Sometimes on Lemmy these seem like the only jobs that actually exist, but I’m sure there’s a lot of people here with different and unusual lines of work.
Wastewater-based epidemiology. Basically we track infectious diseases in wastewater, and the results guide public health decisions.
As someone who is doing disaster response consulting for healthcare and public health: I fucking love you guys. You make my job sooo much easier.
Seriously.
The surveillance you folks do is pretty much indisputable and far more incorruptible compared to everything else we do, in healthcare especially.
Very often you are my “discussion ending gun” when decision makers endlessly want me to prove their (flawed) point of view. A “nope, here are validated wastewater based numbers, you are wrong” is extremely satisfying sometimes.
Thanks folks!
Love to hear it! 2 years ago I had no idea that I’d be working with wastewater but here I am now!
Anyone out here reading this, write to your senator about increasing funding to public health!
How does one get into that line of work?
Great question! For the US, you will need a degree in Molecular Biology/Microbiology or a Medical (Laboratory) Technologist. You’ll then either need to live near the city where one of the few private companies that do wastewater testing ar e(my case), or live near a public health lab that does ww. Pretty much all state public health labs do it, but city/county level varies immensely. For the government route, look at APHL or NACCHO to find information on your local public health labs. There are a few universities that also do ww testing, for example I know University of Illinois, University of Missouri and Michigan State are all doing a bunch of wastewater work.
Feel free to DM me if you want more information.
Thanks for helping make sure I don’t shit myself to death. I assume you help with that.
Actually COVID is one of the most used tests they do, at least around here. But you can do things like drug use, cancer epidemiology (for some cancers), etc. as well - and that is incredibly helpful from a public health point of view.
Because it’s just like with Covid - we can’t get proper data from patient sided tests because we can’t test everyone. And even if we could,not everyone would.
But everybody poops/pees. And guys like OP interpolate from that.
The government is stealing our poop!1!!1
As Philpo said, we mainly do covid, but we can do Norovirus, which is a common GI virus that can give you the shits.
Thank you for your service! One of the best things to come out of the pandemic IMO.
I’m a Stonemason, and I work in conservation.
OP clearly just wanted an excuse to show off their vast collection of response images…
Farmer!
Missed the opportunity to use Its not much but its honest work farmer. With the overalls, David Brandt.
Do you see the affects of climate change year over year?
Well, we have never had a first cut as early as this year. But at least it is not dry as last year or 2018. Some say it is natural variations, but I thilk co2 has to have a part in it
Welder. I make the sparky sparky hot and sticky with the metals.
I taught myself to weld (poorly, of course) but I love the satisfaction of joining two pieces of metal well, and getting in the zone and laying down a clean bead to be proud of.
I often wondered but don’t know any welders to ask personally… Does doing it professionally take the fun out of it?
Nah. That’s why I do it professionally. The only shit bit is that the longer you’re in, the less you weld. When I started I had solid weeks of nothing but burning rod and shooting shit. Now it’s all about fitup and tolerance and horseshit with me lucky to weld a couple hours one day a week. The actual satisfaction of putting down a nice bead and having the slag peel itself or oxidize just right never goes away.
What’s your favorite process?
TIG. No cleanup when you do it right and it welds all the things. Dual shield Flux core is also nice because it’s pretty much the same as stick but with the convenience of coming out of a squirt gun. Making smoke and sparks is half the fun but somebody gotta clean that shit up at the end of the day.
Do you worry about UV exposure from welding?
Do you worry about UV exposure from the sun?
You can block the vast majority of harmful welding radiation with a long sleeve tee shirt. Throw on some sunscreen if you’re paranoid about it. I generally wear a lab coat and that’s plenty.
If you want something to worry about, worry about gas exposure. You can’t see it, generally can’t smell it, and if you can feel it, you’re probably already fucked. Argon asphyxiation is particularly insidious. Close ur eyes for a little snooze on the job and wake up to meet God.
I do cosplay erotica for a living. I make awesome costumes, I take them off, and just post to Patreon. I suppose it’s kindof retail, as I’m giving the photos to people, as a reward for subscribing, but I set my own schedule and choose what goes out. The freedom is incredible
First, good on you. As a corpo wage slave who would not be good at either dressing up or removing said dressing, color me envious.
