What do you do for a living?

I’m a State Trooper.

How would you describe what you do?

I enforce the state laws.

What does your work entail?

Most of my work entails work in traffic accidents, heading patrols on DWI’s, and speed enforcement.

What’s a typical work week look like for you?

We work eight hours a day on the highways enforcing the traffic laws.  I patrol 4 counties working traffic accidents, enforcing speeding laws, and working DWI’s.

How did you get started in this career?

My father was a long time State Trooper and it was something I was brought up with. The State Police has a great tradition and it was something that I always wanted to do.

…there’s a huge history of becoming a State Trooper. It’s a big, big achievement, and I think that we’ve set ourselves above the rest. And I think that that’s what they are looking for when they go to hire a person is somebody that stands out above the rest, that has honesty, integrity, and is willing to work hard and treat people fairly in the world.

What do you like about your job?

I like helping the citizens of this state by serving and protecting them.

I really enjoy getting people who don’t belong on the roads at the time, the ones that have been out drinking and driving, off the roads before they hurt somebody.

What do you dislike about what you do?

To tell you the truth, I really can’t think of anything that I really dislike about what I do. I really enjoy every aspect of it, and it’s a really good career.

How do you make money or how are you paid?

I’m paid on a forty-hour workweek schedule from the State.

How much money do you make starting out as a State Trooper?

Starting out, you make close $40,000 a year.

How much do you make as a state trooper?

About $40,000 a year.

Are there any perks associated with this job?

I would say that a perk could be getting to go and do different stuff around the State such as work in the State Fairs or getting to work football or basketball games.

What education or skills are needed to become a State Trooper?

The education required is a high school degree and you can also have military time to be hired on here.  You don’t have to have a college education to get hired with the State Police.

I think the college degree would be helpful to have, it would help you get hired easier, but it’s not a requirement.

Then you have to get accepted into and pass trooper school.

It’s actually a really long process. You send in your initial application and they’ll contact you and you’ll go down for physical assessment test, and you’ll do the physical assessment.

Then, if you pass that portion of the test, you will come back and do a polygraph test. If you pass that portion then you’ll have interviews with the Majors and different people that sit on the Board.

And if you pass that, then you get invited to trooper school and you’ll go through trooper school for however long they have it scheduled.  I think most of the time they’re twenty-two weeks, and then you go through a vigorous physical tests and numerous classes.

As far as specific skills I can’t think of any in particular.  They train you in school really well.

…the most challenging thing that a police officer has to do is when someone loses a loved one in a car accident. To be there and see that, and then go speak to the family…that’s something that’s real tough.

They teach you about accident investigation, and what you’re supposed to do in certain situations.  You learn how to shoot, you know to qualify with a gun, and they train you in different situations like that. So they’ll teach you the skills that you need to know to be a state trooper.

You do need to be somebody that has honesty, integrity, and is someone that’s willing to be a good police officer out there.  Those are the type of people they look to hire as State Troopers.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I would say the most challenging thing that a police officer has to do is when someone loses a loved one in a car accident. To be there and see that, and then go speak to the family.  Having to deal with that is probably the most challenging part about this job..

It’s very, very hard to go to a household in the middle of the night and wake them up and let them know that their family member just passed away in a car wreck. That’s – that’s something that’s real tough.

What is most rewarding about what you do?

I would say would just be the fact that you’re actually out here saving lives, and that if you can help one person, if you can save one person’s life then you’re doing good.

Knowing, I took that guy off the road that shouldn’t have been behind the wheel that night and I could possibly have just saved a life because he’s not going to go down the road and hit a family.  I would say that would be the most rewarding part of my job.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

I would say that this is a real good career to get into. I’d say that if you really enjoy helping people and being around people then it’s a good career to get into, but if you’re not into that kind of thing then it’s probably not the career for you.  Because you’re dealing with the public, and if you’re not good speaking to people, or don’t enjoy being around them then you’re probably not going to be somebody that really helps people out.

How much time off do you get or take off?

You just get your regular two days a week, just like everybody else. Our days off are different depending on shift schedules.  So my days off are constantly changing because we’re on a rotation in our schedule.  And some people, after a while, get a set schedule if the Sergeant allows it.

And then it’s about eight hours up a month that you build up for vacation.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I would say the common misconception about what we do is that we’re out here harassing people and writing speeding tickets.  We’re not out here harassing people, we’re trying to enforce the law and actually save somebody.

People think that we’re just picking on them because they’ve got a tail light out, or if they were running a little bit over the speed limit.

Enforcing speeding laws, DWI’s, state statutes and that sort of thing does help save lives.

What are your goals and dreams for the future in this career?

I would say right now to just keep enjoying what I’m doing, enjoy my career, enjoy my work, and continue doing what I’m doing. But I would like to promote within a few years and one day maybe become a post sergeant and then see how far I could go. I would like to be a captain of the State Police one day.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Like I said earlier, we’re not our here to harass people, we’re here to serve and protect.

Also, the main difference between the city police and state police is our tradition.

We started with thirteen original rangers and there’s a huge history of becoming a State Trooper.  It’s a big, big achievement, and I think that we’ve set ourselves above the rest. And I think that that’s what they are looking for when they go to hire a person is somebody that stands out above the rest, that has honesty, integrity, is willing to work hard and treat people fairly in the world.

What do you do for a living?

I am a program manager for the Department of Youth and Community Development for a major U.S City.

How would you describe what you do?

That means that we use tax-levied money to support programs throughout the city.  Those programs range from things like the YMCA, initiatives to help young people up to the age of 24 get a job. They might be mentoring programs where people try and help get them into the work force.  The bulk of what we do is fund after school programs and what are called “Beacon Centers”.  Beacon Centers are like community centers, generally in high-needs neighborhoods.  Those places will generally have a gym, some classroom spaces.  They might be dual use – like during the day senior citizens might use them for a rec area, and then after school hours it kind of turns over to the young people.

What does your work entail?

My role as a program manager is to manage the individual contracts.  They are generally contracts that are three years guaranteed and then renewed depending on a variety of factors after that.  So, a couple of times a year, I visit all of those programs and give them a rating.  Generally, my role is to be supportive of them.  If a program is trying to find a good basketball coach, or a good literacy curriculum, then I can make recommendations.  With over 500 after school programs, it’s rare that we would move to shut one down.  That’s a last resort.

It’s neat to see kids who may not enjoy school from 8-3, go to an after school program where they can do robotics, or they can do sports, or they can do community building. Some of our programs do some really good community works projects where they’re converting empty lots into gardens, or painting murals. It’s neat to see young people having a positive impact on their community.

Also I work on their budgets.  These programs have a contract with us for a dollar amount and that amount is pretty much the same year to year, unless there’s a budget cut and they send a year plan of what they’re going to do with that budget so I can see what staff they’re going to cover, how many staff, what hours of operation they’re going to have, what they’re going to spend money on for supplies.

A program can buy a flat screen TV, they don’t need to buy ten flat screen TVs. So, I just make sure that they’re using the money appropriately.  Some of what you hear about working for governments is true. It’s bureaucratic, there’s paperwork, and sometimes things move slow.

So when I go visit a program, that generates a report that I write up and that gets approved by two or three people, and gets sent out to the provider so they know if they’re on good-standing or not, so some of that is a lot of “back and forth”.

On the other hand our agency received some of the Obama money, so we definitely got to see that money at work helping people here.

What does a typical workweek look like for you?

One of the good things about my job is that it is 9-5 or 10-6. We have flex-time that I come in between 9 and 10, and prior to working here, I worked for an after school program where I was always dealing with parents and kids, and while it was rewarding, it was also challenging, because I always needed to be available.  One thing I like about my job now is that when I go home, I generally don’t think about it until the next day. That’s a lifestyle thing. Would I go back to the other way? Yeah, if it was the right job, but I do value having a life after work.

What a general work week is like, Monday through Friday, mornings, taking care of paperwork and checking up on email, doing requests for information from providers or colleagues, etc.  I spend about three days a week going out to visit programs and they’re in all the boroughs of New York.  I’ll check out a City car if the programs are far from the subway, go visit the program for two hours, go home, come back the next day, fill out that paperwork, load it into the computer, and do more of the same.

One of the great things about the unit that I work in is that if you want to work on other projects, there are opportunities to do so.  I’ve been able to advance the FIRST Robotics within DYCD.  We were able to get funding for 40 Lego teams and that’s been something that I’ve helped carry on for three or four years now.  It’s challenging because funding is tough to get, but I think technology is kind of a buzzword right now for working with kids.  It’s been neat to be able to carry over some of my own experience plus what I’ve been able to do with a wider range of people.

How did you get started with this career?

I was going to graduate school in here and there was an after school program around the corner from my apartment.  I was looking for a part-time job, and went there.  I started working as an administrative assistant essentially, and part-time lead to full-time, and when I went to full-time I worked there for four years, and then I met someone who worked for DYCD, which was actually funding the program I worked for.  I made that connection and thought it would be interesting to go work for the city agency and to see the youth development field from a different perspective. It’s not something I planned on, but something that naturally progressed.

