For reference, he has a yacht, a speedboat, a 1970 Corvette stingray, a 1940's de sotto and a beach house
And 2 investment houses
seems as though i am in the wrong line of work.
I should have mentioned that they have loans out the arse, but in 10 years time that shit will all be gone.
Then they are in the blackest black that ever raped a white girl
What a wildly inappropriate way to end a completely inocuous post.
Love it.
edit: noting your name - did you perchance know a white girl that was raped by the blackest black, and now you're out for revenge? Or perhaps you were that white girl?
Houk the Namebringer on
0
The Black HunterThe key is a minimum of compromise, and a simple,unimpeachable reason to existRegistered Userregular
For reference, he has a yacht, a speedboat, a 1970 Corvette stingray, a 1940's de sotto and a beach house
And 2 investment houses
seems as though i am in the wrong line of work.
I should have mentioned that they have loans out the arse, but in 10 years time that shit will all be gone.
Then they are in the blackest black that ever raped a white girl
What a wildly inappropriate way to end a completely inocuous post.
Love it.
edit: noting your name - did you perchance know a white girl that was raped by the blackest black, and now you're out for revenge? Or perhaps you were that white girl?
No, this name was just a result of my ..xXHARDX.X.XCOREXx.. days
I am thinking of just changing it to TBH or something
My grandfather was a union electrician for most of his life. It's an OK gig, there will be good and bad times. Typically you're paid by the job, so if there's not much going on money can get tight--but the per hour wage is kick ass. He made about 40k/year in the 60's and 70s when my mom was a kid, which wasn't great but was pretty good (for the time). but he retired in the early 90s so he's been out of it a bit. But yeah it's an OK gig and hell, it's a good skill to have.
Software testing isn't a job for those with a thin skin. Programers will hate you because you tell them they made mistakes. Tech support will hate you for not being perfect or for when you show them up for being lazy. Marketing will hate you for fucking up deadlines.
It's in QA's job description to fuck up deadlines.
Programmers/Producers/CEO: "Here's the newest build! We're done!"
QA: "Like hell you are. All this shit is fucked up."
Them: "Goddamn it!"
QA: "Hey, I just report the problems, it's your decision whether to ship or not."
I know a few apprentice electricians. They get paid shit, total shit. Also nearly die often.
But their masters? drive around in badass utes and have massive houses on the water filled with the latest electronics and shit like that. So i guess it's like most jobs, start off shitty and work your way up.
I know a few apprentice electricians. They get paid shit, total shit. Also nearly die often.
But their masters? drive around in badass utes and have massive houses on the water filled with the latest electronics and shit like that. So i guess it's like most jobs, start off shitty and work your way up.
My buddy just got an apprenticeship as an electrician and he absolutely adores it. His wage isn't too horrible compared to many apprenticeships out there either. It helps that we live in Calgary, but yeah.. I just wanted to say that it's not all bad as an electrician.. for sure.
I'm an apprentice framer (laborer right now) and I can tell you.. it's much more heady and laborious and harder... for the same pay. If it gets better I'll be happy.
4rch3nemy on
0
The Black HunterThe key is a minimum of compromise, and a simple,unimpeachable reason to existRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
Man, the labour force will be the future rich men of the planet.
Currently I work a shitty minimum wage job with a horrible manager, like most people here it seems, but my father-in-law has told me that he could get me on as an apprentice electrician with a company he knows.
I know nothing of this field, or of working in the trades generally. Well, I do know that I'll be making substantially more than the $9/hr I'm making now. But as for day-to-day life as an electrician's apprentice? No idea.
I'd kind of regret leaving Starbucks, since I like half of the staff, but the money is desperately needed.
Shame I didn't see this earlier. I was an electrician for 2.5 years for a private contractor.
Let's see, where to start: I guess the first question is if it's the electrical union or a private contractor?
