# A business/industry you would not work in?



## Bullgrit (Feb 21, 2014)

Assuming you aren't in desperate circumstances -- need *any* job for money to support a family, or something -- is there a business or industry you absolutely wouldn't work in? I don't mean a job you wouldn't do, but the overall business/industry. I'm not asking if you wouldn't flip burgers, but rather you wouldn't do any job in the fastfood industry. Etc.

I work in an industry within the "military industrial complex". So when we interview candidates for a job here, we always make sure they're okay with what we do.

Bullgrit


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## Dannyalcatraz (Feb 21, 2014)

Prostitution or drugs.

I don't think I belong in any job where I need to carry a firearm, for many reasons.

Nothing involving heights, either.

Within my own fields of expertise, I couldn't be a criminal defense attorney.  Not because of the shady rep, but because of the mental stress the job puts on you.


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## Bullgrit (Feb 21, 2014)

Dannyalcatraz said:
			
		

> I don't think I belong in any job where I need to carry a firearm, for many reasons.
> 
> Nothing involving heights, either.



I'm not talking about jobs, but business/industry. Like, would you work in the law enforcement industry even though front-line officers carry firearms?



> Prostitution or drugs.



Well, I assumed we'd all avoid criminal industries. 



> Within my own fields of expertise, I couldn't be a criminal defense attorney. Not because of the shady rep, but because of the mental stress the job puts on you.



But would you be comfortable working within the criminal defense business?

Bullgrit


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## Dannyalcatraz (Feb 21, 2014)

Let me restate- I don't have any objections to the weapons or jobs themselves, but if my job requires weapons training, I should not be in that job.

SO

Law enforcement on the civilian admin side would be fine.  Enlisting in the Armed Forces would be problematic.

As for Criminal Defense as a business it really depends on how broadly you define it, but in general, I don't want any more part of it than I had.  A brief stint in the Dallas Public Defender's office convinced me of that.  Too high stress.  The stakes are too high, win or lose, guilty or innocent for both client and society.


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## Janx (Feb 21, 2014)

Bullgrit said:


> But would you be comfortable working within the criminal defense business?
> 
> Bullgrit





I think the complication to that is some of us are positioned such that while we get "not flipping burgers" we'd be doing what we do in that industry or not.

For Danny, as a Lawyer, "criminal defense business" means being a criminal defense lawyer specifically.

I'm a software developer.  I probably am the model person for your exercise.

I write code used by lawyers
I write code used by places that sell coffee with too much milk
I write code used by places that get you medical services
I write code that helps servers be tested better

I can technically work in any industry. I've worked in a few.


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## Morrus (Feb 21, 2014)

I don't think there are any I'd specifically avoid.  I think I'd be more concerned about unethical or exploitative practices, but these would be company specific rather than industry-wide, I'd imagine.


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## Blackbrrd (Feb 21, 2014)

I would avoid anything involving data entry.


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## Derren (Feb 21, 2014)

Apart from the usual suspects like crime, etc. the game industry because there you will likely have to work more and get paid less than in other industries for the same kind of work.


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## Ahnehnois (Feb 21, 2014)

There are a lot of fairly broad types of jobs I wouldn't do, but I don't know that I can rule out an entire industry.

After all, I'm a pacifist who works as a contractor, and most of my contracts come from the DoD. If you asked me whether I'd ever join the armed forces or work on any kind of weapons research, I'd say no. But an entire industry is a pretty big envelope.


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## Zombie_Babies (Feb 21, 2014)

A couple I've done but would never do again (god willing):

Fast food - Nothing in my life was as draining and enraging as working fast food was.  And it's got a pretty big part of my number one no-no in it, too.

Factory work - I honestly didn't mind the work but I hated it enough to be the perfect worker.  In other words, I was great at what I did but hated being there so I'd do everything in my power to get the job done before it needed to be done.  The reason I'll avoid it at all costs is the danger.  I have a lot of scars from that place but got off easy.  I saw people maimed (fingers lost, surgery requiring injuries) and a year after I left a 21 year old kid died on the shop floor.  F that noise.

Customer service - This really falls into pretty much every job but anything that places a focus on customer interaction isn't for me.  I can handle internal customers (other departments, etc) but not external.  Er, I'm awesome at pretending to care but I hate myself when I have to deal with customers.  For whatever reason I can suppress that when it's internal, though.  That's a good thing since I'll always have to deal with internal customers.


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 21, 2014)

Fast food service. I wouldn't do it. 