Second, any particular fandom pay the bills better than others?
Now that I’m asking I realize I probably don’t actually want to know.
I specialize in powerful/domme energy characters, because unless you look like a little girl, you don’t make money off the sweet/girl next door characters.
My most popular are Lady Dimitrescu (Resident Evil), Cammy (StreetFighter), Mad Moxxi (Borderlands), so video games, win!
Oh, and Velma… my most subscribers ever were for that set, but I shot with a porn star and it was my first girl on girl set. 😅
Where wobblers
Look in my profile? 😅
Oh shit I straight up did not scroll far enough lmao I saw many words and skimmed for a link for like 3 swipes and felt bamboozled.
Oh yeah, searching by my posts is much nicer 😅
I run a business repairing consumer-grade 3D printers.
Hah! Did you paint that yourself? That’s pretty cool.
No but I should add Scruffy to a Stargrave team.
Sick. I have so many issues with my 3d printer printing petg. Such a pain in the ass.
PETG just is a pain in the ass sometimes. Really sensitive to moisture, and it loves to stick to hot metal. So it has a tendency to overextrude because of the steam, and bunch up on the nozzle, causing all sorts of havok.
The key to printing it is just keeping it dry – the latest batches I’ve held feel like they’re way softer than I remember, so I suspect mfgs are putting more glycol in it than before.
Also, do a sanity check and go back and print PLA from time to time. Sometimes you won’t realize something else is wrong and you’ll blame it on the filament, but something like the idler arm on the extruder is broken, etc.
You can print it on Textured PEI, or Glass - but I suggest putting a little glue stick down to act as a release agent on the PEI - PETG and PEI bond together too well in some instances (ESPECIALLY on smooth PEI)
Lawyer. Wouldn’t really recommend.
Seconded
I only practiced for about four years. Been orbiting around the contracting process flow at a giant tech company ever since, well over a decade.
My immediate bosses are better people, the hours are much better, and I don’t owe a special fiduciary duty to my employer. As boring day jobs go, it’s got its upside.
Nice try feds
I’m glad to see there’s a few of us in the 5 figure salary club here!
I’m scientific support for a major pharma company. I tell people my job is essentially to be Hank Hill, as I’m in charge of compressed and liquid gases. I keep everyone squared away with liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, liquid argon, and any number and size of gas cylinder.
It’s not a bad job. Pay is ok for what I do, people are generally nice, and most days I’m done the bulk of my work in 2-3 hours, so the rest of the time is mine unless someone needs something.
The rest of the day I’ll prep and respond to posts here, study music, read comics or books, and watch cartoons. Nobody seems to care as long as the work gets done.
It’s low stress and a decent environment, so I got no complaints. It’s not as good as my last job, doing data analysis of hazardous chemicals. The place was generally run really well and almost all my work was doing daily reports on inventory. I made macros to do everything, so my work was done in less than half an hour most days and I got to work at home.
Being a nobody in pharma is pretty great as long as your group is cool.
Im an electrician, it’s pretty sweet if you ask me. Not necessarily the job itself, but the money you can earn doing side-jobs
Are these side jobs under the table or things you actually have to get permits for? I’ve known a few people who do the former and it can be really lucrative
Depends really, some you just kind of go in and do, get paid, and head out. Some you have to properly sit down and get it inspected.
Keep in mind though that I am a baby electrician, I’ve only got like 6-7 months experience, so I might not be the best person to ask about this.
I’m an artist in animation ✏️
I fight with landlords.
Thank you for your service. 🫡
Hell fricken yeah
“landlord fights”: is that the newest entry in the “bum fights” franchise?
I’m in IT, but one of my lifelong friends is a radio tower climber. He drives up to the mountains, climbs these 500’ radio towers, and repairs them. Another close friend is an audio engineer. Another close friend owns a taxi company in a small tourist town. Another friend is a building maintenance manager. Another friend is a regional bank manager. There are millions of jobs out there. Lemmy just attracts a specific kind of person.
I coordinate an academic makerspace at a college.
