General Chat / What Do You Do?

Just started my first my first "big boy" job in my field after graduating from college. I'm currently a Construction Inspector, but because I have a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering, I will be able to move up to Graduate Engineer, and then further up from there, into management, and so on. So yes a degree may not make a difference in some jobs (mcdonalds) but in other fields a degree may mean the difference between being a construction inspector all your life and actually being able to climb the corporate ladder and do design, work with clients, travel, and so on.

Engineering degrees are in a completely different ballpark lol. They don't really require graduate education to get into the field in comparison to most of the sciences and humanities.

Engineering degrees are in a completely different ballpark lol. They don't really require graduate education to get into the field in comparison to most of the sciences and humanities.

True, but if you look at the top of any engineering firm I'll guarantee you the principals / management all have higher degrees. Bachelors get you into a field, masters and above let's you get into the top of the field. There will always be exceptions but just like in acting, there are untrained actors who make it big - doesn't mean you would risk going untrained if you're looking to be an actor.

I finally am aware that I won't get anywhere with a degree in American Studies and PolSci and that it is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I am planning on enrolling in an integrated degree program in Technical Orthopedics, starting next May, with the goal of getting into the research field of orthopedics and prosthetics at some point in the future. Until then, I'm currently already working part-time in an orthopedics shop, looking for internships at bigger firms that also work in the neurological area.

 

Upon finishing the integrated degree program, I would be both a certified orthopedic technician as well as having earned a Bachelor of Engineering. Sounds worth pursuing to me.

^Go show 'em what you got dude!! Sounds like you're on a great track!

Thanks man, greatly appreciated It's gonna be hard on the math and physics parts, but well - can't always do something that requires no real effort on my part

Just had a 13 hour day. This week is going to suck. Sunday can't come soon enough.

Just finished bachelors in music engineering and electrical engineering at University of Miami.  Starting at a well known headphone/sound system company soon doing software engineering.  Constantly involved in multiple musical projects either playing guitar or pushing buttons or both.  Lately been putting most of my time into self improvement through exercise, meditation, yoga, cooking, and writing.

Work stuff first. I graduated in 2012 with a degree in Adventure Education. Now I teach 25hrs a week at a High School doing an Adventure Based Service Learning class. On the side I work as a Mountain Guide and teach ice and rock climbing for several private high schools. Another 15 hours a week is spent working as a program supervisor for a grant writing conglomerate that allocates funds for community health and adolescent substance misuse programs. For this I work in 10 high schools overseeing their chem-free groups and co-facilitate a regional leadership group composed of student leaders from these 10 schools. This Fall I am starting back at my alma mater teaching as an Adjunct Professor in the Adventure Education Department in lieu of the above.

 

Personal stuff. I just bought a house in January with my Fiance and have been rebuilding and fixing up things. Projects for the house ended up using a lot of my H2H time unfortunately, but I've got a sexy new kitchen now

^Thats awesome to hear! I've got so much respect for rock and ice climbers. It's always something i've wanted to be involved in, but my options are limited being in Florida haha. 

 

Congrats on the house as well!!

I write poetry!

I suppose that this could go in the brag about real life topic, but this also ties into what I do so oh well.

 

As a couple of you may know, I've taken a job with Disney Cruise Line as a guest communications coordinator on the Dream. [The Dream and Fantasy are the larger of the 4 ships and are among the largest in the industry] Being on the Dream, our itinerary is [unfortunately] the same each week - 3/4 day Port Canaveral/Nassau/Castaway Cay/Sea Day cruises. It makes sense for Disney to keep one ship primarily running the short cruises from Port Canaveral, as it targets a different demographic than the Magic and Wonder's long European/Alaskan/Hawaiian cruises. Regardless, I'm very happy to have this opportunity and am making the absolute most of it. As I've said before, I may start a topic to answer any and all questions some of you might have about shiplife, DCL, Disney in general, etc. Its truly a unique place to be and the people are amazing to work with.

 

That being said, my job provides me the opportunity to interact with all of the leaders onboard the ship. With the Cruise Director and the Assistant Cruise Director as my direct supervisors, I am in constant interaction with their direct reports; the leaders of the other departments within Entertainment. Being that I have so many years of lifeguard and recreation experience from working at the Vero Beach resort, I was able to hit it off with the Port Adventures manager on the ship. She had me hold several audits of the lifeguards as they were scanning the pool [none of them recognized me as someone to look out for because they're so used to the managers doing the visual audits] In return, she allowed me to experience any of the Port Adventure tours that are offered for the guests whenever I wanted. Basically I would be sent on these excursions for free, and all I would do for her was to audit the tour [guides, transportation, timing, venues, etc] and send a recap once I arrived back on the ship. Even though we only visit two ports [one being Castaway Cay so the excursions don't really count!] It was still an amazing opportunity and allowed me to do things that I wouldn't normally be able to afford! Since we were in Nassau twice a week, I couldn't help but check out Atlantis as much as possible.

