What is your field/career?

[Mr. Cairo]

What was the book? And it's some thing they have on Ferenginar.

The ferengi offer credit?

It isn't truly finished yet, and gainful employment is hindering efforts, but it's a historical fiction set in the late bronze age Aegean (who'd have guessed), about Atreus.

They must. 'Once you have their money, you never give it back,' after all.

That's really cool. If it ends up in print or you choose to publish it online, please let us know! Despite having studied history, I always felt that I didn't know enough of the little details to write fiction that would be convincing -- e.g. I put a wardrobe in my medieval fantasy story, then learned they didn't have them! I'm guessing your archaeological background gives you a better grasp on such things.

How long is it?

Word says it's 300 pages, but I have no idea what that is in actual book terms. I tend to think in word count anyway, and it's currently at 95000, but I have a couple additions I'm planning on that'll send it up, probably.

I guess being an archaeologist I have a more materialistic understanding of history, but I think the trick is to pick a time period/place where not a lot is known about the actual things around. Medieval Europe is very well studied archaeologically, not to mention the plethora of surviving stuff, while not a lot is left over from almost 4500 years ago. Gives you a lot of opportunity to make things up. 
Remember that your target audience is not the few dozen people in the world who are experts in that period so it doesn't have to be perfect. And fantasy is fantasy, just because we didn't have wardrobes in the medieval period doesn't mean they didn't have them in your world.

There was a carving in the toilet of my University that said "Humanities are for stupid people".  

I hope the future archaeologists find that. What's the novel about?

Hey! Nothing wrong with Archaeology, unless you want to make money or have a decent standard of living, and who wants that?

Also, what's your book about?

Too true! No dig (ha!) at archaeologists intended, just thought it would be a funny thing for our progeny to find. Mm, while we're on the topic, my dad actually trained in American archaeology, though he never used it. If only he were a generation younger; apparently they have some work in Ontario right now.

Mine is your run-of-the-mill pseudomedieval fantasy in concept; I can only hope that it shows some sparkle in execution. But first I have to glue myself to my seat and actually write it through ... and revise it ...

Thanks for asking!

Ah, I thought you were referring to young people today who might want to become archaeologists, not future ones digging up what remains of our civilization.

As for actually writing a book, being unemployed is a good start    I wrote most of mine over about 9 months while living with my Grandfather not working. Obviously it's not a good long-term strategy, but now more than ever is the time. Also, don't worry about revising until after the first draft is done, just write and write and write away, even if most of it is crap and you end up re-doing most of it, turning thoughts into words on paper is the hardest part.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

1)A BA in Religion and a Master of Arts in Education.
2)Not really - an emphasis on Social Studies for the Master's, picking up Spanish and Classics minors in undergrad.
3) I teach middle school English. It's good fun. 
4) Not really. I'm in the middle of writing a novel, like every English teacher ever to live. 
5) I've done all sorts of things. Zookeeping stands out. I also did research for the Missouri Civil War Historical Society - if you travel to Civil War sites in Missouri and read the little historical markers, odds are you're reading something I wrote! 
6) Bilbo Baggins, Bag End, the Shire, son of Bungo Baggins and Belladonna Took. 

[Dreylin]

1) Degree: BSc Geology & Geophysics

2) Specialist Subject (uni): Physical & Structural Geology, Remote Sensing Methods (Gravity, Magnetics, Electromagnetics, Seismology)

3) Job/Career: 19yrs w/ WesternGeco, the Seismic division of oilfield services company Schlumberger; first 8ish years processing Seismic data, last 10+ working in various management & sales positions.



4) Specialist subject (job): plucking numbers out of my arse thin air carefully calculated Excel sheets.

5) Past Jobs: Have worked in 6 cities on 3 continents.

6) Joke: 

[Dark Savant]

Aside from most everyone here having training in science/mathematics, most of us are amateur historians too.  I personally would have seriously considered becoming one professionally if there were any career promise there.

