Well I used to be a lawyer managing a legal services hotline, but I quit that 11 years ago to homeschool our kids, who then became very large and abandoned us (something about being "grownups" now) so I went to work part time for REI. Guess I could go back to the hotline if we start to go broke, but my husband has a good gig as a state bureaucrat, so far so good. I do about 1/2 time for no pay for my local Camp Fire council, coordinating the backpacking program and doing some other things for them. So that isn't "paid work" but taking teenagers backpacking is certainly "living!"

Science background? Sort of. Spent a few years pursuing an advanced degree in botany (on top of an anthropology major) but that didn't work out.

Not an engineer or accountant. I'm a real estate appraiser. I do both commercial and residential. Lately, well for the last eight years, been auditing the work of others. I like the auditing better than fielding and writing reports. I first got interested in appraising because I'd heard that appraisers set their own hours. Really, that's only if you want to live on the cheap. Doesn't work so well if your married. But I still enjoy my profession after 19 years. I hope that I can do it till retirement, which hopefully comes in 12-15 years. Then it surfing and hiking most days. And that'll be some "living".

I remember this question coming up a couple years ago. I'm a Civil Engineer working for a private consulting firm here in the Seattle area. I've been at it for 23 years, specializing in water and sewer conveyance systems....mostly pump stations, reservoirs, pipe line, etc. I'm hoping to get out of it soon now that my house is paid for and I have no wife or kids. That means no expenses. I'm thinking about getting a floor job at the local REI store.

I might as well fess-up seeing how everyone else is...

I'm a research physicist working at a US national lab, Jefferson Lab. We do fundamental research in nuclear and particle physics (no connection with nuclear weapons or energy, just the basics of interactions of particles and nucleii).

I've been in it since finishing classes in grad school in 1977 and moving on to straight research in particle physics. I worked at particle physics labs for many years until moving to Jefferson Lab, which does research at the boundary between particle and nuclear physics.

Note: my field, particle physics, gave the world the World Wide Web! It started as a project in major European particle physics lab, CERN, and its purpose was to simplify distribution of information to particle physicists around the world. The founder of the web, Tim Burners-Lee, was a computer scientist working at CERN. No one, of course, had any idea it would take off and transform the world.

I run a sports bar here in Dayton. Pretty good wings, and the beer selection is nice too :)

Organized Medical Fraud investigator (RICO activities) for a large insurance company. Needless to say, I'm kept very busy!

"Organized Medical Fraud investigator (RICO activities) for a large insurance company. Needless to say, I'm kept very busy!"

And absolutely essential if we are going to get health care costs under control. I hope you nail their collective a$$es to the wall.

"And absolutely essential if we are going to get health care costs under control. I hope you nail their collective a$$es to the wall."

No, just send them to prison and make them pay back the money they stole.

Broker
Consultant
Label "Engineer"

Think wine labels. Think cosmetic labels. Companies have visions for their products, I merely make sure those visions stick, through print.

if I want to shock people; otherwise, a hospital pharmacist.

Dan Durston said,

"although I still think animals are way cooler than rocks"

I won't argue that, but as far as I know, geology is the only scientific/outdoor-related discipline that requires that you spend a summer doing field work (per academic requirements). Camping in remote places plus scientific work. Does it get any better? LOL. What kind of wildlife biology will you be focusing on?

Edited by NightMarcher on 11/05/2011 20:05:56 MDT.

I won't argue that, but as far as I know, geology is the only scientific/outdoor-related discipline that requires that you spend a summer doing field work. Camping in remote places plus scientific work. Does it get any better? LOL. What kind of wildlife biology will you be focusing on?

Before being "reinvited" to join the military (9/11), I did a stint on a biological survey team (as a civilian contractor working in the American desert). We had to be out in the field measuring mostly plants at the crack of dawn during summer and get our measurements done by 2PM. You can also do bird surveys (observing how many land on a telephone line from a vehicle or hideout), capture rodents (and hopefully not rattlers), and photograph game species. There's also the infamous poo collection along a roadway too (oryx droppings on restricted portions of White Sands). We would go back to the office when winter approached to analyze our data, and retrain there for the spring. It was more than a job, it was an adventure. Most were biology graduates but there was a sprinkling of "between-jobs" zookeepers, business majors, etc..

It was great while getting daily per diem, but the federal govt cut that for us.

Edited by hknewman on 11/05/2011 10:59:30 MDT.

Worked in the engineering field as a tech before I went back to school. Now a Clinical Nurse Specialist - a variety of advance practice nurse.

Another of those accountants here.

Fortunately, retired! Hooray!

I work at one of the leading marine stabilizer companies: we install, repair and maintain the fins you might have seen midships on many multimillion-dollar megayachts. Definitely looking for a career change; I don't make much money at it, even after four years, and I have found that the difference between an explorer and a yachtie are quite vast. Something unexpected, but really shouldn't have been. I don't feel much kinship with most of the crews whose boats I'm on, although at least there are usually a couple of very cute European girls on board.

I am a glorified bus driver. Not that there is anything wrong with driving a bus and really the glory of flying airplanes belonged to the 60's and 70's. But if I have to do something day in, day out, I'm glad that I get to fly. Best office window anywhere!

Process Automation/Power Management Operations Design Center

or

Technician, though my "official" title is Electrical Systems Designer II

I'm a trekking guide in Colombian Paramos.

One more COP here.

I'm a Solutions Engineer, which means I spend less time at a command line prompt and more time with people talking about technical requirements and explaining how things work.