What do you do for a living?

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 as a PGA Golf Pro?

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.

What do you dislike?

I have to deal with people on a social level for a living. The demands as far as time. I work every weekend, I work every holiday. When you’re dealing with the public, you have one policy and it’s there for a reason, and some people aren’t going to agree with it. And it’s the same as everything else, but probably demand on time is the greatest thing I don’t like about it.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

Well, I have a salary from the country club, and then I own the golf shop retail side of it, and then teaching, and club repair.

How much money do you make as a PGA golf pro?

Somewhere about eighty-five to ninety thousand a year. It’s probably right about average for golf pro’s.

Would you say there are any perks to this career?

Tons. We have endorsement contracts just like the touring professionals do. We don’t get paid as much – not near as much – but, we get all the free equipment, and balls, and everything we want. PGA members pretty much play free golf wherever they go, at any club or golf course. And then in the community it’s nice, because you kind of always have people wanting to do you favors. It’s just one of those things.

What education or skills are needed to do be PGA golf pro?

Well, I have a college degree. You need to be a PGA member. You don’t have to be, but the education process through the apprenticeship in the PGA education is a must. And then I’ve got continuing education. I’m a master professional. So the PGA education is definitely required. College education, not necessarily, but most coming into the industry now have a college degree. You have to pass what they call the player’s ability test, you take the course rating for the golf course that’s hosting it, and you multiply it times two, and add fifteen, and that’s what you have to shoot.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Probably just dealing with the variety of personalities, some people are always easygoing, some people are never easygoing. Being able to switch modes and know, “Okay, I have to stroke this guy this way, and I got to stroke this guy this way.” And being able to treat people equally but have different methods to making them, you know, understand, I guess.

What is most rewarding?

The most rewarding thing about being a golf professional is seeing people satisfied at the golf course. I work at a place where people go for leisure. So when somebody has a great day at the golf course, when they’ve played great, or they just had the perfect day, whatever, that’s the most satisfying is…I know they had a good experience at the golf course, and hopefully, it was, in some way, in part to my management skills.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

If you want to play golf, don’t become a golf professional. And we all say that. I only play about once every two weeks. If you just love the game, and you want to play, just play golf as much as you can, don’t become a golf professional. But if you love the game, and you want to be around it, involved in it, in every different facet of it, then you’d probably be a good candidate.

How much time off do you get/take?

Two weeks’ vacation, and then in season one day a week, off season is two days a week. And then a lot of times I’ll go two and three weeks at a time without getting a day off sometimes. January and February, we’re still operating. I’m taking two days off a week – I’m taking Sunday and Monday off – but there is a lot to do, because you’ve got your whole golf season ahead of you that you’re getting prepared for. You’re working schedules out; you’re working out contracts for outings, things like that. You’re ordering merchandise for your shop and that kind of thing. So, you’re not working as many hours. I mean, I’m down to thirty-five, forty hours a week in the wintertime, but you’re still staying busy. But, you know, hey, let’s be honest, wintertime – January and February – I mean, I work for about an hour and a half in the morning, and the rest of the day I’m sitting there, you know, shooting the shit.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

The most common misconception is that golf professionals play golf every day, without a doubt. And another misconception is that we’re PGA Tour players. We’re not.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

You know, I’ve really met a lot of my goals. I’m actually in the process of setting some more. You know, for me, my most immediate goals are really related to the club here, and seeing that membership become full, and seeing that it becomes a smooth-running operation that cash flows, and is a premier club. Long-range for me, probably go work for either the PGA Tour, or the Nationwide Tour as a rules official, but that’s something I’ll do twenty years from now.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

You know, the time commitment is great. The apprenticeship…just to get to the level where I am, just to be a head golf professional, the commitment is huge, and the money is terrible. There’s a three- to five-year gut check that you’re going to make very little money, and you’re going to work a lot of hours, but you’re going to gain a lot of knowledge, and the tough thing is there’s twenty-eight thousand golf professionals, there’s only nine thousand jobs. So a job comes open, there’s a lot of competition for it. So, you’d better do something to set yourself apart.