What do you like about what you do?

I like seeing programs that are effective.  It’s not easy to work with teenagers and young people, especially if they’re going to schools that are not top notch.  There are a lot of things going against that population, so it’s neat to see kids who may not enjoy school from 8-3, go to an after school program where they can do robotics, or they can do sports, or they can do just community building.  Some of our programs do some really good community works projects where they’re converting empty lots into gardens, or painting murals.  It’s neat to see young people having a positive impact on their community.

The advice that I would have for somebody looking for this kind of position is to go work for a non-profit for a year or two and find out what it’s like to really be in an environment where resources are slim and there’s a lot of need. You’ll learn a lot from it and you’ll be able to prioritize what agencies need.

What do you dislike about the job?

Sometimes it’s difficult to stay motivated whenever you know that, as working for a city agency, there’s not a lot of reward for going above and beyond.  Your pay scale is pretty much set in stone and so the only way to really advance is to move up, and that’s well and good but it can be difficult because it can be very political, and be based less on merit and more on factors that are outside your control.

How do you make money or how are you compensated for this job?

I’m paid a salary.

How much money do you make as the City Manager for Youth Programs?

$60,000

How much money do you make starting out in this job?

All city employees start off in my role at $53,000 and after two years, you get a bump, so now I’m making the same amount as somebody in my position who has been here for 5 or 10 years more than I have.

Would you say that there are any perks associated with your job?

There are holidays I get off like Columbus Day.  I think a perk is not having to worry about my work when I’m not here.  Being able to drive a city car is a perk.

I definitely visit neighborhoods I wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And, because it is related to the city, there are times when there are perks – like for special events.  Sometimes, very occasionally it will be tickets to a baseball game, or you’ll get a special invite to a special event, things like that.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

It really ranges.  Generally, you need to have a college degree.  It would help if you had a Master’s in either social work or public administration.

You have to be able to use a computer.  You have to be comfortable going online and pulling information, using spreadsheets, additional skills.  I’m finding more and more that there are people who are comfortable being in front of a group of people and others who are not.  If you’re not, you can only go so far in this job because you’re going to be asked to be in front of a group of people at one point or another.

When people are advocating for government funding to be cut, keep in mind that those cuts can have some very real effects. Here that could mean that potentially 80,000 kids won’t have a summer program. Either their parents will be staying home from work, or those kids will be running around. So just realize when you are cutting budgets, there are real repercussions to that, so you want to be clear about what you’re saying should be cut because if you’re cutting programs we can use, you’re setting up the future, both immediate and long-term, to be jeopardized.

What is most challenging about what you do?

The pace, you can go to a meeting and people will be in agreement about what needs to happen, but it can still take two weeks for a report to get approved, because it has to go to people who are outside that meeting and run up the channels that usually go all the way up to the Mayor. And when it goes that high there are a lot of other things that have priority.  And that can be challenging because a priority to us at the agency might not be a priority at that level, so it can be challenging to wait.

What would you say is the most rewarding about what you do?

When you visit a summer camp and there’s 150 kids there on a beautiful July afternoon, and they’re just getting back from going on a field trip that they would not have gotten to take otherwise.  You can tell that they’re appreciative of it, and the program is taking pride in what they’re doing. That’s a nice thing to see.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

The advice that I would have for somebody looking for this kind of position is to go work for a non-profit for a year or two and find out what it’s like to really be in an environment where resources are slim and there’s a lot of need.  You’ll learn a lot from it and you’ll be able to prioritize what agencies need.

How much time off do you get or take with this job?

When you start off, it’s two weeks a year, and goes up gradually after that.  That’s probably one of the downsides of working for the City, is that they track every minute. You can get overtime, but it can be hard to get. At a non-profit, there would be plenty of times that I would work 60 hour weeks for a while and then say, “I’m taking a week off”, and that was accepted and encouraged, whereas here, every week you go to check your spreadsheet of your City time and it tells you to the minute how much vacation time you have. It’s kind of a micromanaged thing. If I thought I could work more and get off more, I would. But that’s not the system.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I think there is a lot of misconception right now about public service workers and that everybody is overpaid and has a great pension, and everybody has great benefits, and that people aren’t even working.

There is some truth to every joke, but for the most part, 98% of the people I work with care about what they’re doing and are dedicated to it and work very very hard. I think the misconception is the opposite – that people are just sitting around and doing nothing.

I really don’t think it’s much different than an average corporate setting.

What are your goals and dreams for the future in this career?

In the short term, I’m looking for opportunities to move up within the agency. After that, I would like to be in a leadership position in either another government agency, or within a non-profit that is working in the community to make it improve, so maybe an executive director position in an average-sized community based organization.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

When people are advocating for government funding to be cut, keep in mind that those cuts can have some very real effects.  Here that could mean that potentially 80,000 kids won’t have a summer program. Either their parents will be staying home from work, or those kids will be running around.

So just realize when you are cutting budgets, there are real repercussions to that, so you want to be clear about what you’re saying should be cut because if you’re cutting programs we can use, you’re setting up the future, both immediate and long-term, to be jeopardized.

Senator Boozman of Arkansas was kind of enough to take some time sharing about his career.  You can contact Senator Boozman’s office here.

What do you do for a living?

I’m one of the United States Senators from the State of Arkansas.

How would you describe what you do?

What I do is represent the people of Arkansas in the United States Senate. Each State has two Senators that represent them and so myself and Senator Pryor were chosen by the people of Arkansas.

What does your work entail?

It entails all kinds of things; a lot of legislation, initiatives, and trying to be supportive of different projects in Arkansas.

When at home, I’m meeting with a lot of people and hearing a lot of constituents’ problems. We work with people that are having problems with various types of benefits, social security, veteran’s problems, etc.

Being a Senator or being a Congressman, these are public service jobs and it’s no different than any other area where you’re trying to help the public. I understand that the public doesn’t work for me, I work for them. So we work very, very hard to do just that.

We try to help them get through the paperwork and the bureaucracy so that they can get an answer. I can’t determine if they’re going to get that benefit or not but sometimes these things drag on for years so I’m just trying to make sure that that’s done in a speedy way.

In Washington it’s dealing with the legislation that comes before Congress and that involves all kinds of things, whether it’s health care, tax policy, energy policy, all of the things that really do make a huge difference to the average person living in Arkansas.

Right now one of our major focuses is job creation.

What’s a typical work week look like for you?

It’s really divided. I’ll spend 2 or 3 days in Arkansas and then 3 or 4 days in Washington. When I’m in Arkansas I’m all over the state visiting with people about various problems that they’re having or hearing them communicate what they’d like for me to do while in Washington. When I’m here in Washington it’s more legislatively focused in the sense of trying to determine how we can influence the particular bills that are on the floor during that particular week.

How did you get started in this career?

Well, I’m an optometrist by trade and I was part of a clinic in Rogers, Arkansas. I was really active locally on the fair board, the school board, and things like that, just trying to be helpful. Asa Hutchinson was the Congressman from the third district of Arkansas and he decided to accept the position to become the head of the DEA under President Bush. So there was a vacancy and I was visiting with friends and family and I just kind of jumped in and ran for it and was elected. Then, later on, I decided to pursue running for Senate.

What do you like about what you do?

Well, it’s a great honor serving the people of Arkansas and representing them. Every day is a different day and every day is a challenge. But the nicest thing about what I do is you get to help a lot of people and you can do that by using the power of the office for good and listening to people and trying to help them with their various problems. I’ve got a very good staff that works really hard to solve the various problems people are having.

What do you dislike about the job?

I think the hardest thing about my job is the travel going back and forth. You certainly need to be in Washington voting and representing there. But also you do need to get home to keep that vital link with what’s going on in Arkansas. So I’m home almost every weekend and traveling throughout the state. But it is difficult traveling back and forth to Washington, it’s hard on families. So I think that’s the hardest thing, the travel and the extended periods when you’re away with your family.

Editors note, follow up question- I’m just curious, do Congressmen and Senators fly commercial?

We fly commercial. I’m subject to random screening and go through security just like everybody else.

How do you make money or how are you compensated in this job?

I’m paid on salary by the government. I’m a government employee so I’m under the same system as every other government employee. I pay social security. My health benefit is the same as the person that works in the social security office.

How much money do you make as a US Senator?

$174,000 a year.

How much money do you make starting out as a Senator?

Each senator gets the same amount so there’s no seniority or graduated pay scale.

The only exception to that would be the Speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate. These are people that are essentially the highest ranking officers in the House of Representatives and the Senate. They get paid a little bit more.

Each Senator is paid the same though. They’re also paid the same as the House of Representatives and the Congressmen from those districts.

Would you say there are any perks associated with this job?

Well, I think that the job in itself is a great honor to represent the people of Arkansas and so I think that’s the major thing. There’s a lot of work involved and a lot of responsibility but it truly is a great honor.

