Deltas what do you do for a living?

[Nico1e]

Anyone can post in this thread, not just Deltas. I am glad to get a wide variety of responses to this.

I saw a thread similar to this in the Beta forum, and remembered that I had wanted to ask it of Deltas, too. How do you get paid? Where does the money come from? Or if you're not working, who's helping you, married to you, or whatever?

Me: McDonald's, of course. Many people here know that already. I enjoy the job because I get to actually cook the food, at high speed, efficiently. It's not like other places where I've worked, where everything is done inefficiently, or where there's hardly any work to do and I get to stand around being bored for hours. At McD, I'm surrounded by people all the time, too, so it's never lonely.

Unfortunately, there are almost no Ne types there, although I recently discovered an ILE. I don't know the types of all the people who work on the morning shift, because I work in the afternoon. The types I've noticed are:

ILE (1) makes sandwiches, unloads the truck when it brings the food and all that
SEI (1 left, but until recently there were 2) - cooks, makes sandwiches
ESE (2 or 3) one is a manager, very funny and fun-loving; other one takes orders in drive-thru, other is uncertain type
LII (0)

LSI (3) managers and aspiring managers
EIE (1) front counter person, order taker, sometimes helps in kitchen)
SLE (2) cooking and sandwiches, french fries and front counter
IEI (0)

SEE (2) sandwiches (he's new and hasn't learned to do a lot yet), other one is order taker
suspected LIE (1) upper level manager, and.... we have exactly the sort of bad supervisor relation that they talk about - I often gripe about things that he requires us to do, but I hardly ever directly interact with him - he doesn't actually work in the store with us
ESI (3 or 4?) order takers mostly, on front counter - one is a manager
ILI (0)

IEE (0? 1? 2?) (*Edit* I think one lady is an IEE. So I will subtract some of the original frownie faces that I had written.) - no wait, I just thought of one. I think maybe this one upper level manager might be an IEE, but he doesn't work in the store, and he's GAY So no single heterosexual guys.
EII (0) again - wait, maybe that one girl is an EII? I'm not sure, she could be ESI
LSE (0 or 1) some guy I'm not sure about, who might also be an ESE?
SLI (1) Me! And I used to have another SLI friend but he left recently to go back to school

[Joven Erudito89]

Right now I'm just starting college.
My mom is fully supporting me, so i can focus my energy on my academics. I'm probably going to graduate with a Biology degree and become a scientist. I am open to other career paths though since i sometimes second guess if i should be a scientist.

[anndelise]

What do you do for a living? How do you get paid? Where does the money come from? Or if you're not working, who's helping you, married to you, or whatever?*

For the past 16 years I've been on social security disability. Getting jobs was always easy (not sure anymore) but maintaining them for longer than three months each has been beyond my abilities. Living in one place for longer than three months has also been an issue. So every month and a half or so I was either changing jobs, or changing living arrangements.

Then I had a kid, and thankfully was placed on the disability just before she was born. The past 16 years have been spent trying to gain some kind of sanity/stability for myself, and trying to help my daughter through what she was going through (only recently finally learning some of what that was).

I've felt as if my life has been on hold. But now that she's in 10th grade, I've been trying to figure out what I want to be 'when I grow up'. This has led to a mid-life crisis for me.

A few months ago I was gung-ho about going local, permaculture gardening, etc. I thought I had found my direction. But nope. I've recently realized that i absolutely hate gardening and yards, that I hate living so far from town, and that there's no way I can play activist for even a short bit of time.

I've spent so much time/energy dealing with psychological health and such, that I have no other skills nor long term interests. I'm not interested in becoming a therapist, already tried that and didn't like it. I'm constantly told that I should be a writer, and I've dabbled in that too. I love creating characters and stories for them (I can be real sadistic towards my characters), but I really don't like the process of writing. (Hard to believe, eh?) I used to help people edit their books/stories, but that got old fast. I sometimes help friends with their legal papers, but I wouldn't be able to maintain that long term. Hell, I even suck at being a house-wife type.