 

I've been fortunate enough to do a decent amount of traveling in my life, and I've got to say that Nassau is one of the worst cities I've ever been to. Its a tourist trap. The locals hound the tourists as soon as they leave the port, the streets are filthy, many of the buildings and infrastructure are in terrible disrepair, etc. To be honest the only thing that I found worth checking out in Nassau was the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. Prior to visiting, I never really put much thought into the resort. I always assumed that it was a luxury beach resort with a cool slide that went through a shark tank. I didn't realize that its a full fledged water park and has an absolutely MASSIVE selection of open-air aquariums. [all of the water is directly filtered from the ocean into the tanks which I thought was really cool] I felt a little embarrassed upon realizing how cool this place really was, given my moderate themed entertainment knowledge and interests. I was able to convince my shipboard roommate's managers [Yes I had a roommate in my cabin. He worked in Youth Activities as a teen counselor] to schedule him the day off, and the PA manager gave us two comp tickets with full access to the waterpark and resort facilities. [Usually runs the guests about $150-180. Could be wrong though] We ended up doing the river ride, which I thought was a typical lazy river at first - but in actuality you are floating in a tube and are channeled into intermittent river rapids at times and at one point are floated onto a conveyor belt lift hill! There is even a section of the river that has a large wave machine that creates waves every 20 seconds or so to lift you up and propel you down the river. Easily the coolest 'lazy river' type attraction I've ever been on - even more so than Aquatica Orlando which was my previous favorite. There were also a number of slides - although we only had time to do two of them. The Abyss was a sweet drop slide in pitch darkness that had two hills before dropping you into a pool of water inside a 'cave' with aquariums built into the walls. It was almost surreal! We also did a tube ride that was very similar to the Crush'n'Gusher slides at Typhoon Lagoon with the water propelled hills, but was about a third of the ride length. The cool part about that slide was how it ended; you and your tube are dumped off of the slide into a narrow channel that leads back out to the river ride!

 

The following week, I went on another Atlantis tour/audit/mini field-trip alone. I was able to walk around the property and explore the lobbies and aquariums more at my own pace. I found it incredible to see just how many different exhibits they had on property. The theming was top notch in places and I was extremely impressed with the entire resort in general. The place is absolutely huge and I would love to be able to actually stay there as a resort guest someday.

 

Here are some photos that I managed to take on my phone;

 

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Almost all of the exhibits are open air, like the Sea Turtles pool. You can simply walk up to the edge of the water within inches of the edge!

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They were working on a refurbishment of a smaller lazy river attraction in one side of the property. This wasn't even part of the waterpark - just a resort amenity!

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One of the many large pools. So cool!

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I never realized that this 'bridge' portion was actually a single suite! The price per night is about $25,000.

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The theming was top notch.

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The underwater viewing areas were so cool - although a bit unkept and dirty in places.

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Sweet rope bridge that stretches over the Hammerhead shark exhibit.

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Having a blast in the summer trying not to get too sunburned after working in an office inside of a ship for 4 months with no sunlight.

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Angry and beardless.

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All in all it was an absolute blast and I cannot wait to visit there again. I am due to be back on the Dream for another contract starting at the end of October. My position is now a two-stripe officer role and now effectively makes me a 'leader' within the Walt Disney Company. Really hoping that this helps my chances with moving forward into Creative Entertainment once I transition to Orlando. 

 

I'll be back in Florida from now until then - so if any of you are visiting the Orlando/Palm Beach/Miami area, shoot me a message and I'll be glad to hang out!

 

Josh

I happen to hate Disney and want to stay as far away from that company as possible, yet I envy you. This sounds amazing. Good read, thanks for sharing!

I'm a full-time Flooring Specialist at Lowe's Home Improvement. I collect clients, help them determine what types of flooring is best for their home, then set up installs for them. Once I get the measurements back from the installer, I develop estimates for their flooring installations. I also get a pretty hefty workout lifting boxes of hardwood flooring, boxes of tile, rolls of carpet, grout, mortar etc. I love my job. I'm fortunate enough to have the right set amount of full-time hours but also still manage to have lots of time to spend on NE and in RCT2. Lowe's is a wonderful place to work. I'll have been with Lowe's three years January 28th. I previously worked for Home Depot for a little over a year. I can honestly say (without favoritism) that Lowe's is more enjoyable.

I play disc golf a lot. One of the most fun hobbies I have ever tried. I have been playing for about 6 years but just now got really serious into it. Playing tons of tournaments and events to aim to get better. https://www.youtube....h?v=XpOYvSrZh6o

Wow, that’s a lot of discs. Never knew there were so many discs to chose from.

I always wanted to try, but I never got around to do it. There are at least two courses where I live.
 

Would be nice if you could record the action sometime. 

sweden has a sweet disc golf scene. There is a major there this year in a few weeks at a place called Jarva disc golf park. I want to record some shots btw.

So many discs indeed! Do you throw them all at once?

ha lol. My hands are indeed 4ft large to hold all of them to throw at once. Those are the discs that I rotate in and out of my bag depending on the course that I am playing. Some courses are short enough to where I will never use my distance drivers at all, so in that case I just take them out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sKNnFY0z5w

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBAwRAolOYM