76 replies to this topic

[Sheik]

Hey Fred! Ich komme auch aus Deutschland. Aber wir sind hier auf PureZC ganz klar in der Minderheit

I'm 19, doing some social work as alternative for going to the army. We have conscription here in Germany (though it will be "paused" this summer, so I'm one of the last who either has to go to army or do social work for half a year), thus I have to do that. I'm working in a residental home for mentally sick people. My 'guerdon' is almost 300€ with an additional ~250€ daily subsistence allowance each month. That's actually quite good for a "first job", but the other employees earn 6 times as much for the same work (without the daily subsistence allowance of course), which isn't exactly fair, but well.
Anyways, in April I will start studying law at a german university. I'll likely work part-time than. Unless I can handle without that extra-income, but I highly doubt that.
One of my biggest dreams is to work and live in the USA (in California to be precise, one day), Europe isn't thaaaaaaat great, really. Might get hard with german law, though xD Well, I can still switch to Psychology in winter, I'll see.

[SpikeReynolds]

Currently working in an automotive factory. I'm a temp, but I still get 40 hours a week, and 10 dollars an hour.

I have a freelance artist job on the side. Don't make much (I've made close to 100 bucks since I opened it last year. I'm not kidding, ALL of my work has been off of the RH Junior forums. Weird, eh?)

[jwex001]

I am a Guest Resolution Specialist at the hotel I work for. Meaning I am the go to person for any issue that our guests/customers/clients may have. I am responsible for making their stay with us over the top.

I barely make enough to pay bills, but am looking for a better paying position in other companies right now.

Edited by jwex001, 19 February 2011 - 09:39 PM.

[Daniel]

I work on pressure vessels in a metal fabrication shop, the large towers that are used to process oil into other fuels such as gasoline. I make ten dollars an hour and work 65-83, sometimes more hours a week which means while I might not make too much an hour, I get so many hours that I make plenty of money.

I dropped out of highschool when I was seventeen and didn't start working a real job until last May, so this is my first job. But I put $1,000 in the bank every check and still have plenty left over to buy guns and help my friend out when she needs it.

It is tiring and painful but it is something I am good at and the pay is good. My first month I had a iron pipe kick up shattering through my glasses into my eye socket busting my top eyelid open so bad I had to get seven stitches. I was finding little pieces of glass around my eye over two weeks later the plastic surgeon did not see and the bone fractures still cause me pain on occasion. Four weeks after I got my stitches out I was inside a tray tower grinding and the guy I was working with started rolling it and my extension cord got caught on a flange jerking the grinder which ended up grinding my left pointer finger open exposing bone. When I am working on scrubbers and have to buff out the inside I usually end up out of breath and coughing up blood and s*** for days four breathing in all the rust and dust in it. Just yesterday I learned my lesson that I should keep my torch striker on my belt when I lit it with my lighter and my hand was so close to the flame it barely touched the top of my thumb, now I have a long blister on it. Luckily like I said it barely touched it.

If I get killed at least I will die with money though.

[Sheik]

It is tiring and painful but it is something I am good at and the pay is good. My first month I had a iron pipe kick up shattering through my glasses into my eye socket busting my top eyelid open so bad I had to get seven stitches. I was finding little pieces of glass around my eye over two weeks later the plastic surgeon did not see and the bone fractures still cause me pain on occasion. Four weeks after I got my stitches out I was inside a tray tower grinding and the guy I was working with started rolling it and my extension cord got caught on a flange jerking the grinder which ended up grinding my left pointer finger open exposing bone. When I am working on scrubbers and have to buff out the inside I usually end up out of breath and coughing up blood and s*** for days four breathing in all the rust and dust in it. Just yesterday I learned my lesson that I should keep my torch striker on my belt when I lit it with my lighter and my hand was so close to the flame it barely touched the top of my thumb, now I have a long blister on it. Luckily like I said it barely touched it.

If I get killed at least I will die with money though.

Oh my god, this sounds horrible, I can't imagine all the pain you must've been through. Really, that shocked me.
...I like your attitude, though.

[Daniel]

I did not tell you the worst part. When I got the stitches of course they gave me Novocaine, and it worked fine I barely felt a thing for the first five stitches. They then decided they needed two more on the side but the Novocaine had wore off already and as they stuck the needle through one of the nurses seen my whole body tense up and realized it had worn off and asked if I wanted more. Sadly I had to decline because there were two nurses, both female, and the older one who was about 40-45 was pretty hot and I didn't want to look like a pussy so I said I was alright and to go ahead. On top of that I had to take a big piss the entire time so that added onto the suffering.