What I miss most is the ability to just get-up-n-go as the mood strikes. New faces, new places, no one else to answer to nor consider. But, that option is no longer available to me, as I refuse to damage the relationship I'm in. So then what? Hence, the crisis, sorta.

At best I can say that I'm a lifelong student who can't afford college so has to learn on own.

The govt currently pays me some money, but I don't expect that to last. And if it weren't for Richard, I'd have given up custody of my daughter and would be living in a van.

[Nico1e]

Then I had a kid, and thankfully was placed on the disability just before she was born. The past 16 years have been spent trying to gain some kind of sanity/stability for myself, and trying to help my daughter through what she was going through (only recently finally learning some of what that was).

Ann, sorry to hear this. Can I ask out of curiosity what was happening with your daughter, or is it too personal to say out in front of everyone?

[anndelise]

Ann, sorry to hear this. Can I ask out of curiosity what was happening with your daughter, or is it too personal to say out in front of everyone?

Last year the new High School counselor got so many questions and requests from my daughter's teachers, that finally the school psychologist was brought in to question everyone and try to find out what was going on. The diagnosis is moderate to severe autism. ...and she's vastly improved from when she was a baby!!

Noone thought to consider that because of her extrovertedness. And each time I sought help regarding her, the attention was directed at checking for bipolar and borderline behaviors, which runs in my family, both sides.

At the time she was conceived, I'd been going through what I refer to as 'the great cocktail experiment' in which the psychiatric students of the clinic my insurance would pay for were trying me on a variety of different drugs. I didn't know I was pregnant until I was 5 months along.

At about 7 months, I fell through the floor of the trailer I was renting. Intense pain, some blood, but I was going through some legal and financial stuff and didn't get to the dr for a checkup. At 8 months she was born. The contractions were cutting off her oxygen supply and they kept losing her vital signs. During all this, we discovered that that pain I had gone through was the sac separating from the uterus too early.

From day one she would have episodes of what looked like extreme pain, screaming, stiffened body, non-awareness of anything else, and very easily over-stimulated by even small sounds. She didn't like to be held. She had significant language delays. She wasn't stupid by any means. In fact, I had bought myself a puzzle similar to that traffic jam game. It used safari animals and jeep instead. She was 4yo. She liked animals and was interested in the game, so I showed her how to play, using the beginners one which was for age 8 up (the rest were for 12up, and the advanced for adult levels). She zipped through the levels until she got a few into the most advanced puzzles of the set. It took her four days. It was all she did. She even dreamed of the puzzle.

But she couldn't handle changes unless they were done by her initiative. She'd have a melt down if I altered my path in the store, or if I changed my hair style, or if her class was changing tasks, etc. Her teachers were having to rearrange their schedules and methods to reduce her melt-downs. And there IS a difference between a melt-down and throwing a fit!! She was...still is but not as severe...'rules based'. At almost 2 yo, we were moving to WA. I was driving. I had set up her seat and area so that when night came, and she slept, she could sleep safely laying down. So night came, she kept dozing, her head/neck jerking because she couldn't get into a sleeping position. So I pulled into a rest area, unbuckled her, layed her down, made sure she was safe, she cuddled into her toy dog, and fell asleep fast. Then I started the car, and started to pull out of the parking lot. She groggily woke up, and dragged herself back to her seat, and tried to buckle herself in. A few more attempts at trying to get her to lay down and sleep while I drove was futile. Even now, she refuses to go even 4 blocks without her seatbelt on.

Now, imagine this poor girl with a mother who's only consistency...is being inconsistent.
And imagine a mother who's inconsistent and (was) barely stable, single parenting a child who desperately needed consistency.

[Nico1e]

Ah, the great cocktail experiment. If you want to see me explode and start shooting flames in all directions, then by all means, talk about the subject of drugs and what they do to people and their children. ... However, this has been a really great work-related thread so far and I've really enjoyed reading everyone's responses, so I will have to redirect the exploding flames elsewhere for now. Another time, another place, I'll get on the subject of drugs again.

(This is kind of a Fe-PoLR thing. If I go back and look again I'm sure I'll find some examples of people who work in drug-related industries, and if so, please try to ignore me.)