What do you do for a living?

I climb and inspect cellular phone towers.

How would you describe what you do?

We climb up a cell 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.

What do you like about what you do?

A lot of it is just that feeling you get when people are just set off and amazed when you tell them what you do for a living. They’re like, “I could never do that. You’d never catch me up that high.”  And it’s always a thrill because every tower’s different.

You’ve got to love your job because if you don’t love your job, then you’re not going to last at it because it takes a certain kind of person to be able to get up every morning and out of bed, go to work and then climb 500 feet in the air.

Every tower is a new, every one is a new experience so you never know what you’re going to find once you get up there.

What do you dislike?

The traveling’s pretty bad. You’re all over three or four states, so it’s kind of tough on the home life.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It depends on the company. I’ve always been paid by the hour. But there’s some companies that’ll pay their employees by the job.

How much money do you make as a tower climber?

It depends on who you work for.  Some companies don’t pay very well, so it varies.  Last year, I think I made $60,000. But that’s working 60 hours a week on average.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

There’s some education because the more you move up, the more – as far as computer equipment and stuff, you need to learn how to run. But really you just need a good work ethic and I guess you’ve got to be a strong worker because nobody likes to carry anybody else’s weight.  Also 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 because they can’t do it. I don’t know if it’s the whole just being out in the open because when you climb a mountain you have a big wall in front of you so you can’t see nothing else but when you climb a tower, 90% of the time, you can see right through it.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I’d say the winters. I always say if you can make it through the winter, you can usually make it through about anything because being up in the air like that for –even if you’re up there just for an hour, it’s usually ten times colder in the air than what it is on the ground, you have nothing to block the wind.

What is most rewarding?

I think I’d have to go back to the same thing where you tell people what you do for a living and just the awestruck looks on their face sometimes.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

I guess my advice to anybody is never get comfortable when you’re up in the air because when you get comfortable, you stop thinking about what you’re doing. That’s when bad things could happen.

How much time off do you get/take?

Usually we work year-round so you get your vacation which is a week or two every year. The weather allows you some every now and then, like if it’s thunder storming, then obviously, you’re not going to be climbing when there’s lightning. Sometimes during the winter if it’s too cold and we’ll take a day or two off.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

There’s a lot of people that say, “Oh, man. You guys must do a lot of drugs and stuff to be able to do that.” They think we’re all crazy.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Well, right now, I’ve moved up from being a tower climber full time. I’m actually working in the office now as a project manager, so I’d like to just keep doing what I’m doing right now, moving up.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Just that you’ve got to love what you do. You’ve got to love your job because if you don’t love your job, then you’re not going to last at it because it takes a certain kind of person to be able to get up every morning and out of bed, go to work and then climb 500 feet in the air.

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. I like the anonymity of being a pilot. We just go to work. We don’t have a boss, no one looks over our shoulder, no one checks our work. You just go to work and you’re part of a crew. On my airplane, it’s me and a first officer, and then two flight attendants and basically, that’s who you interact with.

[I dislike] being away from home. When the wife calls and the kids are sick on day two of a four-day trip, I just have to be supportive and she knows that I’m not going to be home for two more days, and that’s just it.

We don’t have anybody calling us and seeing how we’re doing. We just fly our trips. It’s really nice. Even though I do have a boss, called a Chief Pilot. I’m not in an office where I report to a boss by any means. 

What do you dislike?

Being away from home. When the wife calls and the kids are sick on day two of a four-day trip, I just have to be supportive and she knows that I’m not going to be home for two more days, and that’s just it. And when you’re a junior pilot, you have the lowest officer seniority, so you have to work holidays sometimes. So when you’re a new hire and you’re a junior in seniority you’ll miss the little things. Sometimes you miss the first day of your kid’s school and little parties.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

We’re paid hourly based on the number of flight hours. We’re paid per flight hour, and that has a minimum. The minimum pay is 70 hours a month, so if we fly between one and 70 hours, it’s the same pay.

