What were you before?

Never went into a trade (regret that now)

All I ever wanted to be was a farmer. Left for the shearing sheds around Bouke 2 days after finishing Yr10.

DId some shearing
worked on a large cattle property and feedlot at Tamworth for a couple of years (nearly starved to death)
Made stock feed in a Goodman Fielder mill
Built Ambulances and demountable school buildings
Tassled corn
Came home to more shearing and farm work
Bricky labourer
Pet food factory pleb
Printing business pleb
Gold mine mill operator
Hay carter
then into Corrective Services for 18 years. Got injured and was wiped like a dirty back side. No payout, no nothing.

Went back to farming and now own part of our family farm as well as working for an engineer a couple of days a week and shooting a few kangaroos as time permits.

No regrets about any of it. Pity the politicians got to the Workers Comp laws a while before I got hurt, or things could be different.

Lucky to be alive, great wife and kids. The engineer I work for has been the best thing, learn stuff everyday. Using all the associated gear, and got an even bigger fetish for hand tools than ever before.:U

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BobR

Did 6 years in the RAAF in electronics. Loved it - but was not the life for a married person. Back then you could be moved every 2 years.

After the Airforce I spent over 30 years in the computer industry working for 6 different companies. Two of these companies were second to IBM at different stages - not one of the 6 exists today. Such is the IT industry......

Wood working has only ever been a hobby as well as home repairs. But it sure fills in a day during retirement.

---

Similar.

I was a ground based radio tech in the RAAF for a couple of years & then got computer training, have been working on computer for 33 years now.

Not retired yet, the woodworking & home renos fit in between computer calls.

Well I started a career in the public service when I left school. Lasted six weeks :rolleyes:. I then did sundry factory work for a year until I started travelling around Australia and doing itinerant agricultural/mining work till my late twenties. I ended up doing Quality Control in a packaging factory and then another packaging factory and finally in a food factory. By the time I was made redundant from that I had my Certified Quality Engineer and a Masters in Environmental Management. I was then the corporate Quality & Environment Manager with lots of staff, 6 locations and basically non stop corporate travel. I was glad when it was over and I bought a printing franchise. Been there ever since. Loving it. I seriously doubt i could work for anyone else again.

Woodworking started as an antidote to corporate stress, now its my indulgence.

Jeez , this might take a while because I've had 3 working careers, two marriages, a defacto or two (I usually work on a having a new partner for each career), and a couple of reincarnations.

14 to 18: Car Washer & Polisher
18 to 18 +a bit: Factory process work after a 3 month stint at Uni
18 +a bit to 18 +a bit more: Builder's Labourer
19: Menswear retail
19: Cleaner at Uni (I went back for more of the same, stupidly)
20 to 30: IT (operating and then programming). Great days.
30 to 45: Photograher (Industrial, Hospitality, Natural History)
45 to 54: Investment Property sales and Mortgage broking
54 to present: Trying to wrap my head around that vast area of woodworking

Two of the three "proper" careers have left me with skills that I use on an almost daily basis. It was a real blast being formally trained in logic (IT), and i now use quite a bit of programming in Excel. The photography skills never seem to die, like bike riding, and they are pretty useful in preparing things for posting on here. It can get a bit ridiculous sometimes - I had to pull myself up yesterday (when preparing a thread) - I was getting too carried away with styling a photo of what was essentially a pile of dust!

My working life has been varied. Left school in UK went to train as teacher then needed money to get married (just for 15 months) so worked in real estate as sales person for several years. Came to Aus worked in vehicle spare parts and as pest controller. Got married for 2nd time (Still together now 37 years later). Moved back to UK for 8 years sold stationery and office equipment. I then became a commercial manager for a major it equipment manufacturer before starting my own business in commercial fitout and some small domestic building jobs. Came back to Aus lived on a yacht for 2 years but got bored so with wife went and studied law part-time whilst working as technical writer. Worked for 12 years as a Barrister in Brisbane then retired for 2 years. Now back working as a barrister but working with people to save them money in family law by showing them how they can do a lot of the work themselves.

During my life I have renovated two houses in UK and built my current house from scratch. I am also a qualified volunteer ambulance officer.

At school I really liked science and maths. This led me into a career in science. Three years in the rubber industry followed by twenty two years in paint laboratories.

I thought paint was what you bought in the hardware store, but over the years I worked on every kind of coating but that. Worked with some brilliant people and there was lots of travel visiting customers around Australia and New Zealand. One memorable thing was spending a week in Adelaide inspecting panels on the outside of a twelve story building, from a 6 x 4 box on the end of a crane.

Transferred to New Zealand and my job disappeared in 1998. Not much demand in New Zealand for chemists in the areas I specialised in, so it was time for a change of career.

I had always been interested in computers so off to the world of Information Technology. Initially I could not get a job, "You have no IT experience and no IT qualifications". I landed a job testing software for a company the made computer systems for petrol stations. With a bit of study I got a qualification but by then I did not need it because I had the experience. I left after three years as a Software Engineer. The company had gone through a number of restructures and owners, there were 150 staff when I started, 25 when I left. For the last nine years I have been working as a business analyst in health care.

As for wood working, it is my sanity break.

An amazing variety of "things we did before"
I had a paper round and I went to work with dad before I went to work which was at the end of grade nine, I wanted out of high school and to go to work, started as an apprentice sparky, no good at the school tho so after 2 1/2 yrs of the sparky thing was a bit of time on the dole, then worked with dad for 4 1/2 yrs laying floor coverings, a few Tafe courses and I started a short term (3 month) job at a textile factory putting up a suspended ceiling, stayed for 15 yrs, a few more Tafe courses, F/M trade, PLC programming, 1/2 baked Mech. Eng., travelled around Aus. during winter (born in Tas. and I hate the cold) the textile factory was heated :2tsup: which is one reason why I was there so long, went north to where there were no chimneys, some industry and not too many traffic lights, Gladstone Qld that'll do, having the F/M trade certainly helped getting a job but was also a bit of a shock compared to what I was used too, worked for a few of the local engineering places but got a bit annoyed with it all so time for another change and kinda fell into doing the woodwork thing, previous work lives have been very helpful with the woodwork and sometimes in unexpected ways, but might be back to a real job soon, no doubt something to do with mining:(

I at times reflect on decisions made, opportunities that arise, jobs that are available where you live, currently watching the series on "how to build" on SBS, for me Tafe was a godsend, everyone says it but if I knew what I know now .......

That's a quick look at my "what I did before"


Pete