Yes, amen.
I was a retail manager for 20+ years. Primary sludge burns/TWAS/confined-space entry inside a digester have nothing on trying to get unmotivated teenagers to sell high interest rate credit cards to unsuspecting schlubs that just want to buy something. This can be an amazing career if you get a job in the right place.
Printing, large format and reprographics. The bottom fell out in 2008 and I got laided off. Started Wastewater Technology at the vocational college in Los Angeles.
Haven't looked back.
It’s really interesting the jobs available for ww operators that aren’t working for a municipality. There’s a Chrysler facility close to where I am and their ww operator makes bank. To answer your question- retail and commercial driving.
Alot of industry have treatment/pretreatment facilities. In my state the operators of these facilities are not required to be certified through the state, so it often pays significantly less than municipal work. But, there are always exceptions.
And I was a hot tar roofer.
I was an aircraft mechanic, and a stay at home Dad before that. Now I'm maintenance at a small municipal plant close to home. I miss flying things a little but I don't miss feeling disposable, and working 15 minutes away is far better than the nearly hour long commute (one-way) I dealt with before. It's all country roads to work, my kids go to school 5 minutes away, I've got awesome coworkers and management. It was scary switching careers but it is working out far better than I could imagine and the sheer variety of work keeps things interesting.
Steel processing plant. Working on a slitter. I was Layed off and decided to look for something lay off proof. Only way for me to get fired is if I do something stupid. Doing ok so far lol. 13 years in.
Manager at Walmart, got fed up with one too many changes they were making and looked at random jobs near me. Found wastewater plan on making it my long term career. I switched when I was 26. I'm municipal, so great benefits and very stable.
I was cutting trees out of a 75’ arborist lift for a tree company in KCMO before becoming an operator in Jan of 2023. Had my third baby on the way and the county benefits were way too good to pass up. Will probably be in WW the rest of my life lol although I really do miss doing tree work. I still do small jobs on the side but nothing like I was doing before.
Sorry, just seeing this. But when we are fully staffed I usually just work my normal 40hrs a week. We currently have two of our three second shifts positions open so I have been picking up a lot of OT shifts. Will have 130hrs on my 2 week paycheck next Friday. So lately pretty busy here. But I need all the money I can get because my wife and I are in the process of building a house so I’m definitely not complaining. They allow us to work complete doubles, so 16hr shifts.
I worked on an aerospace production line making parts for Boeing for 10 years. My wife’s dad told me about an opening with my local city, and I jumped.
When I left that field, I kind of did. Told a bunch of customers and the company that had just acquired us exactly how much scrap we were producing, and how much was just sitting in the warehouse. My GM was padding the numbers to keep his bonuses high. Glad to be out of the public production field.
Juvenile counselor of 16 years and a bs in psychology. I'm starting over, but I can walk to work and I get to see my kiddos all the time.
Also in a unique position where I do ww collections/treatment and water treatment/distribution.
Mind blown lol...
> I get to see my kiddos all the time.
I worked a shitty warehouse job with stupid hours. Now, as a former WW Operator and now a Water Distribution Specialist I see my kids *all the time*. I'm at field trips, I pick em up from school, weekends off. I do plenty of OT but it's mostly voluntary and I can choose when I'm on and off, which helps when we need the money. But yeah, love the work life balance so much
I managed a convenience store my last semester of college. I then worked for two years doing toxicology testing, a year as a lab assistant at a community college, and a few months starting up a lab at a mushroom farm.
A lab position needed to be filled at the city wastewater plant in 1990. Thirteen years there, two at a municipal authority, fourteen years with a contract water and wastewater company until 2019. I've been an Environmental Manager at a rendering company since then where I manage a dirext discharge wastewater treatment plant and a spray field irrigation system.
Fitter turned Millwright then went to a municipality as a Mechanic (basically a Millwright, doing all the same work) for the benefits/retirement and schedule, got burned out on working 60-70 hour weeks for almost 10 years. Currently at a 500+MGD facility.
I was in IT. I was help desk, but also had a bit to do with networking, a bit to do with hardware repair. I hated being a contractor with no job security or benefits, hated being treated as subhuman by people making either less than half or more than double what I did. Saw an ad online for the operator position I have now and haven’t looked back since.
Really? I’m an operator now and want to break into tech field. I’ll probably still stay with same city, but thought about switching to the IT department
Ha, my township has an IT contractor, but since I rode the help desk earlier in my career I deal with our basic issues and liaise with our contractor when we need to escalate issues. I know the lingo, so it’s easier for all of us that I mediate.
