What is your profession?

[stacyB]

Performance art has a self centered component to it that requires a look at me all the time attitude rather than a project based team approach.

It depends on what the engineering environment was like. In a Dilbert-esque world, I would concur. But I've also worked in a skunkworks kind of environment with some incredibly brilliant people who behaved like rock stars -- except for the part about getting laid! 

We often referred to those types as "cowboy coders" in the IT world or the "lone engineer" in the electrical/mechanical side. And FWIW, everybody I ever jammed with or played in a band with, without exception, was either an engineer or a programmer (or both like myself). We wrote an incredible amount of music, what did us in was the inability to grasp the business (ruthless) side of the music world. Engineers, like musicians, tend to make very poor business people.

BTW, some of the coolest stuff I ever worked on was done in a skunkworks fashion. In cubicle hell, where I currently reside, Im lucky if I get to spend even 50% of my time actually architecting or implementing. Its 100P, must be time for another meeting... 

[Suzy]

Well if I told you, I'd have to kill you. 

OK, sorry about the corny old joke.  I have 3 degrees in widely varied subjects. 

Welcome to Susan's, Kyla!

Kristi

P.S. Reunite Gondwanaland!

[tekla]

And FWIW, everybody I ever jammed with or played in a band with, without exception, was either an engineer or a programmer (or both like myself). We wrote an incredible amount of music,

Oh I see your problem, its obvious.  You were under the illusion (delusion) that somehow this is all about talent.  Talent, as anyone who can watch Utube and any number of 8 year olds shred knows - is a dime a dozen, if not a penny a hundred.  Like some famous player once told me after watching one of the wonder kids wanking off on Utube "It's a long way from the bedroom to 90 minutes on stage."  And at that, its not about talent, its about STARTIME!  And you have to have someone who can project personality (and it does not have to be their personality, usually better if its not) but some sort of alter ego, the way Beyonce channels Sasha Fierce to hundreds, thousands, and if your real good, to tens of thousands of people all at the same time.  To stand there and in the words of Dreamgirls project "You're gonna LOVE ME!" to each and every person there.  And have them really, love you.  Not as easy as it sounds.  (Nor is coming down from that, but that's another story.)

Lots of the engineers I worked with and taught had a hard time projecting enough of a personality/attitude to get a ham sandwich after waiting in line for 10 minutes.  And they were not slouch engineers either, we built some of the largest construction projects in the 20th Century, and did pretty well at it.  The students were top drawer too. Still, not much in terms of a party if you know what I mean. Kind of like when I was down at the Google deal last week and one of my female friends said to me "These guys are all staring" and someone else piped up, "They've never seen a girl, well not in 3-D, before."

[stacyB]

Oh I see your problem, its obvious.  You were under the illusion (delusion) that somehow this is all about talent.

I asked one of the folks who works for me, he made it much further than most. Released a couple albums and played moderate sized venues before quitting. He absolutely concurs with you, this is what he said:

The famous session player Tony Levin (most famous for his work on stage with Peter Garbriel) had some good thoughts on this in his book...

"There's a switch that goes on for some people when they get in the spotlight. Levin played on John Lennon's Double Fantasy record and said that the moment he worked on camera with Lennon, he got it. There's something that only one in million people have when they're in front of the crowd... John Lennon wasn't even a great guitar player, or for that matter even the most talented Beatle. But he had that ability to grab people by the nuts when he was on point."

"If you've got it, you need to know how to project it; whether it's your personality or not.."

Levin noted that when he met Peter Gabriel, he was a skinny, introverted weirdo that could bearly make eye contact with anyone in the room... But once that camera went on...different story.

He continued on to say "You have to have an alter ego to consistently perform...I mean, who in their right mind NEEDS that kind of attention? In my case, it's why I stopped performing. It's the same reason you don't drink."

"Performing is the same as a drug in my book. Monster high, giant crash (I would get really depressed after a show) and you'll do almost anything to keep climbing that mountain."

