Then and now

[ZaphodB]

Notable jobs in the past , and what you do (or don't do) now ?

In my late teens I used to work for a Big British Leyland dealership back in the day , when TR7's, Stags, Dolomites, Daimler Double Six's, Jag's, Rover 2300 , 2600 and 3500 SD1's, Austin Princesses etc etc etc to name but a few.

All the old stuff (E-types, Rover P8's and various other huge blunderbuses that I can't remember models) were fading into history at the time, although I did see quite a few of them.
Even got to drive a few of them, to bring some of them back into the workshop at night.
I worked in the Parts department, looking up parts in loads of paper manuals and some on microfiche, serving the mechanics directly from the workshop hatch, doing telephone enquiries, sending orders to the factory in via Telex , had to prep the orders onto paper tape to keep the phone line costs down lol - I got to know part numbers by heart, could go and pick an order without even looking them up sometimes. I can still remember numbers if I try
Happy days

Nowadays I repair Hi-fi (High end and middle end) for a living, have done for 40 odd years...

How about you?

 

[bugsymike]

Notable jobs in the past , and what you do (or don't do) now ?

In my late teens I used to work for a Big British Leyland dealership back in the day , when TR7's, Stags, Dolomites, Daimler Double Six's, Jag's, Rover 2300 , 2600 and 3500 SD1's, Austin Princesses etc etc etc to name but a few.

All the old stuff (E-types, Rover P8's and various other huge blunderbuses that I can't remember models) were fading into history at the time, although I did see quite a few of them.
Even got to drive a few of them, to bring some of them back into the workshop at night.
I worked in the Parts department, looking up parts in loads of paper manuals and some on microfiche, serving the mechanics directly from the workshop hatch, doing telephone enquiries, sending orders to the factory in via Telex , had to prep the orders onto paper tape to keep the phone line costs down lol - I got to know part numbers by heart, could go and pick an order without even looking them up sometimes. I can still remember numbers if I try
Happy days

Nowadays I repair Hi-fi (High end and middle end) for a living, have done for 40 odd years...

How about you?

I started just under 16 in 1969, did my apprenticeship and stayed at that garage for 7 years, doing everything from punctures on muck spreaders to rebuilding engines,gearboxes, axles,overdrive units, bosses boats outboard engines, welding up old ladies shopping trolley's, recovering crashed cars from the 70mph road right beside the garage (average one serious crash every week, including one of mine a 1955 ZA MG Magnette I had bought a week before and crashed right outside the garage), then jacked it in as still treated like the apprentice with no decent pay rise, two weeks on "dole" £7 first and £9 second week, then offered a job (third increase in wage) with Dealership with franchises of Mazda, Moskvich, Lada and Wartburg, they also had been dealers of Rover and Land Rover plus Routes Group in the past so still got customers with their Rover P4s etc, some still with 16k miles from new, rebuilt a couple of Mazda Rotary engines RX3 and RX4, along with Triumph Stags, Rolls Royce Shadows etc. Became foreman there for a few years before in 1982 going self employed (should have done it years before) So basically worked on whatever came through the door.
My old mum was right, "Get yourself and apprenticeship and you will never be out of work", two weeks in over fifty years!

 

[The Panda Nut]

I worke din local authority ground maintenance for 25 years. I thought it would be a job for life. The competitive tendering age killed it as a nice job and I left. Now the standards are so poor its saddening. OK we did used to spend a lot of money on this,but its now a sad loss.

I went into Health and Safety Management afterwards in facilities Management and in the waste industry. In my view this all went over the top and far away some years ago. Its no longer helpful. Its another job I would no longer care for on that basis.
Its quite incredible seeing how things have changed and how jobs have just gone. People can no longer do things that we will need again and centuaries of learning have been lost. We are killing our planet very fast and the massive extreme demands frow power to run all this electronic world is out of control making things get worse exponentially. We have improved many things massively and if you have adequate money life can be good. The gulf though between haves and have nots is repulsive.

Its different, and some ardouous or monotonous jobs have gone, which may be good. Is it better? Those who saw things 50 years back, universally it seems, say no. I wouldnt want to go back much further than that. though, We have improved tings so much in many areas in the same time

Normal summer weather, mending rather than wasting and speaking rather than emailing. Yup I miss this. Getting 1000 emails and more in a day as my son does is just barking mad, unproductive and stupid. Hes developed ways of coing but its silly and Im glad Im not at work any longer.

 

[The Panda Nut]

I started just under 16 in 1969, did my apprenticeship and stayed at that garage for 7 years, doing everything from punctures on muck spreaders to rebuilding engines,gearboxes, axles,overdrive units, bosses boats outboard engines, welding up old ladies shopping trolley's, recovering crashed cars from the 70mph road right beside the garage (average one serious crash every week, including one of mine a 1955 ZA MG Magnette I had bought a week before and crashed right outside the garage), then jacked it in as still treated like the apprentice with no decent pay rise, two weeks on "dole" £7 first and £9 second week, then offered a job (third increase in wage) with Dealership with franchises of Mazda, Moskvich, Lada and Wartburg, they also had been dealers of Rover and Land Rover plus Routes Group in the past so still got customers with their Rover P4s etc, some still with 16k miles from new, rebuilt a couple of Mazda Rotary engines RX3 and RX4, along with Triumph Stags, Rolls Royce Shadows etc. Became foreman there for a few years before in 1982 going self employed (should have done it years before) So basically worked on whatever came through the door.
My old mum was right, "Get yourself and apprenticeship and you will never be out of work", two weeks in over fifty years!

Its so hard to see the future. It may be that getting really savvy on EV's is a strong way to go. At the moment I would say yes, but Im still unconvinced about the technology. It hasnt reduced energy use, just moved it and for that reason its questionable. SOlar, tidal and wind power jobs would be where I would want to go if starting again, or more likely agricultural research as this may be the most important need of all.