I think the most challenging thing right now is we’re in a difficult time in our country’s history with the economy, the deficit, and all that’s going on throughout the world. So the decisions that we’re making are very, very important. It’s a challenge as we’re trying to work diligently to figure out what’s best for Arkansas and what’s best for our country.

What education and/or skills would you say are needed to be a US Senator?

I’m asked that a lot by young people that would like to go on to politics or would like to become the next Congressman or the next Senator. I think that the main thing is as you get into the working world do a very, very good job of what you’re doing. There are a number of different professions represented in Congress. There are accountants. There are lawyers. There are doctors, sheriffs, you name it.

But I think that probably all of them did a good job in their respective professions and were respected in their community. You have to be in a situation where you’re out trying to be active in the community.  So I think the most important things are helping people, being active in the community, and then having the positive reputation that you’ll need in order to win these higher offices.

As far as skills, I think that one of the most important skills that you need to have is to be a good listener. I visit with essentially everybody who wants to visit with me and some people you can help, others you can’t. But you help everybody by listening to them and that’s very, very important. And I think you have to be willing to get out and be with people you serve. Being a Senator or being a Congressman, these are public service jobs and it’s no different than any other area where you’re trying to help the public. And I understand that the public doesn’t work for me, I work for them. So we work very, very hard to do just that.

I think you need to be somebody that’s comfortable with the public and is willing to kind of roll up your sleeves and listen and then follow through and do your best to solve their problems.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I think the most challenging thing right now is we’re in a difficult time in our country’s history with the economy and the deficit and all that’s going on throughout the world.

So the decisions that we’re making are very, very important. It’s a challenge as we’re trying to work diligently to figure out what’s best for Arkansas and what’s best for our country. And I think the challenge that we have right now is trying to get the confidence back in the system so that the average American is confident that the country is going to do well and in doing so that will create an atmosphere where people start hiring people, people will start spending money again, all of which will help the economy and help our country.

What’s most rewarding about what you do?

I think your greatest reward is the fact that you’re in a position that the office has great power. I don’t have any power personally but the office has power and so using that notoriety in trying to help people is very rewarding.

I get a lot of mail about people that had paid into the system all their life and maybe have become very, very ill, to the point that they were disabled. Everyone agrees that they are disabled and yet almost on their deathbed nobody in the particular agencies can decide that. And so they might be in the process of losing their homes and facing really difficult situations and we’re able to just get somebody to look at it and cut through the red tape and get those benefits. That’s just a little example but there are many, many other things that we’re able to do to help people and so that’s very rewarding.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

I think anybody that would like to get into public service in general, the key is to get involved in their community and to be very good at what they do. And you have to be somebody that’s honest and has integrity. And then again, I think for these kinds of jobs, you have to be a servant and leader. It’s easy to talk about that we need to do this and that but you have to demonstrate it too.

How much time off do you get or take with this job?

Not very much time. This job is pretty much all day every day. You get to do a number of different things that make it very interesting, you’re dealing with interesting people, you’re dealing with really significant problems so that’s what allows you to be able go all day every day.

I think one of the problems that you have in this position is literally every minute of my day can be filled up every day of the year from very early in the morning until very late at night. So you have to control that because if you don’t, like anything else, it can get away from you and that’s hard on families. Like everything you kind of have to balance things out. If not then it really does make it very difficult on families.

I’m blessed because the situation I’m in now all my daughters are grown. They’re not just dependent on me so that makes it easier. And because our kids are grown my wife is able to kind of go back and forth with me so we’re able to spend time together that way as opposed to having a young family with all of those demands in addition to the demands of the job.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I think that’s a good question and to be honest I don’t really know what that would be. There’s a lot of talk about full retirement after two years of service and all those kinds of things, or Senators not having to pay social security.

I would like is to see us get going again economically, get people working, get rid of the uncertainty about job future and just kind of restore America in that regard. And there’s a lot of work going on to try and make that happen. You do that by empowering people though. You can’t do that through government. You do it by empowering small businesses and reducing the unnecessary regulation.

And I think that’s one of the most common misconceptions. People like Congressmen and Senators are under the same retirement program as the person that works at the IRS office or the social security office. And so now I think I can retire at age 59 ½ with the benefits figured the same way that it’s figured for every other government employee. So I think there’s misconceptions in the way that works.

What are your goals and dreams for the future in this career?

I would like to see us get going again economically, get people working, get rid of the uncertainty about job future and just kind of restore America in that regard. And there’s a lot of work going on to try and make that happen.

You do that by empowering people though. You can’t do that through government. You do it by empowering small businesses and reducing the unnecessary regulation. We need some regulation but the unnecessary regulation needs to come out. We need a fair and simple tax policy and a reasonable energy policy. Those are the kind of things that that I’m really interested in seeing happening. Working on and accomplishing that would benefit America.

What else would you like people to know about what you do?

Well, I think that pretty much sums it up. The other thing is certainly that if people are in need or if they’re having a problem and need to contact us, they can go to the website. We have a newsletter that they can sign up for and get information as to what’s going in Washington. You can go to our website, or just Google John Boozman and you’ll find the official government site.

That’s a way that they can communicate their thoughts if they have ideas as to how we can do things better or if they’re having a particular problem then we can get in touch with them.

What do you do for a living?

I am the state judicial sign language interpreter interpreting in state and local courts.

How would you describe what you do?

I am an officer of the court and there to serve at the pleasure of the court to ensure that communication services are provided between the court and citizens who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind and who use sign language, oral interpreting services or who need real time captioning if they don’t sign.

What does your work entail?

I perform interpreting services during court proceedings for persons who are deaf, hard of hearing or deaf-blind.  I interpret along a sign language continuum from ASL to Contact Language or English to match the communication skills and style that the consumer uses.

Sometimes we employ the services of a Deaf Interpreter to team with to ensure the court and consumer have the best possible linguistic match.  Intermediary Deaf interpreters are often used in cases where juveniles are involved because they sometimes use different signs or slang or in cases where the consumer may have minimal language or no formal language development using gestures.  Deaf people grow up in a visual world and are skilled on picking up on all the nuances of a nonverbal language whereas as a hearing interpreter, I might miss something.

How did you get started in your job?

Years ago, I worked in the legal field as a paralegal while at the same time I was interpreting at church.  Later I met the wonderful lady who actually held this position at the time and aspired to do the same thing.  I decided to enroll in an Interpreter Educational Program at a local university to become a professional interpreter and put my legal skills to good use.  However, after a little exposure and training, I realized I was far from ready to work in this specialized field.  I went on to graduate school to get my master’s in a deaf related field and worked in the counseling field in several capacities.   I never gave up on my first loves of the law and interpreting and later decided to apply for this position.

What do you like most about being an interpreter?

What I like most about being an interpreter is the variety of experiences I have had over the years.  As a freelance interpreter, one can be up at the crack of dawn working in a restaurant kitchen interpreting for someone learning how to make biscuits while flour is flying off their fingers or the interpreter can be strapped into a harness and jumping out of an airplane with a student and flying through the air.

Interpreters sometimes have the honor to meet movie and television stars, famous performers and authors, popular athletes and important politicians who run our country.  Interpreters also have the opportunity to learn so much while working from biscuits or turbines to the latest research on stem cells or crime scene processing.  Because we know sign language, we are placed in countless milieus acquiring so much fascinating information that otherwise we would not have had the opportunity to learn.

What do you dislike?

Scheduling conflicts can be problematic because each court needs an interpreter and while we hire other interpreters to fill additional assignments, sometimes it’s hard to find someone available.

How do you make money or how you compensated as an interpreter?

I am on a salary but freelance interpreters are paid an hourly wage with travel time and sometimes mileage.

How much money do you make as a sign language interpreter?

My salary is approximately $49,000 and we pay $40 per hour with a two hour minimum to freelance interpreters.  All states pay differently and there is a huge disparity in pay levels across the nation, so it would behoove an aspiring interpreter to check pay rates in the state in which they live.

What education or skills are needed to be a sign language interpreter?

To become a certified interpreter with our professional organization, the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf or RID, the interpreter must have an associate’s degree to be eligible to sit for the certification exam.  In 2012, the educational requirement will be raised to a bachelor’s degree.

To become a good interpreter, you must have a lot of knowledge about a lot of things, so the more education one gets only increases their ability to interpret well.  There are many interpreters for the deaf with higher education and have Ph.D.s, Masters degrees and even some with law and medical degrees.  Many interpreters are on a mission to gain more education and knowledge so they can provide an efficacy of services to their consumers whether they are working in a courtroom, surgical room or a classroom.

What is the most challenging about what you do?

The most challenging situations usually involve interpreting for someone without a formal language or for a deaf person from another country.

What is the most rewarding?

When an interpreter leaves an assignment and they feel they’ve done a good job, they are on “cloud nine.”  However, if an interpreter leaves an assignment feeling uncertain about the service rendered, it can be gut wrenching.

What advice that you would offer someone considering this career?

