GTKY: Education and Career Backgrounds

dragonstarjk · February 2016

maple2 said:

I'm looking at the effectiveness of land protection as a conservation strategy for forest birds--whether species are more likely to persist in protected areas than out of them, especially as climate changes. Mostly, I do a lot of statistics and GIS analysis. Your job sounds much more fun, but hopefully I'll get back into the fun stuff once the degree is finished.

My husband is a GIS Specialist for an environmental consulting firm

Most people don't even know what that means when I tell them, so I always get excited when I hear somebody reference GIS!

MommyLiberty5013 · February 2016

Education (degrees, certifications, training): BSBA with minors in studio art and leadership studies

Career Field : Advertising/marketing and then banking/finance
Position/Responsibilities: Current SAHM. Former banker/loan officer. Before that advertising account management for large corporate clients (Quiznos, etc.).Sector (Public, Private, Nonprofit): PublicYears of Work Experience: 10Your age: 34

hoffse · February 2016

This has been really interesting to read. Anybody want to share for their spouse/SO too?

vlagrl29 · February 2016

hoffse said:

This has been really interesting to read. Anybody want to share for their spouse/SO too?

My dh is a self employed photographer right out of college. He's never worked corporate america where I did for a few years. He specializes in commercial and wedding photography but has also done model, family, and videography.

bmo88 · February 2016

My DH is an Athletic Director in K-12 Education. He has a BA in Communications and MS in Athletic Administration. He worked in retail for 8 years and has been in education for 3 years. He loves sports and really enjoys working with kids. He is 29 years old.

blondie42107 · February 2016

Education (degrees, certifications, training): I have a Bachelor degree in social work. I have my full state license.

Career Field: social work

Position/Responsibilities: I'm a transition specialist for a regional agency. The agency has really grown in size/number of employees. We cover several counties so I'm on the road a lot; we don't see clients in our office. I assess clients, coordinate and order services, do some billing, lots of paperwork!

Sector (Public, Private, Nonprofit): nonprofit

Years of Work Experience: 10 years this May!

Your age: 32

kmurphy2131 · February 2016

hoffse said:

This has been really interesting to read. Anybody want to share for their spouse/SO too?

My husband has a BA in english teaching & a MA in teaching secondary education. He taught for nearly 5 full schools years but left in March of the 5th year. Teaching was not the job for him. He succumbed to the pressure to get a bachelors (which he agrees was a good choice) & a masters. He changed careers and is now a train engineer, something he had been doing during school vacations and summers for nearly a decade. He makes more money, is a million times happier, and has a million times less stress. His parents pressured him to get a higher education degree, but looking back he never wanted it. The bachelors will help him if he ever wants to get into management, but I am just glad that he doesn't have loans from his masters degree.

NicA617 · February 2016

S/O is 40, got his undergrad in nutrition and went back for his MBA a few years ago. He is job searching (in pharmaceuticals) after a Nov layoff. he turned down 2 jobs: one required a cross-country move, the other wasn't a good fit. We have not hit the panic button... but i think he's starting to get bored; i'm certain something will pop up soon. In the meantime, i LOVE walking in the door at 5PM & smelling dinner in the oven -- that doesn't happen when he's working :-)

abrewer5 · February 2016

hoffse said:

This has been really interesting to read. Anybody want to share for their spouse/SO too?

My H is 26 and he works at a Water Treatment Plant as an Operator. They are grooming him to eventually be a Team Lead type position (Technically an Operator 2) He took a few college courses, but realized it wasn't for him so he found this field. He is currently MD state certified/ fully licensed in Waste Water and Drinking Water Treatment. ETA: He's been in this field for 3.5 years. He started as a trainee.

Mustard76 · February 2016

My H is a police officer and firearms instructor. His post secondary education is from the police academy and a few LE certifications. He has been in law enforcement for almost 15 years. He has been fortunate to find his sweet spot, at least with the type of police work he does now. He's the youngest captain in his company's footprint, which I think is outstanding. I'm so proud of him and the work he's done. I know the general public generally has a love/hate relationship with the police, but it's such a hard time to be a cop right now. I'm not only proud of my H, sometimes I'm in awe of his courage and I have so much respect for him and his field officers.

als1982 · February 2016

H is Director of Data Visualization at a analytics firm. He's pretty badass. He has clients all over the world, and has been featured in US News & World Report, Grantland and other online sources. He's also co-authored one book and is working on his second. His undergrad degrees are in Marketing and Psychology, and he has a dual MBA/Masters in Sports Business Adminstration. He is by far more professionally driven than me! Oh, and he's 32.

smetter04 · February 2016

My H is a Software Developer Consultant and has been in the industry for 4-5 years. He's done both permanent and consulting work, and says he doesn't like consulting but I think deep down he enjoys the varied projects and working with new people. He's a pretty shy guy but has really come out of his shell and built up his confidence in the last couple years, and continues to do so. The client he's at now has an amazing team-forward, open-door culture and he's been fortunate to work under some great role models. It's so great to see him thriving. I'm really proud of what he's done so far and can't wait to see what his future career holds.

