Who does what for a living?

[heathpack]

If you’re retired, what did you do for a living pre-retirement?

For those of you with multiple careers, what were/are they?

What jobs did you hold to get by while you were learning/in school?

just curious

Ill start:
I’m a veterinary neurologist for 29 years now. I had two on the job training jobs to get there: rotating intern in small animal medicine & surgery & resident in neurology and neurosurgery.

As prevet experience I worked as vet assistants in a couple of practices, and held the same jobs part time in vet school.

After undergrad and before vet school, I had seven months and worked as a chemist in a lab, and also grading essays on standardized tests. I had been an English major and graduated one class shy f a chemistry degree.

In high school my part time job was as the dining room girl at a nursing home.

 

[heathpack]

Whoops I mean5 to post this to the lounge.

 

[slip]

I am retired now. Can't believe I have been retired over a year already. I worked for the same company for just under 38 years. I worked for Sysco Foods the largest food distributor.

I started working nights for almost three years, then I transfered to Inventory Control and ended out running that department for 10 years before I took a Food Safety Position with Sysco Corporate. My last 3 years I transfered and worked for Sysco Corporate at Sysco Hawaii where I was responsible for Food Safety on Oahu, Maui, Big Island, Kauai and Guam.

Not many people work for the same company that long any more. I'm glad I was able to make it to the end and retired on my own terms.

 

[heathpack]

I am retired now. Can't believe I have been retired over a year already. I worked for the same company for just under 38 years. I worked for Sysco Foods the largest food distributor.

I started working nights for almost three years, then I transfered to Inventory Control and ended out running that department for 10 years before I took a Food Safety Position with Sysco Corporate. My last 3 years I transfered and worked for Sysco Corporate at Sysco Hawaii where I was responsible for Food Safety on Oahu, Maui, Big Island, Kauai and Guam.

Not many people work for the same company that long any more. I'm glad I was able to make it to the end and retired on my own terms.

how did you wind up ay Sysco?

 

[Limace]

I’ve worked in child protective services for 30 years or so now-now lead for our county. DH does IT work for school districts up until recently, when he shifted to do same for a public utility. I retire next year! When my youngest will be a freshman in high school-I tell him I’ll be able to go to school with him every day .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SmithOp]

Retired. I was just thinking this morning that all the work I did means nothing now, it wasn't everlasting. I wonder what it would have been like to build something like the Golden Gate Bridge.

Trained in electronics repair in USAF, went to college after on GI bill taking computer science classes. I worked while attending college as a QA electronics test technician. On a whim I applied for a state job I saw posted on the bulletin board at college. I got hired in the entry level, highway lighting electrician, riding around the highways screwing in light bulbs. I worked my way up through the ranks over the next 17 years until I was the assistant program manager for electrical maintenance.

I got a job offer with IBM, worked there 15 years as a project manager, then retired at 58 after working 40 years total. I feel lucky I was always able to parlay my experiences and always move up the ladder.

 

[slip]

how did you wind up ay Sysco?

I moved from Chicago when I was 17 and went to school for a couple years. I ended out getting married and looked for a job. Sysco was one of the large employers in the area. One good thing is they paid descent and they are usually always looking for people. It's still that way to this day.

My son started there when he was 18. He is still there and he is now 33 years old. He switched to working part time, only 3 days a week a few years ago already. He owns his house outright already along with his vehicles so he lives very cheaply and enjoys having more free time.

I was lucky with timing and there were always opportunities for advancement over my years there. My older brother worked there also and he was there almost 5 more years than me. He was actually downsized from his position a year before I retired. Luckily for him, he was going to retire the next year so when he received his severance it almost covered his pay for that year when he was going to retire anyway so basically he got paid to retire early. It definitely could have been a lot worse.

 

[slip]

I retired at 58 in 2022 and I will add my wife retired in 2019 at 59 years old after working 20 years at our local Hospitals daycare. Before that she worked 18 years at Flambeau Plastics where she would string Duncan Yoyo's, Painted duck decoys and put together Motorola cellphones.

 

[klpca]

I am a soon to be retired CPA. I went to college to get into marketing. Accounting was a more steady career so I went in that direction. I have worked a hybrid FT/PT schedule for most of my career.