[UDP]

Right now I'm just starting college.
My mom is fully supporting me, so i can focus my energy on my academics. I'm probably going to graduate with a Biology degree and become a scientist. I am open to other career paths though since i sometimes second guess if i should be a scientist.

It's a lot better to get a degree that can actually help you get a job. And the thing about science degrees is that once you get a BS in science, you can transfer a lot of the essentials (Maths, etc) to other courses of study. It's also a good prep for ANY grad school, social sciences or natural sciences or law, etc.

If I could start over I'd have done something like that.

[FDG]

Right now I'm just starting college.
My mom is fully supporting me, so i can focus my energy on my academics. I'm probably going to graduate with a Biology degree and become a scientist. I am open to other career paths though since i sometimes second guess if i should be a scientist.

It's a lot better to get a degree that can actually help you get a job. And the thing about science degrees is that once you get a BS in science, you can transfer a lot of the essentials (Maths, etc) to other courses of study. It's also a good prep for ANY grad school, social sciences or natural sciences or law, etc.

If I could start over I'd have done something like that.

What is that, like the stereotypical ESTJ old man advice. Lol.

[UDP]

YOURE DAMN RIGHT IT IS

Kids these days....
*shuffles unevenly towards living room*
*sits in large recliner*
*passes out*


It's also how I feel after looking at what my current job prospects are in regard to my education

[Suz]

YOURE DAMN RIGHT IT IS

Kids these days....
*shuffles unevenly towards living room*
*sits in large recliner*
*passes out*


It's also how I feel after looking at what my current job prospects are in regard to my education

Like i've told you before, you can go into medicine from any college background. Might need to take a few premed courses first if you havent already. excellent job security as there is a dire shortage of physicians. That's not bound to change anytime soon. Getting into med school is the hardest part (in the sense of being most unpredictable), depending on your stats.

[Joven Erudito89]

Right now I'm just starting college.
My mom is fully supporting me, so i can focus my energy on my academics. I'm probably going to graduate with a Biology degree and become a scientist. I am open to other career paths though since i sometimes second guess if i should be a scientist.

It's a lot better to get a degree that can actually help you get a job. And the thing about science degrees is that once you get a BS in science, you can transfer a lot of the essentials (Maths, etc) to other courses of study. It's also a good prep for ANY grad school, social sciences or natural sciences or law, etc.

If I could start over I'd have done something like that.

Thanks for the advice!
I'll try to remember that when i declare my major. Would a biology degree be too general though? That is why i second guess a BS in biology. I thought of getting a degree in Clinical laboratory science. The problem i have is i can't stand the sight of blood, and i think I will have to deal with blood if i get into that field.

[UDP]

Bio engineering is big.
As WA said, so is the medical field. You should be able to find jobs there.

Check out the projected growth for job areas...
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos047.htm - if you want to get a job in the US.

[Marie84]

My interests in careers has evolved through out my life but after dealing with some medical issues I decided to go into nursing and atm I'm working on a degree. I think I've learned patience and empathy for the sick from being sick myself so I feel like I can do some good there.

Although in the back of my mind I like the idea of owning a small bakery/cafe in the future but the economy is too shaky atm and I don't have the money for it anyways

[Codie]

I'm not Delta, but anyway. I'm trying to focus on my education which I'm behind on, I'm speaking for only myself, I don't know many others irl that I'm aware of. Yeha my mums got an all right job.

[Joven Erudito89]

I'm not Delta, but anyway. I'm trying to focus on my education which I'm behind on, I'm speaking for only myself, I don't know many others irl that I'm aware of. Yeha my mums got an all right job.

Same here.
Everyone i know went straight from high school to college or they are already married with kids. What do you plan on studying?

[Suz]

I've pretty much been a labrat in a biomedical research lab in academia (postdoc) for the past year and 9 months, going to continue for another 10 months still. Also work part time in a hospital as an internist to maintain my sanity.

Like FDG mentioned, I really enjoy the flexibility of my current set-up which is why i wanted to do it, but I feel like i dont get enough people contact and at times number crunching gets so tedious, it can make me want to go insane. <-- like that.