Union: You have to pass a test and hope to be accepted depending on the location and if they need people. If you do get in, expect to be a go-getter for the first year as you learn the ropes and you may get to wire simple stuff or do the hard labor like actually pulling/running the wire. Pay can be pretty good ($20-50/hr) depending on your area and the jobs you work. Government jobs (schools, govt buildings, etc) get paid prevailing wages which in NJ was $60+/hr. Those jobs are NICE. If you work 5 years as an electrician you are eligible to take the licensing test and get your own license to run your own business or do work without someone being your boss who is licensed. I didn't stick around long enough for that.
Private: You don't have to pass any tests, just find someone who will hire you. You'll probably spend less time as a go-getter because they'll want someone who will learn quickly and be able to help get work done faster. (The faster a job is done the sooner they get paid) Pay CAN be, but not necessarily, less than union work. I was hired at $9/hr and after 3 months I was at $10. At my 1 year I was getting $12/hr in southern Jersey which is pretty good for when minimum wage was $5.50. Private employers may work you a bit harder or faster as it's not union work, but you can find some pretty nice bosses who will pay you well and you can become close friends with them and have a good time working. Even if you get paid less, the government thing still applies and if your boss gets a job at a govt building or school you are supposed to (my boss didn't many times before I knew any better) to get paid the prevailing wages.
Downsides: Being an electrician can be clean or dirty work. I've put switches and lights in a finished house and the worst of it was some drywall dust. I've laid 4" rigid conduit for a sand processing plant in the middle of winter during a blizzard. I've run wiring through a house that was no more than wood framing on a beautiful sunny day. I've been out on a lake following cabling from the shore to a dredge in a downpour just above freezing temps. So it has good and bad days and qualities.
It's all up to you. I did it because it paid more than my $8 at Staples after I graduated and none of the IT jobs I applied for hired me. I did it for two years before I got the IT job I had gone to school for. It wasn't bad, and now I can fix any electrical problem in my own house or family houses.
It can be a career, but if you do make it one, plan ahead. If you want to get your own license, study and learn all you can to pass the test. Save! It can be hard on your body doing some of the manual labor. Save extra money and plan for a possible early retirement. You don't want to be stuck working at 70 because you have to since you never set up a retirement plan. So think ahead and plan.
Oh, and at some point you WILL have to work on electric while it's live. Be careful. Generally you'll give yourself a little jolt and you will be fine. Never let your guard down and always treat wires as live until you KNOW they aren't. Usually you can shut it off though which is nice. I hated working on live wires.
EDIT: And find a recycling plant near you and see if they will let you keep scrap wire. Copper is a goldmine for those who have the time to strip the jacket off of it, especially large wires like 500mcm (think of wire with the diameter of a half-dollar). Those were good times. 480V Three-phase electric 400HP motor installations.
Oh, and not to depress the thread again, but last year my dad died while working on a semi-wet cement barrier because of an exposed electrical cable on a drill. He plugged it in, walked it over to an area, and as soon as he dropped the cable, it hit the water and he was dead before he hit the ground.
So, um, if you get into that, learn to respect that shit. Cuz it will kill you.
Houk the Namebringer on
0
GoslingLooking Up Soccer In Mongolia Right Now, ProbablyWatertown, WIRegistered Userregular
edited January 2008
Ladies and gentlemen, please buy Flat Earth Veggie Crisps. I am sick of having to take chunks of them off the shelves every other week because nobody buys them and the expiration dates keep passing. Buy them and then... I don't know, burn them for heat?
Gosling on
I have a new soccer blog The Minnow Tank. Reading it psychically kicks Sepp Blatter in the bean bag.
Ladies and gentlemen, please buy Flat Earth Veggie Crisps. I am sick of having to take chunks of them off the shelves every other week because nobody buys them and the expiration dates keep passing. Buy them and then... I don't know, burn them for heat?
Currently I work a shitty minimum wage job with a horrible manager, like most people here it seems, but my father-in-law has told me that he could get me on as an apprentice electrician with a company he knows.
I know nothing of this field, or of working in the trades generally. Well, I do know that I'll be making substantially more than the $9/hr I'm making now. But as for day-to-day life as an electrician's apprentice? No idea.
I'd kind of regret leaving Starbucks, since I like half of the staff, but the money is desperately needed.
