Profession

[Argammon]

Serious thread, heh! 

So, on a serious note, I want to mention that I am happy that everything seems to work out well for the members of the "old" stunts community. It is in particular nice to read that Akoss has finally found a good job and has good opportunities after the harsh time he went through. Congratulations Akoss!

As far as Zak is concerned, It was always clear to me that he would be successful in life. What are you doing at the moment, BJ? Maybe you wrote it somewhere, but I missed it.

I also want to congratulate Duplode. Such a life changing decision can be very hard. If you feel better now, you did the right thing. I hope you have all the energy you need.

CTG seems to pursue a very stressful career. Because you are under pressure not only for a short period but for several years, I can understand that a forum community like this one can act as a valve to release some of this pressure. At least, that is how I felt at times.

As mentioned in some other thread, I finally finished my PHD. That does not mean that my life will be less stressful from now on. If I decide to pursue tenure, the next few years won't be easy for me. On another note, my health is back to around 90%. I thought about doing more sports and possibly even try to start a "minor" career. That is, if I am back at 100% soon. I still feel young and whereas it may be to late for many disciplines, this may not hold true for all of them. And I am not thinking about golf.  But maybe this is only wishful thinking after all! 

[zaqrack]

Speaking about career, since March I am Operations Manager for the newly started China branch of our company. Its like having a startup: we started with no work, no China legal entity and I was the only one here - now we have a fully registered business entitiy and I am leading a team of three (currently looking to hire more people, but it is really hard here in China) and coordinating two projects.

My responsibilities and amount of work have been multiplied at least threefold, and there is no longer a clear line between my work and the rest of my life - it was really hard to cope in the first months. But I do not complain, as my salary was also considerably raised and I get a not too big but still decent expat package - but sill, life is expensive here in Shanghai quite much compared to Hungary. We are not here for money - I wanted to try living in a foreign culture, and it seems to work well. I think the long time benefits will outweigh all the trouble and shitloads of work we are going through lately. 

Negative impact: no time on Stunts or biking (no hills here anyway), but you have noticed. All the free time I have goes to my family. We will stay here for about 1-2 more years, hopefully a team of 10-15 and stable operations by then, and then we will see where to proceed...

[JTK]

Oh, yes, I've got a new job as well. I entered a new company (Crosssoft) with five people from my team. We went away from the old company because it's star is sinking and the whole ship almost hit the ground, so we dicided to go to a company, which is smaller (>40 people) and which has its focus on producing and selling health care software. MY job beside account management, training, coaching, selling etc. is to organize a customer and sales management system, which makes my time slip away from my hands... but I'm happy!

[CTG]

3rd June 2012 - the day when it turns out if I'm going to have a PhD or not (very final deadline for the thesis). If it depends on my boss, the answer is 'no' - he suspects that I'll leave this workplace as soon as I finish my PhD. And yes, I will.

Pro and contra list for leaving, here, tonight.

[CTG]

3rd June 2012 - the day when it turns out if I'm going to have a PhD or not (very final deadline for the thesis). If it depends on my boss, the answer is 'no' - he suspects that I'll leave this workplace as soon as I finish my PhD. And yes, I will.

Pro and contra list for leaving, here, tonight.

Or tonight.

[zaqrack]

practically means the same day to me

[CTG]

practically means the same day to me

Damn, I'm too sleepy again.

[alanrotoi]

I feel my profession is comic book writer. I don't live with that, it doesn't give me money, but I would like to.

[JTK]

I'm planning to open my own hostel in Budapest maybe, I have a nice concept, which would be surely succesful.

So what about this plan, later on? 

[alanrotoi]

Somebody said a meeting in zak's hostel? 

[CTG]

Somebody said a meeting in zak's hostel? 

Yeah, you two should have a private meeting there, doggy.

Kidding.

[BonzaiJoe]

CTG, there are no girls on the forum. Really no girls.

[CTG]

CTG, there are no girls on the forum. Really no girls.

Quite sad fact.

[CTG]

Pro and contra list

+ My work (research) is interesting with various practical problems to solve.
+ I can use the techniques that I was always fond of (solid state analytical methods).
+ Theoretically I have to work less than others (36 hrs/week instead of 40) and also have +5 days off, because I work with the X-ray diffractometer. Practically only the latter is right, I always have 8-10 (rarely 15-20) hours overtime in a week.

O - Salary is fair enough, although I could earn a lot more at other companies (money is not that important in this question).

- Here I have no time and energy to do my PhD - mainly because I'm restrained in it. My boss doesn't really want me to get it, as he knows I'm going to leave as soon as I finish PhD. It's really hard to find somebody for my job in this very specific field, especially a good one (I don't want to be uppish, but I'm quite good in this).
- Active pharmaceutical ingredients are dangerous, when you work with the pure material. Imagine a hormonal tablet, containing ~100 micrograms of a steroid. When I get the pure material for a complete analysis (powder), there's 2-10 g in the vial. Most of my workmates are not really careful, leaving the lab in mess and contaminated by these materials. My liver is not enough good to resist: too many problems with ALT and AST in my blood, sometimes pain in my liver - I can't prove it's the effect of the chemicals, but it's really suspicious.
- I hate this community: some lazy dogs, few malicious people, some bootlickers and many snobs too. Also a former roommate from the hostel, we lived in the same room for a single semester - he was (and still is) so annoying, that I had to persecute him away before I got really mad. I can't name a single workmate I really like - or maybe one, but I think it's rather the respect of his great knowledge.

Plan: survive the next few months with as few lab work as possible, writing my PhD thesis and then... leave (finally). Working in an office fits me better.

Funny, I write this from my workplace - hopefully nobody is watching my internet "traffic".

[zaqrack]

I feel my profession is comic book writer. I don't live with that, it doesn't give me money, but I would like to.

Actually a friend of mine has quit his job as a well-paid marketing expert, has relocated to Italy to work in a bicycle manufacture as an apprentice and at the same time write comics on the internet.

His comics became popular and he has already issued 4 compilation books and is asked by companies from time to time to write short strips for money Now he has relocated back to Hungary to start his own bicycle frame building shop.

Earning far less than earlier but enough to make a living and he fulfilled his dreams.