What's your day job?

[davepowers]

Although I'm only a Junior in high school, I work as a precision machinist at Micro Inserts, a machine shop in Southington, CT. I make tool holders for Pratt and Witney, the same tool holders they use to create parts for their jets! I also grind a little carbide on the side, and fix lawnmowers and snowblowers, both with my boss at Micro.

I wouldn't have gotten the job if it wasn't for FIRST. My boss and I actually met because I was friends with his son and invited him down to a GUS meeting, and worked with him making parts for the robot last year! After the build season was over he called me and offered me the job, I didn't even need an interview! This year my boss and I spent countless hours at Micro machining parts for this years robot, an experience I wouldn't have been able to do anywhere else, I love working with the CNC mill, and that gave me an excuse! I love FIRST!

[Edit] I'd also like to point out that I will be attending college in a year an a half and my boss has already agreed that when I come home in the summer I will be able to work for him again! Something that has put me in a really good mindset to have job security like that at a young age! FIRST can open doors for everyone involved in the program, you just have to not be afraid to go look!

-D

[jmiller48167]

CAD designer of the M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank.
I tell my kids I draw circles and squares, some squares have more circles some circles have more squares.

[AcesJames]

Currently employed as a Human Resources Clerk at the theme park Six Flags New England in Agawam, MA. I don't do anything STEM related, and the job has nothing at all to do with FIRST.

[~Cory~]

Originally Posted by jmiller48167

I tell my kids I draw circles and squares, some squares have more circles some circles have more squares.

This is going into our team handbook as to what CAD team is expected to do

[AlexH]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZ5Um...7Rua1K61-K9zc=
I used to fight battlebots for a summer job... until the company closed due to stupidly high overhead. We used to rent them out for birthday parties... and other events. We'd bring 10 bots, and an arena and then run a round robin tourney.


I now have two jobs. I work at a farm and I also am a professional hobart feeder (dishwasher).

Somehow I also manage to be a high school student too...

[BrendanB]

I'm in charge of the Wine Department at a local grocery store. Doesn't sound like much of a job but considering who runs it at other stores in the chain I'm honored I have employers who trust me to do so and I love it!

[MarcD79]

I work for Sears as an on the road service technician. I repair Dishwashers, Ranges, Microwaves, Compactors, & Gas grills.

[Garten Haeska]

When im not at school or on the golf course, i work part time at the local grocery store as a manager

[tim-tim]

Mechanical Engineering student at Virginia Tech, class of '12.

Then off to the Department of Defense where I have Co-Op'ed and Interned for several years, Patuxent River Naval Air Station in MD. There I work on structural modifications to different A/C platforms and installation packages. I have drawn a lot of Inspiration from FIRST robots and vice-versa. I love my job!

[Kyle A]

I have a couple day jobs, for the past 6 years I have worked at Custaloga Town Scout Reservation. It is a boy scout camp,and i pretty much do it all there, mow lawns, clean, life guard, teach, repair things, cook,sing, and more. My main position though is handicraft director, I teach arts and craft merit badges. And more recently I have started Teaching the robotics merit badge.

My other job while i'm not at camp is a shift manger at a local gas station. I know nothing exciting, but it gave me the time to help Mentor the team and go to events.

I just this week got hired at a local machine shop in town, Great Lakes Manufacturing. I was interviewed for a quality control job, and also a machine operator and programmer of an electronic bending machine. When i was interviewed the guy was really interested in FIRST and what I did, even though its been a few years since I've had hands on work on the robot. Needless to say I got the job working with the robot bending machine.
After I start and get trained more I will be able to say a bit more about what I do, but I know if it wasn't for FIRST I wouldn't be where I am at now.

[smclean1969]

I'm a Senior Project Engineer with the Aerospace Corporation and a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force Reserves. As a Lieutenant Colonel, I work at the Joint Space Operations Center which provides space situational awareness and command and control for our country. This Air Force commercial is actually filmed at the operations center and everyone in there is a member of the Air Force.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfAHw1kTpvY

A word of caution--it's not exactly like that. The commercial is as close to reality as R2D2 is to FIRST robotics competition--it would be cool to build an R2D2 for a competition though.

As an engineer for Aerospace Corporation, I'm working to modernize that operations center. Mostly it's a matter of designing and helping the government acquire the primary computer system that tracks the objects in space and provides that integrated command and control.

[linuxboy]

I am a student, however I feel that other students might find this post interesting / helpful.

I am a (paid) intern this summer (and have been for the past three summers) at an IT consulting firm. It is fairly small with < 10 full time employees. We do some programming, quite a bit of File Maker, and general tech support. It isn't exactly engineering, however it is solving problems, and it does have you work with all sorts of problems and issues. The experience has been quite valuable in terms of working with people, and solving problems (as I said), and has been somewhere that Gracious Professionalism certainly is necessary. Clients can be upset (I haven't run into too many of these), and as someone who does a lot of phone support for clients, and occasionally goes to client offices, maintaining a professional and personable attitude is quite important.

That's what I do at the moment.
- Oliver

[David Brinza]

I've worked at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for 30 years.

Currently, I'm the Instrument Engineer, Investigation Scientist and Co-investigator for the Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) on the Mars Science Laboratory. MSL is Dave Lavery's really big rover on it's way to Mars (thanks for the ride, Dave)!

In the past, I've worked other missions, including Deep Space One, with an ion engine, and the Magellan mission (radar mapping of Venus).

FIRST students get to experience a project life-cycle in a few months. Our projects can take years of development and operate in space even longer!

[Mark Sheridan]

I am a manufacturing engineering for Microvention. I focus on access products (microcatheters and etc.) used to help treat aneurysms.

I am in the process development group. So I get to help R&D with new products and figure out how to mass produce them. I also work with the FDA submission proving we can consistently build safe products.

[Captaindan]

I work on a charter boat here in Gulfport, Mississippi, I also weld as much as possible for extra cash. I plan on attending Bagley college of engineering in the fall at MS State.