Otaku's in the World of Work

[Andrew]

[size=1]It occurs to me that the boards hasn't had a thread about jobs for a while. And even when it did, at the time I didn't have a job so I didn't read it or input on it. So I figure it's time to talk about jobs.[/size]

[size=1]So, to all you Otaku-folk out there, what do you do to get your cash? What are your experiences with working? If you haven't got a job yet, what would you like to do/what are you studying to become? And what was your dream job as a child?[/size]

[size=1]I'm your everyday average avionic engineering apprentice. Basically I get to maintain the electrical components of aircraft engines in a fair sized factory for one of the biggest companies in the world, GE (That's General Electric for those not in the know). It's a pretty decent job, always lots to do, it pays well enough to hold my growing anime/comic/music interests and also leaves enough for the luxuries (and slipping my mammy cash for lodge on the side ¬_¬).[/size]

[size=1]I think I'll leave it at that for now. Just curious to see what everyone else says.[/size]

[Sandy]

[QUOTE=Andrew]
[size=1]I'm your everyday average avionic engineering apprentice.[/size]
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that's one common job... XP But seriously, it's cool that you've found such an interesting field of work.

Myself, I'm still studying social pedagogy, specializing in children and youth. It means that when I graduate, I will be qualified to work in the fields of day care, youth work, school (as a curator of sorts), child protection, family guidance, alcohol & drug addicts' care, criminal care, and different organizations and projects.

Right now I'm thinking about a career in youth work or school, and I'm in a practical training in an open café aimed for young people between the ages of 13 and 18. The work we do there has very little to do with the work they do in actual cafés, though, it's more in the lines of socializing the youth and keeping them out of the streets. ;D

This is a very interesting field of work for me, and although social care in Finland is in very good shape, there's always room for improvements, and I dream to one day be improving it on my own behalf in some way.

Heh, I certainly didn't expect to end up doing what I do now in the childhood. I was "destined" to become an actor - that is until I went to a upper secondary school which had an emphasis on performing arts, and I realized I wasn't cut out to be a pro in it, and I didn't even want it. As a hobby, drama is great and fun, but as a work it's exhausting.

So yeah, I'm fast becoming a "social upbringer"...

[Horendithas]

[COLOR=DarkRed]I currently live in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I am attending college. I was delayed in getting my bachelors in Psychology last fall but I'm on track to get it this summer instead. I depend on scholarships to pay for most of my expenses.

I also work as a volunteer for the Women?s Crisis Center for victims of domestic violence. Something that I do not get paid for. Once I have my degree I intend to work as a counselor in the same area and also start working on graduate school to eventually become a psychologist.

My parents also insist on helping me as they pay my rent for where I live while I attend school. Once I get my first degree hopefully I will qualify to finally get paid for the work I do at my current job. And if not, it's still a great way to get field experiance for when I finally do finish school.[/COLOR]

[Ellerby]

[COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]I work at a movie theatre. Cineplex Odeon, actually. I've been working there for a few months and it's pretty sweet. I get free movies every week for myself and one friend, discounts on food and free popcorn. Even though there is like 40 of us at work in total, everyone is pretty tight. We have parties together, go out and stuff. It's great.

When I was a [i]kid[/i], I certainly did not dream of working at concession in a movie theatre, haha. I think I wanted to be a Zoo Keeper. Mainly because - just like every other kid - I loved animals and since like, [i]everyone[/i] wanted to be a Veterinarian I chose Zoo Keeper.

There are two fields I'm looking into at the moment. One is Graphic Design. I know a couple people I could get an apprenticeship with and it's a field that just keeps growing. Lots of room for graphic designers!