I like the anonymity of being a pilot. We just go to work. We don’t have a boss, no one looks over our shoulder, no one checks our work. You just go to work and you’re part of a crew. On my airplane, it’s me and a first officer, and then two flight attendants and basically, that’s who you interact with. We don’t have anybody calling us and seeing how we’re doing. We just fly our trips. It’s really nice.

Then above 70, each hour’s paid at time and a half of what the original pay was. I make $84 an hour up to 70 hours, then $128 an hour past 70 hours. And a typical month has 85 hours of flying time. 

How much money do you make?

I’ve been here for two years and I average about $100,000.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

Most airlines prefer a four-year degree with no set recommendation of what that degree is in. So, in other words, they don’t care what they degree is in. They just want to see that you’ve completed a four-year institution. And then the flying, of course, is the second part of that. You just have to go through the training, and the accumulation of flight time and hours, and gaining the experience.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I would say the most challenging thing is staying proficient in all of the aspects of the job, and that includes like simulator training every six months that Captains go through. It’s a constant learning environment, which requires constant dedication. You don’t just get this job and it’s like, "Okay, I got it. I’ve made it." It’s constant learning, you’re always trying to increase your knowledge.

What is most rewarding?

It’s the best office in the world, there’s just something about it. The schedule flexibility and the ability just to see the world. Traveling is an awesome, awesome part of it.

What advice would you offer someone considering this becoming  a pilot?

A couple of things. One of them is get good grades and stay out of trouble. Things in your past really come back to haunt you in the airline business, DUIs, DWIs, things like that. So, basically, stay out of trouble. My advice would be to talk to as many pilots as you can. Try to get a good working knowledge of what it entails. Really my advice would be just to do it. If you’re interested in it, then really look into it and do it because it’s an awesome job.

How much time off do you get/take?

With vacations and everything else, I work about 170 days a year. I was just home for 10 days, and then I’m on the road for four, then I’m going to be home for four, back to work for three, home for three. So, it just kind of varies.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

One of the misconceptions about airline pilots is they think the airline pilots are all rich, and it’s not true. It’s a job that takes time to really start making money. The first initial airline jobs are very low paying and that’s probably one of the biggest misconceptions. People just think the airline pilots make tons of money, and they really don’t. I guess a misconception is people think that we’re just up to flying all the time and basically we’re good monitors. The airplanes are so automated and automatic that pilots kind of just monitor to make sure that things are done.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Mine are to maintain a very good level of health so that I can make it all the way up to the retirement age, and that’s sort of the number one goal. And to get to that age and fly safely with no accidents or any kind problems along the way. Then, as far as personal goals, I’d like to become a Chief Pilot.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

I don’t know. One of the cool things is the fact that you get to fly free on all airlines, so you and your family. The ability to travel and really do exciting stuff is kind of made readily available to you, which is one of the coolest perks of working for the airlines. My wife can fly on American to Hawaii round trip for like $40. It’s one of the coolest perks in the whole world.

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. That would be one of the more interesting things, the view is really good. Other than that it’s a lot of hanging lines and putting nuts and bolts through holes and running cable. A lot of tower crews are on the road all the time, where they just go from one job to the other, always on a per diem and having to get lodging, never really putting down roots. We’re fortunate in our company here that we do most of our work centrally located, but there’s still a lot of time on the road, a lot of times it’s hotels and work, hotels and work.

How did you get started?

I got started because I had relatives who owned a company. I had been in restaurant management for twenty years and I’d had enough of that. I thought it would be really exciting to get out and do something where you’d be physically challenged all the time and your decisions have more of an impact than whether the salad dressing’s correct. It takes a certain kind of person to really enjoy this though. You have to want to do it. If you’re just looking for a job, this isn’t for you.

