What do you do for your "day job?"...

Forgive me if this has been asked in the past, I couldn't locate it with "search" but I am wondering what a RF's do for work in "real life? I suspect many of you are in the food/hosptality industry, but maybe not. Me, I'm a professor at a college in NYC, I teach psychology. I'm interested in culture and how people think and behave (and I love food!)

MBA in marketing and finance, Immunohematologist, retired as director of operations for Aventis Pharma and currently consulting for International BioResources.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

MBA in marketing and finance, Immunohematologist, retired as director of operations for Aventis Pharma and currently consulting for International BioResources.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Whew, OK I'm impressed!!!!!

I work as a bartender in a local hotel. I also serve food, so my job definitely encompasses the food/hospitality industry.

Just as a sidebar, I have degrees in Legal Assisting and Social Work. Both jobs drove me to drink heavily. The stress had me neglecting my family, so I went back to bartending. I know it's ironic, but I am more comfortable in the hospitality industry. And working in a Union hotel, my benefits are better than my previous jobs.

Worked out well for me! More vacation time for RoadFood trips!!

I'm a professional stagehand, working for my local union (#26) of the IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories and Canada, AFL-CIO, CLC).

First I'm a wife, then a homeschooling mother of seven, those will always be my most important jobs.

Out in the world I'm a Folk Art sculptor who travels the southeast coast, I mainly sculpt woman from the Gullah/Geechee and Creole cultures. I am also an ethnograhper for a historical society. I specialize in Sacred Harp, better known as Fa So La or Shape Note singing, in the rural areas of Alabama.

I'm here because food, and the supper table, has always been a major part of my southern life. I enjoy seeing how food played a part in others way of life and memories. Of course I also enjoy trying new foods and what better place to learn about them than here?

I retired after 29 years of teaching, mostly junior high science.
Now I'm a registered assistant at a brokerage firm. I think of myself as "nanny to the brokers."

I worked for many years as a foreign currency broker for one of the largest banks in the country, (now Bank of America, but during my tenure there it was known as NationsBank). In 1995 I had a stroke, and was forced to go on disability. Since then, I have had two additional strokes, and am not able to do much more than watch tv, read, or explore the internet. I love life, and I expecially love food and eating.

First degree was in music education, and I used to teach in the classroom and privately. Just finished my second degree: a doctorate in pharmacy. I am the program coordinator for the mental health program here in MD. I oversee the clozapine registry, attend state P&T meetings, and will probably be called upon to occasionally work in some of the state psych facilities. It's an interesting, low-stress, multi-faceted job with great state benefits, and I am very happy that I chose to work here!

most mornings i spend robbing little old ladies of their nickles at the casinos. after a light lunch at the local costco, i check out a few banks before seeking out my friendly curandara and tossing out a few incantations, then take in a matinee before performing a reiki ritual. on the way home, i sail into a local day spa for a massage with a happy ending, saunter home, light a few candles, whisper a few more incantations, walk the dogs, pour salt counterclockwise around the outside the house, pour myself a 42 ounce Bacardi&Diet coke, start a load of laundry then decide what to make the hubster for dinner. granted, it's a lot to do in one day, but i pace myself.

I just hunt, fish, shoot, camp and that sort of stuff. Hey, it's a living, and somebody has to do it.

My , you all have such interesting day jobs, I knew you would as your contributions here are always enlightening!

I myself am boring, I have three almost grown kids (23,21,17) who do not need me anymore, but really do, so I try to be available for them, my first degree in in Health Science Ed, second in Music Ed-I taught musical theater/chorus for 10 years at a jr/sr high and am very happy to be out of that.

My husband, his brother and I own a Landscape construction company that specializes in large tree transplanting so I have been working there for over 25 years in the office (which started out of our house!)

I love to cook (and eat) so Roadfood is my kinda thing! My dream job would be to be a nutritionist for a college level sports team (my son is an elite wrestler and diet is a huge part of that sport, it drives me crazy the ways some of these kids suck weight- dehydrating totally, eating nothing for weeks,not to mention the use of diet aids, it is rather sick. This week my son has a major competition he needs to be very lean for, I was so proud of the way he ate these past weeks-chicken, salads, egg whites, berries etc, you have to eat to lose weight( I wish I would eat so well!.) He cooked his own food this time, grilling and preparing the stuff the lean way I do for him. He is 2 pounds over for Thursday weigh-in and with his metabolism(I hate him), he'll be right on- they weigh in 7am

Wish me (actually my son) luck, off to Fargo for a week of wrestling!
Cheers
KB

When my grandson wrestled I well remember the early-morning weigh-ins followed by a big breakfast. And then there were the days when he'd have to climb into a couple of pairs of sweat pants, two hooded sweat shirts and a down jacket and run on indoor tracks or treadmills to sweat off a few ounces and try the scale again.

My day job consits of this: fishing, more fishing, boating, camping, hiking, making chowder, watching the Red Sox, watching our cat go FLYING (she was sleeping and fell.....KEBOOM) off the deck, rescuing Kitty, don't forget about the afternoon nap.Visiting our septagerian friends. Talking to our Moms on the phone for hours.

Lleechef: I like your day job I sorta guess that you do not do the plane work anymore?


Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

I'm a poker dealer in Atlantic City !

Ellen

I supervise medical care for a group home of developmentally disabled adults. I have also chaperoned a number of trips for DD adults.