My pre-professional jobs included things like cleaning banks at night - people sure are pigs - and working at a sports museum in Balboa Park. I did other jobs that were more typical - fast food, retail etc. I started earning money when I was 12 years old (babysitting) and I have never not worked in nearly 50 years. I am retiring this year and really looking forward to it. It has been a slog and like @SmithOp I feel like I don't have much to show for it. Two weeks ago I put an entire year's worth of workpapers in the bin to be shredded. A lot of mental effort went into the creation of those documents and it's a bit disheartening to know that it will be run through the shredder. I realized that the stupid stapler was going to carry on longer than me, lol. Luckily, while I worked I spent a lot of time volunteering with my kids activities - scouts, church, sports, and band. That's where the lasting things are - both relationships and memories.

 

[Passepartout]

Retired. After high school. Lousy college grades. Draft threatened, so I enlisted. 2 years Europe/a tour in Vietnam as an Army Construction Engineer building roads. I like mechanical stuff. and driving. Became a journeyman floor coverer. Knees wouldn't take that. Got into trucks. Did some household moving, transitioned in to moving large computers, and trade shows for the tech industry. Spent time in Boston and Las Vegas and S. Cal- a trip across the country about every 2 weeks. Then worked for a large refrigerated carrier. retired from them after 25 years and well over 3 million safe miles. I did a couple year spot as a spokesman for American Trucking Assns, the industry trade group.

I started traveling as a teen. Living as a GI in Europe, every month, I'd buy my essentials, then stick out my thumb or hop a train as far as the money would last. Coming home after Vietnam, there was 'that' woman, and we camped all over the west out of a VW bug.

I passed 25 years or so, single, and traveling whenever I could. My partner in travel, my mom, had a stroke, and I was her primary caregiver for several years in assisted living until another stroke took her (believe me, there are worse things than death). I met my DW some 25 years ago. She's a successful attorney, so you could say, I married up. We both feel fortunate.

Jim

Along the way, I had some interesting wheels. Started skiing at about age 5, was accepted to Ski Patrol in Garmisch Germany (I was already in Vietnam), I learned to fly and a few other kinda interesting detours.

 

[1Melanie]

I worked for the St Of WA as a Support Enforcement Officer collecting child support and eventually being a trainer. As soon as I got my 30 years in I retired. During my career, I flexed time to study and practice massage therapy for about 10 years. Gave up massage to do rentals. We are currently in the middle of a project building a duplex for rental.
Prior to that, I worked for Humana as a PBX operator and eventually payroll/accounting for about 10 years while I went to school to get a degree in Business/Marketing. Took me 7 years to finish school. I didn’t like that as much as I liked massage school but Humana paid so I went.
My first job at age 15 was working at the the del Monte pineapple cannery for $1.29 an hour. That was fun. It was like an extension of high school but with kids from all over Hawaii. I remember leaving work at the end of shift oozing with the aroma of pineapple. From there I went to Outrigger Hotels as a PBX operator. Then onto Children’s a hospital as an admitting clerk until I left home to go on an adventure to the Canary Islands. My husband at the time played music and danced in a Polynesian Revue. Upon returning to the US, we decided to move to Washington so we could buy a home. Been here ever since. . .
So here I am, I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Oh wait…. I am grown up!

 

[PigsDad]

After graduating w/ a Computer Science degree, I worked for a large computer company for 33 years as a software engineer, with the last ~10 years getting more involved with project management when our organization transitioned to using an Agile development environment. I took on the roles of Scrum Master, Release Train Engineer and Agile Coach (all SAFe roles, if you are familiar w/ SAFe) during that time, but still was a software engineer under all of those roles. Retired at the age of 57 and haven't looked back since.

Kind of a "boring" history working for the same employer for 33 years, and I know I could have had higher salaries if I had job hopped, but in the end I was happy with my career choices. The company was good to me, paid me quite well, and had a very flexible work environment that allowed for an awesome work/life balance and a stable home environment / not moving all over the country. That work/life balance was worth the world to me. For example, I was very involved with parenting my one and only child. I can probably count on one hand the number of doctor visits (starting w/ pre-natal care), school events, soccer games, gymnastics events, swim meets, band concerts, t-ball, basketball, and softball games of hers I missed before she left for college. I wouldn't trade that for any amount of money.

I'm just getting into the groove of retirement now, but one future "career" that may be in store for me is becoming a softball umpire. That sport gave so much to my daughter and our family (including a full ride college scholarship), so I wanted to give back a little and still be involved w/ the sport in my retirement. Wish me luck!

