Just curious, what do you guys actually do for a living?
Scrolling through comments here, you can tell there’s a huge mix of people, some clearly technical, some more creative, some who sound like they’ve been in the working world for decades, others who feel like students or early in their career.
No particular reason for asking, just genuinely curious what kind of professions make up this community. Feel free to keep it as vague or specific as you’re comfortable with.
Drop your profession below, and if you want, one thing about it people usually don’t expect.
Embedded engineer writing firmware and what such
I have a nonsense job title which doesn’t describe what I do, so on linked in I self title as a digital accessibility specialist. Prior to getting into this field, I was a physical therapist (technically I maintain my license so I still am, but feels weird to claim when I’m not practicing)
Curious, with ur PT background, how do you handle stress or old thoughts that resurface? Trying to figure out how I can work on that for myself…
I’ve had a cumulative 6-ish years of weekly therapy (over three bouts, with 5 different therapists)
What was your setting? Why did you leave? I’m school-based. Considering leaving - kids are fun but admin sucks and schools are getting more and more chaotic. I’d keep my license to pick up prn hours if needed.
ETA- I have a friend with CP who’s an OT. I think OT was so helpful to her as a kid that she was kind of enamored with it. Now, 5-10 years into working, she’s finding that the clinic is too physical for her. She’d like to get into accessibility work. How did you make the transition?
I was 90% in SNF and assisted living. I did a few contract rotations that took me to acute. I went through the medicare payment changes which really made clear how admin was just working to manipulate metrics to get paid more (and yet the rehab department was a “loss” because we were a different branch of the company, so staff never got raises, just cuts) rather than accepting recommendations from the treating team. Being in a SNF during the height of Covid (find a side story/complaint below) really finished my burn out.
I went to a coding boot camp, and then got recruited by a friend turned coworker. It’s a nice, niche field if you can get into it, but a LOT of it is government work, so how important they find accessibility varies with the election cycle. That said, it’s probably a good time to get in. I work under the rehabilitation act of 1973, but a recent-ish ruling based in Americans with Disabilities Act is requiring that State and local government entities with a total population of 50,000 or more also have a baseline level of digital accessibility. Spoiler, most are not ready.
Side story: Covid was announced a public emergency or whatever in March 2020. Our company offered us a “hazard bonus”, but didn’t specify that their small print was that there had to be diagnosed covid in the facility. They also didn’t announce that they were only offering the bonus for six months. So when our building had covid sweep through in December 2020 (before vaccines were available), I was told to be providing physical therapy (close contact with heavy breathing) to people who ended up dying the next day with no vaccines and no hazard bonus. They also decided that some staff was not essential, so I totally got paid physical therapist wages to mop rooms and change linens.
Super interesting! Do you work for a government entity? Would that be the place to start looking at opportunities?
Schools have gone the same way. Admin only cares about how much we can bill Medicaid - none of the $ trickles down to us and there’s little/no concern for kids who are struggling.
I work for a company that has a government contract (actually they have multiple government contracts, only a few of them in accessibility), but I work super closely with the team that works directly for the government.
interesting how long did you go from coding bootcamp to getting a job in digital accessibility?
A little over two years. However, I wasn’t aiming for accessibility per se. It sort of ended up falling in my lap and being a really good match to use the skills I had collected as a physical therapist.
Is there any certification you needed, or the accessibility training was just rolled up in the bootcamp? We’ve been doing a lot of training at work here for it (education) and I feel like a mini expert at this point.
Need is a strong word. I was hired without any, but they had been looking for someone for a while and were a touch desperate. I’ve since earned both my JAWS certification and DHS trusted tester. I’ve been “in progress” for the IAAP core competencies for years.
That said I walked in with a (clinical) doctorate degree, years of transferable experience, and a personal reference.
Education and eLearning is a great way in.
IT support for a non-profit. We are a small IT dept so I do everything from installing printers to managing our network. I’ve been at this job for 20yrs. But worked in IT for 25ish.
I did IT support for a non-profit too. I felt they tend to glom onto the clue until you’re used up and then move onto the next savior. Needless to say, I haven’t done charity work in a number of years.
WOW… A very interesting career life !!!
NOC technician. I monitor the internet infrastructure for a school district, remotely troubleshoot networking equipment, dispatch field resources, set up maintenance projects, coordinate with vendors, that sorta thing.
I restarted my career during Covid after my consulting business dried up. 5 years in, I’m a sysadmin at a state university. But I am working on an escape plan from IT. I also chair a very active queer non-profit and sit on a lot of coalitions so time to myself is often at a premium. That’s not even mentioning my toddler son…
“AROO!! AROO!! AROO!!”
No, not really. I’m an English teacher & childcare provider.
Used to work in IT, but preschoolers are generally easier to please.
Graham crackers and juice vs id10t errors. Lol
I used to teach, now I wait tables. I’ve also been a computer tech, event security, summer camp counselor, and lay minister.
I’m thinking about switching it up again. Maybe electrician?
Electrician gang rise up
Get amped!
I’m a cashier. Are you proud of me mom and dad?
We are. Love, mum 💐💛
Why would that be a bad job? You provide a service to the community, that is better than a lot of other, so called prestigious, jobs. You didn’t make the world a worse place at the end of your day. So a lot better than many others.
For one thing, the pay is shit. For another, it’s at a gas station/convenenience store (corner shop) so I indirectly work for the fossil fuel industry. The fossil fuel industry sure makes the world a worse place.
OK, respect for taking responsibility, but I don’t consider cashier at a gas station to be a job responsible for climate change. At a certain point we all have to participate in the system to not starve. That is by design. So again: don’t beat yourself up too much about it. Vote, demonstrate, but cashier is not a job I see one should be ashamed for.
nothing wrong with that, one of the chain “bougie eco grocery stores” chronically have cashiers understaff, recently heard they cutting the budget and rotating through employee like paper. just to put you at ease, there are people that dont have jobs now and constantly complaining about finances for some reason(they refuse to take any jobs, aka cherry picking). alot of stories/posts about this on other platforms.
Space shuttle door gunner. It’s a surprisingly easy lateral move from my old job as a submarine screen window repairman.
Hey I’m a billionaire space cowboy. We probably know the same guys. Do you Bob, from accounting? He’s a putz.
That you, Maurice?
I’m a professional do-nothinger!
I used to be a scientist, lived the startup (hardware) dream, now thinking about next moves - world needs housing, right? Maybe reskill to civil engineering?
Surprising thing: hardware startups face so much upfront capital cost that they’re almost impossible these days, also, I’m starting to wonder if we maybe have enough Science/Tech and that investment could be better directed to short term material needs of people and the planet
I’m currently an engineer at a hardware tech startup. It is crazy how much upfront capital is needed, even just to build non-form factor test devices.
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hey there is a french guy on youtube that makes a living of whipping and performing various acts, in a medieval type setting.
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Did you ever fist anybody in addition to the whipping?
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Hmm that’s interesting. I’m a straight male and very much like being on the receiving end of butt stuff from women so it seems I’m in a small minority. Other dudes are missing out!
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I’m a software engineer and it feels gross to say for some reason
I’m just a poser though, because I have no thigh-highs
Sysadmin or something like L2 helpdesk.
Depends on the day.I’m a parish priest in the Episcopal Church.
Lots of people assume priests only work on Sundays. They also assume that we don’t have much of a life outside of the priesthood. I get that sometimes when I’m getting dressed after surfing (“you guys can surf?”). I also have a wife and four kids, which also surprises people (my wife and I sometimes meet up for lunch dates and I always get amused when I see someone who thinks they’ve happened upon some scandal in the making).