I only thought that was bad though. Apparently the guy had put the stitches in too tight and the nurse managed to get two out but called in a different guy to get the rest and he had to pull on them with tweezers to get the little scissors under them enough to cut them, of course my eye was still swollen almost shut so having him pulling on them was hell and they don't give you anything for the pain when they pull them out.

It was great though in a way at least I had a good looking nurse sitting on the bed thing leaning over me watching but do to my eye and the stitches I had to have my eyes closed pretty much the whole time and did not get a good view.

[Chris Miller]

I was a firefighter until I blew my knee out, so I went to work at a friend's mechanic shop for a couple years. We couldn't drum up enough business to keep the shop going, so it shut down in April of last year. I got a job as a butcher in early August, two days after my birthday, and I've been training since. The money is....adequate, and the work doesn't kill me.

[Golden Chocobo]

I work at a nice dinner theatre, and I make $7.25 an hour. I only work about 9-ish hours a week, unfortunately, so I'm poor. Sometimes though, when we're building or striking a show (and not during the run of it) I'll get 30 hours! Out of nowhere! So my checks range from about $60-200 every other week.

hmm do you live at home with your parents? How much does an engineer earn in the U.S.? You can apply in switzerland, with a masters degree or diploma from a good university you can expect around $ 85.000 a year (salary as a freshman, beginning right after university)

No, I have my own apartment, but I have loans that pay for that

[Red Phazon]

Unemployed college student here who has never had a job. I'm studying for a BS in Optical Science & Engineering with a splash of electrical engineering because it just seems so awesome and fascinating. It's tough but if I make it through it should be worth it.

[Evile]

I work as a brewer at the local microbrewery. Fifteen bux/hour and about 40 hours/week, sometimes a bit less. Super steady work and its an enjoyable job. I'm always learning lots of new stuff and it pays the bills.

[Twilight Knight]

Student still living at my parents, but I do have a job at the local supermarket, which pays about 5 euro/hour and I work about 12-15 hours/week (depends) and monthly I make 250-300 euros. Though in January I got 450 euros, by working more in the Christmas holidays.

I hope to study Computer Programming/Informatics the coming year and afterwards have a reasonable salary.

[MaximusFred]

How´s it hanging now for you?

 

Tell me your stories and what did you accomplish the last years ... or did you?..

[anikom15]

I would consider myself to be a successful student. Getting straight A's has been difficult but has been a fun challenge, too.

[Koh]

I'm in my senior year of college, and I'll be graduating late, since I haven't been able to afford consistently taking 5 classes to graduate in 4 years, not to mention having to repeat every math since Pre-Calculus II.  I'm at least an indie game developer though, and I do earn some money on the side doing cartoon commissions on DeviantArt, with results much like my avatar.

Edited by Koh, 25 June 2014 - 12:33 PM.

[KingPridenia]

Short Answer: A helper that gets zero appreciation from anyone outside of the customers.

 

Long Answer: Got a 4 year degree in business and thanks to the lousy economy, what exactly am I doing? Pushing carts at a grocery store. I'm supposed to just be a cart boy that greets people and helps them load their vehicles, but I'm basically a floral associate, grocery stock clerk, dairy stock clerk, customer courtesy associate and janitor all in one. Or put into their terms, Parcel Pickup / Front End Associate (and yet despite being a college grad I'm apparently not smart enough to run a register???) What do you think I get paid for being pretty much five departments in one? If you guessed minimum wage, have a cookie. If you guessed anything more than that, you get NOTHING! You lose! Good day, sir!

 

Yeah, so much for a 4 year degree. Doesn't even entitle me to faster advancement or better positioning. You'd think someone with a 3.51-3.52 GPA and a business degree would be doing something a little better than being a cart pusher. Hell, a lot of people my age are desperate for a job. I actually know someone that is 3.5 years with an associate's degree and he can't get a job ANYWHERE. Not even McDonalds.

 

It took me TEN MONTHS to get a minimum wage job that I don't like but have to deal with because it's all I have. Getting anything in my field was hopeless; several months of trying and zero responses from anyone. Once I lowered my expectations down to "I don't care; just give me a damn job!", I only got two responses in 4-5 months. One was from Sheetz which might as well have said "lel ur overqualified go away scrub". The other was from Weis Markets, which actually did hire me. In retrospect, I should have flat out declined when I found out I was only going to make $7.25/hr. But I took the job out of sheer desperation and knowing I wasn't going to be able to weasel my way out of paying back my loans.

Edited by RedmageAdam, 25 June 2014 - 02:04 PM.