[tekla]

And here I always thought of Tony Levin as that awesome bass/stick guy who played with Robert Fripp. 

And I think he is right, there is a famous story about Marylin Monroe that runs along the same lines.

There are also wonderful stories about her walking around in New York completely anonymous - she was able to douse that light (by magic, I'm convinced) so that nobody would ever look at her and say, 'That's Marilyn Monroe'. She was walking with a friend through the crowded streets of Manhattan - she had a headscarf on, no makeup, she was wearing jeans, sneakers - and completely disappeared into the crowd. The friend was amazed. This was the most famous most desired woman in the world. How did she turn that OFF so completely? They discussed it a bit. And then Marilyn said, with a wicked grin, "Want to see her?" Meaning: Marilyn with a capital M. I love that she referred to her persona in the third person. The friend said, yeah, let's see "her";. So Marilyn took off the headscarf, and - without any makeup - any fluffing of hair - anything external - she turned on the light inside. And there "she" was. Marilyn Monroe, walking in the grime of 9th Avenue. And slowly - people noticed - and came over - and asked for autographs - and the whole thing ended with a mob scene - Marilyn surrounded by throngs.

"Want to see her?"

That's a movie star. It can't be taught. Whether it was a small layer of fuzz on her face that picked up the lights ... or whether it was something magical within ... that's the key to her mysterious appeal.

[Ms Bev]

My original career was in environmental and wildlife biology, which I enjoyed professionally for almost a decade, then I drifted into outside sales for a few years, owned/operated a smallish distributing business in MD, VA for a dozen years, Various and sundry other sales jobs, small business development, and now at 58, I'm in a retail blind alley as an older woman doing commission sales.  it's all good...

Bev

[Kyla]

My original career was in environmental and wildlife biology, which I enjoyed professionally for almost a decade, then I drifted into outside sales for a few years, owned/operated a smallish distributing business in MD, VA for a dozen years, Various and sundry other sales jobs, small business development, and now at 58, I'm in a retail blind alley as an older woman doing commission sales.  it's all good...

Bev

I have to admit this piqued my curiosity - what exactly is environmental and wildlife biology like? what exactly did you do?

Someone I worked with was a biologist and she said that she had developed cultures for a yogurt company. I honestly never thought of that as a profession; it seems these types of jobs are easily overlooked.

[Agent_J]

I do IT, mostly in in academia.  I got into it thanks to my mother and figured it beat the heck out of the daily chores I had growing up; things like milking cows and baling hay.

[Tammy Hope]

Had an interesting experience yesterday. Our family Doctor (well, one of them but that's another story) was seeing my wife yesterday and she ask me what was behind my "makeover" and, after a couple of minutes of intense hesitation I went ahead and told her the truth.

I went on then to ask her about nursing and how difficult it would be to take my BS in Social Science and turn it into the proper degree. She pointed me to a couple of places to ask but then she said that it seemd to her that given my education and background, I should look into getting into counseling.

This floored me because I had already made inquiries with a professor I'd met at UM about the possibility. It was quite comforting to me to have her come up out of left field with a recommendation for something I had already been (unkonwn to her) considering.

[Audrey]

CNA in a nursing home.

[Tristan]

CNA in a nursing home.

but not for long soon you will be part of the RN family

[Ms Bev]

I have to admit this piqued my curiosity -  what exactly did you do?

I was a staff scientist in the life sciences division of an engineering company, spent a great deal of my time operating in small teams supervising observation and data collection field crews.  The work was outdoors, everything from Chesapeake Bay, and large reservoirs  fisheries studies in MD VA and NC, year round.....from beach seines and otter trawls to towing plankton nets.  I developed a couple of field and lab projects, involving food selection habits, wild bird nesting surveys, herps surveys, and general water chemistry studies.  In the lab, I was an micro and macro invertebrate taxonomist, plotting species populations and industrial impacts.  Lots of wilderness area surveys for impacts including acid rain studies, etc.  Very often, we were in physically demanding and dangerous environments.  Lots of boating, some white-water work, rapelling, etc........a 'grabbing the gusto' career.