Edit: H is 26.

short+sassy · February 2016

My DH:

Education (degrees, certifications, training): BS in Mathematics. He is 10 years older than me and went to college in the early 80s. He was actually interested in computers, but computer science degrees did not exist yet. So Math was what the early computer nerds chose. I use the term "computer nerd" affectionately .

Career Field: MIS, Database Administration

Position/Responsibilities: He is currently unemployed and has been for awhile. But, in previous positions, ran computer networks.

Sector (Public, Private, Nonprofit): Public, Private

Years of Work Experience: 30 years

His age: 51

emily1004 · February 2016

My H:

Education; BAA- In Broadcast & Cinematic Arts (Like me)

Career Field: Entertainment/Sport Broadcasting

Position: Professional Sports Television Producer (He's been nominated 9 times, and has an Emmy award for his work). Yes, it is a dream job. He's exceptionally lucky that he gets to watch sports for a living and produce television, but he worked hard to get where he is.

Sector: Public

Years of Work Experience: 11 years. He started freelancing while in high school and continued to work throughout college.

His age: 30

jessica490 · February 2016

My H is an EMT. It's nice to have someone in the medical field by my side most of the time LOL

julieanne912 · February 2016

hoffse said:

This has been really interesting to read. Anybody want to share for their spouse/SO too?

H has his degree in Information Systems Security. But, his degree was just to get him his foot in the door for his first job. He graduated when he was 21. His current job title is "Senior Systems Architect". He's a consultant, so he travels around to other companies that sub contract his company. Or, to make it even more complicated, he usually subcontracts for a company that is subcontracted by the large corporation! So a sub-sub-contractor?

I can't really tell you what he does, other than it's in the "Big Data" field. I know he's recently taught himself and got himself certified for Hortonworks Hadoop. I have no idea what that means. He'll be 33 this year.

julieanne912 · February 2016

dragonstarjk said:

maple2 said:

I'm looking at the effectiveness of land protection as a conservation strategy for forest birds--whether species are more likely to persist in protected areas than out of them, especially as climate changes. Mostly, I do a lot of statistics and GIS analysis. Your job sounds much more fun, but hopefully I'll get back into the fun stuff once the degree is finished.

My husband is a GIS Specialist for an environmental consulting firm Most people don't even know what that means when I tell them, so I always get excited when I hear somebody reference GIS!

That's what my brother does... for water conservation firm in Oregon

jtmh2012 · February 2016

julieanne912 said:

I can't really tell you what he does, other than it's in the "Big Data" field. I know he's recently taught himself and got himself certified for Hortonworks Hadoop. I have no idea what that means. He'll be 33 this year.

Basically......he creates clusters of cheap computers that do the work of a single insanely expensive computer.

smerka · February 2016

My H is a high school physics teacher. Smartest person I know.

julieanne912 · February 2016

jtmh2012 said:

julieanne912 said:

I can't really tell you what he does, other than it's in the "Big Data" field. I know he's recently taught himself and got himself certified for Hortonworks Hadoop. I have no idea what that means. He'll be 33 this year.

Basically......he creates clusters of cheap computers that do the work of a single insanely expensive computer.

Ha, thanks! That's a much easier explanation that I can understand

It's crazy though, he always gets a decent amount of contacts from recruiters on LinkedIn because of his skill set, but now that he's added the Hortonworks cert... he gets contacted A LOT.

cbee817 · February 2016

This is for DH:

Education (degrees, certifications, training) - BA in English/Minor in Education, EdM (their version of a master's degree) in Education, NY state licensed English teacher Grades 7-12
Career Field - English teacher
Position/Responsibilities - Current position is in 7th grade at a very cushy suburban school district. Prior to that, he taught 8,9,10,and 11 in various school districts, but mostly in our city (the exact opposite of where he works now).
Sector (Public, Private, Nonprofit) - Public
Years of Work Experience - 9
DH's age - 33

hoffse · February 2016

My H is a renaissance man.

Currently he is an attorney who moonlights as a composer. He got his undergrad in music composition (orchestral) with a minor in anthropology because he thought it was fun to identify primates by their teeth (?).

In college he walked on to play baseball (catcher) and was given a spot. In law school he won some extemporaneous speaking competitions and placed first in the school's mock trial competition two years in a row. His big claim to fame during his 3L year was convincing the law school to fund a trip to Vegas for the traveling moot court team, and he got them to pay for the Belagio and a per diem food allowance that let them eat at Gordon Ramsay's steakhouse a couple times. Meanwhile, multiple faculty members had their (more important) trip requests denied the same year for budget reasons. I tell him he reminds me Nick Naylor from "Thank You for Smoking."

Now he's an attorney, primarily in financial services litigation. He represents banks and has developed some expertise on the FDCPA. A lot of his practice crosses over to pure bankruptcy as well (creditor side). He's also been getting into intellectual property litigation with increasing frequency. He is the primary editor for the World Trade Organization's annual IP conference publication, so he's always chatting to people in Geneva or wherever.

The music thing hasn't died though. Last year he won a competition hosted by the Alabama Symphony where they played an original piece of his. That year less than 20 living composers in the world had their pieces played by a professional orchestra, and he was one of them.