Be patient because it takes a lot of time to develop language skills to become fluent enough to become a professional interpreter and even if the person already knows the language, they must still develop interpreting skills.   It is important to understand that just because a person is bilingual, that doesn’t automatically make them an interpreter.  They must develop interpreting skills, ethics and professionalism.

Stay in school because no one would want to have an ignorant interpreter.  There is no excuse to avoid school because there are college programs offering scholarships and grants for persons aspiring to be sign language interpreters.

After you’ve learned ASL and ethics and developed professional behavior and interpreting skills, stay in school or keep learning.  The more you learn about everything will only help you personally and professionally and help you be a better interpreter.

Are there any common misconceptions people have about what you do?

In court, interpreters are not supposed to interpret everything that is going on prior to their case being called because the assignment is not about equal access.  The assignment in court is about being called to do a specific case and if the interpreter were to interpret all the cases before theirs is called, they might not be able to do the best job possible because they would be fatigued and run the risk of injury.  The common comment from deaf people is that they feel they are not getting equal access and they aren’t, but if the assignment was about access, we would have to hire a team of interpreters to switch out so that fatigue and repetitive motion injuries would not be a factor.  Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources available to send two interpreters to an assignment that might only last fifteen minutes.

What are your goals and dreams for the future?

I want to be the best legal interpreter that I can be.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about what you do?

It is an honor to work in the legal field, to work with deaf people and to be allowed to be a part of the process.  The legal system is something I have always been fascinated with and every case is different.  It’s a fascinating field wherein I can continue to learn.

What do you do for a living?

I’m a full time ocean lifeguard in San Diego

How would you describe what you do?

Basically it is helping people in need, giving them band-aids, CPR, first aid, water rescue, river rescue, all sorts of stuff.

What does your work entail?

We have a lot of people on the water here in San Diego so we do a lot of ocean water rescue.  We also have a river rescue team when rivers flood.  We have dive rescue teams, so we can go straight into the water and touch the bottom.  We do a lot of boating rescues also where we put out fires if needed.

What is a typical workweek like for you as a lifeguard?

A typical week is never the same.  It’s typically very active, we do a lot of in-house training, non-stop duty calls, and rescues etc.  But it really depends on the weather, how the water is, and the time of year.

How did you get started?

For me it was straight out of high school and during college it was a part time job.  I was working here in the summers and then would go back to college during the fall and winters.  This is now my 11th full year.

What do you like about what you do?

I like helping the public, whether it is answering a question or saving a life.   Plus, I also like that I’m on the beach in flip-flops and a t-shirt.

What do you dislike?

Maybe the water getting cold in the winter, that is about it.  The water gets real cold.

How do you make money or how are you compensated?

We are hourly employees, so we work a forty-hour workweek and we get paid based on that.

How much money do you make as a lifeguard?

For first timers, they start at about $15 dollars an hour.  Full time, they start at about $22 dollars an hour.

How much did you make starting out as a lifeguard in this career?

When I first started 11 years ago I was only making $10 an hour.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

Basically you just need a high school diploma or a GED.  Then to become an actual lifeguard you need lifeguard training.  So they hire you and put you in lifeguard school and also about forty hours worth of first aid class.

What is the most challenging?

Just trying to stay fit and healthy.  It can be pretty dangerous around the cliffs in the water, so a lot of people get hurt, we are prone to injuries, so it’s challenging to stay in shape and stay healthy.

What is most rewarding?

When you get a thank you from a visitor.  Or when you save someone’s life and get a ‘thank you’ or they give you a hug.  That feels pretty good.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

Train hard, you’ve got to be in pretty great shape, it is a demanding job, and just enjoy helping other people, that is what the job is about.

How much time off do you get/take?

We work five or six days a week depending on what schedule you are on.  You tend to work weekends so you are off Mondays and Tuesdays most of the time.  When you sign up to do this job you know you are not going to have normal weekends like everyone else.

Okay so what is a common misconception that people have about what you do?

Maybe that show Baywatch.   I’m still trying to live that down.

What are your goals or dreams for the future?

Well working here is the dream.  But I want to continue doing my best to make sure that nobody drowns, and just keep helping people out.

What do you do for a living?

I’m a Foreign Service Officer with the State Department of the United States, and I’m currently the American ambassador to five countries in the Pacific Ocean: Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu, and Tonga.

How would you describe what you do?

I’m the U.S. President’s primary representative for all American interests in the part of the world where I’m the ambassador.  That varies from being responsible for taking care of the American citizens and their needs to the issuance of visas, to the discussions about political and economic and trade and commerce issues. We’re also working on the military relationships, dealing with the environment. It’s just the whole range of things.

What does your work entail as an ambassador?

One of the things I like about my job is that every week is going to be different.  I have about 80 or 90 people, local employees and Americans who work for me at the embassy, and each week we have internal meetings to discuss their roles and duties.  I usually have a number of meetings of people from outside the embassy as well, either local folks who have an interest in something economic, political, commercial, or maybe other diplomats or international organization types.  I also do public diplomacy, the last two days I’ve given speeches at different sorts of events trying to make sure that people are well aware that the United States is here, and what our policies are and why we have them.

How did you get started?

I had been doing a variety of things for a number of years into my mid 30s when I realized that I still wanted to be involved in public service, but I didn’t want to continue on with the, kind of, political jobs that I’ve been having, and so I turned to the State Department and it offered a variety of things that I’ve always been interested in such as International Relations.

There are really two ways to get into this.   The way I did it is through the State Department process where you join as a junior officer and you work your way up through the system and about 2/3 of the ambassadors go through that route. For that, you begin by taking a written test that is offered several times a year at a variety of places in the United States and also at embassies all over the world. And then if you pass that test, which is a pretty tough test, then you go on to a day-long assessment that the State Department offers. And if you pass that, you go through medical and security checks. If you pass that, you’ll be put on a list and maybe get employed. It takes about a year to go through the process and there’s no surety to it because there’s a lot of people who start and very few people who get selected in the end. So it’s rigorous. And then you work your way up through the system.

The other way for becoming ambassador is that the White House always chooses a number of ambassadors from its own lists without the State Department connection, and that’s based upon people who have assisted the effort to get the President elected one way or another, or people who are well-known to people in the White House and they figure that they would do a really good job even though they haven’t gone through the State Department system. About a third of the ambassadors are from that side of it as well, so I guess you either go through the bureaucratic process, or you have the good fortune to know somebody who gets elected President.

What do you like about what you do?

I think in part it’s that I do get to move from place to place, learn new skills, gain a new depth of knowledge, test myself in new ways; that keeps me stimulated. And so I enjoy that. There’s a lot of interaction with a variety of peoples around the world. I think that’s good. I think the United States tries to do good works in the world and I’m happy to be part of that.

What do you dislike?

Well, the hardest parts are that you are off somewhere else in the world much of the time. I’ve been with the State Department for 24 and ½ years now, I guess, and probably 17 of those years have been overseas.

And I do have a family. Fortunately, my wife and I really joined as a team, so it’s never been a worry between the two of us. We both like the lifestyle and we both have been satisfied with it. But it’s difficult on kids. When I was growing up, I was from a very small town on Iowa. My grandparents lived next door; my friends from infancy were my friends when I graduated from high school; very stable relationships. My daughter went to four different high schools, and all my kids are going to a series of schools, so they’ve become very strong socially through that.  I think they can deal with practically anything. They’re far more adept at that than I was when I was the same age, but some of the deep-seeded roots are harder to maintain. And also, as parents age, we were a long ways away a lot of the time, and that was very difficult.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

It’s a salary basis, and the salary depends upon what rank you are in the system. It’s a little like the military in a way. It depends on your rank and kind of time and service and how far you’ve proceeded through the system. And then there’s additional compensation. If you are in a very tough place, and even more if you are in a very dangerous place, and more, again, in a very expensive place.

How much money do you make as a US Ambassador?

Well, I won’t say for myself, but I’m now in kind of the senior ranks of the State Department, and I think that it’s publicly listed that the senior salary is ranged from somewhere from $130,000 up to maybe $160,000.

And that’s a lot less than what we would be earning in the private sector, by the way.

Would you say there are any perks to being a US Ambassador?

In addition to the salary, if you are overseas, the State Department provides you housing. And then there’s also a government-subsidized health insurance plan, and you can get government life insurance as well. There is vacation time at about five weeks of vacation a year. If you’re overseas, and if you’re in a tough, difficult place, the State government will pay to fly you to what is called rest and recreation leave occasionally, about once a year. All of those things make life not so bad.

What education or skills are needed to be a US Ambassador?