My dad, brother and grandfather are all electricians. My dad has his own business, and my brother works for someone now that he went through his apprenticeship. My grandfather was an electrician underneath Admiral Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear navy. Since it's been a family thing, I've been exposed to it my entire life and I don't think I've known anybody that's disliked the job. You make crazy money and as far as manual labor goes, it's not very physically demanding.
My brother and dad almost exclusively work for rich fuckers that like really weird and expensive lighting/electrical setups, and they get to design them, but I don't think that's terribly common.
So, hitting on/flirting with girls while you are at work... What are the rules here?
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
So, hitting on/flirting with girls while you are at work... What are the rules here?
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
If you do it while doing your job, i.e. they're checking out or asking for help or something, go for it.
If you're spending half an hour hitting on girls instead of doing your job, your manager has every right to be pissed. Cuz you're not doing your job.
Although I'd probably avoid it altogether if a manager was around. I mean, it's your manager. It's not like you can defend yourself with 'but some guys on an internet forum said it was okay!'
I, personally, would mock you endlessly and make a deliberate effort to mock you while you're trying to hit on said females. Because you're at work. If you're neglecting other customers because you're cruising for ass, then yes, your manager has every right to do a hell of a lot more than just give you a dirty look.
Dirty as in, "Haha i can't believe he's actually trying this".
Just by the by, i work in higher end pc/laptop sales and repairs, as the main sales dooder/i close other peoples deals for them. So it's not like i'm some register monkey trying to chat them up as items are being scanned through, I actually need to get to know the customer a bit so that i can sell them exactly what they need.
But, is it normally accepted? It's not out of line to hit on a customer rite?
Edit: Assuming it is done tastefully and is well received by both people involved.
noobert on
0
ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
Software testing isn't a job for those with a thin skin. Programers will hate you because you tell them they made mistakes. Tech support will hate you for not being perfect or for when you show them up for being lazy. Marketing will hate you for fucking up deadlines.
It's in QA's job description to fuck up deadlines.
Programmers/Producers/CEO: "Here's the newest build! We're done!"
QA: "Like hell you are. All this shit is fucked up."
Them: "Goddamn it!"
QA: "Hey, I just report the problems, it's your decision whether to ship or not."
Oh yes. Q&A can be a great job if you enjoy repetitive tasks and torturing small children (Developer tantrums throw tantrums? Never! :roll:). But as I posted earlier:
What did Tom get done today?
1. Played three games of Online Risk. Won two of them.
2. .......
Currently I work a shitty minimum wage job with a horrible manager, like most people here it seems, but my father-in-law has told me that he could get me on as an apprentice electrician with a company he knows.
I know nothing of this field, or of working in the trades generally. Well, I do know that I'll be making substantially more than the $9/hr I'm making now. But as for day-to-day life as an electrician's apprentice? No idea.
I'd kind of regret leaving Starbucks, since I like half of the staff, but the money is desperately needed.
My dad, brother and grandfather are all electricians. My dad has his own business, and my brother works for someone now that he went through his apprenticeship. My grandfather was an electrician underneath Admiral Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear navy. Since it's been a family thing, I've been exposed to it my entire life and I don't think I've known anybody that's disliked the job. You make crazy money and as far as manual labor goes, it's not very physically demanding.
My brother and dad almost exclusively work for rich fuckers that like really weird and expensive lighting/electrical setups, and they get to design them, but I don't think that's terribly common.
Depends where you are located. Where I am, there is an abundance of rich fuckers who need crazy lighting setups designed. Also, hi5 for another electrician family.
I'd tell any spirit store that wants to photocopy my ID to piss up a rope. I don't mind them you know, checking it. But copying it? Nope, no deal.
EDIT: i'm the same way with booze as ya'll. I like to drink, but the pure vile crap college booze fest use is horrifying. 5 dollars for a 5th? That's gonna be some skanky booze. 4 bucks for a 12 pack? Ewwww.
So, this is from a few days ago, but I thought I'd mention it. If someone seems to be really young, or their ID is damaged, or the picture seems like them, whatever, we ask them to fill out a form with the details of their ID and sign it. If it is fake ID, they get in trouble for using a fake ID, and we're fine.