He's 28.

He's one of those really brilliant and multifaceted people - life is never boring around him!

labro · February 2016

@julieanne912 Your H could be the H of a good friend of mine....but a few years older.

He's doing the exact same thing....are you sure you don't live in/around Indianapolis?

My H is a Senior Systems Engineer. Basically....he makes the website of the company he works for run because it would be a really really bad time for everyone if it didn't. His degree is in Network Engineering but he's moved away from that quite a bit. He got hired right out of college so he has been in his field for almost 7 years now and he'll be 30 in April.

dragonstarjk · February 2016

My H is 48; as stated before, he is a GIS Specialist for an environmental consulting firm. He has an almost-Masters. He completed the entire masters program but didn't complete his thesis because he had started working, which is why I say its an almost-Masters. He has his Bachelor's though.

He originally started school for veterinary medicine but decided that wasn't the right thing for him, so then he studied extensively in Wildlife Management. I honestly am not sure what his actual degree is--maybe Wildlife Management with a minor in GIS? Or the other way around? I have no idea, LOL. But those are the things he studied in school.

He's super smart and spent most of his wildlife studies on birds, so I can ask him just about question about a domestic bird species and he knows the answer--especially the western US birds.

short+sassy · February 2016

julieanne912 said:

jtmh2012 said:

julieanne912 said:

I can't really tell you what he does, other than it's in the "Big Data" field. I know he's recently taught himself and got himself certified for Hortonworks Hadoop. I have no idea what that means. He'll be 33 this year.

Basically......he creates clusters of cheap computers that do the work of a single insanely expensive computer.

Ha, thanks! That's a much easier explanation that I can understand It's crazy though, he always gets a decent amount of contacts from recruiters on LinkedIn because of his skill set, but now that he's added the Hortonworks cert... he gets contacted A LOT.

I keep trying to talk my H into opening a LinkedIn account, but he swears its all spam. Grrr!

The bolded immediately reminded me of Dr. Seuss.

maple2 · February 2016

My DH:

Education (degrees, certifications, training): BA in math and Ph.D. in economics. He's also passed several of the actuarial exams, but I can't remember how many. He was an actuary for a few years between undergrad and grad school.

Career Field: Professor

Position/Responsibilities: He is expected to do both teaching and research but the research is probably weighted a little more heavily.

Sector (Public, Private, Nonprofit): Public

Years of Work Experience: 5 years in his current field

MommyLiberty5013 · February 2016

My DH...

Bachelors in Agricultural Business...was going to join up on the family farm but got bit by the flying bug.

Did flight school in Oklahoma.

Currently employed at a major commercial airline as a pilot.

Ratings include: MD88-90, 757, 767, and a bunch of smaller planes too.

He is 37 years old.

Years of work experience - since he was like 10 on the family farm. He and his brother raised pigs and made money as teenagers.

julieanne912 · February 2016

short+sassy said:

julieanne912 said:

jtmh2012 said:

julieanne912 said:

I can't really tell you what he does, other than it's in the "Big Data" field. I know he's recently taught himself and got himself certified for Hortonworks Hadoop. I have no idea what that means. He'll be 33 this year.

Basically......he creates clusters of cheap computers that do the work of a single insanely expensive computer.

Ha, thanks! That's a much easier explanation that I can understand It's crazy though, he always gets a decent amount of contacts from recruiters on LinkedIn because of his skill set, but now that he's added the Hortonworks cert... he gets contacted A LOT.

I keep trying to talk my H into opening a LinkedIn account, but he swears its all spam. Grrr!
The bolded immediately reminded me of Dr. Seuss.

Yeah it probably just depends, but I think it's helpful for anybody in the tech industry with specialized skills like H. For me, not so much. I have tons of connections though, because real estate people seem to love it. I've only been contacted once from a recruiter, and he was recruiting for something I'm not qualified for.

blondie42107 · February 2016

H is 34, works in IT for a world wide company, managing projects and systems for locations around the world. Occasionally he travels within the US and also internationally when working on specific projects. He's also a volunteer fire fighter (he completed his fire science classes almost 6 years ago). Love my firefighter!

AprilZ81 · February 2016

Education (degrees, certifications, training): Bachelor's degree in business, associates degree in Motorsports Management (I used to want to work with NASCAR) and I'm one thesis away from a master's degree in communications, but I decided not to finish after a career change.

Career Field: I'm a corporate meeting planner.

Position/Responsibilities: My current job title is Registration Manager and technically I'm over qualified for the position but the perks of working from home are worth it. It is also a fairly low stress position for a lot of the year which is nice. I'm responsible for running registration reports, managing room blocks, doing travel audits (making sure that hotel dates match flight dates) and a few other related tasks. It is a very detail oriented job because if I mess up the hotel rooms for a meeting the clients and attendees would be very upset.

Sector (Public, Private, Nonprofit): Private

Years of Work Experience: 13ish after graduating college but I've been working at least part time since I was 16.

Your age: 35

GTKY: Education and Career Backgrounds

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