I've volunteered myself to plan and teach a course in biodiversity this coming year so hopefully that will help some

[Absurd]

I carve tombstones.

[Suz]

I carve tombstones.

yeah right.

[Joven Erudito89]

Same here.
Everyone i know went straight from high school to college or they are already married with kids. What do you plan on studying?

Nutrition.

Sounds great!
I thought about doing that too.
It just has too much chemistry for my taste Are you going to become a dietitian or get into research as well?

[UDP]

I aim to influence the world as much as possible.

[Kim]

I aim to influence the world as much as possible.

How so?

[The Greeter]

Currently, I am finishing up my summer research project.

Whilst doing this I will be entering the final year of my undergraduate degree. I plan to pursue a Master's in the same discipline afterwards.

[SupaClassy]

Coming out of the lurkers cove, I guess.

I'm getting my bachelors in electrical engineering. When I do get a job, it'd be awesome to get anything that deals with design/research/development. Probably something in signal processing, controls, or anything digital (I've had the most fun with those classes so far). I'm still not clear on what those fields actually entail, but its something to start with. Ideally, I'd be some sort of field engineer who gets to do some hands-on stuff with the projects, but if I had to, only designing is fine. As long as I get to see the end product.

I've been told that the path to make crazy money in engineering is to work your way into a decent sized to large company, work a bit, go back for an MBA, and then work management. $100k+ a year is then possible. But seriously, fuck all that mess. If I was in it only for the money I'd have gone into an easier engineering program than electrical, but they're all far too lame in comparison I'd not want to work in management anyway. Seems like a bunch of tools, I hate managing people, and you no longer do actual engineering work.

Should for some reason I no longer want to do that...I'd probably go to a trade school for carpentry. Maybe become a mechanic, something where I work with my hands would be pretty entertaining. Maybe become a beer brewer and open my own small local bar (I'd have to look into it first though, pretty sure laws would add some extra pain to the process).

Since type seems to be important, I've self typed as SLI. Thought about ILE for a while...leaning more towards SLI. Delta seems chill.

[Joven Erudito89]

You'll find your niche... I've always been interested in food and what's in it, and both the psychological and other aspects of diet, it's really been a lifelong passion. But it took me awhile to decide that I wanted to pursue a career in it. Im attracted to chemistry. I originally thought seriously about being a chemist, I wouldn't really enjoy it though, too impersonal. I also thought seriously about being a counselor, but I think hearing about abuse stories & personal problems all day would be too much for me. So, if you think about the nature of a dietician's work it mixes the two in a way thats just right for me.

You sound like me.
The counseling route would be, so draining every day. I never looked into that seriously, but that did cross my mind as well.

It sounds like what your chosen career path is a great fit for you. I hope you do really well!

Both if I can, but I want to become a dietician first for obvious reasons, to get experience plus it's abit more stable work at first.

Yeah i see what you're saying.
I think that is a great idea to work in the field before you start research. You'll have experience working with real patients. It might also give you more fresh ideas than people that went straight to research.

[Blaze]

People have such interesting jobs! Awesome.

I am a social worker by profession, right now I direct a large program at a federal government agency. I have been in my field for 23 years...wouldmhave to say I love it even though I bitch about work all the time. It def is not boring!

April and workaholics...I have also noticed that work groups tend to become intra quadra dominant. Right now there are a number of alphas who are in my management group, so it's pretty comfortable at least for work. I have worked in gamma dominant places and got along ok. In my last job, it was a delta environment and I did not fit there at all, even though I did some of the best work of my career there. It was a relief to get out of that one. Didn't help that there was quite a close distance there.....and the Fi valuing sucked. Anyway you'd think that delta and alpha would get along pretty well at work but I did not find that to be the case.

The team I supervise is alpha and beta. A few deltas but overall more of an Fe crowd which is much better for me.

[Morcheeba]

Nothing, the Federal government takes care of me. Well I shouldn't say nothing, I volunteer on skid row in downtown LA.

[Minde]

I have found myself making a living building websites. Right now I'm freelancing. For awhile I did whole projects by myself, getting paid directly by clients. Lately I've been doing a lot more subcontracting, taking on specific roles within actual companies, which I've been enjoying. I'm learning a lot a lot faster - skills and techniques but also processes.