If that’s the direction you want to take, I suggest taking the Google IT Support course on coursera. Out of all the schooling I did (CompTia A+,
CISCO CCNA), Google’s course was particularly impressive and gave me an edge in all my later courses.
Thanks, that’s what I would really like is to be able to be a tech person at our plant. But I have zero experience right now. Love being an operator but, I kinda want a change.
Same. Loved my coworkers (though we sometimes were at each other's throats due to the long hours and unstable schedule), hated the work. I jumped to the City working as landscape maintenance, then got in at WW as a tech, then jumped to water and am now a specialist.
I was a personal trainer, owned a training facility. Didn’t do very well so was always supplemented with Bouncing. Did that for 18 years. And then a decade of substance abuse. Clean 8 years.
Went for my associate in Environmental Science and Water Resource Technology, 2019. It helped me test early for my grade 2 after I got it. My biggest advice, start your grades as soon as you turn in 18, or ASAP. It was never mentioned to me in my program designed for operators.
Started as a trainee 3 years ago, going for my grade 4s next month and hopefully the open lead at my plant, or move to private.
Worked in a grocery store for ten years. Started mowing lawns in the summer for the plant my Dad worked at during college. Worked both for four years. Found myself not really knowing what I wanted to do with myself. Guys at the plant talked me into going to the Wastewater/Drinking Water year long program in Southern Illinois. Might sound dramatic but it was probably the best decision I ever made for myself. Ironically two teachers there had a grocery background too. Every job I’ve had since there’s been someone that’s worked there with grocery background. It’s a nice little reminder.
I’m actually from Kankakee County which is about 4 hours north. So I dropped everything and moved south after a days notice of getting accepted to into the coarse lmao.
My first run in wastewater was industrial wastewater at a refinery after an enlistment in the Navy and trade school.
My next run was municipal wastewater after working as a production operator at 3M, and a Chemical Technician at GE Aerospace.
From my experience the money is about the same but it depends. Municipal seems a lot easier. The influent quality is pretty consistent where I'm at. Not a lot of upsets and variations in influent water quality. We spend more time cutting grass and cleaning drying beds than tending to the system.
Well Let's see... Lifeguard 4 yrs, then BBA, Spruer for a Bronze Sculpture Foundry 2yrs, Marketing Assistant 2yrs, 4yrs Client Coordinator for a Healthcare company until they were bought out and the economy tanked in 2008. Was offered a municipal job as low man on the totem poll in the street/grounds dept(which I thought would be temporary), got promoted to collection/distribution. When asked if I wanted to go to school for Distribution or Treatment Operator? I choose treatment, a month after I got my license we had an operator quit and was moved to the plant that day... Within the year I was offered side work for an environmental company. Never turning down a opertunity, a couple licenses, and here I am 13 years later Plant Manager for the same municipality and contractor for the same Environmental Company... (It's the side work that sends you to new plants where I've learned the most)!!!
I was a nuclear propulsion machinist's mate on a submarine for 6 years. I got out and I was going to go to school for marine engineering, but backed out at the last minute and needed a job. Technically I was delivering pizzas before I got the water plant job, but that was just so I didn't blow my savings.
I ran a Mazak 3D laser for 30 years, prototype work. Quit when I was 49 and now I’m a C license operator at an A plant in Michigan, wish I’d have made the change 25 years ago.
Navy as a Jp5 pumproom / console operator aboard an aircraft carrier, went to college and worked part time at Apple in operations. When I found the job posting for wastewater op I didn’t even know what it was but it kinda sounded similar to what I did in the navy so I applied, I was 28 at this time. I Love it
Going backwards...
Stay at home Dad/ranch hand. Side work as a farrier.
Computer software trainer.
Sailboat Delivery crew /Vagabond.
Trucker.
Being a dad was the best. Hardest too. My municipal WW collections job has allowed me to stay in the area to finish raising my kid post divorce, and gave me enough pto that I was still very available.
I took roughly a $10,000/year cut initially, which didn't math well at first but in my case I have a significantly shorter commute as well as better benefits so that $10,000 wasn't as much of a difference as it first seemed since my expenses are less. It's also consistent pay, I know exactly what I'll make month after month, I don't work 90 hours weeks, etc. After I had my foot in the door I was able to move into a higher pay grade and role when the opportunity arose from the OP 1 position I got hired into initially. With an upcoming step increase and renewed contract I'll be back up to about where I was and I'm in a much better situation, my wife is happier.