I don’t think there’s any particular education required for the State Department, but the reality is it’s a highly competitive field, and almost everybody who comes in has at least a college/university degree. Most people have work experience and graduate degrees. It’s great if a person happens to have foreign languages, particularly the tough kind of languages like Arabic or Chinese, Korean, or Japanese. As far as particular educational background, I’m not sure that any particular one is most prominent. A lot of people come in with a political science, economic or history background.   The State Department hires people to do all sorts of things, including management work, councilor, helping American citizens in doing visas, doing public diplomacy, doing political work, doing economic work, so a wide variety of skills and a wide variety of backgrounds.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I guess it’s when things aren’t going so great in your relationship with a country. For instance, right now in Fiji, as you may have noticed when you were visiting, there’s a serious governance problem; so they had a coup about a year ago. The United States has always been unhappy to see coups, and it’s been difficult to work with the post-coup interim government of Fiji, and I think most everyone likes to be at jobs where it’s always a cooperative effort to achieve common goals. It’s much more difficult when you’re dealing with people who don’t share your goals.

Also, the average term for a career State Department person is probably about three years, but we don’t actually have a fixed term. We are at the pleasure of the President, and if the President decided tomorrow that he had enough of me for Fiji and wanted somebody else here, that could happen. And when there’s a Presidential election as will happen next November, a year from now, all of the ambassadors in the world submit their resignations to be accepted if the new President wishes to take them. Usually, the career types are kept on to the end of the three-year tour, but not always, and often the political appointees are turned over because the new President wants to bring in the new people.

What is most rewarding?

Well, one, I’m proud to be an American, and it’s nice to be chosen as the United States senior representative to a foreign country.  It’s a huge honor. But it’s only great if you’re out there trying to do the things that make America proud. And I really like the thought of attempting to encourage democracy and encourage open governance and encourage respect for human rights and encourage the people locally who aspire for those things to keep working for those sorts of thing.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

Well, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. I think the State Department is not for everyone, but if you are inclined to interact with the rest of the world, and if you thrive on moving to new places and doing new things repeatedly, and if you’re okay with government salaries which, given the skill levels, are less than what you could make in the private sector then this could be for you.

How much time off do you get/take?

And a lot of people go overseas for a tour, back to Washington for a tour or two, overseas a tour, back to Washington. It does depend on what kind of work you do; if you’re doing the consular work or the management work there are going to be more opportunities overseas than Washington. In my case, I really love being overseas, so I’ve aimed to be overseas more often, and I probably spend two-thirds of my career overseas.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

Well, particularly here in Fiji, I think the misconception is that I’m sitting on a lovely beach, under a palm tree drinking a pina colada  just partying all the time on diplomatic circuit.  We do real work just like in the States.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Well, I’m probably moving on toward the latter stages of my career. I think I would probably have one more assignment, and then there is a mandatory retirement age at 65. You can retire after you’ve had 20 years in and have reached at least the age of 50.  I’ve always thought that I will keep taking jobs as long as I keep getting offered interesting jobs, and to my great pleasure, I’ve continually been offered interesting jobs. So I look forward to moving on to another interesting job after this and then we’ll see what happens. But when I finally get to retirement I think I’ll deserve it.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your job

I think working for the State Department, not just as an ambassador, can be a very rewarding career. You’re in interesting places, and not always glamorous places, but always in places that have fascinating people and lots to offer.  It’s been a very rewarding career.

What do you do for a living?

My title is Animal Services Superintendent.

How would you describe what you do?

Basically, I’m the director or manager of the animal shelter, and/or animal services, which also encompasses animal control. We have a vet clinic also.

What does your work entail?

I work for a municipal shelter animal shelter. I’m responsible for planning the budget; making sure that we’ve got the money, and where to spend it, and where to put it. I buy vet supplies for the veterinarian too and make sure the officers are going to complaints and calls that people have out there on the street. I have to make sure we have animals up on the floor that have been temperament tested and they’re behaviorally sound. I have to make sure the animals are properly cleaned, and properly fed, and if they’re sick they get treatment. I talk to people when they bring in animals.

…that’s the satisfying thing’s when you see the animals find a home, and you saw what they looked like when they came infested with fleas, infested with tics; and we’ve had to shave them down to their skin because of an irresponsible owner. And then you find it a great home, and that just makes it all worthwhile.

A lot of my duties are trying to educate people: publicity-type stuff, press releases, and educational materials and literature and trying to make people aware of what is responsible pet ownership and how can you make pet overpopulation go away. Spay-neuter; we preach spay and neuter, spay and neuter. We try to come up with programs that will help people. When people bring in a stray there is no charge. When they bring in their own animal to surrender, for whatever reason, there’s no charge. That’s kind of a myth that we charge folks. The adoption includes spay and neuter. We instituted micro-chipping about four or five years ago, so it’s helped us to get animals back to their owners. It’s a permanent form of identification, even if pets lose their tags, and collars, and all that.

I belong to a group called S.A.W.A., which is Society of Animal Welfare Administrators. We all try to work together and figure out what we can do to make pet ownership easier for people, but then, also look at, what people are doing wrong, and what crimes are being committed against animals. So, that’s part of my job, too, is to look at animal cruelty and people that are breaking ordinances.

So, a lot of my job is just really meeting with people, talking to the public, talking to aldermen. We work under the police department so I do answer to the Chief of Police.

A lot of the fun parts is really getting out and talking to the public. Like on Saturday, we were at the farmer’s market and did a rabies and micro-chipping clinic right there on the square. Our full-time vet that we have on staff did rabies shots. So getting out and really talking with the public and trying to help people that have concerns and have problems, is really helpful.

We once had a guy come in and say, you know, we’ve got a doghouse so I need a dog. Well, that’s not a reason to adopt. And so, a lot of times, those are the things that make it tough, because people get angry when we don’t approve you for adoption. And that’s unfortunate that people don’t understand, that we’re not adopting out guard dogs, we’re not adopting out dogs to live in your backyard, or to run down your grass or your weeds. We’re adopting out animals to be your companions; to be part of your family.

You see folks out there that have, little money, pets bring enrichment to their lives. Everybody should be able to have a pet, and we want that. And that’s why we provide some low-cost, low-income type things like our spay-neuter program for just $10. And, we do, every month, have a rabies and booster clinic where it’s $7. Come and get your rabies shots, your booster shots for the year; for both dogs and cats. And so those are things that we try to do to be kind of an outreach source for the public. Of course, we also do education. We go to the schools, we go to different organizations to talk about dog bites, and spay and neutering, you know, I’m going to say spay and neuter as many times as I can. And, you know, all of those things.

And pet overpopulation. Why are we even here? You know, what’s the point? And that’s a quandary that we have. We call ourselves an open admission shelter. Some folks call us a kill shelter. There’s just a huge myth and kind of in society of what is a kill and what is a no-kill shelter, and there’s really not a no-kill shelter. Folks like to think they are sometimes, but a lot of times what happens is if an animal get’s sick, they take it to a vet’s clinic and euthanize it. And we basically do the same thing here. We, unfortunately at times, do have to euthanize adoptable animals. Our adoption rate or reclaim rate is about fifty-two, fifty-three percent. So, out of five thousand animals a year, about two thousand of them are euthanized; twenty four hundred are euthanized. And that’s tragic, and it’s part of the job that is probably different than most peoples’ jobs.

You know, I have to play God a lot, and it’s unfortunate. It’s not something that I prefer to do, but it’s something where it gives you a perspective on life. I think it changes you and, you know, most of the staff that work here will tell you, when you participate in euthanasia and it’s not, one dog here, one dog there. Some days it’s ten dogs. Some days it’s twenty cats. When they just come constant, and there’s no room for them.

We, unfortunately at times, do have to euthanize adoptable animals. Our adoption rate or reclaim rate is about fifty-two, fifty-three percent. So, out of five thousand animals a year, about twenty four hundred are euthanized. And that’s tragic, and it’s part of the job that is probably different than most peoples’ jobs…I have to play God a lot, and it’s unfortunate.

And we can’t say, nope, we’re full, you know, we’re going to have to turn you away. We don’t have that option. We have to take in all of the animals and therefore we’re open admission. Whereas somebody else who calls themselves a no-kill, you know, they can turn people away.  No, we’re full, sorry, you’re going to have to dump it on the side of the road down the street.  Whereas that’s what we don’t want you to do, we don’t you want you to dump it somewhere. So, unfortunately, that means, at times, we have to euthanize.

We try really hard to get them to rescue. We have animals on Pet Finder, so that people, you know, across the country can find dogs and cats. We’ve had dogs go to the homes on the East Coast, the West Coast, south. We’ve had them go north to Canada. We find people who can transport; there’s actually people, and this is something you might be interested in doing is a volunteer who transports. There’s people that actually transport animals and that’s their job across the country. And they do like a two-week type of thing, where they run dogs and cats across the country. I mean, we’re going to great lengths to find great homes, so we don’t have to euthanize.

And we work really hard. We’ve got a volunteer who just flew nine Pit Bull puppies up to Massachusetts in the spring, and he just did another flight. He’s a pilot. There’s a Pit Bull rescue out of Massachusetts so, he takes our Pit Bulls in his private plane so we can get them there. And they have the ability to put them in foster homes and then find them a really good home. You know, breed-specific rescues have that ability, whereas a shelter, we don’t have the time; we don’t have the manpower, we don’t have the time. And so it takes people like volunteers to help us out; to help us transport these animals across the country.