The other field I'm interested in is Youth Pastoring. I really love hanging around with my youth group and the job really appeals to me in every aspect. Not a whole lot of work hours, it's [i]fun[/i], very social (and a fun kind of social), and has decent pay.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Juke Box Hero]

I work two jobs from now until June, when I leave for the Airborne Infantry (and Rangers if I have anything to do with it): I shelve books at my local library, and work construction with a small operation in a nearby town. Boring work, but it pays the bills and construction is sometimes fun (like when I nearly electrocuted my boss). Basically just holdover position, because I am training very hard to make a career in the Army Special Forces... if all else fails I'll go to Penn State for something involved with Chemistry lol.

My Dad was a Youth Pastor for a while White, before he became a regular Pastor. Youth Groups are great things (been in the same one since I was 13 :)), keep the torch burning man!

[Raina]

[COLOR=Blue]My job's not nearly as interesting as everyone's. Anyway, I'm a casual receptionist at a community centre. When the receptionist's sick, or on holidays, I'm there. It's a good job that gives me alot of experience. And a lot of people with problems come there and blame me if things don't go right. So it keeps me on my feet. ;)

At the moment, I'm going to university studying to become an Interpreter and Translater between English and Japanese. It's pretty hard, and stressful at times, but it's also quite fun.

When I was a child, I had a new dream every month! The two biggest were fashion designer and violinist. I had those dreams when I was 10 years old, and my mum still thinks that I'm trying to become a fashion designer. (Just let it go mum, it was 10 years ago.)

[quote name='White][COLOR=DimGray][FONT=Tahoma]There are two fields I'm looking into at the moment. One is Graphic Design. I know a couple people I could get an apprenticeship with and it's a field that just keeps growing. Lots of room for graphic designers![/FONT'][/COLOR][/quote]What a coincidence! My dad's studying to become a Graphic Designer! Mum's happy coz he's finally out of the house. It feels weird for me, coz he's turning 48 this year. But it just goes to show you that it's never too late to try and get your dream job. :catgirl: [/COLOR]

[eleanor]

[color=dimgray] I'm (was) a waitress. I actually had to put that job on hold when the schoolwork caught up with me, but it's not like I [i]enjoyed[/i] serving irritable and rude people. And the restaurant I worked at isn't a place where you usually give tips, either.

When I get into college I plan on getting a grasp of careers I'm interested in and declare my major later on. Right now I'm looking at graphic design or animation in terms of what I really enjoy. Secondary would be English, psychology, other humanitarian topics. Hopefully I'll get into a good college first and it'll all work out. [/color]

[Rachmaninoff]

Ah work, what fun. Right now I?m between jobs since the one I had was in a huge section of malls in down town SLC that was bought out by the LDS Church as they are planning on tearing it down and building something else. Doing customer service work for the mall complex was fun, even if at times it was boring. I was offered a chance to transfer to another location, but it was far enough away to make trying to commute along with attending school a pain in the butt.

I?m currently trying to get into a couple of bookstores that are hiring here or even a couple of assistant teaching jobs over at the University, I?ll take either one though. I?m hoping for the bookstore since it?s fairly close to my home and would require less commuting.

The rest of the time is spent in school since I?m working on my Masters degree and then in music lessons. Once I finish that I?ll be going for the next degree since most schools around here require it if you wish to be a professor and teach other students.

[DeathKnight]

[color=crimson]Right now I'm unemployed and applying to a wide range of bookstores and retail outlets.

My last job was working for Wendy's. I started January of [b]last[/b] year and worked until mid-November.

The work itself was what you would expect. The back area of the store is always an oven from all the hot equipment, customers are hypersensitive about the state of their .99 cent food items, there is plenty of gross moments especially when washing dishes. I did everything there plenty of times- grill, fries, registers [front and side], sandwiches. The easiest thing was sandwiches prolly- slapping stuff together is easy as ****.

I was a closer so I'd usually work from 5PM till past close which was at 2AM. We'd get out of there anywhere from 2:10 to 3:50 one time.

There are tons of issues with fast food that are hard to get into beyond just the lack of pay for how much work you do. The corporate system above you is inefficient and stupid like most other jobs, just you don't get paid nearly enough to deal with their stupidity.

