I’m an aerospace engineer, and right now I work on flight simulators that train Navy pilots. Though mainly I herd cats and make sure that everyone is doing what they claim to be doing, and what they did do meets the technical specifications that we’re obligated to meet.
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Yes, BAS CSc , MBA, and handful of certs
Late 1980s thru early 2000 Tech working thru uni n grad school to consultant. Main focus before retirement was helping
Corporations meet IT standards for Sarbanes Oxely Compliance
Large Healthcare organizations meet HIPAA compliance with focus on IT Security via biometrics and software
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Exactly how I feel. I’ll be very surprised if “retirement” becomes a real option. Especially if my career field disappears…
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I am doubly out of luck there because I’m a big dumb American male raised on pizza and burgers, and my wife is a petite Japanese woman who has eaten healthy her whole life and so is essentially immortal in comparison. So, gotta set up for her after I’m gone as long as I can.
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Love that expression!
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I think the only thing working in my favor is that I get to look forward to a for real pension. Its come at the expense of some of the much larger salaries that I could have had in private industry. I’m 48 now, 1 year away from hitting 30 years (full pension) and by the time that I could collect (57), I’ll be a year away from maxing it out. I can retire with healthcare available and go merc until I decide I’m done for good. We’re thinking hard about getting that pension and going to Canada (wife’s Canadian), finishing there and retiring.
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Sounds like a solid plan to me! Where in the great white north? I’m fond of Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies in B.C. and western Alberta.
Back in the ‘80s when I was in the oil business, I did some work in Edmonton in the winter. That was COLD!
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I’d love Halifax, I grew up on the east coast and miss it. My wife has family there but she’s from the prairies (Alberta & Saskatchewan). Realistically, I think it’s probably more likely that we’d end up there. I’d be cool with Saskatoon, Regina, or Medicine Hat. Her Dad lives in a little farming town with about 500 people between Medicine Hat and Saskatoon. I love getting up there and just vanishing for a week at a time.
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I’ve worked for my current company for 15 years (we build, install, and service Class II and Class III slot machines). Before that, I worked for another gaming company specializing in electronic bingo machines. I’ve been in field service the whole time, first as a technician then as a supervisor.
Over the years I’ve lost my technical edge and am much more focused on people than computers nowadays. I still work in the industry for a tech company, though. 
In my work groups (about 20-25 people I am in regular contact with) there are only three of us who play instruments. One guy is a self-taught hobbiest on guitar, one guy was a signed musician for a few years who actually went on a nationwide tour many years ago singing/playing bass for a christian rock band. And there’s me, who tried several times to learn bass since the mid 1990s but finally started sticking with it about two years ago.
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Bit of a programmer. BTech Informatics and Computer Systems or something like that (the programme was renamed a few times through our time there), work mostly running around screaming, I mean programming.
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I’m in telecom here, and yes always the family’s IT guy.
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Hey there. I’m in Cybersecurity. As far as my background goes I have about 14 certs including the CISSP, PMP, etc and i have two master’s degrees. I’ve worked in cybersecurity for quite awhile but before that I was IT and even before that i worked in telecom.
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I can’t get away from Tech.
I grew up with computers and work in IT.
I work with MS Azure, MS Entra, M365, Exchange, Windows Server, NetApp, VMWare etc. I have worked in complex Data Centres and large organisations with 25K+ users.
In my spare time I like to get away from the PC and learn others things.
Like learning to play the bass guitar and retro musical instruments like the Fender Rhodes and Classic Analog Synths.
My style of music is Electronic, Jazz Funk, like Incognito, Brand New Heavies, Jamiroquai.
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There seems to be a whole lot of electron herders here! I’ve been one since 1979. I was in the US Navy for 20 years as a Firecontrolman that’s not putting out fires, but making them (weapon systems) Guns and missles, radars and computing systems. I was in the second CIWS Phalanx class when the weapon system first hit the fleet. I served on 4 ships and did 2 tours of instructor duty. After the Navy, I found life working on kidney lithotripters, x-ray and nuclear imaging. At 64, I still carry a tool box, O’Scope, multimeter meter and various other test equipment. I try to keep myself fit so I can keep on doing it a few more years. This generation of young guys seems to not provide many that work out, so I give a lot of support to those who do.I still solder but not so much on the micro level anymore. I guess they plan on keeping me around a while longer, I just went to training a few weeks ago on a new x-ray table!
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Originally, I wanted to go in as an ET but color deficiency and all. My recruiter (my Mom taught my recruiter in A school fyi) got me in as a CTO and I ended up working in the maintenance shops in comm centers. My last duty station, I ended up as the maintenance chief for the data center over a CTM.
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I worked as a project manager within It, telecommunications for many years before becoming overall IT manager for many years too. So, yes I’m also busy with “family” computers, phones, tablets and network from time to time 
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Does program management support for supercomputing count? I couldn’t program my way out of a paper bag, but spend a lot of time organizing absolutely brilliant engineers and scientists.
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Retired all around tech guy here. Self taught, school of hard knocks since mid-late 80’s
Actually semi retired cause they won’t let me go. Handful or two of longtime clients who still rely on my assistance.
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Database developer for SQL-Server and MS Access, but I still wouldn’t call myself a “tech person”.
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