My dreams would be that everyone would spay and neuter! Spay and neuter and that we’ll close this shelter soon.

That makes you feel good, with what you do. And that’s the satisfying thing when you see the animals find a home, and you saw what they looked like when they came in, infested with fleas, infested with tics; we’ve had to shave them down to their skin because of an irresponsible owner. And then you find it a great home, and that just makes it all worthwhile.

Whereas, having to euthanize is a terrible thing, and folks have come to us and called us, every name you can think of, and then we say, well gee, we weren’t the ones that bred those dogs or cats, and my dogs are spayed and neutered. So, how is that my responsibility? And so, it’s very difficult; it’s very hard to do. But it’s a part of the job and anybody that gets into this has to know that it will be part of their job. And if they’re a superintendent, or a director, or a manager, they’re going to be the ones that are going to have to pick and choose and select. They may do it by committee, they may have certain people in the shelter setting that do it, but the ultimate end comes to the director’s desk, and they have to be the ones that decide are those the dogs that we have to euthanize, or the cats that we’re going to euthanize?  We do do behavioral testing so that makes it a little bit easier, because you can see that aggression and go, there’s a liability here, there’s a safety issue, and so we can’t send this dog or this cat, you know, to the adoption floor.  So, at that point we have to euthanize.

How did you get started?

I actually was in college and it was late one night, and you’re like, Oh, God.  And you know, you’re just going through books all of a sudden because you’re so delirious. I’ve always loved animals; we’ve always had animals as a kid. And I kept reading about all this animal experimentation and bad things. And I just went, this is nuts. This is crazy.  And so, you kind of wonder, gee, what can I do to make a difference?  And so I volunteered at some shelters when I was in college, and I did a lot of projects. I was a journalism and a public relations major, and so I did some newsletters and educational material for the local shelters. And it was interesting to see the kind of behind-the-scene stuff while I was writing for the paper.

And I actually rode with an officer one night, and, she showed me euthanasia and how they used to do this was, you know, twenty years ago. And so, it was that vacuum chamber where you stick the animal in and it just basically sucks the air out of them so they can’t breathe. And that was horrid. That was gut-wrenching, yeah. Today, we don’t do it that way. Most states, anyway, don’t do it that way. Most states have it where, you know, it’s an injection of Sodium Pentobarbital, and so the animals just basically go to sleep and they their heart stops beating. And it’s quick; it’s very quick, and very painless. And so, that was appalling to me. That that’s how we were going to, kill basically, the unwanted animals.

And so, I did some more research into that and thought, god, there’s got to be a better way.  Unfortunately, there are some states that still do it that way. Kentucky still does it that way, some folks in Mississippi still. And they have big chambers now, and Tulsa actually still does it that way, although they’re getting away from their gas chamber so.  It’s just a horrifying death, it’s not humane, and people should be appalled by that, really appalled. You want it to be a humane euthanasia, otherwise that’s cruel. And, so anyway, that just really got me into it, and then I went my way.

People think since it’s(adopted pet) had its Front Line, it’s had its booster shots, it’s been spayed or neutered, it’s been micro-chipped, it’s been rabies vaccinated; it’s going to be perfectly healthy for the rest of its life. And then it goes home and it gets sick, and it’s got kennel cough, and you’re going to have to put it on antibiotics. And people are like, What did you give me?  You know, it’s like the perception is still, like, this is property, and this animal is a living, breathing creature, and it’s going to get sick just like your baby does. And that’s why we try to tell people when we do adoption counseling is this is a living creature and we cannot guarantee that it’s not going to get sick; and it’s just like a child. If you were adopting a baby, if it gets sick, are you going to take it back and say, Give me another one?  Are you going to take it to the doctor?

My husband went to work for the city and I saw this job opening and went, you know, I would love that job. That would be a great job. You know, petting the puppies all day long, and oh, that would be so much fun.  Yeah, you know, it wasn’t petting the puppies all day long. But, you know, it was just I just kind of saw it and went, man, that’s, you know, I can do that. I would be so good at that. Really. Give me the job. And, so, you know, luckily they did, and I’ve been fortunate and really pretty grateful ever since.

What do you like about what you do?

It’s the adoption. It’s being able to go out there and see animals rescued, seeing the officers go out there and they look at some horrible situations, you know animals living in filth, starving to death, you know, living on this huge long chain, and she’s got puppies but they give her no food and water, and it’s just devastating when you go out to see that, and you do have those emotions where you just really want to kill these folks. But you have to, you know, try to educate and move on to save the animals and we do have the power to issue citations of course, we do thatand save the animals. And that’s really about getting them out of those situations. And I think that’s really where it makes it all worthwhile; just knowing that you’re helping those animals, getting them out of those situations.

And we work with wildlife a lot, so that’s interesting, too, and it’s interesting to rehabilitate; see a deer, or a hawk, or an owl, you know, recover and let them go, or release them back into the wild so, that’s really cool, too. It’s really ou never know what the day’s going to bring. Never know.

What do you dislike?

It’s the euthanasia. It’s really that and dealing with some folks I guess it’s hard when you come across people who are so closed-minded, and you know you’re not going to get in there. You’re not going to have the opportunity, be it you don’t have the time or they don’t have the time, you’re just in the wrong place to really try to make them understand how this is wrong, how we shouldn’t do it anymore. And dealing with those folks, that just won’t be open-minded to there’s a better way. We don’t have to treat animals like this. We’re not going to adopt them out to you for you to put them on a chain and not feed or water them until you feel like it. We once had a guy come in and say, you know, I’ve got a doghouse so I need a dog.  Well, that’s not a reason to adopt. And so, a lot of times, those are the things that make it tough, and people get angry because there are times when we don’t approve you for adoption. And that’s unfortunate that people don’t understand, that we’re not adopting out guard dogs, we’re not adopting out dogs to live in your backyard, or to run down your grass or your weeds. We’re adopting out animals to be your companions; to be part of your family. And, so, people get angry at that, and it’s unfortunate, you know, and you know, that’s something that we have to look at.

And a lot of times we’ll get the remark, well, you’d just rather kill this dog,or, You’d just rather kill this cat.  I would. I would rather kill a cat than know that you’re going to take it home and let it loose, and not feed it and not water it unless you’re, you know, in the mind to do that, and you possibly might have that money, and then you’re not going to provide vet care if it gets sick, or gets injured; and it’s going to get hit by a car, because it’s not a feral cat, it’s not, you know, it doesn’t know about cars and it’s going to get ran over. Or you’re going to let people, you know, mistreat it, or whatever. So, you know, when folks do say that, you know, nowadays I say, Yeah, I would rather because you’re not going to provide it with the best home or a good home, or even a good life.  But a lot of times that doesn’t happen. A lot of times we find a good home, and I don’t have to kill it. So, you know, that’s the bad one, you know, just knowing that all of this all of the euthanasia could be solved if people would just spay and neuter.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

I work for the city, so I am a city employee. Everybody who works here is a city employee, so we are very lucky. The city pays very well compared to the other surrounding cities. We have good benefits, very good retirement plan, good health insurance, dental insurance, eye insurance, vacations; you know, we get vacation time, we get sick time, we get holidays off, well some of us. People work here year round.

How much money do you make as an Animal Shelter Superintendent?

I started at $35,000 a year, that was six years ago and the city has gone through some changes, and I am now at $69,000 a year. There are some folks just in this area, they’re making $35,000 a year. Some less than that depending on, their shelter size and their staff load. And there are some people in non-profit in different areas that are making over $100,000. So, it really depends on where you are and how many folks and animals you’re responsible for.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

I would say a college degree helps. Some folks have a background in veterinary medicine, animal control, even human medicine, you name it. There’s a lot of different backgrounds, but somewhere along the way the become directors of shelters. And it’s just really you have to be able to deal with numbers; budgets, projections, knowing what you’re going to need, and how much you’re going to need, why you need it. You have to have some, knowledge of animal biology, and animal control, how to work with legislation, ordinances, being able to read some kind of law documents, those type of things.

You also need public relations skills.  I mean, you need to be able to communicate really well with people. You need to be able to write well. You need to be able to manage people well, like I said, if you don’t have a good staff, you’re out of luck.

If you have a passion for animals and you have a passion for animal welfare that’ll get you there. You know, it really will. And a lot of people come up in the ranks, our animal services coordinator, she started as a caregiver and then she was an animal control officer, and then she kind of just worked her way up into admin and, you know, working with the budget, and that type of stuff, and, you know, managing people. Those are just those are skills that you’re going to need.

What is most challenging about what you do?

I think, really, being able to juggle all of the things that occur in a day. And so it’s really hard to try to get all of my processing done of check requests, and bills paid we’re needing a new roof or we’re needing a new ceiling, or the incinerator is broke, or the air conditioner is not working, or the officer’s truck broke down. And so, you’re constantly trying to juggle those priorities. Somebody’s mad at the volunteer coordinator, so the volunteers are going to quit.

So it’s really just juggling everything at once and still finding time to make a difference.

What is most rewarding?

