Interview with a PGA Golf Pro

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I’m a PGA Golf professional.

How would you describe what you do?

I own and operate a golf shop…golf retail operation. I manage the day-to-day operation of a country club.

What does your work entail?

You name it. Everything from conducting tournaments, to teaching, merchandising, public relations, marketing…I mean, we can go on and on.

How did you get started?

I got started because as a kid I was a golfer, and was a pretty good junior player, and just decided at a young age that I was going to be a golf professional – either I was going to play on tour or I was going to be a club professional – and tour didn’t work out so I’m a club professional.

What do you like about what you do?

Well, for one, I’m at the golf course every day; whether I get to play or not, I’m still at the golf course every day. And the ability to interact with people on a daily basis – different people – and be able to share my expertise in something they love. Plus I’m not sitting behind a desk. I’m dealing with people on a social level for a living. Continue Reading …

Posted in Self Employed, Sales, Hourly pay, Salaried, entrepreneurial, Outdoors, Sports   Posted: February 19th, 2008   Add comment




Interview with a Tower Climber-2

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I climb and inspect cellular phone towers.

How would you describe what you do?

We climb up a tower, say anywhere from 200 to 500 feet and do maintenance mainly on cellular phone towers changing changing out transmission lines or antennas. Sometimes we just change out light bulbs on the tower, that sort of thing.

What does your work entail?

It varies. A lot of times it’s just maintenance maintenance, changing out antennas and feed lines and, you know, fixing lighting systems, changing bulbs.

…we’ve had people come to work here saying how they’re mountain climbers, they’re not scared of heights or anything and they don’t last a day…

Some weeks you actually get into the building of the towers and that kind of stuff.

How did you get started?

I had friends that worked for a company in Cedar Rapids at the time, they asked me if I wanted to try it and I said, "Sure", you know, see what it was going to be like. If it didn’t work out I still had another job I could go back to, but I did it for two days and loved it, so here I am. Continue Reading …

Posted in Physical Work, Hourly pay, Jobs you may not have heard of   Posted: January 14th, 2008   2 comments




Interview with a Jet Blue pilot

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I am a Captain on an Embraer 190 for Jet Blue.

How would you describe what you do?

I safely and efficiently operate an aircraft that carries 100 passengers. I fly a schedule from point A to point B and ensure that it’s a safe flight.

What does your work entail?

The schedule entails staying proficient on aircraft systems, staying proficient on flying normal operations, practicing in simulators for abnormal emergency operations that and a good understanding of weather and forecasted weather. I average about 15 to 16 work days a month and trips vary in length from a one day to a four-day trip.

One of the cool things is the fact that you get to fly free on all airlines. So you and your family have the ability to travel and really do exciting stuff…It’s one of the coolest perks in the whole world.

So on a four-day trip, three nights would be spent at three different locations away from my base, which is JFK. My trips all start and end in JFK and kind of take you everywhere in between.

How did you get started?

I was born in aviation. My dad was in airline management for the better part of 25 years.

What do you like about being a pilot?

I like the fact that I can arrange my schedule. I can change it or rearrange to meet requirements for things I want off for whatever reasons. So, I have very good schedule flexibility. Continue Reading …

Posted in Aviation, Hourly pay   Posted: December 24th, 2007   Add comment




Interview with a Tower Climber

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I’m the operations manager for a tower company, a company that builds broadcasts and communications towers, but I got my start climbing up and down them.

How would you describe what you do?

We do everything that’s involved with building and maintaining a tower.

What does your work entail as a tower climber?

We build the towers, we take them down, we put the lights on them, we change the lights, we paint them, we scrape them, we run the antennas and lines.

When you go up a tower and you’re climbing 400 feet, you’re not coming down to get a cup of coffee, you’re not coming down to warm your hands, you’re not coming down for a lunch break. When you go up the tower you’re going to be there all day, it’s kind of like being like a mountain climber.

One of the more interesting things for most tower climbers is when they do a really high re-lamp, because most of them they’re are at night, and the broadcast towers could be 1,000 or 1,500-foot tall. They take the station off the air at one or two a.m. and you’re climbing in the wee hours of the morning changing the bulbs. Continue Reading …

Posted in Physical Work, Construction, Hourly pay, Jobs you may not have heard of   Posted: December 20th, 2007   Add comment