Basically, if you came to our store, we wouldn't ask unless we thought you were using a fake ID. It's not something you need to worry about, really.
This transcends just work, but it involves it so I have to tell my tale of today:
So I've been sick the past couple of days. A healthy mixture of a cold and flu. No problem though, I'm a powerhouse McAwesome Machine so I've worked the past couple of days from home - not wanting to get my employees at the office sick.
My gf wakes up early this morning around 6am complaining about the cold. I hadn't really noticed because I was under the covers but sure enough, I get up and check the thermostat and it says the apartment is at 0 degrees (meaning it's probably colder than that). So apparently our heat in our piece of shit apartment isn't working. Dandy.
No biggy though, I'm sure the landlord will take care of it. I'll just head into the office since there's heat there - fuck my employees, I need heat.
So I arrive at the office on what is turning out to be the coldest day of the year (-25 celcius) and go to unlock the door, nope, the lock on the door is frozen and my key breaks in the lock. WONDERFUL. Undeterred I head to the nearby coffee shop to work from there.
Eventually my tech guy shows up at the coffee shop to get his morning coffee. I explain the situation to him. Luckily he has a pair of pliers so we are able to remove my broken key and eventually get the door unlocked. However since we've been jostling the door back and forth the alarm goes off. Now everyone on the street is looking at us thinking we're breaking into this building.
Now the cops show up. I explain the situation, show them my ID and business card. They laugh and head out on their way. I walk into the building and the tech guy is just standing there with an "oh shit" look on his face at the top of the stairs to the second floor. As soon as I get on even ground with him I see the problem. There is water every where. Our financial girl has stupidly left the window in the second floor bathroom open. The pipes froze over night and exploded.
So now I'm stuck in an office, probably have pneumonia, there's no running water so I can't take a shit and I can't go back to my apartment and work from home (my original intention) because it's like a frigid wasteland in there.
This transcends just work, but it involves it so I have to tell my tale of today:
So I've been sick the past couple of days. A healthy mixture of a cold and flu. No problem though, I'm a powerhouse McAwesome Machine so I've worked the past couple of days from home - not wanting to get my employees at the office sick.
My gf wakes up early this morning around 6am complaining about the cold. I hadn't really noticed because I was under the covers but sure enough, I get up and check the thermostat and it says the apartment is at 0 degrees (meaning it's probably colder than that). So apparently our heat in our piece of shit apartment isn't working. Dandy.
No biggy though, I'm sure the landlord will take care of it. I'll just head into the office since there's heat there - fuck my employees, I need heat.
So I arrive at the office on what is turning out to be the coldest day of the year (-25 celcius) and go to unlock the door, nope, the lock on the door is frozen and my key breaks in the lock. WONDERFUL. Undeterred I head to the nearby coffee shop to work from there.
Eventually my tech guy shows up at the coffee shop to get his morning coffee. I explain the situation to him. Luckily he has a pair of pliers so we are able to remove my broken key and eventually get the door unlocked. However since we've been jostling the door back and forth the alarm goes off. Now everyone on the street is looking at us thinking we're breaking into this building.
Now the cops show up. I explain the situation, show them my ID and business card. They laugh and head out on their way. I walk into the building and the tech guy is just standing there with an "oh shit" look on his face at the top of the stairs to the second floor. As soon as I get on even ground with him I see the problem. There is water every where. Our financial girl has stupidly left the window in the second floor bathroom open. The pipes froze over night and exploded.
So now I'm stuck in an office, probably have pneumonia, there's no running water so I can't take a shit and I can't go back to my apartment and work from home (my original intention) because it's like a frigid wasteland in there.
Software testing isn't a job for those with a thin skin. Programers will hate you because you tell them they made mistakes. Tech support will hate you for not being perfect or for when you show them up for being lazy. Marketing will hate you for fucking up deadlines.
I had the privilege of working as a game tester for about 3 years total, at three different companies. All the good, professional programmers I worked with appreciated the testers' work (when it was up to par; nobody likes bug reports that read, in their entirety, "The game crashes.") They did get irritated sometimes when we came to them with minor bugs we wanted to show them while they were working on some big component of the game, but in general, they were conscious of the fact that they weren't perfect, and they appreciated the chance we gave them of fixing bugs before they became serious (i.e., after release.)
