What do you do for a living?

Industrial Engineer by degree but my career morphed to Software Engineering and Manager over the years.

another +1 for computer engineer/analyst in healthcare industry

Adam, you've just posted most of my job description…except that I'm a cop.

Started out as a firefighter.

Spent my 30's building houses as a carpenter.

Currently a ER nurse…

Studying Forestry Engineering to turn my hobby into my profession. I live for nature…

Steve said "Adam, you've just posted most of my job description…except that I'm a cop."- that makes a total of two LEO's. I'm afraid we're seriously out numbered by the engineers :)

"I'm afraid we're seriously out numbered by the engineers"

Nah, we'll just call you enforcement engineers. ;)

Student Majoring in Forestry.

I'm a retail Photo Technician. It's like a stand-by mechanic for a big wet printer.

I'm a music teacher and I manage a music store.

Veterinary pathologist in academia – haven't been bitten, kicked or run over by an animal in years

Spent thirty years executive directing land trusts and environmental advocacy orgs and working for the state as regional park superintendent. Was also Dep. Secretary of Transportation for my state, the only non-engineer in the upper echelons. Yes, I was an Inglish major. Now semi-retired and working for a wealthy family(former donors) managing their forest land holdings half-time/flex-time so I can have time to play. I recently won a major award as the Best Jewish Chainsaw Operator Over 60 in my town.

Earned my BS Biomedical Engineering and MS in Management…but did a 20 year career as a Marine Infantry Officer. Now a "consultant".

So far i have been a janitor, cook, cabinet maker, cook, millworker, cook, retail, pharmacy tech, house flipper, machinist (my main career for 6-7 years). As you can see I keep coming back to being a cook, so…

I am now a culinary student.
the sad part about this is that i still generally eat mountainhouse and the like when in the backcountry

My BA degree is in Dramatic Arts. I'm a working actor by profession, which is never full time, and a pretty much full time substitute school teacher for my day job. If you're interested, you can look me up on IMDB.com.

Im a tile setter, doesn't pay the best but being self employed lets me take midweek trips so thats a nice perk.

My regular job is as a telecommunications technician installing and repairing phone, internet, and TV service for a large telecom.

I also have all sorts of volunteer jobs, I volunteer as an EMT on a rural ambulance, I volunteer as an amateur radio operator for all sorts of events from foot races, to equestrian endurance rides, to Car rally races, I also volunteer as a spotter for an air search and rescue group, and as a medical first responder with St John Ambulance. I've also been known to volunteer with a scout/venturer group, and it sounds like I may end up being roped in to being a Rover scout adviser next year.

I work in Local Government / Public Administration.

Current projects/tasks involve Open Space/Park Planning, Operation & Preservation, along with Communication/Outreach (website, newsletters, etc.), and anything deemed too time-consuming for my manager to handle.

Systems Administrator (I.T. stuff, server side), looking to move into computer programming

I work for the State Department; which is good, since by sending me to Tajikistan for my first assignment eight years ago, I initially got into backpacking.

"Interesting. What kind of geology work are you doing? What was your undergrad major? Environmental science? Geology? How did you end up in the job you are in now?"

Hey NightMarcher, I didn't see a response from Dan so I figured I would provide a little background from friends in similar jobs to what Dan has posted.

For most field based mineral exploration jobs (in the usa, canada it is a bit easier to get into mineral/resources exploration) it is fairly important to have a firm understanding of geologic mapping such as structural geology. Traditionally most oil companies often only recruit from a few select schools such as Texas a&m, while the Colorado school of mines is big with mineral exploration. During boom times, the recruiters will pretty much contact all graduate programs as i witnessed in late 2007 when gas prices ekyrocketed.

"I hope my question was not inappropriate. I really enjoyed your search for a Sierra trip thread and was impressed with your wife's hike to the summit of Whitney based on what you told us about here previous hiking experience. You sound like a wonderful couple. I suspected that you were up there without her."

No it was not inappropriate at all. The three weeks on/ three weeks off situation is a little more extreme of a relationship situation than most people have. The time apart sucks, but the times together are amazing because you missed the person and because you've got so much time to do whatever you want together. I think you appreciate being together more, although I don't think I'd do the 3 on/3 off lifestyle for too long. Definitely not if I had small kids.

"Interesting. What kind of geology work are you doing? What was your undergrad major? Environmental science? Geology? How did you end up in the job you are in now?"
My story isn't too glamorous. I went to university for Environmental Studies (B.E.S.) and my specific program focused on 'Environment and Business' (ie. working for a company to manage the environmental side of their operations). I really should have been studying outdoor rec or resource management, but I was having too much fun with the university life to really worry about where I was actually headed. I graduated about 3.5 years ago and wasn't super stoked about the job prospects because I really wanted to be in outdoor rec or wildlife biology. Upon graduation I moved out to Whistler, BC (from Ontario) to ski bum for a year.

In Whistler, I got a job at a bar (working support for the bartenders) which was a fun gig and it let me ski every day. One season turned into 3 seasons and I was still at the bar, but getting sick of washing glasses and changing kegs. One of the door guys was working up at mining camps and he suggested I apply. The position was a 'geotechnican' which is basically the job you get if you go to college for geology instead of university. They were really hurting for people, so I got the job despite having basically a non-related education background and no experience. I guess it helped I came recommended by another employee.

I'm pretty happy here working for Newmont Gold up at their 'Hope Bay' site. I'm here right now…..5 days in with 16 days to go. Being a geologist (need a university degree in geology) would be a significantly better job because it's more interesting and you make more money. Geotechnicians basically do the mindless geology work like measuring rocks, cleaning them etc, while the geologists do the more interesting stuff like figuring out where the gold is.

I'm currently accepted back into university at a different school and I've got a lot of credits for my previous degree, so I'm going to crank out another bachelors in wildlife biology starting in 1 year. Over the next year I'm taking a few distance ed courses and saving up money. This B.Sc. degree will take ~2 years and then I'm hoping to get a lot of funding so I can stay in school and maybe do a masters/phd without going broke. I have good grades, so I think with a lot of work I can pull off the funding. Ultimately I'd like to wind up somewhere in parks management/wildlife biology or a prof.

To actually answer your more specific questions about geology….it seems the vast majority of geology jobs are away from home in camps, so you need to decide if that lifestyle is for you or not. Some jobs are in cities, but a lot of the jobs are seasonal and far from home. I'm lucky to work at a place that works basically year round. A lot of jobs are like Apr – Oct. until you can land a more permanent job. If you get a good geology job that lets you do mostly field work, then it can be really neat, although I still think animals are way cooler than rocks.

Geology is a good field if you want to be outside and make good money (the geologists here make $80-$110g) and don't mind living in camps. Biology has the best jobs IMO, but there aren't nearly as many jobs, and you still might sorta wind up in camps but there's many non-camp jobs too. In Canada there is a ton of jobs in Geology. I really want to do wildlife biology, but it might not be the smartest choice, because of the lack of jobs in this field. Environmental science might be a nice choice that is a bit more interesting (IMO) than geology, while having more jobs than biology. The situation might be different where you are though.

Software developer for an energy company.

Chalk another one up for the justice engineers.

Well I am guilty also….a Mechanical Engineer (well soon, I can't legally call myself an ME without my professional engineering license. I got hired at my current job because my mentor's wife is a backpacker and she liked that I put UL backpacking on my resume. He called me a dork for being so excited about all of my MYOG. Just yesterday he asked me how to built a stove…