Kurt

 

[BJRSanDiego]

I grew up in a lower-middle class family where my Dad was a cook and my Mom cleaned houses and was a nanny for a while. I started shoveling snow for $ at about 10 or 12 y.o., plus mowing lawns, painting storm windows, capping home brew beer and delivering morning newspapers, plus doing some paid photography. At about 16 y.o. I started washing dishes in a restaurant - - Saturday during the school year and 48 or 56 hours a week during the summer break. During my several years of washing dishes I probably washed a half million dishes. In college, I continued the dishwashing on Saturdays plus 15 hours a week on campus doing everything from a monkey and rat attendant, Chemistry equipment repair, rocket payload tech and photography. My major was electrical engineering. I worked my way up from being a bench design engineer to an engineering manager (as I got my MBA) to an engineering executive. I retired at 57 yo and am staying active in a number of ways including about 8-10 trips a year. My current hobbies include fixing most everything that breaks/needs to be tweaked/needs to be thumped (I call it a "technical tap"), hydroponics, photography, welding, casting, electronics, ham radio, wood turning, and a few other things.

 

[DaveNV]

In three days I'll have been retired three years. That's very hard for me to believe, but there we are.

My career was 48 years in IT and all things computer-related. It never got old, and I learned something new every single day. How could anyone dislike a career like that?

I was a Draft-age child of the Vietnam era. When they held the Draft Lottery that included my birthdate, my Draft number was THREE. I knew if I didn't do something else, the Army would get me, and I'd be off to Vietnam like many of my friends from high school. I'd had terrible dreams all through high school about dying in a rice paddy carrying a rifle and wearing an Army uniform. So I pulled the old switcheroo on them, and I enlisted in the Navy. Most sailors don't wear a green working uniform, they wear a blue dungaree uniform, and I figured being on a ship in the middle of the ocean was a pretty safe place to be. It was. I tested extremely high on the Navy's entrance exams, and was offered my choice of every school or program the Navy offered at the time. When I was in Boot Camp, they even offered me an appointment to the Naval Academy at Annapolis. For reasons I'm still not sure about, I turned them down. If I have a major regret in my life, it's turning down that appointment. I'm still not completely sure why I did that. My life would have been very different if I'd taken their offer. No complaints for how it's been, but I still wonder "What if...?"

Staying as an enlisted sailor, I chose computer work, and I trained as a Data Processing Technician, a fancy term for a Computer Operator. I operated and supported mini- and mainframe computers of a wide variety, from manufacturers like Sperry-Univac, IBM, Control Data, and Xerox. Lots of military-specific computers that performed very specific tasks, but it all added to my wide experience in computing. From there I stepped into Computer Programming and Systems Analysis, and I stayed with that until I completed my 20-year enlisted career in the mid-1990s.

Because I enjoyed computers so much, I stayed in the industry, working the next 28 years in a variety of computing positions with various companies, and I even had my own computer repair and support retail store for several years. I've built computers from the ground up, operated them, repaired them, and taught others to use them. I even helped bring the Internet to my town back at the time. I've worked in website development, network support, and just about all levels of maintenance of various systems.

My last twelve working years were the very best of all. I worked eight years in desktop support, as a front-line helper to troubleshoot desktop computer systems, Help Desk phone support, training users, and deploying new equipment for an extremely busy, multi-county Regional Hospital system in the Pacific Northwest. Stepping across the line, I then trained and worked as an EPIC Applications Analyst for the Business Office and Billing Departments, providing custom reporting to show them where the multi-millions they took in was being spent. It was fascinating work I thoroughly enjoyed.

I don't miss the long hours, the stress, the frustration of trying to give the users what they needed and wanted, even if it wasn't always what they asked for. But I do miss the people. I made some lifelong friends in that industry, and I'm pleased to say I still have friends I worked with at the Hospital and in the Navy, all those years ago.

Beats the hell out of carrying a rifle in a rice paddy...

Dave

 

[chellej]

I started working in a restaurant at 16 while in High school. Went to college where I got my degree in Health Physics and an associate in Chemistry. Did a little time in Grad school at Georgia Tech but then decided to get into the workforce. I worked at the Idaho National engineering lab at the chem plant ( we reprocessed navy nuclear fuel and converted the waste into glass), went to the dept of energy after my kids were born and then DH took a job in Texas and I did consulting at Los Alamos and Nevada Test site.

Then I went to the Dept of State Health Services in Texas as a Radioactive Materials inspector and Currently work for the dept of Health in Washington as an x-ray inspector.