I actually didn't think I'd end up doing this. I thought I'd be an illustrator or maybe a writer or a psychologist/counselor or... something. But here I am; it just kind of happened. And I like it, mostly.

It's got variety, it's interesting, gives me flexibility in lifestyle (somewhat, so far), it's finally starting to pay a decent amount, I'm meeting lots of interesting people, I can use my strengths, make things pretty, make them as perfect as I like. More sleep would be nice, though. It can also be a bit stressful when I have to get, um, firm with people and "business like."

[Nico1e]

An interesting thread of which I especially enjoyed reading the post by Anndelise.

I'm not sure how honest I want to be in this thread and I'm probably not a Delta type but part of me would like to share my struggles in the area of money making and part of me would just like to gloss over the difficult parts and and share the positive.

Ok, tears are coming to my eyes so I won't share for now...
Am I hitting my own Polr somehow...? Probably

I don't blame people if they have a hard time making enough money to get by. In fact I believe it's not our fault that it's so hard to do. The price of rent, and food, and gas, and everything, is too high. And jobs are not easily available for everyone. So we blame ourselves or other people blame us, but there are so many things we don't have control over.

[Nico1e]

Great videos. Did you decide you were EII? Or is it still not settled yet? *edit*, no, it says later in the second video that you also considered ILI.

[anndelise]

Lol, i musta been watching them at the same time as Nico1e.

I won't do a typing, but I did want to say, Shayley, that I enjoyed watching the interaction between you and your son.

[somavision]

I'm studying at the moment, however I also have two jobs to pay for fees and living etc.

Firstly, I'm working in a theatre as a technician. I love this job, every day I work there is different, it's really laid back, although sometimes you have to work really hard for really long shifts. It's a receiving house, that shows touring one day to sohrt run shows, including rock and roll (we get all the acts that were big in the 60s to 80s and the odd one that were big in the 90s), to circus, theatre, kids shows, award ceremonys, fitness competitions, pro wrestling, ice shows the lot. And I get to do loads of different roles, dick about, occasionally challnge myself and also be lazy...

Unfortunately, I only usually get a few shifts a month.

So I've also recently started working booking appointments for medical reps. It's a bit boring, but the people are nice and we have really nice offices with a little lake outside and ducks and stuff and it's really laid back, so you know... it's ok,

I've had way worse jobs and the informal, friendly atmosphere and the fact that I don't have to take work home, really suits me right now.

[Nico1e]

Great videos. Did you decide you were EII? Or is it still not settled yet? *edit*, no, it says later in the second video that you also considered ILI.

Unfortunately am still undecided though am thinking that a type with Si Polr or Si mobilizing function/hidden agenda fits best. So am some kind of XNXj.

Yeah, I didn't do a 'formal' typing in any way, just an impression, but when I jump to conclusions, I'm usually totally in the wrong universe. I just felt comfortable with you, I liked you, and when I watched your facial expressions, I felt myself merging with you as your eyes looked at something in the distance that was not in the room - I felt as though my own facial expression could match and follow yours, without pain or anxiety or distrust; this feels like someone I could feel comfortable around, someone I could trust. Your daughter said that you had high moral expectations of them, but that you did not 'force' anyone to obey those moral expectations.

I could be totally wrong, and I usually am, but I just had that EII impression. I guess we will see, over time.

[munenori2]

Interesting thread! As for me, I work at FedEx, primarily as a package handler. Pretty self explanatory, loading boxes into trailers that cook like ovens or frost like skating rinks. Sometimes they're very heavy, sometimes they're not. I like the job because it's something physical, and I'm good at it. Well, more like AWESOME! I'm not sure why exactly. I guess I'm willing to work harder than most people because I enjoy the endorphins and seeing where my limits are. Plus when you can maintain that level of effort for a while, it's really ridiculous how good you can get at some things. I'll just go ahead and say it, sans humility. I'm a master at what I do. They say it takes like 10,000 hours to get there, but according to my paychecks I more or less made by 2k. It's all about seeing the job as a challenge rather than an obstacle, I guess. After that mindset jump, it's all pretty much tetris with heavy shit.