As for illegal industries? I think I'd be a pretty successful drug trafficker. I wouldn't do the grunt work selling dime bags on a street corner, though.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Feb 21, 2014)

Hey, hey, hey!  Youse gotsta start _someweahs!_


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## Zombie_Babies (Feb 21, 2014)

If I'm not mistaken, 'the top' _is _somewhere.


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 21, 2014)

Yup, I'd start at the top.


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## Abraxas (Feb 21, 2014)

Advertising, Banking and never again Sales.


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## gamerprinter (Feb 21, 2014)

Well, I wouldn't work in a corporate environment given the choice.

After college, and after a stint in the US Army, I figured out that I didn't want to work for a big company, and in fact I didn't want to work for anybody. Right out of the army, holding a minimum wage graphics job until I could get on my feet, I started a pressure washing company (not because it was something I really wanted to do, rather because I wanted to be in business with myself, and at the time I didn't really take the graphics industry seriously (more than as a possible job.) I ran the pressure washing company for 5 years, and a competitor offered money to buy me out - so I did. After that I really wanted to get back into the graphics industry, and we're my education was intended.

So I started a small graphic design/digital print company with no employees - I wearing all hats. Soon after I incorporated, at first renting a store, eventually buying a large building on 3 acres of land. I've run this company since April 1994, so I am almost at 20 years at this now.

In 2007, wanting to get into the gaming industry, I started to doing freelance cartography for various small publishers, eventually developing and publishing my own game setting as an imprint under Rite Publishing. I plan to become a publisher, and at this time am considering doing publishing instead of my graphics design/print studio, and possibly closing my business. I'm tired of serving local customers and kind want to just serve gamers.

I know that if circumstances forced me to close my businesses and work for someone else, I'd have a tough time of it, having worked for so many years on my own. I don't know if I could easily work for anyone ever again.


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## Elf Witch (Feb 21, 2014)

I would never want to work in Fast food again it is a soul destroying job. Between nasty managers and customers the smell the grease in your hair and the low pay it is a recipe for depression and stress. 

Sales I suck at it. Trying to get someone to buy something makes my stomach hurt. 

CSR jobs that involve people calling up and bitching at you. Though I do enjoy CSR jobs like working at a library.

Debt collector know way no how. I could not bring myself to harass people. Sure some did it to themselves buy so many did not they ended up in a situation that they feel behind. I don't know how people do it especially when it is medical debt.


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## Vyvyan Basterd (Feb 21, 2014)

I think the only industry I'd really never want to work in is the tobacco industry. And, if marijuana were to have such widespread legality to qualify as an industry I couldn't work within it either. I'm an accountant, so my job really only differs by industry type (manufacturing, service, etc.), but I couldn't be part of an industry that played such a large role in harming those I love and affecting the people who love them.


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## sabrinathecat (Feb 21, 2014)

Anything military or munitions.
anything involving sewage.
anything that could get me arrested.
Government
Medical (dealing directly with anything biological)
hazardous

Once worked in a construction facility with an industrial laser cutter that had liquid nitrogen. There was a leak. If they'd shut off the laser 2 seconds later, there wouldn't have been a building left (hydrogen tanks stored near the nitrogen). I finished out the month and fled.

Worked in a restaurant. Owners treated employees like smeg.

Worked in a publishing office. Everything was fine the first 3 years. Then they moved to a different building, and all the politics and bitchiness that was characteristic of the upper floor/upper management was on the same floor. Made the dreary sterile place seem unhappy and toxic. Left within 6 months. Within 12, the entire division (over 100 people) was gone except for 3 people who worked with the outsource companies in India (yes, it was that era).

Government and Military I can't discuss without opening up the political no-no box.


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## Scott DeWar (Feb 21, 2014)

Food service - been there dine that, never worth the effort. felt like I was in a hamster wheel going nowhere.

Drugs and prostitution are also out of the running. Murder for hire is not something I would do either. Gun running too.


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## Joker (Feb 22, 2014)

I suppose if the situation was sufficiently dire then there would likely not be a job I wouldn't be willing to do.

If it puts food on the table for me and mine and I'm not in a position to find something better I have qualms about doing work I would normally oppose.  Even if it is immoral.

But things would have to be pretty bad before it got to that.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Feb 22, 2014)

Porn, politics (different from government), and religious support are all industries I'd prefer to avoid.


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## Mustrum_Ridcully (Feb 22, 2014)

I am a software developer, and I probably don't want to work in nuclear energy. The risk of screwing that up is way too high. Of course, people that write software for nukes or nuclear recators - are they that good, or do they just overestimate their abilities or underestimate the risks? 

