Where do you work?

[pangur-ban]

Too adult, literally. I work in an adult boutique.

I kept thinking something along those lines when people mentioned adult work and I hoped there would be someone who could make that comment.

I'm a grad student currently, and I work as a cook. It's potentially my fall-back career.

[psycholinguist]

Having backed out of grad-school in psychology, I'm now working as a software-consultant for a small business. It's nice to clear my head a bit before restarting grad-school in the field I really want to be in.

[hellopsy]

Research assistant! I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet...

[Pamphilia]

I work as an English teacher at a tutoring center (mostly ESOL) and sometime freelance proofreader, and I occasionally I gig as a freelance dancer/dance instructor. I will also be starting an office manager/admin-type job soon so I can get some benefits--hooray dental!

[socialcomm]

Professional jobs for the past 10 years. Currently a senior analyst for a trade association.

[melusine]

I'm a disability assistant/audibook reader. Whenever I'm not reading for school, I'm reading for work. I pretty much read around the clock!

[Lantern]

I'm a survey technician on a research vessel. I live on a ship full time, year-round.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

I have a work study job on campus (same lab I work in for my thesis). I've been here since my freshman year.

However, come summer I may have no job. I've decided to stay in my hometown to avoid more moving and burn out, plus getting my license and a car. It's difficult to get a job there, so I'm compiling a list now and in two months am going to contact everyone on it. Top of the list: exterminators.

[psycholinguist]

plus getting my license

Heh, you're not the only one! I need to work on this too, or my learner's permit is going to expire again. Ahem. Yes.

[tarski]

Heh, you're not the only one! I need to work on this too, or my learner's permit is going to expire again. Ahem. Yes.

My learner's permit expires in August... yeah, I have to take care of that .

[luar de ouro]

Currently, I'm interning at the English edition of a 2nd rate Chinese news magazine. I only get paid when they toss me some commission translation work, as all my copy-editing is unpaid. On the side I do free-lance proofreading and translation gigs when I can find them.

I'll be getting my TEFL/TESOL certification this month so I can start looking for part-time teaching jobs around Beijing. The downside of this is that because I'm not white, I'll be paid around 30% less than the white teachers with the same credentials.

Hurray, racial discrimination in my hometown!

[psycholinguist]

I'll be getting my TEFL/TESOL certification this month so I can start looking for part-time teaching jobs around Beijing. The downside of this is that because I'm not white, I'll be paid around 30% less than the white teachers with the same credentials.

Hurray, racial discrimination in my hometown!

Goodness! That's terrible!

[downtownchick]

I'm a radio host. I also sing in small concerts, bikini-model for photographers, MC in Chinese weddings, translate and do IT work for a chain animal hospital group. Yeah, anything that pays.

[rogue]

Top of the list: exterminators.

I can't decide if that's ironic, hilarious, horrifying, or some combination of these.

[ScreamingHairyArmadillo]

I can't decide if that's ironic, hilarious, horrifying, or some combination of these.

A little horrifying - I'm not interested in making exterminating a career (not even that interested in agro-entomology either), but I'm hoping my being able to say "Yeah, I can work with bugs - I've even caught cockroaches with my bare hands" will land me a more exciting jobs than fast food for the summer.

[red_crayons]

I have two very professional, but part-time, office jobs.

One is in grants administration. I will be REALLY REALLY good at writing grants and progress reports if someone lets me in to grad school because I've been on the other side. I totally plan to work in a similar kind of job after school, but hopefully I'll have a fancier title because of the extra letters after my name.

The other is working with students with disabilities. I spend most of my time - are you ready?!? - getting paid a really respectable amount to go to class.

Right now I'm reading articles about Miyazake films and the Yasukuni shrine. Oh, work.

[TravelLadyBug]

On some mornings, I am a student office assistant in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. I help out with research integrity and the IRB the most.

In the late afternoon to early evening, I am a cognitive skills trainer with children with learning struggles.

In the evening until midnight, I am a telephone poller. I call your house and ask survey questions.

On weekends, I work with data as a research assistant.

I did all of that (in addition to delivering the school newspapers every Wednesday) on top of a ton of other stuff like research, classes, internship, and campus organizations. I just graduated, so now I only work! It's nice having extra time now so I can do things like read these message boards and think more about graduate schools!

[TheDude]

In addition to classes and research studies I started a small business... a music studio to be exact. I teach music lessons privately (30 or more people a week), teach several adult education classes for musical enrichment throughout the year and do youth outreach with music ensembles in rec centers in nearby communities. If I get the bug I dabble with session recording or gigging corporate events, but that doesn't pay anything anymore. The recession didn't kill what I did, in fact I managed to grow my clientele. I think I just lucked out though.

Everyone keeps telling me in the Psych thread none of this applies when I go to send applications to Ph.D programs, but I've been teaching for years. I've been on the fringe of school systems (rec centers and adult education) but not in one- so somehow that doesn't transfer to applied/educational programs, which irks me to no end. I also think running a small business was invaluable in supplementing research projects. Lots of organizing, people skills, marketing, followup paper work. Lots of the skills closely paralleled what it takes to get a study off the ground and recruit participants, manage fellowship money, etc.

I am going to miss a lot of this, but I don't find it particularly challenging anymore. If I have time in grad school I wouldn't mind continuing to teach a little bit, but I can imagine that is doubtful.

FYI: I did my fair share of drudgery in retail and construction/ manual labor before all this when I first started college and through high school.

Edited May 8, 2010 by musicforfun

[Bumblebee]

I teach Spanish at a liberal arts college. Yesterday I had my last lesson and this week I'm getting ready for grading, grading and grading. Once I've submitted my student's final grades, and ignored some e-mails complaining about them, I will start getting ready to move to Indiana.

[Branwen daughter of Llyr]

I'm currently working in 3 jobs -

full time technical writer and documentation manager in a start-up company with an extremely complex system to document.

Part time adviser for people interested in studying in the US and abroad (I live in Israel) - including finding the right schools to apply to, helping with apps, editing essays and SOPs, and getting them to sign up for the prep courses for SAT, GRE, GMAT, and TOEFL at the company I work for. It's actually quite fun, despite the occasional doofus client who has no clue.

English tutor for an 8th grader.

I also translate and do some freelance technical writing gigs.

Despite enjoying my jobs overall, I can't WAIT for grad school (despite having to go through the application process again...). I'd rather research and teach than write boring technical user manuals LOL.

[sacklunch]

I have worked at a local Toyota dealership as a mechanic while doing my undergrad (prior I got a degree in auto). Thank God it's almost over.

[isitFriday?]

I tutor middle school students at their schools during lunchtime. I drive 30 minutes each way for a one hour session, but thankfully my drive gets me to see gorgeous landscapes. The school year ends in 2 weeks... and I'm gonna really miss doing all of these. Good thing I'll at least still be around for summer camp.

[rooibos]

I'm a research assistant at a small, regional IGO. The job title is kind of misleading-- other than updating statistics, I do very little actual research and mostly do clerical tasks and some translation. But I occasionally get to travel, and I've learned more Spanish from being here than I did at school, and it pays for my relatively frequent (every six weeks or so) travel to see my spouse.

[Zamis]

I'm a high school teacher. Last quarter, I taught an integrated unit on zombies.

I am going to miss my job next year. :0(

[mmm35]

I have a "real" job, a 9 to 5 engineering consulting position. I just put in notice yesterday that I was leaving and nearly had a panic attack. No matter how much you know it is the right decision, leaving stability and lots of spending money is not easy.