Also aren't most of the posters on this site scientists by training? I think I am one of the few that works in a different field but I've still got that chemistry degree.

Following from Krill's question in the Brexit thread, here is a thread to discuss the training and careers of users who are comfortable sharing.

Here are some questions:

1) What degrees and diplomas do you have?
2) Is there anything of note you specialized in during your education?
3) What is your current job and/or your career?
4) Is there anything of note you specialize in at your job?
5) Are there any past jobs you've done that are of interest?
6) What is your name, address, and credit card PIN?

1 - BA in biochemistry.  No other degrees; got partway through a PhD before I gave up and switched careers.
2 - Did quite a bit of genetics too.
3 - Software engineer at GIANT_SILICON_VALLEY_COMPANY.  (I've worked for two or three of them.)
4 - I started my current job just a few weeks ago; I don't know enough to be a specialist.  

5: I do still know enough genetics/biochemistry to personally and seriously invade people's privacy if I wanted to.  Ethics/legality aside, it's currently not worth it, because it'd take tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, and many hours of my time ... compared to just buying random people's SSNs and credit card numbers off the black market for what, US$10 a pop?  Biotech is currently like the 70s where a few hobbyists had home computers with like 256 bytes of RAM that cost thousands of dollars; eventually, this technology will be easily available to everyone, even if it's regulated or outright made illegal.  People are going to have to face the fact that humans aren't engineered to defend against such technology.

I basically had to change careers because I was too late to be in the exponential growth phase of biochemistry/genetics (it wasn't that long ago when everything known would fit in a single textbook), and too early to be where it's one of the biggest industries (that's still decades away; too long for me to wait).

6 - I think I'm a billionaire -- in Kingdom of Loathing currency (meat).  I may still play that again, so no you don't get my userid/password.  

[RefSteel]

1) BA in English Literature. (My interest in science is purely amateur.)
2) "Area of Focus" was basically Shakespeare.
3) I work for my local public library system.
4) Reference desk. Unrelated to my day job, I write over 1200 words of fiction a day, every day, without fail. (I haven't tried to get any of it published in years.)
5) Interned for a tabletop RPG company, paged stuff for the California Department of Health Services at the State's Occupational and Environmental Health Library, got a couple of articles published a couple of decades back when I was still making an effort to do that.
6) Anyone who knows me in real life can trivially identify me just from the information listed above. As for my PIN, I've been wondering about that myself; I hope Dark Savant can find me someone who'll sell me all my confidential info for US$10 whenever I forget it, 'cause otherwise, how am I supposed to keep track of it all?

[TheHumanHydra]

Word says it's 300 pages, but I have no idea what that is in actual book terms. I tend to think in word count anyway, and it's currently at 95000, but I have a couple additions I'm planning on that'll send it up, probably.

I guess being an archaeologist I have a more materialistic understanding of history, but I think the trick is to pick a time period/place where not a lot is known about the actual things around. Medieval Europe is very well studied archaeologically, not to mention the plethora of surviving stuff, while not a lot is left over from almost 4500 years ago. Gives you a lot of opportunity to make things up. 
Remember that your target audience is not the few dozen people in the world who are experts in that period so it doesn't have to be perfect. And fantasy is fantasy, just because we didn't have wardrobes in the medieval period doesn't mean they didn't have them in your world. ...

As for actually writing a book, being unemployed is a good start    I wrote most of mine over about 9 months while living with my Grandfather not working. Obviously it's not a good long-term strategy, but now more than ever is the time. Also, don't worry about revising until after the first draft is done, just write and write and write away, even if most of it is crap and you end up re-doing most of it, turning thoughts into words on paper is the hardest part.

Depends on how it's set, but probably about 300 in print too: I'm sure you've looked this up too, but 95 000 is right around your standard novel size -- and a lot of work. Very well done!