Once in a while, though, you get a programmer who thinks he is "the shit". I worked with one who considered certain tasks (like building installers and such) to be beneath him, even when the tasks were assigned to him. He eventually coded new AI routines for a particular game, then insisted that his code was perfect even when we showed him obvious bugs. The game's producer had to force him to look at his code to fix it. Good times.
Sometimes, the programmers, integrators, artists and designers would end up laughing with us when we found certain spectacular bugs. That's the kind of thing that passes for entertainment in game testing: when you find a bug that lets you do something totally unexpected and particularly stunning.
So when you end up in a place where there's a clear Us vs Them situation between QA and developers, it's because there are assholes on one or both sides. Managers that don't recognize this and try to fix it are assholes themselves, as QA should always be development's best friend.
Software testing isn't a job for those with a thin skin. Programers will hate you because you tell them they made mistakes. Tech support will hate you for not being perfect or for when you show them up for being lazy. Marketing will hate you for fucking up deadlines.
And if you're a know-it-all fanboy who doesn't know shit and is allergic to soap, everyone will hate you.
It also helps if you aren't working in the gaming industry. So many people want gaming Q&A jobs that it really allows the companies to treat their testers like shit.
Q&A stands for Question and Answer
QA stands for Quality Assurance, what I think you meant.
So many people make that mistake that I just keep getting more annoyed, every time. I can't help it.
Also, people who write Q&A instead of QA rarely have any QA experience. Otherwise they would also get it right.
Software testing isn't a job for those with a thin skin. Programers will hate you because you tell them they made mistakes. Tech support will hate you for not being perfect or for when you show them up for being lazy. Marketing will hate you for fucking up deadlines.
It's in QA's job description to fuck up deadlines.
Programmers/Producers/CEO: "Here's the newest build! We're done!"
QA: "Like hell you are. All this shit is fucked up."
Them: "Goddamn it!"
QA: "Hey, I just report the problems, it's your decision whether to ship or not."
QA doesn't fuck up deadlines. Stupid marketing departments and executives who insist on particular dates and can't be flexible when it's clear that those dates can't be met fuck up deadlines.
The last place I worked at where I was a tester (then a producer) I had great help with someone whose title was Project Coordinator. Using MS Project (although there is other software for doing similar stuff) we would plot all the necessary tasks and milestones for each project, noting what could be concurrent and what had to be done successsively, and we would update it every week. The result was, we could know that we would be late months in advance, and readjust certain schedules to compensate, or at least plan ahead for a project being late, instead of coming to the final milestone date and everybody looking surprised when the project was clearly not finished.
So, hitting on/flirting with girls while you are at work... What are the rules here?
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
Rules are simple.
Any time that you are on the clock, you are supposed to be working.
So, hitting on/flirting with girls while you are at work... What are the rules here?
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
Rules are simple.
Any time that you are on the clock, you are supposed to be working.
If you're flirting with an employee WHILE working, let's say, stocking shelves with her, or something like that, it'd be acceptable. Any time you spend flirting INSTEAD of working, is wrong.
It should also be noted that in our office (which is basically one big, open room), we used to have the testers stacked on one wall, with a 4ft tall partition separating us and them. No separate room, nowhere to escape to when they got into nerd arguments, or laughed way too loudly at stupid shit, or wanted to ask us (me) questions about shit that had nothing to do with their jobs. I'm sure under other circumstances I'd be just fine with them. (And yes, we did talk to them several times to STFU, but it always came back in the end.)
But since then we've cleared out our break room and put them in there so we don't have to deal with it as much, and life is good.
So, hitting on/flirting with girls while you are at work... What are the rules here?
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
Rules are simple.
Any time that you are on the clock, you are supposed to be working.
If you're flirting with an employee WHILE working, let's say, stocking shelves with her, or something like that, it'd be acceptable. Any time you spend flirting INSTEAD of working, is wrong.
