What do you do for a living?

[DavidJatt]

What's Ed Woodward like as a boss?

Bald

[touchingcloth]

What's Ed Woodward like as a boss?

Bald

[flotemysost]

Yet the times I've encountered people who've been in the biz for some years and don't know the difference between demy and b-format is quite sad. All it takes is to ask!

Gonna plead guilty to this one, I'm afraid.

Completely agree there are so many vastly complex and fascinating cogs involved in the whole process - I definitely never thought I'd end up doing what I do, but I basically just said yes to things when they came up and was open to the less-obvious career options.

On the flipside though, as you say it's not generally an industry that people get into for the fat paycheques, and there's often (maybe more so with bigger companies, and in the more in-demand creative roles) a culture of being made to feel like you should be grateful to work there at all - meaning it can be hard to muster the confidence to say to your manager that you'd be interested in finding out more about x team or y job, in case they think you're planning on fucking off (of course you can always just befriend and talk to people in other teams anyway, but that silo-ing can sometimes be quite embedded in company cultures too).

I think that's especially the case for more junior staff (who are often hugely overworked anyway, and not always given the opportunity or time to look into any sort of career development). That's been my observation anyway, though it's definitely improving, thankfully - it's a problem of bad managers and a stagnant/archaic work culture, rather than the job itself.

[touchingcloth]

Gonna plead guilty to this one, I'm afraid.

Completely agree there are so many vastly complex and fascinating cogs involved in the whole process - I definitely never thought I'd end up doing what I do, but I basically just said yes to things when they came up and was open to the less-obvious career options.

On the flipside though, as you say it's not generally an industry that people get into for the fat paycheques, and there's often (maybe more so with bigger companies, and in the more in-demand creative roles) a culture of being made to feel like you should be grateful to work there at all - meaning it can be hard to muster the confidence to say to your manager that you'd be interested in finding out more about x team or y job, in case they think you're planning on fucking off (of course you can always just befriend and talk to people in other teams anyway, but that silo-ing can sometimes be quite embedded in company cultures too).

I think that's especially the case for more junior staff (who are often hugely overworked anyway, and not always given the opportunity or time to look into any sort of career development). That's been my observation anyway, though it's definitely improving, thankfully - it's a problem of bad managers and a stagnant/archaic work culture, rather than the job itself.

It's a shame if the culture at a place is like that. My pay is piss poor relative to what I could get at a different place, but there's a true culture of giving people the time and opportunities to explore other roles within the business. I'm sure it won't last forever, but having come from a place where the pay was great but the culture left me crying in the toilets while I was in the office and brooding and vacant when I was at home that counts for a lot. Genuinely you'd need to pretty much double my salary to make me think a move to a shitty workplace culture was worth it.

[flotemysost]

Yeah having a decent workplace culture can be invaluable, despite my previous post I've actually been very fortunate to have worked with genuinely really great managers and colleagues over the last few years. I probably should be a bit more proactive with career stuff at some point, but I really like my colleagues - being around (or online with) people I'm on the same page as all day is enough to keep me from hunting a potentially more lucrative route, though I realise many people don't have the luxury of that choice. I feel very lucky, either way.

[touchingcloth]

At least until you say "what's a foolscap?" And they say "get out".

[IsavedLatin]

On the flipside though, as you say it's not generally an industry that people get into for the fat paycheques, and there's often (maybe more so with bigger companies, and in the more in-demand creative roles) a culture of being made to feel like you should be grateful to work there at all - meaning it can be hard to muster the confidence to say to your manager that you'd be interested in finding out more about x team or y job, in case they think you're planning on fucking off (of course you can always just befriend and talk to people in other teams anyway, but that silo-ing can sometimes be quite embedded in company cultures too).

I think that's especially the case for more junior staff (who are often hugely overworked anyway, and not always given the opportunity or time to look into any sort of career development). That's been my observation anyway, though it's definitely improving, thankfully - it's a problem of bad managers and a stagnant/archaic work culture, rather than the job itself.

You're right, culture plays a huge part in this, and you've described it so well here. I have certainly worked in some very off-putting and "stay in your lane" sorts of workplace cultures. Even so, my approach was always "fuck it, they've let me in the door, I'm going to sponge up everything I can", and so I'd just sidle up to people and say "that's neat! What is that?" But of course that's me coasting on a certain amount of social privilege and just native brass neck, which not everyone will have.

The workplace culture thing is something I find mystifying, @touchingcloth, in publishing; I've worked at a couple of the bigger companies now, in different areas, and it's bizarre how one team can be functioning quite happily and well, and then you move ten paces down the corridor to another team that is a hotbed of dysfunction (often, as @flotemysost has said, in the sorts of prestige role where you're aware that there's another 300 people who would happily march over your twitching body to get to your desk).

[flotemysost]

Even so, my approach was always "fuck it, they've let me in the door, I'm going to sponge up everything I can", and so I'd just sidle up to people and say "that's neat! What is that?" But of course that's me coasting on a certain amount of social privilege and just native brass neck, which not everyone will have.