A big problem is that in my store they refused to promote any of the workers to managers. People who had worked there 3-4 years and knew how to do [b]everything[/b] weren't offered promotions. Instead they'd hire brand new managers, sometimes people who literally had [b]no[/b] expierence in any fast food businesses. Several times I ended up having to train my shift manager on how to do things.. like basic procedures you learn when you train as a minimum wage worker, lol. It was ridiculous.

You could try to give them the benefit of the doubt and wonder if maybe they were good at the money/organization end of being a manager but no, they weren't. They were bad workers and bad managers so it's little surprise that of the 3-4 new managers they swapped in, most of them quit lol.

What made the job alright were the people, they were good people. I was friends with everybody there, including most of the experienced managers. I met my girlfriend there too. A lot of them are stuck in minimum wage jobs like that.. it was disheartening when I had the realization that they were going to do this for the rest of their lives. A couple of my friends got out by joining the service so I have a few buddies going to Iraq now.

In particular there was one manager named Linda who was this fifty something black woman who had been doing fast food for decades. She and became friends pretty fast, lol. Somehow somewhere along the line she learned I write stories and asked me to give her some.. I did and she made me promise that if I started writing books I'd send her some. That's all she can do though. That's all she's done. Her entire life, in those cruddy jobs.

I got fed up with everything eventually. Customers. Argue all you want about it being their money and their food and etc. but no matter what you say there is no way to condone unnecessary rudeness. Managers. I had a really horrible cough one time and I had asked my general manager if I could go home for the day, he said alright. It was a trap, lol. About five minutes later he came out with some varnish and a rag, told me the only way I could go home early was if I polished the woodwork across the entire store. I did, sniffling and coughing as I went along polishing. I almost punched him in the face when I was done I was so seriously close to just blowing up, lol. The food itself I got so sickeningly tired of, the smell of all that crud. The smoke from the friers killed your lungs, that has to give you cancer.

Just overall it was making me feel very negative about [b]everything[/b]. Workers with no futures. Fat customers ordering hordes of food. Inefficient operations. Waste.

So I put in my two weeks and quit, my girlfriend did too.

Still lingering in my mind are all the obese people ordering the biggest burger we had with the largest fry we had and to drink?

A diet coke.

As for the future, well, for a few months I think I'll be working in retail if any of these jobs come through. I'd like some cash flow. The only restriction I've put down is no fast food but I'd be alright with being a waiter.

Further out I'm going to major in English in college (starting this Autumn) and do something involving writing. I'd love to try to get a published novel out sometime, try to be at least a moderately successful author. No need for the JK Rowling level of fame. It's going to be a hard road to achieve even that level of success so wish me some luck. [/color]

[MissWem]

[quote name='Andrew][size=1][size=1']So, to all you Otaku-folk out there, what do you do to get your cash? What are your experiences with working? If you haven't got a job yet, what would you like to do/what are you studying to become? And what was your dream job as a child?[/size][/quote]

[FONT=Arial][COLOR=DarkRed]Aw man, everyone else seems to have such honest jobs :P

I just started working as what could be called an office assistant, however my main duty is to answer phone calls we get from ads we put in the paper offering people employment. Doesn't sound that bad right? Well part of my script is to give the person calling no actual information as to what the job relates to aside from what was written in the ad which only suggests sales and customer service positions.

If I'm asked what we do, I reply we're a distribution company and then continue interrupting with my script which goes something like:

"Our company name is XYZ and we're currently expanding in the area this month, hence we need people to fill up the new positions. It's a full-time position. It's entry level, which means if you get the job you will be trained to use the company's new system and to assist our clients needs. The pay is XYZ per month based on the company programmed. No experience is necessary as we do provide full training."

Then I ask a series of questions and tell them, congrats they qualify for an interview and can they come in at XYZ a time (all in one breath).

