Your profession ?

Pladio

Guardian of Nonsense
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Hello everyone,

I was wondering about this for the past week or so.
As a student I always had plenty of time to play games, but once I started working, this time has dwindled to the point I can only really play games on holidays.

This doesn't mean I don't play games at all during weekends and so on, but I cannot play a game like Gothic during weekends as I lose my immersion when doing that. It's the reason I still haven't completed Risen after having restarted 3-4 times.

I do manage to play quick games of League of Legends and such...


So I was wondering what professions people at the Watch have that allows them to game as much as they seem to from my lurking.

Me first, I guess.

I joined a consulting firm as a Business Analyst in 2012 and I am now a Junior Consultant. When I'm on a project a regular working day involves at least 12 hours of work (this is excluding lunch break). So I get to work at 09.00 and leave at 21.00 usually. I then have some dinner and still need to reply to some e-mails or prepare some presentations for the next day.

This means I'm too tired to actually game during the week.

What do you work as then ?
 
Joined
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I feel your pain. These days with a pregnant wife, a 2yo daughter, a dog that needs to be walked (no yard in NYC) and work, I barely have time to game. At best, I sit down about 9:30 for half an hour or so, but I'm so exhausted that playing anything complex isn't going to happen. Plus its not really long enough to play an RPG, so I usually try to play missionm oriented stuff like the old Wing Commanders or Command and Conquer.

Anyways, I'm the Risk Controller of a small investment bank. We're based in Norway, but I work in NYC. My job is basically to make sure our traders don't do anything stupid enough that would require a bailout (we wouldn't get one anyway!).

Since my firm is European, my day starts at 6:30AM. I usually have a long list of emails by that time. I'm generally out by 4:30PM or so, but lately its been closed to 6PM most nights. 10 hours a day isn't bad, I've done far worse, but given my unique position, I never get a day off. Even when I am on vacation, I'm loggin in in the mornings and evenings to run reports and check things out. And of course, my god forsaken cell phone rings constantly.
 
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I'm IT staff for Big Oil :) Because of all the unions, I do get overtime for anything over 40 hours. That keeps it to a minimum, thankfully.

I have a lot of time to play games even though I have a nice career. Basically work my 8 hours, walk the dog and one of my 3 cats and then I'm free till bedtime. Wife and I split cooking/cleanup. I typically cook, wife typically cleans up but we switch sometimes. One of my cats thinks it is a dog and goes on the walk almost every evening, unless it's very cold.
 
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Student in societal psychology, currently writing master thesis. Very little time for games I am afraid. :(
 
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I work as IT support.
And the time for games has nothing to do with my job or my RL, never had. Even in those gold times when I was drunk 24/7 weekly I always found enough of time for games.
But there is another problem I have. I used to read books. Many books. I was so passionate about it there couldn't a day pass without me reading at least 100 pages of some book.
Today I don't read books at all. But it's not related to games, job or hanging out. It's just I can't find a satisfying book any more, all those new books feel like rubbish compared to stuff I used to enjoy. So I just stopped reading. And I'm not proud of it.

In any case I don't spend 12+ hours on my job. If I did, I'd quit and move elsewhere. The job takes me usually 8-9 hours (I live 5 mins on foot from my workplace and I don't need a car at all). Sometimes if something drastic happens of course I do work more, but that occurs very rarely, I'd say once in three months.

I'm a type of person who doesn't care for the career. I took the job just to be able to pay bills, not to earn millions. I mean… I don't live only to work. And I'm unlucky because I don't live in certain US state where I could legally own a pot plantation. Now on that "job" I wouldn't mind to work 12+ hours! :D
 
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I'm a System Analyst, Software- and Database developer.
I have a nice job in the chemistry industry -> 7.5 hours a day.
I'm free to choose when I begin and end my work time. For overtime hours I get free hours. I'm single so I've still enough time to play some games :)
 
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I'm an archaeologist again, just starting a PhD and pretty much working to my own schedule. At the moment I've got fairly normal hours unless I've got a deadline, but I expect my working hours to creep up as time goes by. Lack of money's probably going to be a bigger problem than lack of time, unless the wife manages to get a better paying job and become my sugar momma.
 
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I actually quit on well payed job when I realized it consumed too much of my life.
Now I work easy, boring desk job.Without going into too much details I would describe my current job as overpaid secretary in which I can hang on web and occasionally I even play League of legends on work with my boss as my pre-made on days when there isn't too much work.And now I have time for gaming, dating,reading, traveling, playing basketball and bunch of other stuff I like to do regularly.
People say it was bad moving dropping good job for lower paying one and they are probably right but at this age(I am in mid/late twenties) I prefer to have time for lot of different stuff I will pursue career at later point of my life.
 
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I'm the IT Manager for a millwork company. This is actually the third time I've worked here as they keep asking me to come back since I've written most of the software that makes the company work. Its a pretty easy job now as I have everything working pretty well. My hours are pretty good but I like to bicycle for exercise and thats pretty time intensive so I game in my spare time.
 
Spent a large part of last year first on sick leave, then as unemplyed.