If your job involves say, saving lives, then it's wrong to flirt whilst working. If it involves stacking shelves then it's probably safe to say "flirt away".
So, hitting on/flirting with girls while you are at work... What are the rules here?
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
Rules are simple.
Any time that you are on the clock, you are supposed to be working.
If you're flirting with an employee WHILE working, let's say, stocking shelves with her, or something like that, it'd be acceptable. Any time you spend flirting INSTEAD of working, is wrong.
If your job involves say, saving lives, then it's wrong to flirt whilst working. If it involves stacking shelves then it's probably safe to say "flirt away".
Well, if your job is to save lives, I'd say that any time spent flirting is time spent flirting INSTEAD of working.
Posts
I should have mentioned that they have loans out the arse, but in 10 years time that shit will all be gone.
Then they are in the blackest black that ever raped a white girl
Love it.
edit: noting your name - did you perchance know a white girl that was raped by the blackest black, and now you're out for revenge? Or perhaps you were that white girl?
No, this name was just a result of my ..xXHARDX.X.XCOREXx.. days
I am thinking of just changing it to TBH or something
EDIT: No, I'll change it to no. 62
That is hip and cool
"TBH, I think you're a dick. TBH, go to hell." See? It's awesome!
It's in QA's job description to fuck up deadlines.
Programmers/Producers/CEO: "Here's the newest build! We're done!"
QA: "Like hell you are. All this shit is fucked up."
Them: "Goddamn it!"
QA: "Hey, I just report the problems, it's your decision whether to ship or not."
But their masters? drive around in badass utes and have massive houses on the water filled with the latest electronics and shit like that. So i guess it's like most jobs, start off shitty and work your way up.
My buddy just got an apprenticeship as an electrician and he absolutely adores it. His wage isn't too horrible compared to many apprenticeships out there either. It helps that we live in Calgary, but yeah.. I just wanted to say that it's not all bad as an electrician.. for sure.
I'm an apprentice framer (laborer right now) and I can tell you.. it's much more heady and laborious and harder... for the same pay. If it gets better I'll be happy.
I'm buffer than I used to be too.
We will be the future rich and RIPPLING MUSCLED men of the planet.
f33r u5.
It feels like it'll be my first day on the job again.
Only the people already know and hate me.
Shame I didn't see this earlier. I was an electrician for 2.5 years for a private contractor.
Let's see, where to start: I guess the first question is if it's the electrical union or a private contractor?
Union: You have to pass a test and hope to be accepted depending on the location and if they need people. If you do get in, expect to be a go-getter for the first year as you learn the ropes and you may get to wire simple stuff or do the hard labor like actually pulling/running the wire. Pay can be pretty good ($20-50/hr) depending on your area and the jobs you work. Government jobs (schools, govt buildings, etc) get paid prevailing wages which in NJ was $60+/hr. Those jobs are NICE. If you work 5 years as an electrician you are eligible to take the licensing test and get your own license to run your own business or do work without someone being your boss who is licensed. I didn't stick around long enough for that.
Private: You don't have to pass any tests, just find someone who will hire you. You'll probably spend less time as a go-getter because they'll want someone who will learn quickly and be able to help get work done faster. (The faster a job is done the sooner they get paid) Pay CAN be, but not necessarily, less than union work. I was hired at $9/hr and after 3 months I was at $10. At my 1 year I was getting $12/hr in southern Jersey which is pretty good for when minimum wage was $5.50. Private employers may work you a bit harder or faster as it's not union work, but you can find some pretty nice bosses who will pay you well and you can become close friends with them and have a good time working. Even if you get paid less, the government thing still applies and if your boss gets a job at a govt building or school you are supposed to (my boss didn't many times before I knew any better) to get paid the prevailing wages.
Downsides: Being an electrician can be clean or dirty work. I've put switches and lights in a finished house and the worst of it was some drywall dust. I've laid 4" rigid conduit for a sand processing plant in the middle of winter during a blizzard. I've run wiring through a house that was no more than wood framing on a beautiful sunny day. I've been out on a lake following cabling from the shore to a dredge in a downpour just above freezing temps. So it has good and bad days and qualities.
