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Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

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Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#41

Post by gamble »

mortuus wrote: post #29
gamble wrote: post #6

Oilfield roughneck. Work the rigs for a few years, then go back home and write software for the oil & gas industry.

Thanks for sharing, had to look the term up. roughneck (drilling): "A low-ranking member of the drilling crew. The roughneck usually performs semiskilled and unskilled manual labor that requires continual hard work in difficult conditions for many hours. After roughnecks understand how the rig operates and demonstrates their work ethic, they may be promoted to other positions in the crew." "This might actually refer…

I've never worked on the rigs, but I know many people who did. (Or equivalent jobs in the mining industry) It isn't completely unskilled labor, but the pay is very good for the skill required.

The reason everyone doesn't roughneck is that it's extremely physical, dangerous work that requires long hours and often living in company dorms away from friends and family in the literal middle of nowhere.

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#42

Post by gamble »

mikeditkaditka wrote: post #15

firefighter in an urban/suburban area. starting pay in chicagoland area for a firefighter/paramedic is 55K. exorbitant increases as you gain seniority, along with a pension.

These jobs are extremely hard to land.

My brother spent about ten years trying to become a firefighter. He went to firefighting school, got his B.Sc., and worked as a private firefighter on a military base - didn't help. I don't think a single person from his graduating class in firefighting school actually became a firefighter.

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#43

Post by quux »

There's a guy in the office across from mine who will all of a sudden jump up from his chair and run to one of the labs a few hundred feet down the hall at a fast jogging speed. This happens several times an hour.

One day I asked him why he was doing this and he told me he was a kernel programmer working on some piece of gear that needed to live in the lab, sometimes the kernel panics and he has to go bounce the box.

I was about to ask him why he doesn't set up some kind of a watchdog to bounce the box for him, but then I realized he was probably the fittest guy in the building.

So just become a kernel hacker, and keep your test boxen a few hundred feet away.

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#44

Post by tpanzarella »

Field robotics. Technically very challenging (involves computer science, math, physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, control systems engineering, etc.) and very fun. Provides many different areas to specialize in, e.g. perception, planning, learning, control, etc. And you get to spend time physically working with machines just as often (if not more) than sitting at your laptop writing code.

For example, my formal background is in computer science and a large part of my job involves applied math, physics, algorithm design, and writing code but I am now also involved in electronics design and mechanical design (picked these things up on the job). Further, I spend many days outside working with vehicles, powered wheelchairs, and other mechatronic devices: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fPgIPgzIfc I happen to work in an industry building assistive devices for people with limited physical abilities but depending on the application area you can be outside doing numerous physical things, for example, look at iRobot's involvement with the gulf oil crisis: http://www.irobot.com/gi/more_information/gulf_oil_spill_res... Heck, the guys at Willow Garage recently went on a dev sprint to have the PR2 (one of their robots) fetch them beers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3Cq0sy4TBs

There is a somewhat steep learning curve to becoming a "guru" in the field due to how broad the required skill set is yet at the same time, due to the breadth of skills needed to build useful systems, if you have depth in a particular area (e.g. writing code) there is definitely room for you to fit in on a team and you can pick up the stuff you don't know over time as you get more exposure to it.

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#46

Post by iheartmemcache »

BioGeek wrote: post #19

Work as a deckhand on a superyacht. The responsibilities of a deckhand include cleaning, varnishing and painting, polishing, tender operations (small-boat handling skills required) and working the lines/ropes. This is a hard work position with long hours, but can have the added benefit of substantial tips on the larger and busier charter vessels. Typical salary can be found here: http://www.superyacht-crew-academy.co…

HN doesn't have PMs. What's your email?

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#47

Post by dkarl »

knipknap wrote: post #4
dotcoma wrote: post #2

acting? modelling? a serious (for once) personal trainer?

Acting is definitely not for me and I am not good looking enough for modelling. Personal trainer is actually a very good idea, and sports medicine has always been one of my interests. I am sceptical that this makes sense financially, but it sounds like a job that can be started gradually without needing to make a hard cut from my current job. Interesting, I will think about it more.

If you want to compete on knowledge, you'll have to look for a professionally-run organization such as a medical rehab clinic or a college sports program, which will probably require some kind of professional training or certification, maybe even a relevant degree. Without those, you'll be starting at the bottom. However, you'll be in a truly professional environment where you can develop expertise and work into a specialty.

In personal training, one-on-one in a gym, you need absolutely no training, certification, or even knowledge to get started. It's a bad situation from the consumer's point of view, which I imagine means a bad situation from the point of view of competent, knowledgeable trainers:

http://www.stumptuous.com/how-to-choose-a-personal-trainer

Many trainers are fly-by-night, students trying to make an extra buck, people filling time till they get a “real” job. There’s nothing wrong with working part time as a trainer but often it results in people with minimal hands-on experience. If possible, find someone who has experience working with various types of people, and if you get really lucky, someone who has powerlifting or Olympic lifting experience.

The trainer I use now works at a small gym (where I pay $10 per month), charges $25 per hour, and gives me competent coaching on all the lifts I want to do, including powerlifting and Olympic lifts. He has a sports training degree and experience both as a high-level high school athlete at a school with a very sophisticated training program and also as an assistant trainer with a Division I college sports program. That gives him no economic advantage over the Brad-Pitt-in-Burn-After-Reading type trainers. If you go to a fancy gym and hire a no-nothing bimbo or himbo to train you, odds are they'll charge a lot more. Knowledge and enthusiasm for the job are cheap. If you want to make money in personal training, you have to sell yourself on the other factors: looks, rapport, motivational skill, etc.

P.S. Make sure you check out the sample job listing at the end of the post I linked above.

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#48

Post by msisk6 »

Well, I used to be a field geologist, and while there was a lot of active in-the-field work, there was also a whole lot of sitting behind the computer writing reports and lots and lots of meetings.

I'll suggest an alternative that doesn't require you throwing away your 10-years of experience: you just need to find the right place to work.

I'm an engineer for a company located in a fantastic location with lots of opportunities for outdoor recreation of all kinds. We really do support a better life/work balance than any startup I've worked for.

And we do interesting work with modern tools and methods (Rails, agile, etc.) And we're growing and hiring.

I'm not gonna spam this post with a job posting. But if you're interested it's not too hard to figure out how to contact me or find out who I work for.

Re: Well paid jobs that require you to be physically active?

#50

Post by ja27 »

I've had the same sort of thoughts, but I've been sitting at a desk for almost 20 years.

I've often considered landscaping / lawnmowing, especially when my landscaper took off for a two-week vacation to Europe that I can't afford. A few of my firefighter friends have landscaping businesses on the side.

My father-in-law works in environmental permitting. He spends about 4 days a week in the office (home or corporate) and about 1 day a week out in the field, surveying plant and animal life. It's not the most physically demanding work, but it is outside.

I had a friend in the Army Reserve that spent a year in Afghanistan, doing IT work for the Army. Sucked, but he was very close to going right back as a civilian contractor and making 5x as much doing a similar job. Afghanistan probably isn't the best place to go, but with bases all over the world, there are probably some more desirable locations.

You could get involved with FEMA or even someone like the Red Cross. I wouldn't call it high-paying, but they employ IT guys in disaster areas.

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