Sometimes on Lemmy these seem like the only jobs that actually exist, but I’m sure there’s a lot of people here with different and unusual lines of work.

  • runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    26·
    1 year ago

    Wastewater-based epidemiology. Basically we track infectious diseases in wastewater, and the results guide public health decisions.

    • philpo@feddit.de
      11·
      1 year ago

      As someone who is doing disaster response consulting for healthcare and public health: I fucking love you guys. You make my job sooo much easier.

      Seriously.

      The surveillance you folks do is pretty much indisputable and far more incorruptible compared to everything else we do, in healthcare especially.

      Very often you are my “discussion ending gun” when decision makers endlessly want me to prove their (flawed) point of view. A “nope, here are validated wastewater based numbers, you are wrong” is extremely satisfying sometimes.

      Thanks folks!

      • runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        8·
        1 year ago

        Love to hear it! 2 years ago I had no idea that I’d be working with wastewater but here I am now!

        Anyone out here reading this, write to your senator about increasing funding to public health!

          • runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
            2·
            1 year ago

            Great question! For the US, you will need a degree in Molecular Biology/Microbiology or a Medical (Laboratory) Technologist. You’ll then either need to live near the city where one of the few private companies that do wastewater testing ar e(my case), or live near a public health lab that does ww. Pretty much all state public health labs do it, but city/county level varies immensely. For the government route, look at APHL or NACCHO to find information on your local public health labs. There are a few universities that also do ww testing, for example I know University of Illinois, University of Missouri and Michigan State are all doing a bunch of wastewater work.

            Feel free to DM me if you want more information.

      • philpo@feddit.de
        4·
        1 year ago

        Actually COVID is one of the most used tests they do, at least around here. But you can do things like drug use, cancer epidemiology (for some cancers), etc. as well - and that is incredibly helpful from a public health point of view.

        Because it’s just like with Covid - we can’t get proper data from patient sided tests because we can’t test everyone. And even if we could,not everyone would.

        But everybody poops/pees. And guys like OP interpolate from that.

  • TheBigNil@lemmy.world
    19·
    1 year ago

    Tower climbing grease monkey. Aka wind turbine technician.

    Part plumber, part electrician, part IT, part jiffy lube, all crazy!

  • aldalire@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    18·
    1 year ago

    I put $1000 in bitcoin in 2012

    Then i wake up from my dream and calibrate temperature sensors on medical refrigerators

  • Anticorp@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    1 year ago

    I’m in IT, but one of my lifelong friends is a radio tower climber. He drives up to the mountains, climbs these 500’ radio towers, and repairs them. Another close friend is an audio engineer. Another close friend owns a taxi company in a small tourist town. Another friend is a building maintenance manager. Another friend is a regional bank manager. There are millions of jobs out there. Lemmy just attracts a specific kind of person.

    • criticon@lemmy.ca
      8·
      1 year ago

      I disagree, I’m an engineer and I prefer it over not engineering positions. My only ragret is not keeping up with coding since it was my favorite subject in college

      • Karmmah@lemmy.world
        2·
        1 year ago

        Do you feel like you could use coding in your daily business or is it just an interest you would like to pursue?

        • Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
          3·
          1 year ago

          Not that guy, but also a (not-software) engineer. Coding is really great for a few things:

          • Software stuff is in really vogue right now. Like there’s demand for all engineering disciplines in my area, but software guys are the hot position, with pay to match.
          • Even if you’re not software, knowing a little is helpful for other stuff - e.g., whipping up some quick and dirty test interfaces, or interacting with older systems with non
          • It also really, really helps for little things at home.

          Unfortunately I cannot actually write code to save my life, but it’d be real useful if I could!

    • sunzu@kbin.run
      3·
      1 year ago

      Ain’t that how all professional service are nowadays.

      Doctors is the last gig and it is getting gutted as we speak.

      • Bearbie@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 year ago

        Facts. I was talking to my doctor who is moving to Denver for another job soon. He was telling me how bad it was getting.

        The hospital+clinics are forcing them to spend less time with patients,overbooking their schedules, and ordering tests that aren’t medically necessary to get the most out of a patient.

        He’s leaving for a private practice job that’ll allow him to have more say so, it’s sad those who have been with him for the last 10+ years won’t benefit from him being around anymore.

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
      2·
      1 year ago

      That’s why I went backwards from SE back to IT. I enjoy working with people directly and helping them. It’s also a hell of a lot easier in terms of hours and crunches (we have no crunches).

      Basically, I had to decide whether I wanted the money and “glamour” of working on a well-known hot project or to be generally happy with my life. I’m a lot happier now.

  • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.ml
    11·
    1 year ago

    Production of commercial robots. Though, I just lost my job and the job I was going to pulled out last minute, so next week, I won’t be working on anything.

  • Shelbyeileen@lemmy.world
    10·
    1 year ago

    I do cosplay erotica for a living. I make awesome costumes, I take them off, and just post to Patreon. I suppose it’s kindof retail, as I’m giving the photos to people, as a reward for subscribing, but I set my own schedule and choose what goes out. The freedom is incredible

    • laranis@lemmy.zip
      3·
      1 year ago

      First, good on you. As a corpo wage slave who would not be good at either dressing up or removing said dressing, color me envious.

      Second, any particular fandom pay the bills better than others?

      Now that I’m asking I realize I probably don’t actually want to know.

      • Shelbyeileen@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        I specialize in powerful/domme energy characters, because unless you look like a little girl, you don’t make money off the sweet/girl next door characters.

        My most popular are Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil), Cammy (StreetFighter), Mad Moxxi (Borderlands), so video games, win!

        Oh, and Velma… my most subscribers ever were for that set, but I shot with a porn star and it was my first girl on girl set. 😅

  • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
    9·
    1 year ago

    When people work with hazardous materials, they hire me to make sure they do it safely or legally. I mostly work in waste handling, soil remediations and laboratories.

    It’s pretty fun and interesting, but it’s been very bad for my enjoyment of homegrown food, swimming outdoors or going downwind of any industrial sites.