What's your 'regular' job?

rabbitBUSH

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stevel05 said:
although musicians rarely retire.
Click to expand...
YUP....best example I have is a guy in a jazz society club who never left the stage when all other younger ones did "for breaks" - he was 85....
artists are highly survival orientated, innovative and constructive i'm sure you will come up with something.
 

Johan Schoeman

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I have studied Electrical Engineering at university (1983 to 1987). After I have completed my studies I worked for the biggest steel producer in South Africa. In 1996/1997 I worked in Oman on a military project for a company that manufactures artillery guns and systems. Since the end of 1997 I have been in the manufacture of food packaging - I started Barrier Film Converts in Durban in 2006 and is at present still the General Manager of the company. I do B4X just for fun and to keep the grey matter between the ears ticking over.
 
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Computersmith64

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I'm a mechanic by trade, but gave that up about 30 years ago to become a computer programmer (learned COBOL, C/C++, Pascal, but ended up working as a Visual Basic programmer, starting with VB1), From that I became a product support manager for mining technology (GPS enabled systems on large open-pit mining equipment), then a product manager for automated steering systems (GPS again) in agriculture, then back to mining (as the North American regional manager for a mining software company), then finally as director of product development for a company specializing in robotics & autonomous vehicles (mining, agriculture, automotive). It was pretty interesting - traveling the world & being employed by some pretty well known companies (including Caterpillar & Trimble Navigation), but when you're away from home 9/12 months, it starts to become a drag after a few years.

Somewhere along the line (about 2013 I think) I decided to try porting an old Windows based Yahtzee game I wrote to Android & this is where I started using B4A. By the time I had decided to leave the US & move back to NZ at the end of 2014, my Yahtzee (now Five Dice) game was earning enough for me to be able to call myself a "professional" mobile app developer & publisher - which is what I still do. I have at times contemplated going back to a "real job", but I just can't bring myself to do it... ?.

- Colin.
 

Reinierus

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Hello. I am electronic engineer, but when I was in the University I discovered Pascal language and I fall in love for programming. Now, 25 years later, I still have the wish to start studying software development one day.
I work in a small company implementing BMS and security systems.
 
A

AymanA

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This is a very inspirational thread and I am really grateful to be part of this community/forum, I have never thought for a sec that i can learn so much from this forum and b4x suite, but it is truely changing everything for me, plus all the life stories that has been mentioned really shows that passion to develop and evolve has no limit, so I thank everyone for sharing these amazing posts!

My night job is Remote Technical Support for PowerVM on POWER Systems.
 

JMB

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This is a really interesting chat. Fascinating to hear of others' stories and passions.

I'm an Air Ambulance pilot flying an Ec145 in the UK. Prior to that I flew Sikorsky S92 helicopters to the East Shetland Basin in support of Oil and Gas.

I'm just a hobby programmer although I wish I could spend a lot more time doing coding. I've used B4A to write flight planning software for my flying job.
 

Arf

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I was the principal electronic engineer at one of the largest medtech companies in the later noughties, then left and started an electronic design consultancy 10 years ago, one man company developing all sorts of medical devices for people/doctors/researchers/professors I have met along the way. The products are often prototypes for a singular research purpose, which keeps things interesting. I do everything [concept/case/sch/pcb/fw/sw/app] that a design requires. I am also Technical Director of a medical device manufacturing company that concentrates mostly on spirometry.
My main passion is windsurfing though, and I am fortunate to be able to head out in the wind and waves when conditions allow, and put in the work time at night or whatever
 

pliroforikos

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Last 22 years i am a High School teacher. I'm trying to teach pupils to do something useful with their pc, laptops and mobile phones except using socials.
I worked as programmer and system administrator long before here in Greece.
I love arduino programming and i' m very enthusiastic about b4x which i found it the last few months searching for rad tools for mobiles.
And i am also full time married
 
S

shhammer5634

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For the last 5 years, I have been repairing point of sale hardware in the state of Iowa for a major world-wide corporation. Kind of fell into it after doing gig work for a couple of years and impressing a couple techs that worked for the same company I work for now. I got started with B4A because I wanted to have an app on my phone to help me manage my van inventory since there were no corporate systems in place to do that. I made the mistake of showing my app to my boss, and now it's required usage for all techs within our division in the U.S. So now apart from my regular repair duties, I'm writing and maintaining software.

I've had the privilege of doing many different things over the years, from driving semi-trucks (grew up in a family of drivers) and commercial passenger buses, television and radio repair (started in my early teens), pinball machine and video game repair, worked in I/T for 20 years, and yes learned to code in a variety of computer languages all the way from RPG II on main frames to the B4X family of dev tools.

I am retirement age as you might have guessed, but I have no intention of doing so. Working keeps my mind engaged, a roof over my head, and food on the table. Besides, my wife and love of my life for the last 42 years is afraid if I retire I might spend all my time in front of the television. You know, she's always right!
 

techknight

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Thats awesome. I have always wanted to be a professional repair tech, but I tend to be on the consumer side of things, and sadly that industry has died for the most part. Granted, I did electronics repair on the side for the longest time before moving into engineering and designing my own product lines.

However, I do miss the hands-on experience of electronics tinkering and repair that I grew up with. So any time we get back product sent in for service, I enjoy working on it.

Currently I am part owner and sole electronics engineer/developer on our product line, which is scoreboards. Pandemic has killed us for the most part so if things dont change, its only a matter of time before we fold up shop sadly, as our primary target marketshare are school sports, and park & recreation industry. Things in the USA are a complete mess right now.

Otherwise, I created all the electronics and software/apps in our scoreboards, and I got started in mid 2012, chose to use B4X back at that point in time. No one else was doing mobile/tablet based scoreboard control so in a way, I invented the modern ability to do so. Wish I would have patented it, but I didn't have any money at the time, or an official company as it was just a side-gig, as in the beginning I was just retrofitting newer technology in older pre-existing scoreboards.

I didn't even own a smartphone yet, and a buddy of mine gave me a Google G1 phone to work with. (I still have that phone)

Then I partnered with another guy and reincorporated in NC back in 2014, and things kind of exploded to the point where we diversified into LED video displays etc, had to move into a bigger manufacturing facility, hire employees, etc... 2017 was our best year.

Then, the pandemic hit. we went from a full manufacturing business with around 10 employees to just me and my business partner, moved out of that facility into a smaller building where we are packed in like sardines. Went from a million dollar a year company of sales, to maybe 4 sales last year. All of our savings are gone, Been on government loans which have run out for the most part, and we are basically broke, in debt, with the only money left tied up in raw assets.

Its been a fun ride. Its so sad things are likely going to end the way they are.
 
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