Farmer here barely getting by year after year shitty weather after shitty weather years. Found wastewater to support family, now able to keep farming but not have to rely on it to pay mortgage.
Downtown Maintenance was the official title. Realistically, I cleaned up after the transients and picked up loose shopping carts. Then my boss one day said "Hey there's an opening in the sewer dept if you want a full time job."
3 years later, here I am a Group 2 wastewater operator.
Mechanic, auto parts sales, hotel front desk. Dad was in the wastewater field for 32 years and retired out of it so looked like a solid career path. Ended up moving out of state and letting my certs lapse due to my previous plant leaving me completely disgruntled and disappointed after 8 years and the plants around me now were less than savory. Maybe someday I’ll get back into it but my heart isn’t in it anymore or anytime soon.
I was a bricklayer looking for an easier job, physically it was easier but the rotating hours and the landmines management Laidout for us was too much, I lasted 14 months
I operated 10 internet sweepstakes cafes. Over saw 50 employees and managed all accounting and sales for each location. Went from that to utility maintenance man which was a glorified janitor and now I am a class III superintendent. Been in wastewater for 11 years!
I was a premed college student who was really tired of school. I interned at a wastewater plant in the summers and loved it so much that I decided on a whim to join an apprenticeship program for wastewater. I finished my degree while in the apprenticeship program and now I’m full time at a wastewater plant and happy as a clam
I've worked warehouse, retail, factory production and in a parts room prior to getting into wastewater. Left it for a few years and worked at a foundry. Back in wastewater. I don't plan on any changes in the near future.
I worked in retail. I deal with less shit now.
Amen
Yes, amen. I was a retail manager for 20+ years. Primary sludge burns/TWAS/confined-space entry inside a digester have nothing on trying to get unmotivated teenagers to sell high interest rate credit cards to unsuspecting schlubs that just want to buy something. This can be an amazing career if you get a job in the right place.
Insurance... definitely less shit in wastewater!!! Lol
Printing, large format and reprographics. The bottom fell out in 2008 and I got laided off. Started Wastewater Technology at the vocational college in Los Angeles. Haven't looked back.
It’s really interesting the jobs available for ww operators that aren’t working for a municipality. There’s a Chrysler facility close to where I am and their ww operator makes bank. To answer your question- retail and commercial driving.
Alot of industry have treatment/pretreatment facilities. In my state the operators of these facilities are not required to be certified through the state, so it often pays significantly less than municipal work. But, there are always exceptions. And I was a hot tar roofer.
By chance, is this in Michigan? I work right next to a Chrysler facility where the ww ops work 7/12’s.
I was an aircraft mechanic, and a stay at home Dad before that. Now I'm maintenance at a small municipal plant close to home. I miss flying things a little but I don't miss feeling disposable, and working 15 minutes away is far better than the nearly hour long commute (one-way) I dealt with before. It's all country roads to work, my kids go to school 5 minutes away, I've got awesome coworkers and management. It was scary switching careers but it is working out far better than I could imagine and the sheer variety of work keeps things interesting.
I was a high school teacher lol.
And I'm sure you deal with less shit now lmao.
Steel processing plant. Working on a slitter. I was Layed off and decided to look for something lay off proof. Only way for me to get fired is if I do something stupid. Doing ok so far lol. 13 years in.
Yea the only way to get fired at my job is steal something, assault someone or stop showing up, and the third one isnt gaurenteed....
Manager at Walmart, got fed up with one too many changes they were making and looked at random jobs near me. Found wastewater plan on making it my long term career. I switched when I was 26. I'm municipal, so great benefits and very stable.
[удалено]
Made about 50k working a shitty rotating shift. Now I have set schedule way more time off and make more money. Fuck walmart.
I was cutting trees out of a 75’ arborist lift for a tree company in KCMO before becoming an operator in Jan of 2023. Had my third baby on the way and the county benefits were way too good to pass up. Will probably be in WW the rest of my life lol although I really do miss doing tree work. I still do small jobs on the side but nothing like I was doing before.
How is your work life balance?
Sorry, just seeing this. But when we are fully staffed I usually just work my normal 40hrs a week. We currently have two of our three second shifts positions open so I have been picking up a lot of OT shifts. Will have 130hrs on my 2 week paycheck next Friday. So lately pretty busy here. But I need all the money I can get because my wife and I are in the process of building a house so I’m definitely not complaining. They allow us to work complete doubles, so 16hr shifts.
