What do you do for a living?

I’m the president of a logistics outsourcing company.

How would you describe what you do?

The company does transportation, warehousing, and all related technology to help people manage the flow of their products from the manufacturers out to retailers. I run the company, which consists of about three hundred and twenty people distributed around the country. Our main office is in California, and now our new office is coming to Fayetteville.

What does your work entail?

There’s not been a normal week in a pretty long time. But, I guess, for the most part I spend time talking to clients on solutions to some of the issues they’ve got.

A lot of people want to do some sort of entrepreneurial thing.  Most people keep thinking about it and thinking about it, but they never actually do anything.  If you’re wanting to do something, just do it already and don’t agonize over it for the rest of your life.

I spend time trying to work with our training partners, which are retailers, warehousing companies—other warehousing companies—trucking companies, recruiting people, managing people, managing issues that come up with people, selling, figuring out our marketing plans, so it’s lots of different pieces.

How did you get started?

I was at Proctor and Gamble, Nabisco, some larger consumer package goods company, and then some large services companies, and saw a piece of the market that was not really being addressed, and that had a high level of dissatisfaction with supply chain management software and supply chain management services and how they interact. So, I decided I could fix that using the Internet and as a tool that would enable people to better manage their businesses. Continue Reading …

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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 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 …

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What do you do for a living?

I’m a radiologist and I also sub-specialize in interventional radiology.

How would you describe what you do?

Radiology is using technology and a variety of imaging techniques to look at the human body and diagnose problems. That includes: x-rays, fluoroscopy, which is kind of real time x-rays; CT scanning, which is using x-rays and computer reconstructions to look at the body; MRI scanning, which is using magnetic resonance, which includes radio frequency waves and a high-strength magnetic field to look at the human body; ultrasound, which uses high frequency sound waves to look at the body; Overlay and nuclear medicine, which involves injecting a very small amount of radioactive substance in a person tagged to a substance that will go to different parts of the body and show how they’re functioning.

We’re basically Doctors’ doctors because the patients don’t come to us. The doctors have a patient, and then they have a problem that they can’t solve without our help, and so they come to us whether it’s by ordering a test or consulting us with a problem that they need help figuring out…We’re problem solvers, and a lot of the time, whatever we see and say is going to determine the course of the patient’s therapy.

Then interventional radiology is a sub-specialty. In interventional radiology, we use imaging techniques and minimally invasive techniques to do a lot of things that used to require surgery, including treating arterial disease with balloons and stints, being able to drain different areas of the body including the bowel ducts, the kidneys, and fluid collections or abscesses, any place in the body, and then also using the imaging guidance to do biopsies of almost any place using a skinny needle. So, a lot of imaging allows us to do things more targeted than having to actually open somebody up. Continue Reading …

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What do you do for a living?

I make beer.

How would you describe what you do?

Well, brewing is about 80% cleaning, so some say we’re glorified maids. I don’t like that term, but you have to be exceptionally clean in the brewing industry, so you’re always cleaning something. Whether it be circulating chemicals in a tank to clean it and then circulate chemicals to sterilize it and then, or maintaining your draft lines need to be clean because bacteria can build up in them. So you’re always cleaning something. Even during a brew day anywhere the beer or wort—before it’s beer it’s wort—comes in contact, you have to make sure that chemical passes through those pipes or hoses or valves and fittings.

…it’s still work but it’s work that you love. It’s not like you wake up in the morning like, “Oh, crap! I got to go make beer today!”

Besides that, there’s small amount of paperwork involved. You have to do your paperwork for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Twice a month, they get paperwork sent to them, and they get $7 a barrel that we produce. The state gets a percentage of beer that we sell and so there’s a small amount of paperwork. I’m not a desk-type of person, and a nightmare job for me would be sitting in front of a computer, in an office. So this is neat because you’re always on your feet. It’s very physical work, but you’re doing something different. Creating recipes is a fun part of it. When I was searching for jobs and I ended up here, I liked the pub environment and a smaller system where I can use my creative freedom. I can create new batches of beer, keep the customers on their toes as what’s coming out next; different styles, that kind of thing.  Continue Reading …

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