Jobs - A little bit about what you do and perks

Man of Honour
Man of Honour
Joined
3 May 2004
Posts
17,696
Location
Kapitalist Republik of Surrey
I was actually looking at doing an OU course, and product design is one of the few that looked interesting to me.

How did you find it?
Absolutely awesome and one of the most personally rewarding things I've ever done, though I would recommend going to university to do it rather than OU because you need the exposure to other people's work and the competition in my opinion.
 
Associate
Joined
13 Aug 2003
Posts
380
Location
London
JOB
IT Continuity Manager

Company
A big bank (with a horse!)

Day To Day
Being Continuity Manager this is a 24/7 job waiting for something serious to fail or for a major incident (terrorist/flood/fire &c) to occur. Most of my day-to-day work is just monitoring things (equipment rooms &c) and preparing reports/presentations.

Perks
Good money, holidays (30 + bank holidays), pension (40/60), life insurance, very good sickness cover (diagnosed with Crohns recently and spent 9 of the last 18 months off work).

Downfalls
Not many unless we invoke contingency or have a major crisis and then I can be working all hours (24+).

Do You Like Your Job
I can't complain. Some bits are great some not so great.
 
Soldato
Joined
10 Feb 2004
Posts
5,116
Location
Crewe, UK
Job

Sales assistant

Company

Whittards Coffee and Tea


Day to day


Basic job of serving customers, grinding coffee, stocking shelves, drinking tea and coffee.


Overall Job

Generally i see a lot of places, from expensive £1million + properties, to £80k holiday chalets. Very interesting to see all different properties etc.

Perks

Allowance everywhere fortnight of one bag of tea or coffee

AND

50% off of all other tea, coffee and drinks
30% off of Machines

Downsides

Can be slightly boring at times, but is a chilled job so I can always sit back and have a brew

Education?

2:1 Degree in Internet Tech and Business
BTEC IT Practitioner
GCSES

(This is only a job while I save for a masters)


Do you like your job?


Yes! It's nice and I know what I am doing - just wish there were more hours and better pay!

Rich
 
Soldato
Joined
26 Feb 2007
Posts
14,114
Location
Leafy Cheshire
Job Title:
Research and Development

Company
Equity Insurance Group

My Job:
I track rates for whole company. For the most part my job is to do statistical analysis on our products, and break down what insurance brings in what money, where it comes from, how much of it goes out in claims. I further break it down in to average premiums, premiums by vehicle, area, age, ncd.. in fact i can run stats on pretty much any factor of insurance that my boss asks me to do. So many spreadsheets :(

On a wider, monthly scale, i also do market analysis. I run stats on where our products place compared to other insurance companies given a certain product or factor. Different insurance companies aim for different sectors of the market. Some like high premium high risk, others like low premium low risk. It's my job to find out who is doing what, and more importantly, who is doing it the best.

Perks
I dont really enjoy any perks as such. I have access to any training that i want, which is nice. I've tried to cram in as many SQL courses as possible so far, hopefully moving on to other languages soon. I dont use any otehr languages, but i get to learn them anyway. Useful for the future! Otherwise i get a few discount vouchers for various things. 25% cashback from the panasonic estore this month! Might get that 47" TV i'd been planning.

Downsides
Sitting in an office. I've put on over 4 stone since i started workign here almost 2 years ago. This isn't a bad thing, i was 8 stone when i started! but comign from being a Chef, all this sitting down feels a lot like ime wasting time. It's an odd feeling, but i dont think i'm cut out for this forever.

Education?
GCSEs and 2 AVCE's. I passed them all with good grades, but i couldnt stomach another few years of education. Sometimes i regret it, but rarely. Having a degree wouldnt have opened any doors that have so far been closed to me, anyway.