When I went to college I had never heard of Health Physics was going to be a dietician but did really well in Chemistry and my Professor convinced me I was wasting my time and should go into the hard sciences. It has been a good career but am looking forward to retirement in hopefully 2 years

 

[artringwald]

I always had summer jobs or part time jobs while I was going to college. In 1971 I graduated with a BS in physics from the University of Michigan. The job market was tight so over the next year I worked as dish washer in a hospital, sales clerk in an electronics store, road construction laborer, vacuum cleaner salesman (1 week), and a month of breaking up cardboard boxes at an Avon distribution center. Finally, I hired a placement agency and paid them $500 when they got me a job at 3M servicing copy machines.

Fortunately for me, 3M bought a desktop computer company in 1976 and I moved to Washington DC to service their Linolex computers. I was good at fixing them and I taught myself how to program them. In 1979, 3M offered me a job in St. Paul to provide support for other service techs. 3M paid me to go to grad school in computer science. Eventually I got into software product development and worked on a fax store and forward system, a primitive email system, a system for tracking library books, and Scotchprint, a system that used large format printers for printing truck and building size graphics. Besides developing software, I did archiving, QA, documentation, and supported customers, marketing, manufacturing, developers and technicians.

After 35 years at 3M, I retired at 58. For the past 15 years my only jobs have been pro bono babysitting, travel consulting, and providing PC support to friends and relatives. It's a job I wouldn't be able to do without TeamViewer, an excellent remote control program. In the summer, I spend much of my spare time biking on the large network of scenic trails in and around the Twin Cities.

 

[missyrcrews]

I worked my way through college as a lab tech in a pharmacology lab at the University of Missouri. I married the semester before I student taught, and then moved to Maine once I graduated. I did long-term subbing for several years and worked retail jobs at night. (Subbing for little kids when my degree was in secondary education...THAT was an experience, but one that I loved!) I eventually worked my way up to an assistant store manager for Sears, and so that became my only job for awhile. When my twins were born, the daycare/salary math didn't compute. I stayed home to care for my kids.

Went back to working part-time retail at night for Target once Laney was two and a half, and I'm still there, 15 years later. I went back to subbing when all my kids were in school as well. I'd volunteered at their elementary school, and I was taking over classes from the subs, since the kids knew me. The principal insisted I fill out paperwork so she could pay me! When my husband at the time got on the school board there, I had to move to the middle school, since it's in a different district. (Our town isn't part of the larger school union around us.) I subbed there for a year, and then took a position as an Educational Technician...Maine's name for a para-professional. I was happy doing that, until my divorce. The pay just wasn't great, and I needed to look toward retirement. There was a math teacher retiring in the building, and I discovered I only needed 5 credits of math to get a full middle-level math certification. The state gave me an emergency certificate, and I got hired! Two math classes later, I've got my full certification, and I'm 65 days from the end of my first year of teaching at age 52. I enjoy the kids, I don't mind middle school, and my health insurance is paid.

I'll do this until I can't...hopefully I can hang on for another 14 years. Hoping to cut back on Target one of these days....still working 35ish hours every week for them, too. :/ Ah, well...the vacation weeks make it worth it!!!

 

[geist1223]

I got my first job at 13. I helped an older couple take care of their large property. I also did Baby Sitting. In High School I worked in a grocery store and had various jobs on Farms. I also worked in San Francisco in Photography Reproduction. Image being 17/18 on your own in San Francisco. For about 5 months prior to College I pulled Green Chain in a Lumber Mill and in a Chicken Slaughter House. I ended up at Oregon State in NROTC purely by accident. It was a nice scholarship. In College I worked at a Vacuum Cleaner/Sewing Machine Shop in Sales and Repair and Security/Cleanup in a Plywood Mill. I also worked on Farms during the Summer. I spent 5.5 years as an Officer in the Marine Corps. I then attended Law School. While in Law School I was in the Army Reserves. After Law School I was in the Army JAG Corps for 5.25 years. I continued in the Army Reserves. The Tricare for Life is nice. I was then a Senior Deputy District Attorney in Douglas County Oregon for 9.5 years. I spent the entire time as part of an Interagency Narcotics Team. I then went to work for SAIF (State Workers Compensation) as a Trial Attorney. I worked their for 13.5 years retiring slightly over 10 years ago at the age of 58.75. As a retiree I spent lots of time with Patti, taking care of our House, and traveling.

 

[SmithOp]

@DaveNV story reminded me of my enlistment in USAF.