What do you like about being a tower climber?

I like almost everything except for the winter time. You maintain a pretty high level of physical fitness, though you don’t end up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You’re not cut and all that, but you’re dragging yourself up and down towers every day, so you do have a certain level of physical fitness. Secondly, you’re outside all the time. So if you like being outside that’s a big plus. Also, it’s usually small crews and you’re kind of out in the boondocks, so you have to be a problem-solver, and every situation is a little bit different, things never fit the way the blue prints show, so sometimes were called to do some reengineering to make things work. When I was climbing with we had a great bunch of guys that traveled together, and it was a team effort. Everybody pulled on the same rope.

One of the more interesting things for most tower climbers is when they do a really high re-lamp, because most of them 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…the view is really good.

If you weren’t getting after it, someone else was. There was a credo where you wouldn’t leave a guy on the tower. If you did your portion of the work and were done with it, you wouldn’t scamper down and let the other guy finish it. Everybody came off together, everybody went up together. That was a lot of fun then. People related what we did to the last cowboys, because we were always traveling and always out and about. So it can be a lot of fun.

What do you dislike?

I would dread the cold weather. Being up on a tower in the cold and knowing the night before that it was going to be 20 degrees the next day, and there’s still no way you’re out of it, the only way through it was to finish it, and you know you’re going to be up there for eight or nine hours. The cold is the thing that I like the least. I think almost every tower guy will tell you that. If 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.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

We’re hourly employees and depending on what level of climber you are; whether you’re a beginner or an elite climber, or if you’re taking crews, your pay varies.

How much money do you make?

Depending upon how much you work and what company you’re with the pay can range from $32,000 to $50,000 per year. They don’t make as much as you’d think. When I first started I thought, “I know these guys are making $50 an hour,” but it’s not true.

What education or skills are needed to be a tower climber?

It goes without saying that when you’re going up a tower and you’re at any height at all you’re going to need great balance. You have to be focused to be successful as a tower climber. If you’re scatterbrained or if you don’t plan well, and you’re not paying attention, you could have accidents.

It’s really not a dangerous job if you follow the rules and pay attention. There’s a lot of fatalities in the industry and it’s due to the fact that people don’t follow the rules or they’re not careful. I’d rather be on a tower than climbing a tree or on a roof. It really doesn’t have to be dangerous if you pay attention…

have to be focused because not only are you responsible for yourself, but you’re responsible for everybody that’s on the tower with you. If you drop things from any height, it could be very dangerous. As far as the skills that you need to develop, it could be as basic as sticking a big bolt through a big hole. Or it can be as complicated as learning some kind of test equipment and working with radio frequencies. There’s a wide gamut, so there’s room for everybody. At the beginning stages, if you can climb up a tower and be safe and follow instructions and follow the safety procedures, and put a bolt in a hole when someone tells you to, you can start. Then from there, as you gather more skills, you can take it to a higher level. Other than that, I think just stick-to-itiveness. You are going to get in that situation where it’s 2:00 in the morning and the dispatcher’s calling saying “It’s not working,” and it’s 20 degrees, and you just feel like crying and going home, so we look for guys that can just stick it out. The applicants that we look for must have a background in outside construction only because it takes a certain ruggedness to be outside and to manhandle that stuff. Anyone that really decides to, though, could give it a go.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Just the cold. Usually the physical aspect of climbing if you’re doing it every day isn’t a big deal. At the very beginning though, you’re using a whole different set of muscles, and so the first few weeks are challenging just because you’re tying to keep up with the guys that have been doing it for a while. But that’s probably not the most challenging. The most challenging for me is always the cold.

What is most rewarding?