I think just really looking at animals that you’ve seen at their worst. You’ve seen them come in, they’re skin and bones, they have no hair, they’re infested with fleas and tics, and we provide everything that they need for, and they thrive. I mean, you know, it’s sad to say, the shelter is the best that they’ve ever seen it. Being in a shelter setting and they’re thriving, and they’re on the adoption floor, and you’re spending time with them. And just, when you look into that animal’s eyes and you know that they’re grateful, and where they’ve been. I often say,  You know, if they could only tell us. I think anybody who is as sensitive to animals, I think we’d be in an insane asylum because what they would be able to tell us of about their life would be so devastating, and heart-wrenching, that we wouldn’t be able to handle it. But just looking in their eyes and seeing, how grateful they are, and how this is, going to change their life.

And then they go home and we get updates. I love the people who update us. They’ll send us pictures, they’ll e-mail, Hi, I just want you to know, Suzy looks like this now.  Or they’ll come by. And we really make a point at those times to call the staff up and say,  Hey, you know, Bruno’s back. Come and see him.  And the owners are, this is the best dog I’ve ever had. This is the greatest do.  We’ve had a cat that saved somebody’s life that was adopted here, and we had one dog that he was this little mutt-y terrier mix that actually played the dog in Annie at a local theatre just recently. And so she sent us pictures. Those are the type of things that are just throws you over the moon and you’re just like, I’m good, I’m good for another six months. I can handle it.

That’s really it for us, and that’s what drives all of us, is just being able to see those successes and know that we’ve saved that animal and put him in a great home. And they’re loved and cared for and so that’s really what it amounts to, is just, that it’s all about self- satisfaction. I mean, we’re self we’re really selfish people here. It’s like, Give us more. That’s so cool, yeah. And that’s really it.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

A career in animal welfare, is an emotional roller coaster ride. You have to learn to be able to be calm and not take things personally. You cannot put your heart on your sleeve. You just can’t do it. You’ve got to have a thick skin and you have to be determined. You cannot give up. You just do it for your love of the animals. If you don’t have a love for animals and you think it’s just, oh, you know, I can make fifteen bucks an hour as an animal control officer. I’m going to go do that.  That is not the approach, because if you don’t care about animals, you’re not going to make it.

How much time off do you get/take?

Not a lot. Well, you know, you do get it, it’s just a matter of taking it. Right now, I think I’ve got over two hundred and fifty hours of vacation that I haven’t taken. I need to work on that, because it’s important to get away every once in a while.

The city gives us two weeks a year. After, I think, you’ve been here ten years, you get three weeks a year. And so that’s really nice. That’s a good thing. It’s just finding the time to take it and being able to do that.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

It’s hard for people to get a good grip on, why should I adopt from a shelter? Why should I adopt from your shelter?  I mean, there’s a wide range of diversity. Every shelter is different.

Anyone can be called a humane society, anyone can be an animal shelter, and there’s relatively no oversight. So some peoples’ experience with an animal shelter is great, and others would never even think about adopting from one.

So combating people’s pre-conceived opinions is difficult sometimes.

If you looked at our shelter and then you went to the shelter down the street, it’s not the same. Our policies are not the same, our adoption prices are not the same; what we give you is not the same as what they give you. Spay and neuter is included with us; we have a vet on staff. There’s only two other shelters in this state that have a vet on staff. One’s in Little Rock and one’s in Sebastian County. So, you’re not going to get the same experience. And so, trying to, make people understand that, that’s the first problem. And the second problem is they expect that that dog or cat they get from you, that you’ve done everything to it. They think since it’s had its Front Line, it’s had its booster shots, it’s been spayed or neutered, it’s been micro-chipped, it’s been rabies vaccinated; it’s going to be perfectly healthy for the rest of its life. And then it goes home and it gets sick, and it’s got kennel cough, and you’re going to have to put it on antibiotics. And people are like,What did you give me? You know, it’s like the perception is still, like, this is property, and this animal is a living, breathing creature, and it’s going to get sick just like your baby does. And that’s why we try to tell people when we do adoption counseling is this is a living creature and we cannot guarantee that it’s not going to get sick; and it’s just like a child. If you were adopting a baby, if it gets sick, are you going to take it back and say, give me another one?  Are you going to take it to the doctor?

And so, that’s part of trying to get the word out and trying to get vets, kind of on board too, that are out there to say, You know, this is a shelter dog and they didn’t know where it came from, or (da da da da).  And a lot of times you get a vet that says, Oh, my God! You adopted from a shelter? What were you thinking?! This dog is disease-ridden. Get it out of here.  So, nobody’s on the same page, and so you know, if people actually make it to our door, that’s a huge hurdle we’ve just gone over.

And so you have to make sure that the staff is welcoming and they’re friendly, and we’re answering their questions and getting them everything that they need to know, and sometimes it’s just an overload. They go back there and they look at, you know, forty dogs and they’re like, Oh, man, that’s too many for me. You know, I can’t handle this.  Or they look at the cats and they just in the back of their mind, well, if I don’t give them a home, they’re going to be euthanized. So you have to get over all of those hurdles, and it’s a miracle we adopt out any, actually. When it comes right down to it, it’s a friggin miracle. And so, you’ve got to be appreciative to those people. And we try, we try really hard, but there are so many other things that we have going on around us that sometimes they don’t get their proper, you know, everything they need to know.

I have to say there’s a lot of organizations out there that are trying to help. Like Science Diet, they provide us our food for free. The only thing I have to pay for is the shipping and handling. And so, every adopter gets a free bag sent home with them. And that’s to try to get them on that good, nutritional food, so that we know they’re eating well.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My dreams would be that everyone would spay and neuter! Spay and neuter and that we’ll be able to close this shelter soon.

What do you do for a living?

I’m the county tax collector.

How would you describe what you do?

My job is to collect ad valorem taxes on real estate and personal property. And ad valorem means a percentage of a value. The value comes from the assessor. She gives me a value, I put the millage rate against it, and I collect that amount on real estate and on personal property and on business.

What does your work entail?

I’m responsible for this office and two satellites offices. My job entails personnel issues, time issues, I also go to associational meetings. Right now, we’re putting in a new computer software system which is taking up a whole lot of our time.

[the misconception is] that we’re a little bit ruthless…we’re not necessarily ruthless, we want to call it consistent. I treat everybody alike: rich, poor, whatever. I’m here to serve the people of this county…I just do my job here. I come to work and go home like everybody else.

My number one job is to make sure that we’re collecting taxes and collecting the right amount, and then we disburse it. I have to make sure the taxes were collected at the correct millage rate for the right schools, and for each school district, and the city and county. Eighty percent of the funds goes to schools, ten percent goes to cities, and about ten percent goes to the counties.

How did you get started?

I began on the quorum court. I was on the quorum court for 8 years when this job kind of opened and I had to make a decision.

The quorum court was taking so much of my time I had to either get in or get out of politics. I enjoyed county government, and this job came open, so I ran for the position and got it 6-1/2 years ago.

What do you like about what you do?

I like working with county government. It is really unique, you meet a lot of statewide officials, we all do the same things because state government is just a collection of what the county government does. It’s really unique. I guess one of my big jobs is you deal with the odd things that come along, and it’s these problems that come along that challenge you most. We deal with bankruptcies and we deal with delinquent people that won’t pay. We also use the county attorney. He will file liens against these people, and we can have personal property sales to get the taxes paid. We can also sell businesses if someone is delinquent, but everyone usually pays so we haven’t had any real sales yet.

What do you dislike about being a tax collector?

Sometimes you find people with hardship cases, like poor little ladies on fixed incomes come in and say, My taxes have went up. How am I going to pay for it? . You hate to hear these stories and they’re heart-wrenching a lot of times. You’ll hear, My husband died and I didn’t know if the land is going to be sold at auction, and they’re trying to come up with money and ask Can I please just wait?. And I’m in a position where I have to work by the law. Which I’m glad, I’m kind of glad that I got a law that I have to work with and that’s the final determining factor. So, even though my heart goes out to these people, and it tears you up sometimes, but you have to go ahead and send those to the cases to the State. We do work with businesses who can’t pay and we will set up a payment plan for them. And as they pay off their delinquents and catch up and are current, we will give them their clearance. And they may not be fully paid up, but as long as we’ve set up an agreement, which is a signed notarized agreement and they make these payments, then we’d work with them and then they’d catch up over a period of hopefully around one year. Some of them may have to go beyond that. But we try and work with people to get paid up.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

I’m on a salary.

How much money do you make as a tax collector?

It is now somewhere in the neighborhood of 70,000 a year.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

It doesn’t require necessarily a college education. I don’t have a college education, but I had a background in business when I went into the quorum court. To do it nowadays you really just need some computer skills.

What is most challenging about what you do?

The challenging thing about this job is trying to get information from the assessor and getting all the information the right time of the year. There’s always hold ups, there’s always lawsuits, there’s always things that have be taken care of quickly. Because we get real busy at certain times in the year.

