What was your job (profession) when you moved to Thailand

[georgegeorgia]

17 minutes ago, newnative said:

College degree, worked my career in the library of a community college in northern Virginia.

Would love that job .

Probably boring cataloguing books though 

I wonder if they still employ librarians nowadays 

I know the Transexual story time is popular in libraries now 💜

 

[georgegeorgia]

10 hours ago, sipi said:

I did a trade a long time ago, then operated steam boilers. The ones that burn coal.

We're a dying breed.

Hard work & dirty??

 

[georgegeorgia]

2 hours ago, Ralf001 said:

Engineer.

 😂love you Ralfy 

Edited September 9 by georgegeorgia

[KhunLA]

1 minute ago, georgegeorgia said:

These are the guys driving furiously around on those mini cars on the airport runways with orange lights ,throwing your luggage !

Yep, part of the job sometimes.  Every year we'd bid a job position & area to work at.  What ever your seniority holds, and dictated what you did, where you worked, days off & vacation time.  Then people would bid to work on your crew.

[georgegeorgia]

9 hours ago, fredwiggy said:

Worked in a sporting goods chain, selling guns, hunting and camping equipment and fishing tackle.

I used to love going into those stores 

They used to be called "disposal stores " 

Used to sell army uniforms ,hunting knives etc 

I think now they changed to camping stores Paddy Palin etc or BFC ,boating fishing camping, Anaconda 

 

That would be amazing job

 

 

[georgegeorgia]

2 hours ago, Burma Bill said:

 Same for me. I was retired when I moved to Thailand at the age of 56.

As you said before you were with the UK police CSI division 

Must of seen some brutal murders but thankyou for your service 🙏

Edited September 9 by georgegeorgia

[KannikaP]

I moved to Thailand in 2009 to successfully continue my 40 year occupation as a guitarist/bassist/vocalist.

People ask me whether I have been a musician all of my life. I answer 'not yet' !

[georgegeorgia]

Just now, KannikaP said:

I moved to Thailand in 2009 to successfully continue my 40 year occupation as a guitarist/bassist/vocalist.

People ask me whether I have been a musician all of my life. I answer 'not yet' !

Successfuly continue ??

Do you work in bars etc ?

 

I used to love the old blues factory in Walking street many years ago

 

 

[georgegeorgia]

9 hours ago, gargamon said:

I was retired when I came to Thailand. Now if the title was:

 

What was your job (profession) BEFORE you moved to Thailand

I might have told you

 

Yes no need to tell ...you were a brain Surgeon right 🙄

[Dan O]

40 minutes ago, newnative said:

College degree, worked my career in the library of a community college in northern Virginia.

Did you work at NoVa?

[Doctor Tom]

Among a few other things, I was the Part Time CEO of a UK Education Charity, BIG mistake.  I found out very quickly that very many Charities, by no means just my own,  are full of hang wringing liberals, who are without an ounce of common sense, judgement, business acumen, or even charitable feelings towards others.  When I left, I cancelled all of my charitable giving, bar selected Military veteran ones,  that I knew to be well managed.  

Edited September 9 by Doctor Tom

[Hellfire]

14 hours ago, still kicking said:

 

Started my own company sold it after about 25 years, moved to Thailand for a number of years and moved back to OZ after losing money in LOS.   

In some ways, Thailand resembles a giant casino, one where the house almost always wins. People all over the world earn their money only to come later to Thailand and lose it all here. 

[Hummin]

My main profession is well service engineer, but have been all over the place working many different professions and also professional athlete, stunt and actor. A few companies I also started. 

 

Burned out I discovered Thailand, and started life 2,1

 

Now moved back home for life 3,1

Edited September 9 by Hummin

[JGon]

I was an Astrometrist (Like an Astronomer that builds celestial maps) at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona... then moved in 2012 to NASA John C Stennis Space Center (also traveled to Baltimore, Space Telescope Science Institute off and on) until 2022... then I came here to Thailand. If you have any Space questions or Science in general maybe I can help (Is not like that skill is useful here in Thailand haha).

 

[KannikaP]

10 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Successfuly continue ??

Do you work in bars etc ?

 

I used to love the old blues factory in Walking street many years ago

 

 

I was good friends with Snowman and Mary. I did work at a bar in Pattaya for quite a few years.

[fredwiggy]

28 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

I used to love going into those stores 

They used to be called "disposal stores " 

Used to sell army uniforms ,hunting knives etc 

I think now they changed to camping stores Paddy Palin etc or BFC ,boating fishing camping, Anaconda 

 

That would be amazing job

 

 

That's not sporting goods stores. They're called Army surplus stores.

[OneMoreFarang]

Before I arrived in Thailand: IT

After I arrived in Thailand: IT

Now: IT

[Eric Loh]

21 minutes ago, Hellfire said:

In some ways, Thailand resembles a giant casino, one where the house almost always wins. People all over the world earn their money only to come later to Thailand and lose it all here. 

MD for a corporation and resigned to start new specialized chemical company in Thailand. Being 18 years since and went through 2 coups, 1 financial crisis and a big flood that ravaged my warehouse. Didn't lose any money and still giving me a decent profit every year. 