Good calls regarding historicity. And thank you for the encouragement; I need constant kicks in the butt not to apply my greatest skill, procrastination, to this endeavour.

Chevalier Mal Fet, I think you need to tell us what your novel is about now!

Dark Savant, I didn't quite follow what you meant about invading people's privacy using genetics. Did you mean using their genetic information to impersonate them? Or determining what diseases they're predisposed to, for example?

Dreylin, what are all the pretty lines? And I think you have a threadwinning meme at the bottom. 

suboptimal, I never thought to meet a food or beverage flavorist. What an unusual and interesting occupation. Have soft drinks lost their fizz for you yet?

MJW, mm, plutonium, yes, I understand.

Adrien, if -1 + ∞ = ∞, but N - (N - 1) = 1, does 1 = 0?

Edit: RefSteel, interesting resume! How do you manage to write so much amidst your other responsibilities? And -- oops, I was going to ask which RPG company, but you didn't volunteer that, so I won't. That's cool, though.

[Dark Savant]

Dark Savant, I didn't quite follow what you meant about invading people's privacy using genetics. Did you mean using their genetic information to impersonate them? Or determining what diseases they're predisposed to, for example?

Not impersonate (that generally requires tech significantly beyond what we have now); but you can determine a lot about a person by grabbing fresh DNA from someone.  You need very little DNA to do this; tailing someone and retrieving thrown-away food to get at their DNA already is a thing.

With current technology, this is still less invasive than getting someone's SSN#, address, and credit card numbers, but it won't stay that way ... I'd guess that will change in about couple decades.

There is a community of genetics hobbyists out there, and some of the more curious or less scrupulous types push the boundaries of what's legal.

The concern here isn't that some corporation or government will do something nefarious; I'm thinking more random people.  (Eventually, the tech will reach the point where random people can engineer genetic attacks on other people, but that's significantly farther down the road.)

[AdrienIer]

Adrien, if -1 + ∞ = ∞, but N - (N - 1) = 1, does 1 = 0?

There are many ways of answering this saying no, and one pointless answer that says yes. Which one do you want ?

[BRickAstley]

Here are some questions:

1) What degrees and diplomas do you have?
2) Is there anything of note you specialized in during your education?
3) What is your current job and/or your career?
4) Is there anything of note you specialize in at your job?
5) Are there any past jobs you've done that are of interest?
6) What is your name, address, and credit card PIN?

My answers:

1) Bachelor of Science, Computer Science. Also a minor in mathematics and scattered certifications
2) I got to learn assembly language at some point, so that was fun. Don't remember a whit of it though.
3) Manager of a 3rd party software implementation team in a multi-year project at a major US medical center.
4) Being in meetings 7 hours a day, sending lots and lots of emails, and telling surgeons what's good for them
5) I worked for 30 days at a company that creates the software that politicians use to robocall people. Unfortunately they fired me before I could quit.
6) PO Box 7174, London, W1A 8BL. My secret password is dQw4w9WgXcQ.

[Huinesoron]

1) I am a Master of Chemistry. Sadly, I'm not allowed to introduce myself that way.
2) My 3rd and 4th year projects focussed on crystallography and surface treatment; I managed (somehow) to produce an argentophilic organometallic crystal and figure out its structure by single-crystal x-ray diffraction. (Which all comes to a fancy way of saying 'no, nothing of note'.) Oh, I also began a report on supercooled carbon dioxide by hunting down the first paper to mention it - which dated to the 19th century - and quoting it. That was fun.
3) I am a lab supervisor and 'Technical Compliance Specialist' (I know, I know...) at an chemical company.
4) Regulations. So many regulations. All of which come from the EU, so how many will I need to care about after Brexit? Who knows!
5) Nope! So I'll slot in here that I've written five different 50K novels for NaNoWriMo, one of them more-or-less by accident.
6) Huinesoron Eagleshade, city of Nargothrond in the fair realm of Beleriand, credit cards are for Muggles mortals.