Do you like your job?
Yeah, s'alright. The job itself is quite interesting, and i enjoy being an important cog in a very large money making machine. I dotn thnk i'm cut out for sitting in an office though and i doubt i'll be doing it for much longer. I plan to go travelling for a year and find work while i'm doing it. My girlfriend has just graduated (like, right now she's at her graduation!) as a Marine Biologist, and she's a Scuba instructor. We've pretty much made theplans that we'll end up somewhere tropical and open a dive school. I can handle the shop side and she'll deal with the diving. I might even drive the boat. I'd love that :)
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Jan 2007
Posts
8,704
Well I lost the job a little while back but

JOB: General manager

COMPANY: Ultralife

DAY TO DAY: Making sure everyone is doing their jobs, doing them well and efficiently. Also making sure that all products were to the highest standard possible. Looking at new ideas (rechargable battery packs were the main thing before I lost it)

PERKS: Lots of fag breaks, my assistant did a fair bit of the work. Tescos down the road sold krispy kremes.

DOWNSIDES: Over an hour commute which was daunting if i was starting very early (which I had to sometimes to meet demand of the office in newark).

EDUCATION: Degree in business, A level in business, A level maths. Are all that really applied. Not ideal but I started low down and shot up the ladder.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR JOB: It brought the bacon home, well, a lot of bacon.
Glad I left though, working with americans gets SO DAMN ANNOYING.
 
Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2004
Posts
28,618
Location
Leafy outskirts of London
Absolutely awesome and one of the most personally rewarding things I've ever done, though I would recommend going to university to do it rather than OU because you need the exposure to other people's work and the competition in my opinion.

Crud, full time Uni is not an option. I need to work full time to meet my lifestyle costs and debt repayment :(
 
Associate
Joined
28 May 2007
Posts
1,068
Job

Education Consultant (Recruitment Consultant for Teachers).

Company

Small, rather not say just incase.

Day To Day

* Call schools first thing to see if I can get any teachers in on sickness/emergency cover.
* Post adverts to get new teachers for vacancies
* Interview and register new teachers
* Sales calls to schools to increase business
* Call schools in the afternoon to check on the following day
* Go out on sales visits to meet Decision Makers and increase business
* Last thing each day call all our teachers to check who is available the next day

Overall

Temporary recruitment at its worst really. Companies like this is what gets recruitment a bad name.

Perks

Can disappear most of the day on "sales visits" ;), Commission/bonuses.

Downsides

Hours. Colleagues. Dealing with supply teachers (most are supply not permanent, for a good reason!!).

Education

11 GCSE's, 4 A Levels, good blagging skills and phone manner. (dropped out of uni!)

Do You Like It?

Like the sales side of recruitment. Dislike colleagues and office politics. Looking forward to starting in a perm recruitment role in a different sector for a premier league company in August.
 
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Soldato
Joined
16 Oct 2007
Posts
7,432
Location
UK
Job

I am a payroll manager and accounts technician

Also a retained coastguard.

Company

I work on a small island for a private estate called Tresco.
Lovely place. 2 top hotels, 1 great pub/hotel, world famous Abbey Gardens, 70 timeshare and rental cottages, exclusive members only bistro and leisure spa, farm etc.

Day to day

First half of the week, i manage the weekly payroll for about 200 staff members. Everything from collecting timesheets, inputting, cash wages, new starters, giving cash advances, tax and ni calculations, PAYE reconcilliations, end of year etc.

Second half, i am an accounts technician. Purchase ledger, sales ledger and all fun things.

God knows how i got into this.

Overall Job

Ah, it's alright.
Coastguard is fun, i like having a pager on me 24/7


Perks

Island life
Free house
Free golf buggy
Free utility bills
Great supply of insipid debutantes through the summer
Live by the sea, boats etc

Downsides

1 pub.
8 if you factor in 4 other islands.

Education?

A+
Diploma in First Line Business Management
HND in Payroll Management (studying)

Do you like your job?

Yes
 
Soldato
Joined
23 Oct 2002
Posts
3,977
Location
_
Job
Web developer

Company
Small web development agency

Day to day
ASP.NET, ASP, SQL Server 2000 / 5, HTML, CSS

Perks
None.