It's all up to you. I did it because it paid more than my $8 at Staples after I graduated and none of the IT jobs I applied for hired me. I did it for two years before I got the IT job I had gone to school for. It wasn't bad, and now I can fix any electrical problem in my own house or family houses.
It can be a career, but if you do make it one, plan ahead. If you want to get your own license, study and learn all you can to pass the test. Save! It can be hard on your body doing some of the manual labor. Save extra money and plan for a possible early retirement. You don't want to be stuck working at 70 because you have to since you never set up a retirement plan. So think ahead and plan.
Oh, and at some point you WILL have to work on electric while it's live. Be careful. Generally you'll give yourself a little jolt and you will be fine. Never let your guard down and always treat wires as live until you KNOW they aren't. Usually you can shut it off though which is nice. I hated working on live wires.
EDIT: And find a recycling plant near you and see if they will let you keep scrap wire. Copper is a goldmine for those who have the time to strip the jacket off of it, especially large wires like 500mcm (think of wire with the diameter of a half-dollar). Those were good times. 480V Three-phase electric 400HP motor installations.
So, um, if you get into that, learn to respect that shit. Cuz it will kill you.
They are pretty damn good. A bit pricey though.
My dad, brother and grandfather are all electricians. My dad has his own business, and my brother works for someone now that he went through his apprenticeship. My grandfather was an electrician underneath Admiral Rickover, known as the father of the nuclear navy. Since it's been a family thing, I've been exposed to it my entire life and I don't think I've known anybody that's disliked the job. You make crazy money and as far as manual labor goes, it's not very physically demanding.
My brother and dad almost exclusively work for rich fuckers that like really weird and expensive lighting/electrical setups, and they get to design them, but I don't think that's terribly common.
I do it mercilessly on the rare occasion that attractive females actually appear. But i've gotten dirty looks from my manager on occasion for spending 1/2 an hour or so shooting the shit with a cutie.
If you're spending half an hour hitting on girls instead of doing your job, your manager has every right to be pissed. Cuz you're not doing your job.
Although I'd probably avoid it altogether if a manager was around. I mean, it's your manager. It's not like you can defend yourself with 'but some guys on an internet forum said it was okay!'
XBL : lJesse Custerl | MWO: Jesse Custer | Best vid ever. | 2nd best vid ever.
Just by the by, i work in higher end pc/laptop sales and repairs, as the main sales dooder/i close other peoples deals for them. So it's not like i'm some register monkey trying to chat them up as items are being scanned through, I actually need to get to know the customer a bit so that i can sell them exactly what they need.
But, is it normally accepted? It's not out of line to hit on a customer rite?
Edit: Assuming it is done tastefully and is well received by both people involved.
Oh yes. Q&A can be a great job if you enjoy repetitive tasks and torturing small children (Developer tantrums throw tantrums? Never! :roll:). But as I posted earlier:
What did Tom get done today?
1. Played three games of Online Risk. Won two of them.
2. .......
Depends where you are located. Where I am, there is an abundance of rich fuckers who need crazy lighting setups designed. Also, hi5 for another electrician family.
So, this is from a few days ago, but I thought I'd mention it. If someone seems to be really young, or their ID is damaged, or the picture seems like them, whatever, we ask them to fill out a form with the details of their ID and sign it. If it is fake ID, they get in trouble for using a fake ID, and we're fine.
Basically, if you came to our store, we wouldn't ask unless we thought you were using a fake ID. It's not something you need to worry about, really.
So I've been sick the past couple of days. A healthy mixture of a cold and flu. No problem though, I'm a powerhouse McAwesome Machine so I've worked the past couple of days from home - not wanting to get my employees at the office sick.
My gf wakes up early this morning around 6am complaining about the cold. I hadn't really noticed because I was under the covers but sure enough, I get up and check the thermostat and it says the apartment is at 0 degrees (meaning it's probably colder than that). So apparently our heat in our piece of shit apartment isn't working. Dandy.
No biggy though, I'm sure the landlord will take care of it. I'll just head into the office since there's heat there - fuck my employees, I need heat.
