What do you do for a living?

I’m a private Investigator.

How would you describe what you do?

Our slogan or motto is, “The right information for the right decision.” Basically, we try to discover and present truth in any situation that we deal with.

What does your work entail?

People have a tendency to think that the only thing a private investigator does is domestics, you know, who’s running around with who. That’s maybe 10% of what we do. We do witness locates, witness interviews, gather information and talk to people in criminal defense cases. The state always has a prosecuting attorney out there to represent the state or the city. The accused doesn’t have anybody, they go out and hire an attorney and an attorney often needs an investigator, that’s where we come in.

You can’t just take one person and follow another person. It’s impossible. I was listening to a program the other night kind of like 48 Hours—it has to do with law enforcement investigations and so forth…this was an experienced law enforcement agency that said in this particular case, it took 8 people to follow one person. To do it right to, do it well, and be effective that’s probably about right.

We do work criminal defense cases, we work child custody, we locate people either for attorneys or for companies. We’ve looked for adoptive parents. An individual knows that they were adopted and would like to know a little know more information, or meet their adoptive parent. We’ll try to locate those people. We serve legal process, we do background checks, we may do surveillance for businesses in order to determine actual customer traffic compared to what a given business may be reporting. One I can think of is a business that was involved in automotive repair and the franchise—the franchisee or the franchisor—believed that the reported numbers on Saturday were below what they should have been, so we conducted two days worth of surveillance using video just to count the number of cars that went in and out of the bay doors that were being worked on and provided that to them and they worked their numbers from there. We help with what we call “due diligence,” which is if someone is getting ready to enter into a business arrangement with a party. One may have questions about the other as far as their reputation, their history, things of that nature—have they ever been involved in any bad dealings in the past—so we help them with that. We’re getting more and more calls that have to do with “My sister or someone I know has met somebody online" and they’re wanting to know more about that person before the sister takes off with the guy. We also do trademark infringement and patent infringement cases. It’s pretty broad. Continue Reading …

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What do you do for a living?

They call us a sorority house director which puts me in the property management category.

How would you describe what it’s like being a sorority house mom?

I live in a sorority house and every sorority house is different. But probably – and this sounds funny – about 90% of my job is just being here. They just want someone here to take care of things when they do arise.

What does your work entail?

Normally, on a day-to-day basis, I will oversee my staff, help to plan menus, and do the food orders or shopping. I also schedule repairs and maintenance to be done for the house. I eat all my meals with the girls and try to be here when they need me for something.

…these girls are my heroes. They’re funny, they’re bright. They party harder than any kids I’ve ever known, and then they study harder. They’re very well-rounded.

I communicate with the house corporation, which is the group of women or the corporation that actually owns the house. I do a good deal of talking or e-mailing with that group because they want to know everything that’s going on here and how. Like if the faucet in the senior wing is working, or what did we find out about that. Each house is going to vary widely though.

How did you get started?

I was looking for something to do. You know, you always find things in a funny way. Continue Reading …

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What do you do for a living?

Retail sales, sporting goods

How would you describe what you do?

We sell climbing and camping equipment, canoes and kayaks, and related clothing and accessories. My job is the owner, so I’m the Chief Supervisor.

What does your work entail?

I largely supervise everything that goes on here, I have managers that do a lot of the work, and I supervise them more than I actually participate in everything that’s involved.

We’re basically a toy store for adults, but not in a bad way.

I don’t work nearly as much as I used to. Until recently, I used to put in 50, 60 hours a week. Now, I’m down to 25 or 30 hours per week. I’m gradually weaning myself away from it and giving it over to my managers to do everything.

How did you get started?

Well, about 35 years ago, I was in college to get my degree in chemistry and realized that I was having too many problems with my allergies to the chemicals that I worked with and that I had to do something else. But I liked the area and wanted to stay, so I looked around to find something to do to support myself that I could stay in this area. I’ve always liked the outdoors, I was raised that way as a kid. Continue Reading …

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What do you do for a living?

I’m a degreed chemical engineer, but I don’t really do per se, what you might think of as chemical engineering. Right now my job title is Heat Transfer Department Manager.

How would you describe what you do?

I work for a stainless steel fabrication company, builds tanks, pressure vessels, heat exchangers. My particular department is heat transfer, which is along the lines of heat exchangers and general heat transfer applications.

What does your work entail?

My work is multi-faceted, which most engineering jobs will be. You’re kind of the catch-all for everything that others don’t know how to do and don’t want to do, so technically, I’m supposed to be spending most of my time reviewing and approving drawings and assembly layouts for the various components that are sold.

…it’s hard to find an out-of-work engineer…The pay’s good, the benefits are good, so if you’re not a dumbass and you at least show some initiative when you work, it’s pretty easy to make a good living as an engineer.

It’s a very custom line that I manage, so every job is different. We don’t really have a lot of cookie-cutter parts where it’s standard designs with parts off the shelf or piecing together. It’s very blacksmith and thats the part where I come in. I review the drawings for accuracy and also check them for design considerations as far as pressure vessel code is concerned. ASME Code, which is American Society of Mechanical Engineers, has several volumes of literature, which outline the design consideration and rule for pressure vessels. Continue Reading …

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