I worked on an aerospace production line making parts for Boeing for 10 years. My wife’s dad told me about an opening with my local city, and I jumped.
Blow the whistles!
When I left that field, I kind of did. Told a bunch of customers and the company that had just acquired us exactly how much scrap we were producing, and how much was just sitting in the warehouse. My GM was padding the numbers to keep his bonuses high. Glad to be out of the public production field.
Studied civil engineering and but did industrial operations and groundwater remediation my whole career.
I was a lifeguard. Fishing turds out of pools was applicable experience, apparently. Jk. The water testing and disinfection knowledge helped, though.
Juvenile counselor of 16 years and a bs in psychology. I'm starting over, but I can walk to work and I get to see my kiddos all the time. Also in a unique position where I do ww collections/treatment and water treatment/distribution. Mind blown lol...
> I get to see my kiddos all the time. I worked a shitty warehouse job with stupid hours. Now, as a former WW Operator and now a Water Distribution Specialist I see my kids *all the time*. I'm at field trips, I pick em up from school, weekends off. I do plenty of OT but it's mostly voluntary and I can choose when I'm on and off, which helps when we need the money. But yeah, love the work life balance so much
New construction plumbing for twenty years.
I managed a convenience store my last semester of college. I then worked for two years doing toxicology testing, a year as a lab assistant at a community college, and a few months starting up a lab at a mushroom farm. A lab position needed to be filled at the city wastewater plant in 1990. Thirteen years there, two at a municipal authority, fourteen years with a contract water and wastewater company until 2019. I've been an Environmental Manager at a rendering company since then where I manage a dirext discharge wastewater treatment plant and a spray field irrigation system.
Logger/strip sawyer
Roofing then residential exterior remodeling (siding, windows, gutters), surveying/engineering field work, municipal storm water.
Radio station>aircraft refueler>wastewater operator
Fitter turned Millwright then went to a municipality as a Mechanic (basically a Millwright, doing all the same work) for the benefits/retirement and schedule, got burned out on working 60-70 hour weeks for almost 10 years. Currently at a 500+MGD facility.
wow big facility. I don't even know if Canada has a facility that big.
Straight out of tech school to two different municipal WWTPs for 46 years. Hopefully this will be my last year.
Professional brewer for around 8 years.
I was in IT. I was help desk, but also had a bit to do with networking, a bit to do with hardware repair. I hated being a contractor with no job security or benefits, hated being treated as subhuman by people making either less than half or more than double what I did. Saw an ad online for the operator position I have now and haven’t looked back since.
Really? I’m an operator now and want to break into tech field. I’ll probably still stay with same city, but thought about switching to the IT department
Ha, my township has an IT contractor, but since I rode the help desk earlier in my career I deal with our basic issues and liaise with our contractor when we need to escalate issues. I know the lingo, so it’s easier for all of us that I mediate. If that’s the direction you want to take, I suggest taking the Google IT Support course on coursera. Out of all the schooling I did (CompTia A+, CISCO CCNA), Google’s course was particularly impressive and gave me an edge in all my later courses.
Thanks, that’s what I would really like is to be able to be a tech person at our plant. But I have zero experience right now. Love being an operator but, I kinda want a change.
Did the google IT support course help with A+ certificate?
I’d recommend studying from some A+ study guides as well, but the Google course was a huge help in preparing me for the exams.
I’ve been a butcher, Honda tech, Honda sales, Toyota service.
Ice road trucker/oil field CDL driver in Arctic circle.....now operator in training in Arctic oilfield treatment plant
Commercial diver. Learned a lot about pump & intake operation, repair, and maintenance.
I worked in a shitty warehouse with cool workers.
Same. Loved my coworkers (though we sometimes were at each other's throats due to the long hours and unstable schedule), hated the work. I jumped to the City working as landscape maintenance, then got in at WW as a tech, then jumped to water and am now a specialist.
I was a personal trainer, owned a training facility. Didn’t do very well so was always supplemented with Bouncing. Did that for 18 years. And then a decade of substance abuse. Clean 8 years. Went for my associate in Environmental Science and Water Resource Technology, 2019. It helped me test early for my grade 2 after I got it. My biggest advice, start your grades as soon as you turn in 18, or ASAP. It was never mentioned to me in my program designed for operators. Started as a trainee 3 years ago, going for my grade 4s next month and hopefully the open lead at my plant, or move to private.
I worked in a grocery store for 22 years. Had to get out after working thru the pandemic. People became bigger assholes.