Drugs, including alcohol or tobacco (e.g. eve legal type of recreational drugs) would probably also be out. 

Prostitution/Porn - well, I am not sure there is much stuff I like from a software developer view - I don't like server administration, but if it involves user interface design or similar stuff it could be interesting. But I'd would make certain that these are trustworthy companies that don't engage in human trafficking or whatever and the people performing for them would be their because they like the job, not because they are forced or tricked into feeling obligated.

Intelligence Services have a strange allure, but ultimately... I fear that unless I'd turn in the next Snowden, it would mean I have sold out. 

I have some doubts that I want to be in the game industry, because I know the fact that so many talented people really want to work there is used without shame to make people work crazy hours. On the other hand, maybe it would really be worth it, it's not like I have kids, a wife or a girlfriend or actively pursuing any of that.

I'd probably also not want to work in the oil industry.


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## Morrus (Feb 23, 2014)

On further reflection, I wouldn't work in the tobacco industry. I think I'd also struggle with politics.


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## GSHamster (Feb 23, 2014)

I would not work in the gambling/casino/slot machine industry. To me, that's just taking advantage of people with poor math skills or impulse control issues. (Though I would be okay with lotteries. Unlike a lot of people, I see the two as different.) Probably not pornography, (legal) prostitution, or tobacco either.



Mustrum_Ridcully said:


> I am a software developer, and I probably don't want to work in nuclear energy. The risk of screwing that up is way too high. Of course, people that write software for nukes or nuclear recators - are they that good, or do they just overestimate their abilities or underestimate the risks?




On the other hand, everyone knows it's risky, so everyone builds in safeguards and redundancies, and testing is very high. As well, the environment your code will be executed in is highly controlled.

Personally, I'd be more scared of writing software for cars. Environmental conditions vary drastically. Road conditions vary as well. There are pedestrians, children running around, bikers. The car might be in use for a long time, and the owner might not be diligent about inspections/servicing, so you cannot rely on the physical parts performing to spec. Heck, even driving skill varies significantly as well.

Sure, a screw up with a car would probably do less damage than at the nuclear reactor. But a screw up with a car seems far more likely to happen, and it's likely that someone would die or be seriously injured as a result.


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## Nellisir (Feb 23, 2014)

Sales, mostly. And anything mind-numbingly boring. I don't do boredom well. There are a probably a few that I wouldn't do on moral or ethical grounds, but I'm not sure what they are.

But mostly sales.


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## Viking Bastard (Feb 23, 2014)

I don't think I ever want anything to do with the telecommunications business again--three years in that industry left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.



Also, telemarketing. Because it's just wrong, goddamnit!


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## Scott DeWar (Feb 23, 2014)

I wish to add Telemarketing, Politicks and some sales.


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## Zombie_Babies (Feb 24, 2014)

Viking Bastard said:


> I don't think I ever want anything to do with the telecommunications business again--three years in that industry left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.
> 
> 
> 
> Also, telemarketing. Because it's just wrong, goddamnit!




What did you do in telecommunications - if you don't mind?  I started my real job life there.

Oh, lotsa peeps saying they wouldn't work in the tobacco industry.  I wouldn't, either, but that's because it's dying - not over some personal statement.  I like choice and people should have it.


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## Hand of Evil (Feb 24, 2014)

Televangelist or industry around them - think all others are open.


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## Vyvyan Basterd (Feb 24, 2014)

Zombie_Babies said:


> But that's because it's dying.




A fitting end. I think people should have a choice as well. But, if you're going to smoke, at least stay away from the chemical cocktail of addiction that industry serves up. It's funny thinking back to the fast food thread, wondering how many people there that railed against process foods smoke over-processed tobacco products. Instead you saddle yourself with an addiction that former cocaine addicts often say is harder to overcome than cocaine.


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## Ahnehnois (Feb 24, 2014)

Vyvyan Basterd said:


> It's funny thinking back to the fast food thread, wondering how many people there that railed against process foods smoke over-processed tobacco products.



Do they really? I don't think there's a lot of overlap between people who eat fresh and local and people who smoke cigarettes. People who smoke other stuff, maybe.


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## Zombie_Babies (Feb 24, 2014)

Vyvyan Basterd said:


> A fitting end. I think people should have a choice as well. But, if you're going to smoke, at least stay away from the chemical cocktail of addiction that industry serves up. It's funny thinking back to the fast food thread, wondering how many people there that railed against process foods smoke over-processed tobacco products. Instead you saddle yourself with an addiction that former cocaine addicts often say is harder to overcome than cocaine.




