- Location
- La Crosse, WI on the BIG River
OK, here's my story so I'll try not to drag it out too long. I have always had jobs loosely classified as an install or repair technician. I started off in the car audio industry in 1994 and spent nearly 17 years combined as an installer/supervisor. I liked the job and met some cool people along the way, but the wages made it very hard to support my family. After moving on, I ended up staying on as part-time up until this past summer. My previous full-time gig was repairing commercial type office equipment. Printers, scanners, copiers, fax machines, etc.... I became pretty content (or lazy) after 7 1/2 years. The pay was decent, a company car is ok, and plenty of vacation time had me in cruise control. I had wandered into that job because I ended up absolutely hating my previous job as a commissioned based residential electrician. With the economy being pretty tough in 2010, I pretty much jumped on to the first thing I found. Year after year I kept imagining myself possibly retiring as "the copier guy". I wasn't very stoked on this and tried to keep my head up while collecting the paychecks. Socially, I kind of distanced myself from most of my friends as I wasn't very proud of the career moves I had made in the past. I felt kind of ashamed that I had given up trying to better myself and that I had "settled". To help pull through those last 5 or 6 years, I resorted to focusing more on my hobbies than my career. This involved lots of flatland bmx and riding jet skis with my buddies. As some of you may know, during the winters, I researched and practiced composites until I was able to build my own hull. Besides my family, that finally gave me something to be proud of. I then look forward to chatting on here and meeting new X members at whatever free-rides I could make it to. At this point, life is good, but my job still sucks... After posting a few ski build pics on fb along with already having some car audio build pics on there, I was contacted by a customer I had done some work for over 15 years ago about a possible career move. What's the odds of that happening? He told me about a high profile, but low key company he works for 15 minutes from my house that builds autonomous vehicles. I had no idea something like this is going on in central Illinois. He thought that with my skills and background, I would be a perfect candidate. Long story short, I went to check the place out and was blown away! I packed some carbon fiber samples and pictures with my resume. They were blown away as well!!! I've been working there for the past 3 months installing the self driving systems as well as doing some composite work integrating some of the sensors and components. The pay is great, I'm working in a cutting edge industry, and I get to travel once in a while to our shops in Germany, Silicon Valley, Detroit, and China. Already been to Germany and am going to SV in 2 weeks.
Anyway, thanks everyone for helping me out whether you knew it or not. Remember to keep grinding and try not to burn any bridges. Hopefully luck will come your way. p.s. I'm back in the garage working on a new hull for next year.
As I was reading through this, I was like man this guy sounds familiar...haha you're the dude I met at Lake Clinton! Sounds like you found a sweet gig. See ya in the Dells this year?