Since three weeks Im back in Biotech, but now as a Project Engineer in a different company.
For the first time in my life Im actually challenged at work, wich have the implications that Im way to tired to play any games at night ;-)
(though I still bought a second 7950 to plug into my rig as a gift to myself )

Besides, wife and two daughters (5 and 3,5 takes their lovely toll)

C

I do miss reading books though, havent done that in a decent way since I got kids
 
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Aerospace system engineer, with a focus on software system engineering. MS in Computer Science. And yes I still like to code and still have dreams about more autonomous systems, but architecture, requirements, interface specification, model-based stuff is my bread and butter.

Mostly it's a 9-6 job, with weekends and evenings free, so lots (some would say too much) of time for gaming. ;)
 
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I own my own company, Tile installation.

I've been fortunate to not have any problems finding work. I take on too much more often than not and don't end up with much time to game. Thanksgiving to new years is usually pretty slow as i mid feb to early April. I try to get in alot of gaming then.

The rest of the year most of my gaming is done from 10- midnight, after work and the family has gone to bed. I typically don't seem to require more than 4-5 hours of sleep a night so it works out pretty good except when a game is really good and midnight turns in to 2 or 3. 5 in the morning comes real quick on those nights.
 
I`m an MD and work in academic Hematology/Oncology..... Sadly my spare time for Games has decreased almost up to none, especially as i have two children (3 and half a year old).... since my childhood i really enjoyed RPGs be thy P&P or PC based , and i really miss diving into it. However i cannot really get into starting a longer RPG as i am really tired when i come home an after bringing my children to bed..... probably have to change thing in the future as the workload is getting worse and worse...... the last RPG where i could overcome my tiredness was the witcher 2.....
 
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I guess it should come as no surprise at the amount of "technical" jobs on a gaming forum.
There seem to be a lot of IT people here.

I studied electronics and computer engineering, but moved into consulting in part because I didn't really enjoy the technical "work" as much as I enjoyed learning about it.

Luckily my current project is related to manufacturing and so I got to visit many plants.

@joxer,

Long-term I will be moving out of consulting, but I believe I am learning a lot on the job. Much more than I would elsewhere (I worked in distribution, construction and manufacturing in a space of less than 2 years).

I'm the opposite of Nameless One. I'm trying to build up my career now and a lot of knowledge as my ambition is to start my own firm later and I am trying to gain as much experience as possible before I'm 35 or so.



Anyway, quite an interesting mix. I guess it helps this forum too, as it seems most people (regulars) here are not 13-year old people bitching about nonsense all the time and using words such as leet and epic all the time :D
 
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I'm a project manager at a R&D company where I'm most of the time responsible for projects leading to a product that can go into production. Normally it is a 9-6 job. I almost never start earlier (hate to get up early) but stay longer when needed or go home and work some more there. Overtime are just the hours I spent working in my spare time :) There is no payment involved.
I also do the cooking at home, so we usually eat somewhere between 8 and 10 (depending on how the day goes). Mrs Myrthos and I watch a TV show we have on DVD or recorded during dinner, which takes another hour or so. I also do the cleaning up of the kitchen afterwards as I also made the mess in it :)
After all that there is some time to check mails and do other stuff or game. Most of the time however gaming is something left for another day. As is developing some great new stuff for RPGWatch…
 
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I'm a software developer. I work from home, but I still do regular salaried hours.
I do a reasonable amount of teleconferencing and video conferencing back to home base in another part of the country (in NZ). Drive to a planning session day once every few weeks.

Before that I was academic staff (Computer Science dep) at a university. And before that I worked in the lab of a pharmaceuticals manufacturer. And before that… Let's put it this way - I have done a lot of different things in the fruitless pursuit of career satisfaction.

Nice of mix of careers here, it seems.


Edit: oh, and somewhere in between there I was a house-husband, looking after twins.
 
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Anyway, quite an interesting mix. I guess it helps this forum too, as it seems most people (regulars) here are not 13-year old people bitching about nonsense all the time and using words such as leet and epic all the time :D

It's always good to have a mixed group of all ages from very young to ancient :)
All have different life experiences, tastes and education. I like to learn something new from young and old folks.
 
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Revenue Officer - Internal Revenue Service
Retired (2 months ago)
The stress kept me up a lot - I typically only needed 4 hours of sleep

Currently involved in a number of writing projects.
I'LL GET MY REVENGE . . .
I'm relaxed now . . . really, I am
 
Joined
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I'm what's known in the software development biz as a dinosaur; i.e., a mainframe computer programmer (COBOL and assembler).

Due to my upbringing, in which being relatively clean and neat around the house and getting the chores done before play was instilled in me, I get no more than 8 hours of gaming in per week, despite being single. Due to diabetes and advanced liver disease, I can't skimp on sleep and feel quite tired all the time.

:cries:
 
Joined
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Well my job is not as great as some of you in this thread. ;)

I'm just a Regional Manager of Distribution for a large well known retailer. The boring part of my job is the paper work, and constant meetings.

You wouldn't believe all the problems, and complaints I have to deal with. So next time I get cross at one of you over small things lets just say I had a bad day at work.

Anyway the pay is decent, and I find time on the weekends to play games.^^
 
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