Yeah, that's an admirable mindset. Likewise when I first joined my current company, I made a point of blithely smiling at everyone I passed in the corridor/saying hi, even if I didn't know them and would sometimes get an icy glare in return. Though I've definitely held myself back in other ways thanks to my own godawful lack of self worth, but that's my own fault.

And you're completely right about those "prestige" roles being more fraught with dissatisfaction in many cases. A mate of mine and former colleague who took a pay cut to move to an Editorial role had a baby a few months after joining that team, a decision spurred on in part by the fact that, in her words, "Let's be honest, it's not like my career here's ever fucking going anywhere". (She's since got a more senior role in another country with far better provisions for working parents, fwiw.)

[Captain Z]

I breed racing pigeons, which sounds a lot fancier than it is.

[touchingcloth]

I breed racing pigeons, which sounds a lot fancier than it is.

But it's exactly as racy as it sounds.

[imitationleather]

Well that's a coo.

[touchingcloth]

I work at Dyson predicting failure rates for their airflow-based cooling devices, but that makes it sound a lot more fan seer than it actually is.

[flotemysost]

I worked on a 2014 single released by Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX, which sounds a lot Fancy-er than it was.

[Ray Travez]

I get paid to jump in the local pool with fifty helium balloons strapped to my ears

Well it keeps my head above water

[flotemysost]

I moonlight as a caretaker for a building that's frequently attacked by wild dog packs. It keeps the wolf from the door.

[touchingcloth]

I work as a good stylist for dining room furniture photoshoots. It puts the bread on the table.

[touchingcloth]

Before that I worked as a frottage specialist in the adult film industry which was very poorly paid and with long hours, but it made ends meet.

[Yussef Dent]

Work at a university in the Facility Management team, which sounds a lot fancier than it is.

In a way... this (I'm not high up in it though). I do really quite enjoy it and it's coming up to nine years that I'll have been in this job. Prior to this I trained as a journalist but then went to Uni to do PR, then had what looked like a very promising career in that field of work. However, a hell of a lot went wrong in a short space of time, the backup plan to do TEFL was thwarted at every turn and I was financially bollocksed. Got this job at exactly the right time, a hell of a lucky break, and whilst I used to get annoyed and admittedly quite bitter with stuff that had gone on in the past and not reaching my potential (especially when you have friends who have done extremely well for themselves), there is a lot to be said for being content sometimes and not taking that for granted.

[the Fallen]

Platform manager

Sold millions, so someone had to do it. The arrangement appealed to my sensibilities and priorities, not having ever been to Oxford

Not that everybody's heard of the box

[Nice Relaxing Poo]

Is there any way into this sort of work at the moment? Need to find a job  from August next year.

Someone I grew up with ended up driving the machines that lift the track and repack underneath the sleepers but I've lost his contact details.

Search on this page for "signal"

https://www.networkrail.co.uk/careers/careers-search/

The entry level grade is operative.

Do a complete search for all the other sections (track workers etc).

Also here's a job site:

www.railwaypeople.com

About 600 jobs on there, many of them entry level. Get your foot in the door as a contractor and then you'll have some background knowledge for a permanent position in a more agreeable area of the industry.

[kenneth trousers]

Someone I grew up with ended up driving the machines that lift the track and repack underneath the sleepers but I've lost his contact details.

I used to do this.
The machine is a ballast tamper.
There are 4 companies that share the contracts, split into different areas, plus Network Rail have their own machines as well now.

Depending on your location you want to be contacting, Colas Rail, Volkerrail, SB Rail and Balfour Beatty.
There are other machines (correct search term On Track Machines, or OTMs) such as Stone Blowers, Rail Grinders and Ballast Regulators.

I was a Driver/Maintainer/Operator so used to drive them to the worksite or to different locations around the country for planned work. Fix them when they inevitably broke down (also serviced "my machine" twice a year) and operated them, including inputting and track geometry into the computer and manually compensating the lift and line to leave the track as close to design as possible.

I now drive freight trains out of the Peak District.
 

[Catalogue of ills]

I now drive freight trains out of the Peak District.
 

On the Sheffield/Manchester line? That would be a job with lovely views.

[kenneth trousers]

Yep, majority of the work is out of Earles sidings, Hope and Tunstead Quarry near Buxton.

[SpiderChrist]

as little as possible HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHfuckoff

[gilbertharding]

I now drive freight trains out of the Peak District.
 

I was definitely going to be a train driver when I was 8.

[RetroRobot]

Make PowerPoint presentations, and guides for the presentation

[Brian Freeze]

Thank you so much @Nice Relaxing Poo and @kenneth trousers


I really appreciate the effort you've put in.
Cheers.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I started a limousine business but am struggling to attract drivers. All this work and nothing to chauffeur it.

[Cuellar]

I work in data, I am a data analyst, I have no qualifications for it, I want to leave my current company, but my amazing lack of qualifications will probably make it difficult/impossible

[SteveDave]

I make sure sports shops get really expensive sportswear (that no-one's ever played sport in) delivered.