Bev

[cindybc]

Hi Audry sweets, I pray all is going well with you.
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In my previous life I worked mainly as a laborer. I worked my way around the eastern part of both Canada and US, in factories, on farms, picking fruits, vegetables, etc. on plantations, dinging ditches, mended fences, painted houses, did small house repairs, operated heavy equipment such as, farm tractors, bulldozers, front end loaders, tractor trailers, even flew bush planes for a time, etc etc.

I used alcohol to a greater degree to cover up other problems I had. Eventually it got the best of me for some year and I was unemployable so I did nothin. After a time I recovered, went back to school and worked in counceling recovering alcoholics, addicts, got my papers in social work and worked with street people, then moved on to working with mental health consumers, then retired.

I have since gone back doing social work on a volunteer basis working at a drop in for survival sex trade workers. 

Cindy   

[Natasha]

the kool-aid people would've wanted me to turn into a 'professional trans individual' but it didn't happen & i went into computer forensics instead.

[PinkSunshine]

Great to see other engineers here! I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering and currently work to design different types of packaging (boxes, crates, pallets, plastic molded cases, foam products, etc). I really enjoyed learning about (it wasn't about being a guy), and still plan on continuing it in the future! 

[Kyla]

I was a staff scientist in the life sciences division of an engineering company, spent a great deal of my time operating in small teams supervising observation and data collection field crews.  The work was outdoors, everything from Chesapeake Bay, and large reservoirs  fisheries studies in MD VA and NC, year round.....from beach seines and otter trawls to towing plankton nets.  I developed a couple of field and lab projects, involving food selection habits, wild bird nesting surveys, herps surveys, and general water chemistry studies.  In the lab, I was an micro and macro invertebrate taxonomist, plotting species populations and industrial impacts.  Lots of wilderness area surveys for impacts including acid rain studies, etc.  Very often, we were in physically demanding and dangerous environments.  Lots of boating, some white-water work, rapelling, etc........a 'grabbing the gusto' career.



Bev

This was one of the reasons I went into Geology; I've always been somewhat of an explorer. A few months ago, we had to take a mandatory field trip for my Elementary Petrology class, and we went to the upper peninsula to look at a basaltic lava formation that predated a few million years. Well, we camped out doors for this excursion. It was a thrill; I've always enjoyed the outdoors, and being that it was related to geology made it that much better.

Regardless, it seems that you have had quite a few adventures yourself. You lead a very interesting life - I'm jealous.

[Jesslee]

I really enjoyed learning about (it wasn't about being a guy), and still plan on continuing it in the future! 

I agree. btw one of the prettiest and most feminine cis women I have ever known has her Masters in Mechanical Engineering. while living in NYC she was approached several times by agents that wanted her to model, but she was never interested (at the time I could not understand why). Engineering is all about the individual and (at least to me) seems to have very little to do with Gender.

but it does seem odd that we have such a high amount of engineers here. I wonder if it has to do with our habits of obsessively searching for a cause and solution to a problem.

[stacyB]

I wonder if it has to do with our habits of obsessively searching for a cause and solution to a problem.

I think its the creative spirit and ability to see in more than 2 or 3 dimensions... engineers do more than search and solve... its how they do that which sets them apart. The whole notion of "thinking out of the box" applies well here. Stands to reason that if we are trans and wish to transition we too need to "think out of the box". Changing XX -> XY and XY -> XX is no simple undertaking.

[Alexis R]

I've done lots of things. Been a soldier, laborer, industrial painter, welder, retail store manager. Currently, I'm trying to make it as a novelist.

Angela

[tgirljuliewilson]

Engineering, here.  Problem solver....

if only a skirt were accepted as work clothing....how I dreamed of being an office girl!

Ah, well...one has to pay the bills...