I had a scholarship offer to an engineering college in Wisconsin, but a low draft number and wanting to move away from snow country convinced me to enlist. I turned 18 in Dec 1971, and graduated high school early in Jan 72. I tested well on USAF entrance exams and was given a wide open choice of careers. I told the recruiter I wanted to go to CA, so he offered me a 6 year enlistment, E-3 out of Basic, guaranteed job and first base in CA. My training was ground based navigation systems, all obsolete now they use satnav for aircraft navigation. The equipment used vacuum tubes, also obsolete now. I ended up staying at Travis AFB my whole enlistment, got out and stayed in CA.

I was also approached in tech school about applying for the academy but at the time I was not a citizen, a requirement. I also turned down an offer to go to Vietnam as a forward air controller, the first guy the snipers were shooting carrying the radio. I did eventually have to complete my citizenship in order to get a security clearance to leave tech school - it was quicker than waiting for a full background investigation.

I recently connected with a childhood friend from England and we had remarkably similar careers, he enlisted in RAF and worked aircraft electronics for the Red Arrows aerobatic team.

Like @klpca all my work products have been round filed long ago. I wouldn't have stressed over all that work knowing now how ephemeral most jobs are. All the systems I created or worked on have been replaced and upgraded.

 

[jorcus]

At 17 went to a 2 year then called an ag and tech college to get a degree in electrical technology. Even with poor grades due to excessive party life style at the time I had a job waiting in Electronic manufacturing for process control equipment. Worked there 9 years but place was offshoring and restructuring so looked to do something else. My brother gave me a course catalog for the University at Buffalo and at that time Tuition was around $650 a semester. No kids, girlfriend was from Buffalo so was willing to move back. Off to school for the next big technology molecular biology. 3 years later with a BS degree got a temp Job at Bristol Meyers Squibb in basic research. Only lasted a year, probably just as well it really was not for me. Found a small ad to be an independent sales rep for Lab Equipment. Worked for 1 guy out of New England who was great to me but even though I did it for 9 years It just was not for me.

In 2000 my brother in law knows I am looking for work and hooks me up with a job at one of the start up Telephone companies that came out of deregulation. Installed some of the first DSL equipment in the area. That was a lot of fun in the early days. People would give you anything to get off dial up. 2 years later you get the, I can't run my business without internet speech. Companies that were around for 100 years could not live 4 hours without a connection. I did a lot of other communication things there but after 11 years things changed and my wife's job was going away so maintaining health insurance was the most important thing.

I found another field tech job repairing emission testing equipment used by New York State to inspect cars. Fun job, easy job, got to go lots of places but low pay and then the company lost the contract on the rebid. At least I had 9 months to prepare for something else. It seemed like the best thing to do was to get back into telecom. I hit the books at night and during the slow days to get a cisco certifications. Got a CCNA and a CCNA voice.

First job after that got me in with a local phone system vendor. I did not care for the environment at that place so started looking almost right away and after 9 months got a job working for Frontier Communications on Mitel and Avaya phone systems. Tough job but the first 3 or 4 years were great. Fun group good pay and benefits. Covid hit so worked the last year from home and even though It cut out an hour commute each way I did not like being coped up in a room. I called it quits 2 years ago at 61 and a half.

For now I just do whatever I feel like. It's a lot less stress. I spend a few hours a day analyzing stocks. Then it's this project or that. And travel anyplace I can find a good deal.

 

[bizaro86]

I'm a professional engineer, and worked for an oil and gas company until 2014 when I got laid off. That was interesting well paid work, with a good group. Although I sympathize somewhat with the frustration of those whose hard work didn't bear any long term fruit. I spent the last 3 years of that job creating a development plan for a billion dollar project. When oil prices dropped the project got cancelled, I got laid off, and the assets got sold off. I did end up with my name on a patent for something I did during my last 2 weeks of work before getting laid off...

After that I started my own business in finance. That has been good, and since I have a few different consulting clients its a bit more stable.

During school I worked summers in oil and gas fields in various areas. Saw everything from rattlesnakes to bears to moose doing those jobs.

 

[Cornell]

I grew up w/a very boring childhood but worked summers in college at AC Nielsen (TV ratings) where my dad spent his entire career. I thought market research was pretty interesting so decided to plan my education around that. With good advice, my dad encouraged me to major in math when I was in college. I got good grades so was able to land a full-ride with a teaching assistant role in grad school where I got a M.S. in statistics. I taught Statistics 101 to the business school students. Probably the best job I ever had. If I could re-do my life, I would be a high school teacher. I regret not taking the few extra classes needed to get a teaching certificate.