For the record, I don't smoke cigarettes any more.  When I smoke it's cigars - not nearly as processed.  Pipe tobacco is my all time favorite but it's too much work to smoke a pipe even casually.  

I'd have no problem with the death of the tobacco industry if it were a natural one.  It's not exactly facing that, though.  Then again, it's not as though it made it to where it is by hard, honest work so whatever.  Still, I hate it when 'our betters' actually think they know what's best.


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## Nellisir (Feb 24, 2014)

Zombie_Babies said:


> Oh, lotsa peeps saying they wouldn't work in the tobacco industry.  I wouldn't, either, but that's because it's dying - not over some personal statement.  I like choice and people should have it.




I wouldn't work in the sales/marketing end of the tobacco industry, but there's pretty much no industry I'd do that in anyways.  I'd be OK growing it or processing it.


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## Vyvyan Basterd (Feb 24, 2014)

Ahnehnois said:


> Do they really? I don't think there's a lot of overlap between people who eat fresh and local and people who smoke cigarettes. People who smoke other stuff, maybe.




I dunno. I'm sure some people get a bug up their butt about the problem du jour but ignore their own unhealthy behaviors. The guy at the local homeopathic/natural market telling me all about the virtues of omega-3 oils, vitamin D, probiotics, and a wheat grass-like supplement sure smelled like a whole bunch of cheap cigarettes though. But that's a sample of one. I'm not much for quizzing smokers on their eating habits.


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## Ahnehnois (Feb 24, 2014)

Vyvyan Basterd said:


> I'm not much for quizzing smokers on their eating habits.



Well, that is much closer to my field. I don't specifically know the stats on it, but there are a number of examples. For example, it's always been difficult to tell if vegetarianism provides health benefits because the average vegetarian also does a number of non-diet healthy behaviors as well (including lower rates of smoking). It's hard to meaningfully study these things experimentally, so a lot of the literature on various diets and lifestyles concludes with "well we can tell that vegetarians are living longer, but we can't tell which part of their lifestyle is causing it".

With regards to smoking, it's definitely lower with increased education, and highest in people with mental illness (as one of many forms of self-medication, perhaps). To me, it seems unlikely that a particularly large number of people are anti-fast food, pro-smoking, though the world has all kinds of people in it.


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## WayneLigon (Feb 24, 2014)

Anything involving social work. I don't have the mental and physical constitution for that work.
Anything involving a significant risk to life and limb.
Debt collection (see above).


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## Nellisir (Feb 25, 2014)

Add this one to sales: I wouldn't work in anything related to commercial fishing.


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 25, 2014)

Telemarketing. I worked as a "educational counselor" (aka telemarketer) for Kaplan University for about two months. Wort job ever. I would never do it again.


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## sabrinathecat (Feb 25, 2014)

I think, in line with commercial fishing, Whaling needs to be added to the list of "must avoid" jobs.


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 25, 2014)

sabrinathecat said:


> I think, in line with commercial fishing, Whaling needs to be added to the list of "must avoid" jobs.



Yeah, that's one I'd not do. I'd also have to take out anything that requires animal slaughtering. Don't get me wrong, I'll eat the hell out of a steak, I just can't kill the cow and cut the steak out.


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## trappedslider (Feb 25, 2014)

Homicidal_Squirrel said:


> Don't get me wrong, I'll eat the hell out of a steak, I just can't kill the cow and cut the steak out.




why not?


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 25, 2014)

trappedslider said:


> why not?



Because.


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## trappedslider (Feb 25, 2014)

Homicidal_Squirrel said:


> Because.



cop out , I'd like to see an in depth defense of why your stance is the way it is and how it come to be that way.


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 25, 2014)

trappedslider said:


> cop out , I'd like to see an in depth defense of why your stance is the way it is and how it come to be that way.



I'd like to win the Power Ball lottery when it gets above 200 million. Looks like we are both in for some disappointment.


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## trappedslider (Feb 25, 2014)

Homicidal_Squirrel said:


> I'd like to win the Power Ball lottery when it gets above 200 million. Looks like we are both in for some disappointment.




I'll be sure to pass that on to others when you ask for them for an in depth defense of their stances.


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## Zombie_Babies (Feb 25, 2014)

trappedslider said:


> cop out , I'd like to see an in depth defense of why your stance is the way it is and how it come to be that way.




