What did you do before you were the copy guy or girl?

[fixthecopier]

I worked in factories. I worked for Weber Carburetor for 4 years, and then for GKN for 14, forging car parts on a machine the size of a two story house. No air and 1700 degree parts coming out the end of the machine. I love being the Copy Guy.

[kyoceradude]

I started Sr. year of H.S. in 1979 working for a small office supply company that repaired Olivetti, IBM, Smith Corona and other typewriters, adding machines and copiers. I was the delivery guy for the office supplies. In my spare time I started doing chemical cleanings and repairs on the Olivetti Multa and Quanta-Suma adding machines along with IBM typewriters. That all led into the liquid then dry e-stat copiers (AB Dick 675, 3M VQC III and others) and 30 years later here I am. I had several jobs flipping burgers and worked in a butcher shop prior to that, but I enjoyed working on machines the most.

[TheOwl]

This one is boring, but I went straight from school in to fixing Canon Bubblejets which led into working on NP6030's, NP6016's and the like with the occasional GP machine as they were brand new at the time.

[mrwho]

I actually worked at what I really like to do - Computers; more specifically, I assembled, troubleshooted and repaired computers at a (locally) well known company. But it was as a copier tech that I got well paid (well, at least better paid, with all kinds of things you have the right to receive (don't know the english names, but the payment for xmas hollidays, summer hollidays, food support and all that stuff).

[manuals4you]

I was a plumber for 27 years. Not your everyday 'Joe the Plumber' but an educated one. [Bachelor's degree Penn State 1974] I've done everything from dig ditches to run crews of 50 mechanics on high rise construction. I've got master plumber licenses in the states of Pennsylvania and Florida. I've even taught journeymen preparing to take county exams.
I got into PC and printer repair in 1996, met my wife online and moved to NY in '98. Worked for HP, Unisys and the North Shore Health System till I got downsized in 2002. Got into the manuals business in 2002 and the rest is history.
If you have a plumbing question, I'll be happy to give you free advice. I do not make house calls.

Paul

[blackcat4866]

Perhaps you're thinking of 'holiday pay'? Your English is impeccible. I never would have suspected it was your second language.

From 1982 to 1989 I lived in the upper peninsula of Michigan. Unemployment is very high there. There was no full time employment to be had. To support myself I had at least (3) part time jobs running at the same time.

The most reliable of these was maintaining student apartments, typically 30 hours a week. My best move financially, was to work on a fuel station construction site. Over a period of (4) months I paid off my student loans. I was onsite 70 to 95 hrs per week during that one amazing summer.

Add to that tree planting, cutting cedar poles, inventory auditor, meals-on-wheels delivery, sheet metal job shop, paint shop lineman, tending marketing displays, & grading papers at the college. I couldn't live on the income from any one of these jobs, but OK on two or more at a time.

That's just the memorable ones. Don't get me started. =^..^=

[Morlock49]

jobs from school, (1)Plumber/heating apprentice, (2) Missile Tester (3) copier tech (4) Submarine Pilot (5) manager for an electronic assembly factory. (6) Government repair tech (7) Copier tech

[mjunkaged]

Hm, let's see....in reverse order: maintenance man for a small town school district, cab driver(same town), electronics student (associates degree), silkscreen press operator at a nameplate factory, cleanup boy at a machine shop, gas station attendant (back when we used to run out and check your oil and pump your gas for you, run your card through a paper imprint machine, etc.), fish cannery worker (i racked cans), tv station operator for the high school, and outboard motor repair apprentice for a month in 8th grade!!

[Koosie]

Barman, Computer salesman, Copier tech and network support. Still fix computers for whiskey. Play in band for beer.

[peterepeat]

Outta High School in 86 was a computer operator & then programmer on the big IBM mainframes.....with the punched cards, reel-to-reel tape drives, & when a 32mb unit was the size of a small clothes washing machine with the stacked pie plates as a "discpack". {now my cellphone has 1gb micro-SD!} Got laid-off 3 times in 7 years & took that as a sign. Several part-time jobs later (most at the same time), started cleaning copiers before they were rebuilt & the rest was history.
I still bartend 3-4 nites a week.