Downfalls
Long hours, low salary, relatively large amounts of responsibility.

Education
BTEC Computer Studies with a few distinctions and the rest merits
BSc (Hons) Computer Science - First class.

Do you like your job
It has its moments, but not often enough.
 
Soldato
Joined
4 Nov 2004
Posts
14,379
Location
Beds
JOB
Graduate Mechanical Engineer

Company
Underground choo choo train company (1 of the 4 possible ;))

Day To Day
Varies depending on placements but atm at my desk in the mornings sorting out e-mails checking calender.

This week been hardness testing wheels and have a number of projects on the go from identifying how to maintain structures with weld failures, analysis of other problem parts and re-design.

learning solid works 3D CAD atm so I can re-design these things :D

Perks
- Tube travel subsidised for this year.
- Very good starting salary and nice jump once off Grad scheme.
- Good pension scheme.
- London :D:D:D
- Different placement every month.
- Awesome night visits underground and into tunnels and disused stations.
- Soo many intersting things to learn
- Company loves the grads and treats us well.

Downfalls
- Commuting 1/2 way across this city.
- Being at the bottom of the chain ;)

Education
- MEng Mechanical Design, Materials, and Manufacture from Uni of Nottingham.
- A-levels = Maths, physics, D+t + Geography AS-level.

Do you like your job?
- Atm with this testing, no, normally YES :D
 
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J.B

J.B

Soldato
Joined
16 Aug 2006
Posts
5,924
Job

E-Learning-Developer/ technician
Company

University of Hertfordshire

Day to day

Show up around 10 or 11, check my email. Work on whatever project im on at the time, normally Flash and actionscript based. Update our learning environment (HTML/JavaScript/CSS). Sometimes the home office have moved documents on their servers so have to go off and find them to link in.

Job changes day to day, next week Im going to film a presentation in London, yesterday I wrote some webpages.

Normally leave around 2 or 3.

Overall Job
Its only a placement, which is nearly at an end. Been good though. Nice and varied.

We teach probation officers for the London area.

Perks

Can come and go as I please, as long as the works done no one asks how it was done. Company mobile and laptop always nice!

Enjoy having different things to do. And the people are fun.

Nice to feel you might be making a difference.

Downsides

A bit lonely, people dont come in very much.

Can go a long time without any work or anything to do

Education?

Well, you have to be enrolled on a relevant degree.


Do you like your job?

Yeah, I enjoy going on, although some days is harder than I thought it would be. The monies been a nice addition to student life.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jan 2004
Posts
23,698
Location
South East
Job

Sales Executive

Company

Lightmaker - www.lightmaker.com

Digital agency specialising in web design. We work with the likes of EA Games, Activision, BMW, Manchester United, JK Rowling, Emma Bunton, MTV, Nike, Microsoft, Adobe, Sony, British Government, Bacardi, Nintendo and more.

Day to day

I am responsible primarily for bringing in new business. This involves creating new leads through networking and other methods, writing proposals, coming up with creative thinking for the web, doing presentations and pitching ideas to clients.

Managing a project from a commercial/sales perspective. Conducting user testing sessions, etc etc.

I also deal with some existing accounts. For example I am the Account Manager for EA Games, currently I am working on a project for them developing the Spore website within the UK and other European territories.

Overall Job

I spend most of my day in the office but more often than not find myself travelling to London. We have offices worldwide so there are occasions where I spend time at those, unfortunately I have only visited the Manchester office so far.

Perks

Health Care, some rewards when I make a big sale, free meals and free drinks when we go out.

360, Wii and PS3 in the staff room to play on when we wish. Full Rock Band set too :)
Table football tables.
Free games from our gaming clients.

Downsides

The job can be stressful and some days are less exciting than others. I rely on a lot of other people to do my job effectively which can get me down at times, especially when those people are not doing as they should.

Education?