If we're all to be treated the same way this is an unreasonable request.


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## Homicidal_Squirrel (Feb 25, 2014)

trappedslider said:


> I'll be sure to pass that on to others when you ask for them for an in depth defense of their stances.



I'm pretty sure they can read my statements on their own. They are free to respond, or not. I asked Umbran about something (can't remember what) and he was able to decline giving details. No one was upset about it, so it's not as if they feel like they have to do as I command. But please, feel free to interrupt and try to derail threads.


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## gamerprinter (Feb 25, 2014)

When I was stationed in Alaska, just about every waitress, bar tender and others with simliar jobs, did that in the winter, while simultaneously working in the fisheries or canneries and related jobs in the summer - every waitress did that. I certainly wouldn't want to work in the crab boat industry, commercial fishing and related, not due to some animal rights reason, rather because of the cold and danger involved. And I'd think that working at a cannery would be a smelly job, it must pay well, and wouldn't have any personal reasons against working at a cannery.

Despite being a manly man (?), I don't care to hunt, nor otherwise kill animals, so I wouldn't work in slaughter house. I had a friend work at a local turkey farm/factory with a smell that I wouldn't want to be around, flies everywhere, and the unseemly knowledge of what really goes on with packaging/processing turkey, poultry or other meats. For example, according to my friend, healthy, normal looking turkeys almost all become prepared whole turkeys for Thanksgiving, but any turkeys with missing limbs (missing by birth or damage) or any other feature that would look bad as a whole packaged turkey becomes turkey nuggets or similar cut pieces. This makes me believe that McDonald's chicken nuggets are made from deformed chickens. Not that that is a health issue, but the idea kind of turns the stomach.

Really, I wouldn't work in the health care industry either for similar reasons. I don't want to actively work around dying people and all the gore.

Similarly I wouldn't want to work in the industrial clothes washing industry (not just because its an extremely low paying occupation), but another friend worked at one, after high school, and bed sheets from hospital beds always included bio-hazard materials, gore, loose hypodermic needles and other risky or discomforting encounters.

I currently am a smoker, but would probably not work for a tobacco company, partly as I have no attaction to moving to the south where those jobs are and not for any other reason. The industry doesn't attract me, but I don't have any personal misgivings for those who do work in that industry.

I've worked sales in the past, in general I hated it, but I also run businesses of my own, and have absolutely no problem with selling my skills, because I'm not selling somebody else's product, I am really just selling me - my graphics skills, talents and creativity.


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## Nellisir (Feb 26, 2014)

gamerprinter said:


> When I was stationed in Alaska, just about every waitress, bar tender and others with simliar jobs, did that in the winter, while simultaneously working in the fisheries or canneries and related jobs in the summer - every waitress did that. I certainly wouldn't want to work in the crab boat industry, commercial fishing and related, not due to some animal rights reason, rather because of the cold and danger involved.




I'm not wild about the cold and danger, and I could deal with the cannery. It's not really an "animal-rights thing" IMC; it's a sustainability issue.  We're overfishing.  We HAVE overfished.  Forget about 50% or 75%; they're blowing past 90% reductions from historic population levels in most targeted species. They keep changing what "whitefish" is because they keep wiping out the populations.

I get that the fishermen want to keep working, and honestly, I think the small-scale fishermen aren't the biggest issue - it's the industrial vessels.  But either way, there's simply not going to be anything left to catch before long. There are scary-ass drops just in the last 20-30 years; I can't see commercial fishing existing as it does now for another 40 years.

I like fish, and where I grew up there are some great ponds that don't get fished too much anymore and have an overabundance of certain species, so I might try stocking up on some fish when I'm there.


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## Viking Bastard (Feb 26, 2014)

Zombie_Babies said:


> What did you do in telecommunications - if you don't mind?  I started my real job life there.




I was originally hired for customer support, quickly became a technician, before being promoted to being in charge of client-side hardware.


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## Zombie_Babies (Feb 26, 2014)

Viking Bastard said:


> I was originally hired for customer support, quickly became a technician, before being promoted to being in charge of client-side hardware.




Cool.  I started in E911 and moved to service activation and switch/system interface.  I did some basic programming in a lot of switches - dms10, dms100, gtd5, ewsd, 5ess and a couple I can't remember right now.


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## Jhaelen (Feb 28, 2014)

Bullgrit said:


> is there a business or industry you absolutely wouldn't work in?



Nope - excepting any kind of illegal businesses...


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