What is most rewarding?

To me it’s very rewarding that we can handle so many people that will pay the last week of the year, and most people are coming in here later and later, closer to the last day to pay October 10th. So the fact that I’m responsible for having a system and personnel that can handle that high volume is very rewarding.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

You need to know Excel, Word, and Access, and just be familiar with your computer in general. You need to really work in some area of bookkeeping or accounting, because that’s what we are, bookkeepers for the county. We keep records. We collect money. It would be good to either work in the office or work in county government. It also helps having experience dealing with personnel issues. I’m constantly having to hire and replace people, so knowing how to hire good people is very important.

How much time off do you get/take?

I’ve seminars and schools that I’m constantly attending, but as far as personal time it’s usually around two weeks per year.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

That we’re a little bit ruthless. But we’re not necessarily ruthless, we want to call it consistent. I treat everybody alike: rich, poor, whatever. I’m here to serve the people of this county. And some people are a little bit, you know, I got to go to see the tax collector. I go to church and he’s the mean old tax collector, whatever. It’s kind of a misconception and I just do my job here. I come to work and go home like everybody else.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

My goal is very simple. I’m right now putting in a new software system. I’m trying to get everything on the computer. My goals would be that you can go online and see the delinquent taxes that’s another way of encouraging people to pay delinquent taxes, be putting their names online. I think I’m looking for being here another six, eight years, and then retire.

What do you do for a living?

Business Dean and Professor of Business.

How would you describe what you do?

I basically manage the college.

What does your work entail?

It ranges considerably. I’m on the road a whole lot. I work a lot of nights, a lot of weekends. It’s definitely more than a full time job. It entails a blend of both internal and external activities. Internal to the college, internal to the university, and then external dealing with alums and friends of the college, donors to be specific.

How did you get started?

There was a lot of serendipity to it. When I was an undergraduate, I never had any clue that I would get a Ph.D., much less, go down this particular trail. Careers have life cycles, and it was just when I came to various forks in the road that I took those particular forks and I ended up at this node, if you will. I think I was a fairly typical of undergraduate students at the time, and this goes back to the Vietnam War. After I got my undergraduate degree, I was a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army for a while in the Medical Service Corp. When I got out, I pursued a Master’s degree and that’s when I really began to think that this might be for me. Prior to my military service, I really hadn’t thought about that much. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I was pretty young but I enjoyed the Master’s program and I had some professors that encouraged me to continue my education and then one thing led to another.

What do you like about being a college dean?

I like the variety. Like tomorrow for instance, I’ll have a meeting with all the Department Chairs in the morning and then immediately after that I’ll hop a plane to St. Louis where I’ll attend a meeting. Then I come back early the next morning and I’ll hop another plane to San Francisco and meet with the University’s San Francisco Alumni Society. So, you just never know. It’s a lot of fun.

What do you dislike?

I think it’s being in a large bureaucratic organization. It’s not like being an entrepreneur where you can make rapid decisions. They’re more hurdles to jump, so that tends to slow things down. The good news about it though is that it highly encourages involvement. There’s a lot of participation in decision making. That’s probably a good thing, but on the other hand, it does slow things down.

How do you make money/or how are you compensated?

There’s a national market for Deans. When you come in from the outside the university as a new Dean, there’s a market and your salary depends on your record up to that point. It depends on the kind of school that you’re going to. Like is it a baccalaureate only university? Is it a Master’s, an undergraduate? Is it a Ph.D., a Master’s, and undergraduate? Where does it fit in the overall constellation of universities? Is it a public, is it a private? If it’s a public, is it a top 25 public? If it’s a private, is it an elite private? All of those things factor into the compensation package. So then, based upon where you personally fit and what type of university that is that you’re going to, and what discipline you’re in because Liberal Arts Deans tend not to make as much as Engineering Deans, Engineering Deans tend not to make as much as Medical School Deans. All of those things are thrown into the hopper and something spits out at the end.

How much money do you make as a dean?

In the range of $250,000 to $320,000. And then if you are at Harvard, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern, those kind of elite private, if you are at a school like that and you are the Dean in this particular discipline, probably you’re compensation is at least $400,000 for 12 months. And there’s all kinds of different packages out there. Does this person get a car allowance? Do they get a housing allowance? Do they get an entertainment allowance? Do they get a country club membership? Do they get all these kinds of things? And the reason that those things are included is that Deans in this discipline are boundary spanners, and they spend a considerable amount of time interacting with others. This particular college raised $44 million last year, that’s a lot of money. And that’s necessary for us to be successful. So, somebody’s got to be out there raising those dollars, so naturally you have to do a lot of entertaining and traveling.

What education or skills are needed to do this?

There are two ways that it can be done. One is through a purely academic way where someone has an undergraduate degree, has a Master’s degree and has a Ph.D. in the appropriate discipline, and he or she also has a proven track record of performance over time. Typically, they have a record that merits full professor rank at the particular university, and that’s not easy to have a record that merits that at a university like this. I think the best candidates have a proven record of increased administrative responsibilities over time. So, you may have started out as an MBA Director, then you became a Department Chair, then you were Assistant Dean, then maybe you were Associate Dean and so forth to become Dean. On the other hand, sometimes you might have someone that becomes the Dean of a school that has a different track record of having nationally renowned business success. They may be a former CEO of a major company and it also just so happens that they have at least a Master’s degree, maybe even a Ph.D. But, they haven’t been in academia, they haven’t been teaching and researching and all of that. They have been following their career. Sometimes, those people become Deans.

What is most challenging about being a college dean?

I would say that the most difficult aspect is escalating and ever changing expectations of multiple stakeholders over time. You have students, faculty, staff, you have alums, you have senior administrators, you have competitors, you have donors, you have employers, and so they expect more and more. And what they expect may not be a particular segment of that stakeholder. Their set of expectations may not be consistent with what another group has. And so you can’t both jump and sit still at the same time. You can’t please everybody at the same time. That’s probably the most difficult part.

What is most rewarding?

When you feel that you’ve made a difference. Particularly if you’ve hired a good faculty member that you feel that would make a difference for the college, or you promote someone that’s outstanding, or you started a new program that seems to work. Things like that are fun.

What advice would you offer someone considering this career?

I would say that it would be unlikely that someone would consider being a Dean, at least as an undergraduate. I think it’s something that just has more of an evolutionary process. If someone becomes a professor first, and then he or she gets tenure second, then if someone wants to cross over to the dark side of administration, maybe they would consider it.

How much time off do you get/take?

Deans are, for the most part, considered 12-month employees. This is a regular person job, this isn’t like a university job, you don’t get semester breaks. You might get a couple of days off for Christmas or Thanksgiving, things of that nature. But except for those few circumstances and designated state holidays you just get vacation time. I have a lot of time built up that I haven’t taken and I’m sure I’ll never take it.

What is a common misconception people have about what you do?

I think a lot of people are not sure what a Dean does. They don’t know if the Dean is the same thing as the Chancellor, or the President, or the Provost. There is some confusion about that. Internally, there’s no problem, but externally, I think a lot of people that aren’t in the academy so to speak, are a little lost.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

I hope that this particular college continues on its very positive trajectory. It’s made great strides. So, I hope that we can keep that momentum going, and I hope that we can do some new things as well. We’re starting a program in China in January and and we’re excited about that. And we started a new undergraduate program that provides undergraduates with a series of activities that we think will broaden their education beyond the classroom and it will help them in their retention. We hope that will lead them to stay here longer and to succeed.

What do you do for a living?

Police Detective

How would you describe what you do?

Investigate crimes against people and/or property (Burglary, Homocide, Forgery, Rape, Criminal Mischief)

What does your work entail?

Typing reports in office/speaking to victim’s via phone/attempt to locate/arrest suspects

What do you like about what you do?

Arresting suspects and bringing them to justice. Defending people that need help. Great feeling when you get a confession about a crime that you did not have a lot of evidence on, and you ended up arresting suspect.

What do you dislike?

I don’t like when the suspect/perp/thug gets away. Whether that is winning in court or slipping away during a chase…Or knowing that suspect/perp/thug committed a crime, but can not prove it.

What skills and education would someone need to follow this career path?

Highschool education and passion for defending people and catching criminals. Action packed job at times.

How do you make money? I don’t make any money…that is for the government and people that commit crimes. People from the city pay taxes and it goes to the city. The city turns and makes a paycheck then I deposit it into my checking account.

How much money do you make? $60,000. That is with overtime.

How much time off do you get?

Max vacation is 240 hrs…also get 100 comp hours…and 240 sick time. You get so many hours per week.

What is most challenging about what you do?

Reports

What is most rewarding?

Helping somebody…(Whether that is arresting a rape suspect, solving a Theft) very rewarding

What is the biggest misconception people have about what you do?

Having quotas

What advice would you offer someone considering this career/job?

Be a good citizen.

What are your goals/dreams for the future?

Climbing the ranks in the department…Chief, Captain, or Sgt. etc…

Is there anything else you would like people to know about what you do?

NO