as a two-man operation and doing quite well, we keep in touch "just in case"...) I might be even better off than I currently am. But nothing stops me from going back into that job. In Michigan, with business contraction it would be a miserable environment to operate within. And with the state going the way it is... sheesh! "Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!" Get some decent non-interventionist policies from the state gubbmint, and I'm all for coming back. I just don't want to pay a heating bill for a shop 9-10 months out of the year to keep the guys from FREEZING! That sucks capital, ya know!

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Lucky for me I'm not an engineer and after living on the coast (Miami for 5 years, northern florida for 5 so half my life? Damn...that is short), I can tell you that without a doubt, our family Cost of Living here is much lower. That said, most of the good 'hard science' (straight chemistry, biology, ect.) universities are located here in BFE. I guess they have nothing better to do than to poke squishy things with sticks and see what happens most days of the year, who knows. But Our acre-and-a-bit house here near a good school in a decent housing area cost pennies-on-the-dollar to what quater acre lots are going for in south FL. I mean I hate the cold, God knows I HATE the cold weather. But on the bright side, once it dips into the teens or below, you cant feel your hands holding onto a freezing cold ratchet. That meanse that when you break something loose and rip all the skin off of at least 3 fingers, nick some veins and arteries, etc, it doesn't hurt until after you can make the bleeding stop!

 

That said, the weather's ok 1-2 months out of the year, my state isn't broke (talk about cost increases, I wanted to go to UCSD med school until I saw what was happening to tuition prices), unlike the eastern seaboard most people have souls, The middle-east isn't going to fall off into the pacific any time soon, science schools are good around here, and we're not governed by the terminator. Michigan might suck, Chicago really isn't anything fancy, but the rest is a-ok in my book. Now if only I can drive my horrible smoggy z around more so global-warming can finally kick in and it can be 60 degrees in the winter. Middle-jan through early september here are already near desert like, so I might as well focus on making winter survivable...

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