To put it blankly, I convince people to come in to get interviewed for a job that very few people will want. If you hadn't guessed already... sales... pretty much door-to-door sales. Of course once the people come in for interviews it's up to the other guy to convince them this is what they want to do and to get them into the 3 day training course.

It's a bit of a scummy position to trick people like that, especially since 90% of them are genuinely trying to impress me on the phone and are mostly decent people. Then again I'm not being paid to care.

My past two jobs were working in video games stores, however that's a completely different experience altogether.

Most importantly, I don't want a career in an office or a retaill store. I've trained to be a special effects make up artist and that's kinda what I want to do or maybe try my hand at psychology, I haven't decided yet. Oddly enough, I had always wanted to be an artist as a kid, but let go of the idea because of the stereotype of the poor struggling artist who doesn't become rich til after they're dead.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[pooperson]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=RoyalBlue]Mmm, work. I love work. Work work work.
Basically, I'm a workaholic. I love my job. I love my old jobs. I love my bosses. Etc.
Anyway, I am a hostess/busser/food-runner at Casler's Kitchen and Bar. It's a sports bar - I'd say a mix between O'Charlie's and B-Dub's.
As a hostess, I greet people, hear about how they love the fire and I have "the best seat in the house", I ask them smoking or non, I explain to them why we have a smoking area, I take them to their tables, I hear them complain, I take them to another table, and then I tell them to drive safely. It's a good time. Lots of complaining from not only the customers but also from the waiters and waitresses. Guh. But whatever... it's a decent job.
As a busser, I just clean. Clean, clean, clean. No human interaction. It basically sucks. On a busy night, I clean quickly. On a slow night, I clean slowly.
As a food-runner, I get to take food to people's tables. It's my favorite job because it's a lot of fun. It helps me get to know the menu, and I get to prepare the food a little bit... not a lot. Just a little bit. It's an exciting job, but if I don't get it right, I'm in a lot of trouble. Guh.
I never saw myself working in food. Ever. But I love this job! \
When I was little, I wanted to be a lawyer. I still do a little bit. I think it'd be a lot of fun... but I can only imagine messing up. I could never forgive myself. Anyway, I also wanted to be an artist, which is a little more true to what I plan to be now. I am going to go to [hopefully] Butler University and major in Music Education. Basically, I'm going to be a band director, and it's going to rock. =][/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Gelgoog Pilot]

[quote name='DeathKnight']Right now I'm unemployed[/quote]

Right on DeathKnight!

I'm also unemployed at the moment. Still schooling in the ways of Graphic Design, with emphisis on Video Game Art. Currently...I'm thinking of applying for some sort of job. I hear the local Block Buster is looking for help. I'm not sure, however, if I'm up to the task, I'm not a lazy person by any means but after 7 or so years of ALWAYS having a job, I'm somewhat enjoying this little break.

Although, with my school being as expensive as it is, I'll more than likely get something going before next fall when I start looking for internships. :animesigh

Yeah, I'm sorry I don't have a long winded speech about my old work history...I'd just rather not bore you all with exploits from the gas station industry, telephone ordering business, tile setting industry, window assembly factory, and food industry. It would be more of a lack there of on them all...although the factory work and tile setting gigs were fun.

[Whiteblaze]

[FONT=Arial]This past summer I worked as a student assistant for the graduate school at the university I attend. The experience was alright for it being my first job (Yeah, never did get one in high school). My main task was filing which at first I thought would be incredibly boring, but still I kept myself entertained.

I am currently a nursing major working towards becoming an R.N. While I am studying to be a nurse, it was only a little over a year ago that I decided I would go this route. I feel simply that I will find it rewarding.

For every child there comes a point when they are asked by someone what it is they want to be when they grow up. Now, when I was just a little girl I felt with all my being that I wanted to be an artist.