I also spent about a year and a half as a trainer where I work, before asking for a demotion back to package handling. There are times when I've questioned this decision (where did the money go?! ) but frankly I love/hate the simplicity of my job. I think in some ways going back was me being complacent, but I think it was ultimately the right choice. It's something I excel at and leaves me plenty of room to figure out where to go from here. The training job itself was a really wonderful gig, all in all. Pretty cushy position. Good pay, lot of personal freedom, and I felt like I really had a hand in teaching the newbies the ropes. It's weird but it was sort of like being an older brother to about 15 people at a time. I grew a lot doing it, really had to be engaging with others, care for them, etc. Sure, there were headaches here and there: people who tried hard but never learned, people who learned but never tried. But you also had those people that you wound up just connecting with, that really blossomed under your tutelage. Not that I was the best teacher in the world. Pretty much I just kept encouraging them along, giving him some advice here and there, and occasionally hopping in and showing them what epic level loading looked like.

Damn, I guess I really miss my old job... I've told people a lot of different reasons why I quit doing it, but I wonder how honest each of them was. Maybe I was a little burnt out on it: too many people that didn't give a shit about the job, the oppressive, depreciative eye of upper management (LIE/LSE) that micromanaged always in negative fashion, and probably some nagging personal doubts that someone more outgoing and more of a bastard could do my job better than I did. Ironically, now from the outside looking in, I was actually pretty damn good at my job.

These days I'm just trying to figure out whether going back to school for some kind of healthcare stuff is a pipe dream or not. If it is I've definitely got a move up or move out mentality.

[FDG]

I work as a freelance translator (have been for years now) and as an assistant researcher, although my contract for the latter is ending this month, so I'll have to find something else...
I probably need to find something where I can interact with more people while I'm working, even though I really enjoy the flexibility I have with these two jobs.

[Jarno]

I work as a freelance translator (have been for years now) and as an assistant researcher, although my contract for the latter is ending this month, so I'll have to find something else...
I probably need to find something where I can interact with more people while I'm working, even though I really enjoy the flexibility I have with these two jobs.

what do you research?

[jessica129]

Military and I hate every second of it. Load cargo on planes and watch movies during downtime. A year a half left and then I'm going to be a pot smoking bum in the great land of northern california.

[Jarno]

Military and I hate every second of it. Load cargo on planes and watch movies during downtime. A year a half left and then I'm going to be a pot smoking bum in the great land of northern california.

Jessica what about police officer for you? More excitement and you might even find some pot to take home.

[FDG]

I work as a freelance translator (have been for years now) and as an assistant researcher, although my contract for the latter is ending this month, so I'll have to find something else...
I probably need to find something where I can interact with more people while I'm working, even though I really enjoy the flexibility I have with these two jobs.

what do you research?

I'm just a professor's slave in practical terms; I've mostly had to deal with mathematical applications of behavioral finance, and some relatively simple interest-rate and dividend prediction models.

[moredhel]

I'm a full-time web programmer for the state government insurance commission, so I pretty much build smart websites and enterprise applications.

I want to go into games programming in the future but it's a pretty cut throat industry and not particularly stable. Going to start looking for a more software engineering job in the near future to get back on track with what I want to do, either that or go back to uni and change track completely .

Everyone I work with is a fair bit older than me, mostly Delta's and Gamma's (being an office workplace and all).

[silke]

I've a chemist and so most of my jobs have been working for pharma as well as some non-profit research organizations doing chemistry pretty much. My typical workplace looks something like this. That's where I set up reactions. I usually multitask and run 2-5 at the same time. When a reaction is done I purify products and identify them with NMR or LCMS or masspec or whatever else might be required. I also have office space where I research what needs to get done next and document what has already been accomplished. In case of pharma, end products get sent to other laboratories where they get tested for their pharmacological properties or modified further. The ones that pass the tests turn into new drugs a few years down the road after some more intensive testing. I'm probably going to change profession or branch out somewhere some years down the road as I can't see myself doing the same thing my whole life.