I immediately went to work for a "traditional" market research company after graduation. My area of expertise is survey research. I analyze the data from these surveys and work with our clients to "tell a story" with the data and to give recommendations for their brand and products. Most of my clients are not numbers people (they are marketers) so my challenge is speak their language when presenting a statistical language.

I've worked for various companies for my 30 years doing this. My industry is very client-driven (like an ad agency) so it's a roller coaster with big ups and downs with revenues and profits. Lots of booms and busts with layoffs happening every few years. In fact my current company announced layoffs in 30-45 days so I'm bracing myself.

The work is interesting b/c it's project based so nothing ever gets old or stale.

When I started most of our surveys were conducted over the phone or paper and pencil collection-- either at a central location or mailed to respondents. Obviously everything is online now.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Was the youngest of 7 in a low middle class military family. Put myself through college and didn't have 2 nickels to rub together when we married. I lucked out and got a good job in a big corp cable company, Cablevision at the time and that started me on a 30 year Crop career. I retired at 58 last year after 30 years of Technology Project Management and Contract Management, for MetLife the last 20 years. Over the last 10 years I was focused on cyber security for MetLife and while I loved it, it was a very stressful environment because of the subject matter.

My second career started when I purchased a few Marriott Maui timeshares in 2002 and realized I could rent one while I used the other. In hindsight it was definitely a risky move because we had minimum cash, and almost every friend and relative thought I was crazy, but I had a hunch and obsession so I did it anyway. One thing led to another and now we own 32 at last count, at one point about 50, after selling about a dozen and adding a few as well. With my TS business doing so well I wasn't forced to continue at my stressful corp job when an opportunity presented itself to take an early retirement package.

At this point I'm doing exactly what I hoped, managing our TS portfolio to make enough financially to allow us to enjoy a busy travel lifestyle with friends and family, while helping others do the same. Last year to expand my business I also started brokering deals for guests using 3rd party TS ownership. With my knowledge of the Marriott TS markets, specifically Maui, HHI, USVI and a few others, I'm an excellent resource for individuals seeking Marriott vacations. So now for probably 30-35 hours a week that is my job, managing my own units and brokering vacation deals for others. We always tell young people to try to find a job that you love and it won't feel like work but in reality that is almost impossible, but I can truly say I have a job like that, where I'm earning an income doing something that truly doesn't feel like work.

 

[VacationForever]

I grew up wanting to be a DJ, and then to be practical, a lawyer. However, my sister advised me against that and I ended up with a BS in Computer Science and Economics. I also picked up a MBA a few years later.

I started my working career as an Analyst Programmer, moving into IT management after 7 years. I stayed in the IT field for 23 years, managing in different capacity, and I got relocated twice by the same company, which landed me in the US ultimately. My husband and I left the company together and started our home care company and we did that for 8 years before retiring. We never made the kind of money that we did in IT, but the human rewards were invaluable. It was pretty brutal 24x7 work, where we were regularly called in the middle of the night to resolve yet another crisis. We have been retired for 7 years and enjoying our retirement.

Oh, in my culture, kids don't get a job while going to school. Parents are responsible for supporting them through graduation. I did pay for my MBA program since I was already working by then.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I have a Bachelor of Mathematics - Double Major, in Computer Science and Business Administration. Graduated in the late 1980s from University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

I was a poster child for girls in STEM before such a thing even existed.

I worked for big Consulting firms for 15 years, and then when independent contractor route for years for 15 years. I do Business Analyst and Project Management type work. I am a generalist. I have working in every industry imaginable. Projects cover from Off Shore oil rig operations to Big Pharma, to Banking, to Manufacturing, etc.

I use things that I learned at University every day, and I have learned lot of other things since then.

When COVID hit, I wanted to ensure I have a revenue stream continuing, so I got my last contract location to make me an offer. I just didn't know what would happen if I remained independent during that timeframe.

I have moonlighted as a travel agent for nearly 30 years, figure it will give me something to do in retirement. I was the agent working with the TUG Group Cruises that happened back in the day when Fern, Kathy Q and David M organized the first TUG Group cruises. Many of you have met me in person from that activity.

However I still actually like my current job(s), most days, so not retiring yet. I am close to 60, but not yet there. So I will see how things go.