To sort of tell the story,

I remember I was about five or six when the question was actually presented to me by my mom. I opened my mouth and said, ?I want to be an artist!"
Now, to me it simply made the most sense to do what I loved to do. I could picture it then too. I saw myself happily painting and drawing ?til my hearts content. Nothing else had come to mind.

My mother?s response was, ?An artist?! You don?t want to be a starving artist!?

At the time I did not quite understand the whole ?starving artist? thing. It didn?t make sense to me; as long as I had a job, how could I starve?

In a sense I think kids are really the ones who know what they want. They just don?t have the experience and insight; or at least not all of it. They also don?t think things through and they don?t put all things into consideration. So you get raw ideas, words, and thoughts etc. Sort of like a thesis with awesome potential or something around there.

I still want to do something involving art. I just haven?t narrowed down what. But I am throwing around ideas. I feel that life is too short to not do what your heart/mind longs.[/FONT]

[Anakoni Stark]

[SIZE=1] right now, I work on an air base....no, not fixing planes, noir am I part of the administration at the clinic....I work at the commissary [grocery store], but I'm not scanning items.....I'm actually bagging them and carrying them out to their cars. I dont get paid much, since I only work for tips, but hey....when you're tipped $5.00 [or lower] for eight hours, makes for good pay...eventually =/
I'm studying criminal justice to become a laywer, but that's beginning to change, seeing that my school is now offering forensics II. So next year and my senior year I'm going to study forensics, yes...that's right I want to be criminalistics lab techican.[/SIZE]

[Veritas]

[size=1][color=gray]Right now I work as an Assistant Manager for Finish Line at the University Mall in Orem, Ut. I started working there a little over 2 years ago as a sales associate and when I turned 18 there was an opened for an AM and I got offered the promotion. [/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray][/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray]For those of you that don't know what Finish Line is it's a shoe store, though we sell clothes and hats too.. It's pretty fun and a way chill job, plus the staff is really cool, so that makes it all the better. Though it kinda sucks working in a shoe store, I already like shoes and clothes enough as it is.[/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray][/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray]I think the biggest downside to the job though is I hate the mall. Malls suck period.[/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray][/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray]Anyways right now I'm not currently attending school, but I have no Idea what I'd like to do as a career. I could make a career out of my current job, but I don't know if thats really what I'd like to do with my life. I think I might try to go into Theology, some form of design or Psycology but I'm prone to change my mind alot so who really knows.[/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray][/color][/size]
[size=1][color=gray]Ha ha it's funny as a younger kid I always wanted to be a marine biologist, play football or be an archeologist (I blame Indiana Jones for that one lol). As I got older football stayed but I though I wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer. There is just too many things I wish I could or want to do I guess...... depressing. Oh well.[/color][/size]

[Baron Samedi]

[size=1]First year of Uni coming up, Law & Commerce. I can't wait. One week to go.[/size]

[James]

[font=arial]I am currently working as the Accounts & Claiming Officer at my company. Right now I am working in the healthcare industry...it's really an industry I fell into, more or less. But I must say, I do enjoy my job. Although it's an accounts based job (and nobody likes accounts), I have a lot of involvement with setting processes and working with State Managers. So that can be very rewarding. It's a high-pressure job though...on a daily basis I work with the National Finance Manager and the CEO. Still, I rarely dislike my job.

The down side is the hours. It's full-time but I am regularly working back well after 5pm. And given the type of role I have, that can be very stressful. It's why I rarely have much time for online stuff (which really sucks).

I don't make it easy for myself though. I'm about to start part-time study on top of full-time work. I've applied to do a Bachelor of International Studies, so hopefully that all goes through.[/font]

[Ol' Fighter]

Jobs are really nice especially if you enjoy what your doing me I like my job because it envoles helping people, I'm a CNA which is a certified nurses assistan and it's pretty fun especially since I work with some really hot women and on top of that I'm going to college to become a medical microbiogist.