So I arrive at the office on what is turning out to be the coldest day of the year (-25 celcius) and go to unlock the door, nope, the lock on the door is frozen and my key breaks in the lock. WONDERFUL. Undeterred I head to the nearby coffee shop to work from there.
Eventually my tech guy shows up at the coffee shop to get his morning coffee. I explain the situation to him. Luckily he has a pair of pliers so we are able to remove my broken key and eventually get the door unlocked. However since we've been jostling the door back and forth the alarm goes off. Now everyone on the street is looking at us thinking we're breaking into this building.
Now the cops show up. I explain the situation, show them my ID and business card. They laugh and head out on their way. I walk into the building and the tech guy is just standing there with an "oh shit" look on his face at the top of the stairs to the second floor. As soon as I get on even ground with him I see the problem. There is water every where. Our financial girl has stupidly left the window in the second floor bathroom open. The pipes froze over night and exploded.
So now I'm stuck in an office, probably have pneumonia, there's no running water so I can't take a shit and I can't go back to my apartment and work from home (my original intention) because it's like a frigid wasteland in there.
Best day ever?
Yup, we have a ton of blankets on the bed so we didn't really notice until skin was exposed to air.
Holy crap. o.o
I had the privilege of working as a game tester for about 3 years total, at three different companies. All the good, professional programmers I worked with appreciated the testers' work (when it was up to par; nobody likes bug reports that read, in their entirety, "The game crashes.") They did get irritated sometimes when we came to them with minor bugs we wanted to show them while they were working on some big component of the game, but in general, they were conscious of the fact that they weren't perfect, and they appreciated the chance we gave them of fixing bugs before they became serious (i.e., after release.)
Once in a while, though, you get a programmer who thinks he is "the shit". I worked with one who considered certain tasks (like building installers and such) to be beneath him, even when the tasks were assigned to him. He eventually coded new AI routines for a particular game, then insisted that his code was perfect even when we showed him obvious bugs. The game's producer had to force him to look at his code to fix it. Good times.
Sometimes, the programmers, integrators, artists and designers would end up laughing with us when we found certain spectacular bugs. That's the kind of thing that passes for entertainment in game testing: when you find a bug that lets you do something totally unexpected and particularly stunning.
So when you end up in a place where there's a clear Us vs Them situation between QA and developers, it's because there are assholes on one or both sides. Managers that don't recognize this and try to fix it are assholes themselves, as QA should always be development's best friend.
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com
Q&A stands for Question and Answer
QA stands for Quality Assurance, what I think you meant.
So many people make that mistake that I just keep getting more annoyed, every time. I can't help it.
Also, people who write Q&A instead of QA rarely have any QA experience. Otherwise they would also get it right.
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com
QA doesn't fuck up deadlines. Stupid marketing departments and executives who insist on particular dates and can't be flexible when it's clear that those dates can't be met fuck up deadlines.
The last place I worked at where I was a tester (then a producer) I had great help with someone whose title was Project Coordinator. Using MS Project (although there is other software for doing similar stuff) we would plot all the necessary tasks and milestones for each project, noting what could be concurrent and what had to be done successsively, and we would update it every week. The result was, we could know that we would be late months in advance, and readjust certain schedules to compensate, or at least plan ahead for a project being late, instead of coming to the final milestone date and everybody looking surprised when the project was clearly not finished.
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com
Man, I've worked in a few different industries and Sales has fucked me over in every single one.
No, see he can't... no water :P
He can, but it isn't going anywhere once he does.
Rules are simple.
Any time that you are on the clock, you are supposed to be working.
If you're flirting with an employee WHILE working, let's say, stocking shelves with her, or something like that, it'd be acceptable. Any time you spend flirting INSTEAD of working, is wrong.
But since then we've cleared out our break room and put them in there so we don't have to deal with it as much, and life is good.
If your job involves say, saving lives, then it's wrong to flirt whilst working. If it involves stacking shelves then it's probably safe to say "flirt away".
Well, if your job is to save lives, I'd say that any time spent flirting is time spent flirting INSTEAD of working.