I did my GCSE's and then went to college for 4 years. The first 2 years I did an ND in Graphic Design, I then did a further 2 years and completed an HND in Graphic Design

Do you like your job?

Most of the time yes. I am more excited about my future within this industry rather than my existing role.
 
Last edited:
Joined
5 Aug 2006
Posts
11,328
Location
Derbyshire
JOB
Graduate Mechanical Engineer


Education
- MEng Mechanical Design, Materials, and Manufacture from Uni of Nottingham..

Your job sounds good! I see you are a 'proper' engineer from a 'proper' university:)

I am debating weather to change from manufacturing engineering to innovative manufacturing engineering (basically the masters). You find the extra year helped much more?

Bet you get paid a pretty penny for your age as well
 
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Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2003
Posts
5,508
Location
Cotham, Bristol
Job

I am an Applications Developer

Company

I work for a company called Sefas Innovation Ltd (www.sefas.com), they deal in document composition and print management software. For example your BT bill that is composed by our software and then run through a print job management program which is also ours.

Day to day

At the moment I have just started a project for HBOS I&I (Insurance and Investment I think), to 'ADF' (Automated Document Factory) it. This involves adding 2d data matrices to the document and changing the print format to Kodak type output. Not to mention mailsorting it which will save HBOS oodles of money on Royal Mail type bills

Overall Job

Not been too bad, with offices in Boston and Paris i've had my fair share of training at both locations. More recently I've even provided training and 'consultancy' for customers who have bought our products.Most days I am sat in front of the computer though.

Perks

My main perk is definately my support role. i.e. I go on 24/7 callout every couple of weeks on first or second line. This gives me

1st line: 250 extra for a week
2nd line: 150 extra for a week

Every new call: Extra 100 ontop of the above

I haven't had a call for months mind you, so basically I get paid quite a bit extra for carrying a phone around for a week.

Downsides

Can be very very boring.

Education?

I have 2:1 in Computer Science from Bristol ....... UWE

Do you like your job?

Sometimes, I do need to move on, but the company is paying for more training at the moment so I might as well take advantage of it.
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
2,710
Location
South Wales
Job

I am a Maintenance Electrician

Company
I have just got a new job with a company called pure wafer (Have facilities in swansea and in arizona)

Day to day

Havn't started there yet, but job description is basically carry out nessesary preventitive maintenance and respong effeciently and effectivly to any breakdown

Perks

Might be going to germany to do some training (which would be good) and from the sounds of it the medical care is good to.

Downsides

None at the moment.

Education?

Done my apprentiship with Visteon UK, and achived btec nat in operations and maintenance, peo level 2, and performing engineering operations level 3. I should have really gone on to to HND, but stupidly i didnt do it. Realizing the error of my ways would like to do this.

Do you like your job?

I have my moments, sometimes i think its ok and then sometimes I hate it, but as i lack experience and dont have that much knowledge I lose confidence and that makes me dislike my job, but hopefully now i can knuckle down and start learning peoperly and hopefully enjoy my job.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
20,356
Location
Äkäslompolo
Job
Sprinkle Balance Consultant.

Company
All things Sprinkly And Nice Ltd.

Day to day
I'm the guy responsible for putting the "thousands" into "hundreds and thousands". It's tough going but the rewards are never ending.

Overall Job
I travel the world all expenses paid to examine sprinkle factories. I go into a small dark room in the factory for 3 days at a time and hide there until I get the hundreds to thousands ratio just right. I am one of only two people in the entire world that knows the secret ratio.

Perks
Free first class travel anywhere in the world, unlimited sprinkles, fancy watches, high class women and vodka martini. A salary of $2 million USD also helps as well as a 10% share of profits.

Downsides
I have the fear that I might one day become sick of sprinkles. God forgive me for even thinking about such horror.

Education?
Eleven Plus and a failed Diploma in Sprinkle Management.

Do you like your job?
I cannot imagine doing anything else.
 
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