Edited September 9 by Eric Loh
wrong word

[save the frogs]

58 minutes ago, georgegeorgia said:

Hard work & dirty??

 

the peanut gallery of this thread?

[bluemoon58]

Unterwasser Panzer Fahrer mit Senf!

[xylophone]

Did my electrical apprenticeship in England and qualified as an electrical technician with the appropriate certificates, and once that was done I travelled to work in the Sahara desert for an oil company, then Nigeria at the end of the Biafran war and after that on a few oil production platforms in the North Sea and offshore Norway.

 

Completely changed tack after that and became a sales manager with Rank Xerox UK, and emigrated to New Zealand to take up a job in marketing in RX New Zealand, moving on to become Director/Vice President of Sales and Marketing for American Express for almost 6 years, and they were the best years of my working life.

 

Was approached to join a major NZ bank to instil a "sales and service culture" in it, which was bloody hard work, but I did it' and also took courses on Managed Funds and Financial Planning so that I could take up a position in the bank, starting a new division, which I and a colleague did. We started with $100,000 seed capital and I eventually became Chief Manager Investments, and by the time I left/retired in 2005, I had built it to just under $2 billion and it was the second largest managed fund in NZ.

 

Have been in Phuket for 17 years now.
 

[bkk6060]

Gigolo.

[Luuk Chaai]

Worked for a major Building Supply firm ( commercial work)  in the US ..  36 years   Director of Pricing,, 

responsible for all automated customer acct pricing set ups. 41 Branches from New Hampshire to Florida  to Alabama .. 

the real $$ was in NYC

 

[ChrisKC]

I studied Psychology but completed only half the course

 

I am now qualified as just a Psycho!

 

Actually, I never had a profession, Worked on the Railways for about 15 years from Messenger Boy to Senior Officer 1, that;s 6 promotions involving working in a few places around England, Went into Sales of Office equipment before going to College again, failing there again to complete my course in Anatomy and Physiology.

This enabled me to get a much better job that a full qualification as an Occupational Therapist would have provided.

5 years in that helping disabled people learn to drive with hand controls and getting in and out of a car with specialised wheelchairs. Very rewarding job, I enjoyed so much

 

Then for 15 years in my own business in greetings cards, half of which time employing 5 people in England and 8 more in Portugal where I covered the country.

 

In my large Grade 2 listed building I also managed a bed and breakfast business -Yes I was very busy.

 

At the same time my English wife was a Speech Therapist over almost all the time of my working life.

[Keeps]

Exec Director for a Global Insurance Broker. Specialised in Property and Business Interruption insurance in Lloyd's and the London Insurance Market. Not the most exciting job but had some good times (plenty of corporate jollies) and made some lifelong friends. Enabled me to retire at the age of 49. 

[Celsius]

Very few people know this, but I am one of the creators of GoFundMe 

[save the frogs]

7 minutes ago, Keeps said:

Not the most exciting job

not singling out your particular career, but how many people are willing to admit to themselves or to AN that they had to go through mountains and heaps of bs and drudgery in their careers? I know I did. Most careers suck. 

 

[roo860]

Previous jobs before settling in Thailand were, installing reflective road studs during the week as a subcontractor, weekends had a silver jewellery business, selling at festivals, county shows etc, 27yrs spending 6 months in Thailand, 6 months in the UK  bought all my jewellery in Thailand, permanently here now for 2yrs. No work, but once a year buy wholesale jewellery in Bangkok for the couple that bought my business.

Edited September 9 by roo860

[chiang mai]

Last job was Director of Strategy for a US telco in HK, before that, Head of Delivery for a global telco, mostly delivering mobile JV companies in Asia/FE.

[Keeps]

3 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

not singling out your particular career, but how many people are willing to admit to themselves or to AN that they had to go through mountains and heaps of bs and drudgery in their careers? I know I did. Most careers suck. 

 

I utterly despised the last decade of my career - particularly the last 4 years when I had a complete A-Hole for a boss. I took a 2 year sabbatical from my career in my early 30's when I lived in Thailand for the duration. I knew after that 2 year break that I eventually wanted to end up in Thailand. 

 

So, for the next 15 years I worked hard, crawled up the corporate ladder and saved every penny I could. Luckily, a few financial crashes along the way helped me immensely as there were good buying opportunities in the financial markets.

 

The final slice of luck was when, in 2017, a previous American employer offered me a chunk of money that they would transfer to my SIPP to forgo a pension I had earned during my 6 years working for them in my 20's (made no contributions to the pension from my own salary, only the Company contributed). I was 49 at the time and that pension payment would not have become available until I was 65 years old. For those that do not know, a SIPP in the UK can be accessed at 55 years old. This transfer to my SIPP put me well over the pot of money that I was looking to achieve to pay for my retirement.

 

Christmas Eve 2017 - one of the best days of my life. Had a few Christmas ales and then went and told the A-hole to poke his job up his A-hole and left on the spot. I'm not rich but I'm comfortable and have a wonderful Thai partner. I view myself as very lucky but I did put in the graft to get to the position in which I now find myself.