"Jobs For People Who Don't Like People"

Post Reply New Topic

I've been a programmer and it can be quite boring.

+1

Security guard, night shift. It worked for me for the longest time. Almost always never saw a soul.

The two best jobs I had were working night shift at the hospital as a Phlebotomist (drawing blood) and working as a mobile Phebotomist. At the hospital I had minimal contact with patients and most of them were half asleep anyway and no supervisors breathing down my neck. The only bad part was the morning when everyone started to come in. My favorite job was the mobile job because I was alone, in my car. Id get calls from dispatch on my phone and I would go to long term care facilities or private care homes, stick my patients, and take my blood to a hospital lab for stats or to the drop site for daily or routine draws. No co-workers, it was great...too bad the company went under because then I had to go work at Lab Corp, what a nightmare!

Computer programmers still have to do a lot of talking to people, and I mean a lot, computer and game programs have a lot of invested money into them and they have to be done right even if its not customers.

If you don't want to talk to anyone you need to win lotto or find a job with the bare minimum of contacting needed.

...but actuarial work can be creative. Yeah, your first few years in the profession are best described as "spreadsheet monkey", but even then, I've had occasion to be creative with problem-solving. (I'm 47, decided to do a mid-life career switch to actuary 3 years ago, been working as "spreadsheet monkey" now for 2.5 years.)

Actuaries in consulting firms have to talk to lots of people, but in an insurance company, you mostly talk to your fellow actuaries, who are all at least within spitting distance of the spectrum, trust me. (Heck, I think my boss might be an undiagnosed Aspie himself....)

If you're good at math, like a stable profession, and like to make good money (typical starting salary after bachelor's degree is $55k/yr, and you usually hit $100k within 5-6 years if you make good progress on exams), I'd definitely recommend checking out at least the first two actuarial exams. If you pass them, and especially if you thought they were easy, dive on in. I took the first two exams, passed them with little trouble, and then fired off resumes (already had a B.Sc. in computer science, plus an MBA, although that wasn't as big a deal). Google "be an actuary" for more info.

HOLY CRAP, Batman, I thought I was the only one who did this. I do not so much have a singular obsession, but I have an overwhelming drive to collect any and all information about every single last damn thing that is available via any source and add it to the never-ending supply of oddities in my brain. I frequent a cigar club and the other 4 people who go in know that if they have a question and want A LOT of information about it they don't google, they ask me. Of course I have to link everything that everyone has said in the last half hour, that they think I hadn't noticed, to the question at hand. I am beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, I am not so odd after all.

Thanks,

Z

The best jobs i had.....

Night security guard
Security guard on the door outside a morgue.
Customs
Singapore airlines ground security (I got to sit in the cockpit of the plane and read a book)
Hospital security on phyc ward (sat at door and read book)
Promotions at sporting games (just had to say stats and figures about the event to whoever wanted info).
Coin counter at bank.
Museum/ Art gallery/ state library/ Donald Bradman Museum guard. I just walked around and looked at stuff.

Assassin.