My job today was to help take down 100 foot tall cottonwood trees all within 20 feet hanging over our house. I did a lot of hanging on to the end of a lowering rope as a hired tree trimmer 60 feet in the air was lopping off branches before the big drop. Last count we got 5 cottonwoods and one box elder over the past week. No fear of storms anymore. Unfortunately when you drop a 110 foot tall 48" diameter cottonwood in a woods you take out quite a few younger oak, maple and butternut. It was exciting and sad at the same time and damn hot work in 90 degree weather.

That was my vacation day. Normally I play architect for a large corporation that sells you cheap chic, has clean white floors, wide aisles and lots of red. I'm the guy who drives quality assurance in the design and execution of the architecture.

ellen,
you have the most fascinating job of all!
my gosh, the characters you see, the situations you observe..you could write a book
on one day at the tables alone!
i imagine you as susan sarandan in the movie "atlantic city"

I'm an insurance regulator for our State Department of Insurance.

I've cooked since I was a kid (Mom was a home ec teacher), worked in restaurants as a line cook during high school & college, and spent my freshman year at Michigan State's Hotel & Restaurant School.

I have no "day job"---i am however on the board of directors for FORBlues--a non profit that puts on a large blues mfestival, organizes and promotes music education programs and founded the Oklahome Blues Hall of Fame---and i am semireired after 17 yrs in park and rec work in California and 15 or so years cooking all over the place. Oh---and i have a paper route that allows me to drive around listening to loud blues in the middle of the night and the wee hours all through rural southeastern oklahoma ------and i play a little bass!

I am retired after 37 years as manager of the dairy and gourmet foods departments for the main store of a local chain of food marts, now all closed because the owner retired. I have always loved doing "experimental cooking", and have also driven (and camped) all over North America from Alaska all the way down to Belize and a small portion of Guatemala.

I am also currently on the Board of Directors for Fort Crevecoeur Park, the site of the first European building in the central part of the United States, constructed by La Salle and Tonti and their men in 1680, who 2 years later went down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, proclaimed the Mississippi River watershed for France and named it Louisiana for King Louis XIV. This was the territory later involved in the Louisiana Purchase.

I'm an actor living in NYC. Stage mostly, but some film and TV here and there. My "filler" job is working at a bookstore in Greenwich Village, legal proofreader, promotions, and whatever will pay the bills. I fellow Roadfood fan put me on to this site and I've been hooked ever since. Catered my first event about 3 years ago (for free, small fundraiser) and baked in my first "pie social" in Brooklyn last year!

Retired Fire Captain for Los Angeles Fire Department. Currently a truck yard boss and an independant truck load broker here in the trucking capital of the West Coast.

I'm a retired educator (early retirement!), who went back to college and became certified as a Legal Assistant/Paralegal. I now work for a child welfare agency, writing the child abuse Complaints that are presented in Court. I am proud of having a 100% record of "wins", thus having protected scores of children from abusive parents.

Dynamics test technician in the defense industry.

Hello All,
NYNM, this is a great question. Thanks.
Come on, Michael, tell us also what you've done in the past.
When I was 17, I started and ran a church coffeehouse for two years.
At 19, while in college, was a licensed minister in the Brethren Church,
which taught me I was too immature for the ministry at that time.
Worked at our local historical society as genealogist for three years.
Started out as a night auditor for the local Sheraton and then became
their reservation manager for three years. (always left a job after 3 years)
Worked at our local university in their catering dept., ordering and receiving
the food inventory (a glorified gophfer which open my world to many foods)
Househusband for about 5 years. (Broke the 3 year routine)
And for the last eleven years, a pressman (or ink monkey) at our local newspaper.
I am ready for something new now, but it gets harder to change careers with a mortgage
and getting older.
It seems that every job title I've had doesn't reflect the experience. You have duties
with a title, but you often blend and help co-workers, as they do for you as well.
Thanks again, NYNM.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

After graduating from University in 1980 with a degree in History, I worked as an assistant manager of a pharmacy, then I worked as a route salesman for a salad dressing company, then I sold cars. After getting fed up with all that I attended a local technical college and learned data processing. I've been in the DP/IT/MIS field for over 24 years now. My latest job is as a Mainframe Systems Programmer, but over the years I've pretty much done it all.

I REALLY look forward to retirement. And since I work for a state supported University I can retire in about 4 years !!! YAY !!

Then I can devote more time to checking out all these neat roadfood sites I keep reading about.

Wow... very interesting people here! As for me, I am an office manager at a small sign shop. Great boss, great hours, and have the freedom to take time off when needed. However, I am 43 and still not sure what I want to be when I grow up. HMPH! At this rate, I will never get to retire. For now my love affair with food continues... and always will I'm sure!

My first job was a cosmetologist, I did that for 2 years and hated every day of it. Next I went to work at the University of Flordia Bookstore. Did that for 7 years, got tired of rude "you're here to please me" students and promoted over to the College of Journalism where I've worked 17 years for PBS, both radio and TV. My family(well me too!)thinks I have the most "cush" job anyone could have because it's not too stressful except for a couple of times during the year and I have my own TV. Not too much "food" goes on here except the cooking shows we air, and I watch. I can retire with a full 30 in 6 years at the age of 51 but probably won't be able to afford it. Don't plan on staying until 65 though!