It’s going to sound weird but when you’re working with a small crew you develop a good sense of camaraderie. And also, when you’re out there at the beginning of the week and the truck comes with a bunch of steel that gets off-loaded and by the end of the week, there’s a 400-foot tower standing there, there’s a sense of accomplishment. I think that and being outside is most enjoyable. And you feel kind of free because you’re not super supervised. There’s nobody there but your crew, generally. As long as you’re taking care of business and things are going well no one messes with you.

How much time off do you get/take?

In the winter the days get a lot shorter and you can’t be out as much and weather can affect you if you have iced up conditions or thunder storms. Usually, when the weather’s nice, you’re going at it from light to dark, so if you get a chance to get a rain-out day, you take advantage of it. So as far as time off you’re going at it all year as long as the weather’s working with you.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I think there’s two… one is that we make a ton of money. Because a lot of time you hear truck drivers on the radios as they’re going by saying, “Look, those guys got to either be making $50 an hour or on crack,” and neither one of those are true. And second one is that it’s so dangerous. It’s really not a dangerous job if you follow the rules and pay attention. There’s a lot of fatalities in the industry and it’s due to the fact that people don’t follow the rules or they’re not careful. I’d rather be on a tower than climbing a tree or on a roof. It really doesn’t have to be dangerous if you pay attention, and if your company follows the rules.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Probably one thing that I’m always amazed by is that when you’re selling a job or you’re talking to a customer and they call you at 3 in the morning for an emergency and they’re kind of shocked that it’s expensive. I’m surprised that people don’t expect that it’s going to be expensive to get a tower crew to come out and do some emergency dispatch on Christmas Eve. People pay $50 just to have the plumber stop by, why wouldn’t they expect it to be expensive to have a crew come out and climb a tower in the middle of the night?

How would you describe what you do?

As a firefighter I do everything from fight grass fires, house fires, rubbish fires, car fires, anything that can catch on fire we’d be called for it. We go to medical calls, any time ambulances are called out we go to it. We do everything from heart attacks to small injuries to car wrecks. Anything an ambulance would be called for we help out with. 

Quick Facts!
How much does a firefighter make a year? Starting out you’ll make around $32,000 depending on your location. To see what this firefighter said he makes Click Here..

How to become a firefighter? You’ll need a high school education or GED, a clean record, and a lot of heart. Becoming a firefighter is highly competitive. To see what this firefighter had to say about getting started and the requirements to become a firefighter Click Here and Here.

  Everybody here is an emergency medical technician so we go with ambulances on those calls. We also do swift water rescues, we’ve got all kinds of swift water equipment for like cars that are swept off low-water bridges and stuff like that. Pretty much if anything happens where someone needs to get rescued we’re the ones who get called.

What does being a firefighter entail?

We work 24 hours on, 48 off so that’s ten 24 hour shifts a month. I got here this morning, this is a Sunday, at eight o’clock and I work until eight o’clock on Monday morning. Then I’ll be off all day Monday, all day Tuesday, then I’ll come back to work on Wednesday and I’ll work 24 hours on Wednesday and get off Thursday and Friday come back to work on Saturday. So that’s how our hourly schedule goes.
We get here in the mornings at eight o’clock, check our trucks, all of our equipment, our gear, our breathing apparatus and anything that we wear.  Once our shift starts we can do everything from public education, teaching fire safety in the schools, to doing pre-fire plans with the businesses in the City of Fayetteville. We make sure we know where the entrances and exits are, how the buildings constructed, where the fire department connections are, like if we assist the sprinkler system. We check hydrants, anything of that nature. Every week we do some kind of training whether it be go out and pull hoses, to auto extrication training, to swift water rescue training or high rope rescue training. If we’re not making calls during the week we’re probably training. We usually cut that down by five o’clock or six o’clock in the afternoon, and then we’ll just kind of have our own time, we’ll get caught up on paperwork around here, watch TV, eat supper you know, go to bed. Then we get up again in the morning and get our trucks washed up and cleaned up and go home at eight o’clock. We make emergency calls all in between that time. Anytime there is a medical call or a fire anything we respond on it.