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Life before and outside IT.

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by jardinier

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In the various general discussions, members often reveal that they have passed through a variety of jobs/vocations before settling into IT. Some also obviously have vocations/passionate hobbies which they carry out concurrently with their primary profession. I find these insights fascinating, as I have switched vocations several times during my life.

My story has been revealed in bits and pieces in various discussions, but now I will tie it all together.

I was a journalist; then a gardener (I prefer the term "Horticulturist" because it implies than you have a more extensive knowledge than just cutting lawns and weeding); quite late in life I became obsessed with computers, and learnt enough to run my part-time homebased business. However, a spin-off from this was that I became a "born-again" journalist, as one of my two websites is devoted to topical issues, and requires updating on a daily basis.

I look forward to hearing other members' stories.

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by guruofdos

Since a very early age, six I think, I wanted to get involved in electronics. My late father was a radio and weapons engineer in the Royal Navy and I always wanted to follow in his footsteps...not necessarily into the 'forces' but definitely into engineering. I did my O and A levels at school with the aim of getting into electronics as a career. I actually FAILED my O-Level Computer Studies exam back in '83 but the subject back in those days was mostly history of computing (ERNIE, ENIAC, LEO, Enigma, Charles Babbage and Dame Ada Lovelace et al.) with a little bit of programming in BASIC (on a Commodore Pet) or CESIL (Computer Education in Schools Instruction Language) which was coded on paper and sent to a local University for batch-processing on punch-cards...honest!!! I blitzed the programming but my history let me down!

After studying for an HND in Electronics Engineering and specialising in Communications and Control Engineering, I got my first job working part time during the holidays for a small electronics company. I started out as a bench repair technician working on electronics modules for a Tank Gunnery and Missile Simulator used by the US Army. This was all pretty much discreet electronics (transistors, IC's and op-amps) and analogue computing with very little digital technology. Our company bought an Amstrad word processor and in 1988 acquired a 286 PC. At this point I was getting into Z80 processors and trying to debug and faultfind on an Anti Aircraft
Missile simulator designed in 1983 which used 5 separate Z80 based cards linked to each other using RS232. I did all the debugging and testing using a Sinclair Spectrum 48k home computer and a Stag PP70 eprom programmer with a Texas Instruments Silent700 teletype as the printer!

by guruofdos

I soon realised that I could do the job better using a cross-assembler on the 286 and from that day, was hooked. In about 1991, the company started to branch out from repair work for the US Army and begin manufacturing our own training simulators. We had two key products - a static target simulator based on 35mm slide projectors, and a video tape system. Both systems started life as a collection of discreet circuit boards and a very limited set of controls using LED displays and switches. I hada bizarre notion that both systems could be computerised and programming used to alter system parameters. So began my relationship with computing in the real world.

The Twin Slide simulator ended up running on a Z80 card 'stolen' from the A-A simulator, but having found a 24 line DIO card for the PC I decided to try to implement the video trainer on the PC. Using GWBasic, I replicated the video trainer on the 286 and then went onto use VB3 on a 386 to make the system Windows Based...of course this was under WFWG3.11!

Well, one thing led to another and now we harness the full multimedia potential of modern PC's, video projection and DV camera taechnology to make some pretty decent simulators! Sixteen years later, I am still with the same company, and now build PC's and design interfaces and write software for the systems. As an offshoot to this career, I ended up doing a weekend job for a retail computer company as a repair technician when my marriage started to go sour and debtsstarted mounting up. When outgoings exceeded the income from both jobs, I then started out on my own with a third job in the evenings servicing computers privately and building computers for private and commercial customers. I didn't get much rest or sleep...working 7 days a week, sometimes 20 hours a day for three years took it's toll on my marriage, my health and my sanity, but I learned a hell of a lot about computers!

by admin

of YOUR boots as it turns out! :)

I gotta say, I still appreciate a person who can harness their own serial ports and breadboard a few resistors and transistors- Then say the word "Op-Amp" and I'm smiling! I have done work with music electronics from an early age, and well, the art form of a feedback loop on a carefully chosen LN is like playing in heaven :)

I always wanted to get my hands on a Sinclair, but never did. heheh oh well, I've certainly gotten to play with more than my share of stuff! :>

by guruofdos

Well...the nervous breakdown happened...and so did the marriage breakdown. I decided there were three options...a change of career, a change of location or a change of personal circumstances. I chose to change the wife and things improved greatly! Ino longer work in retail, and I have reduced the hours I spend on private work, but still design and build simulator systems. My problem now is ANYTHING computer-related gets shoved in MY In-Tray! Everyone at work uses a computer, but they are all 'plodders' and so I get all the CAD work, pcb design, producing company newsletters, running the web-site, helping the guys with their home computers as well as administering the company network, writing software and solving all IT or multimedia related problems. All this on top of my own tasks!

Electronics now seems to be a sideline for me, despite spending my entire education training for it! I do whip out a soldering iron from time to time, but my life seems dominated by computers and I can't seem to avoid them! My career seems to have taken the IT path because I have an aptitude for such things, and if I hadn't had my moments of blinding inspiration, the company wouldn't have taken the path it has and we'd still be an electrical and electronics repair company! Did I shoot myself in the foot, make a rod for my own back and generally land myself in this mess??!!!

by oldefar

Always thought I would be a building architect, after finding out I could never pass the vision test for being a fighter jock. Worked as a co-op draftsman for an Australian firm, had my scholarship for architectural college and an offer of swappingmechanical engineering degree for work by my employer. Also had an attitude that finally caught up with me - flunked out of high school while on honor roll and with a 3.5 GPA. Seems I really had to attend that government class, not just pass the tests.

Anyhow, with no career and no scholarships I went to CC after summer school. Won the lottery (draft) and Vietnam was still on, so I chose the USAF. The recruiter suggested electronics based on my scores and his targets. When I got out 8 years later with a family, it was a question of work.

Along the way I have done tubes, wire wrap 100 card CPU with core memory, mechanical delay line memory, and then onto communications.

by oz_media

I've always been a fixit guy. Doesn't matter what it is or if I've even seen one before, I can usually figure out how it is made to work and why it isn't working, I think this make me a good troubleshooter.
Bored of a sales career, I started public speaking and teaching sales courses. This melded into motivational and sales training. The sales training got me into advertising and marketing. A few bands I knew (I worked as a security foreman at the Pacific Coliseum)hired me to help with marketing efforts, this evolved into managing a few new acts, which in turn grew until I opened two US and one Canadian offices to help scout and market bands into the European market.
While doing all this, I spent 6 years at BCIT studying to be an Automotive Journeyman.
After a car accident, I found myself running call centers for Sprint Canada and AT&T Canada before taking on a job as a quality assurance manager for Sprint Canada. This saw me learning computer and workstation management, before I was taken on to build a website and advertising brochures for a major phone company. that same company trained me as a CNA, CNE and MCNE. While in school, I worked for several other telecom companies and built databases, websites and brochures.During al this time, my Artist Promotional and Management business started taking off on the side.
I am now self employed and work under contract to two telephone companies to manage their databases, sales materials, networks, etc. while still running around madly trying to keep up with band demands, tours and other obligations to their success.

I say "bring it on...NEXT......"
OM

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