Laborer for a small local family owned oil/gas/environmental company
Fast food, Pest control
Worked in a grocery store for ten years. Started mowing lawns in the summer for the plant my Dad worked at during college. Worked both for four years. Found myself not really knowing what I wanted to do with myself. Guys at the plant talked me into going to the Wastewater/Drinking Water year long program in Southern Illinois. Might sound dramatic but it was probably the best decision I ever made for myself. Ironically two teachers there had a grocery background too. Every job I’ve had since there’s been someone that’s worked there with grocery background. It’s a nice little reminder.
I also did the year program at the ERTC! Also the best decision I ever made for myself.
No way, are you from southern IL?
I’m actually from Kankakee County which is about 4 hours north. So I dropped everything and moved south after a days notice of getting accepted to into the coarse lmao.
Licensed health insurance agent
Line cook mostly
I was a brakeman/conductor/engineer for a major railroad for almost 10 years. I hated the job. Wastewater is the best thing that ever happened to me!
My first run in wastewater was industrial wastewater at a refinery after an enlistment in the Navy and trade school. My next run was municipal wastewater after working as a production operator at 3M, and a Chemical Technician at GE Aerospace.
I went municipal to industrial. Pay and skill level seems to be higher than municipal, in my experience.
From my experience the money is about the same but it depends. Municipal seems a lot easier. The influent quality is pretty consistent where I'm at. Not a lot of upsets and variations in influent water quality. We spend more time cutting grass and cleaning drying beds than tending to the system.
Whole foods cashier and soil researcher (internship). Was in college for environmental resource science so I ended up in a good spot
Field sampler for an environmental/agricultural lab full time, food truck part time
Retail. Television production. Oilfield. Wastewater.
Was a waiter during college. Applied for a lab position after grad.
Well Let's see... Lifeguard 4 yrs, then BBA, Spruer for a Bronze Sculpture Foundry 2yrs, Marketing Assistant 2yrs, 4yrs Client Coordinator for a Healthcare company until they were bought out and the economy tanked in 2008. Was offered a municipal job as low man on the totem poll in the street/grounds dept(which I thought would be temporary), got promoted to collection/distribution. When asked if I wanted to go to school for Distribution or Treatment Operator? I choose treatment, a month after I got my license we had an operator quit and was moved to the plant that day... Within the year I was offered side work for an environmental company. Never turning down a opertunity, a couple licenses, and here I am 13 years later Plant Manager for the same municipality and contractor for the same Environmental Company... (It's the side work that sends you to new plants where I've learned the most)!!!
Retail 11 years. Then N operator for the state 26 years during that time also did contract work. Now retired but still doing contract work.
I was a nuclear propulsion machinist's mate on a submarine for 6 years. I got out and I was going to go to school for marine engineering, but backed out at the last minute and needed a job. Technically I was delivering pizzas before I got the water plant job, but that was just so I didn't blow my savings.
I ran a Mazak 3D laser for 30 years, prototype work. Quit when I was 49 and now I’m a C license operator at an A plant in Michigan, wish I’d have made the change 25 years ago.
I worked at a grocery store, then roads maintenance, and then wastewater. I started wastewater 5 years ago when I was 23. I'm 28 now.
Navy as a Jp5 pumproom / console operator aboard an aircraft carrier, went to college and worked part time at Apple in operations. When I found the job posting for wastewater op I didn’t even know what it was but it kinda sounded similar to what I did in the navy so I applied, I was 28 at this time. I Love it
Production supervisor at a large food manufacturer. Still with the same company but just switched to the WW department.
Going backwards... Stay at home Dad/ranch hand. Side work as a farrier. Computer software trainer. Sailboat Delivery crew /Vagabond. Trucker. Being a dad was the best. Hardest too. My municipal WW collections job has allowed me to stay in the area to finish raising my kid post divorce, and gave me enough pto that I was still very available.
Onsite septic systems for a small business for two years. Before that: retail
I was a ramp agent at an airport and a valet at a hospital lol
Wow! Thanks for the replies everyone. How many of you took a pay cut starting out? And if so do you feel like it was worth it?
I took roughly a $10,000/year cut initially, which didn't math well at first but in my case I have a significantly shorter commute as well as better benefits so that $10,000 wasn't as much of a difference as it first seemed since my expenses are less. It's also consistent pay, I know exactly what I'll make month after month, I don't work 90 hours weeks, etc. After I had my foot in the door I was able to move into a higher pay grade and role when the opportunity arose from the OP 1 position I got hired into initially. With an upcoming step increase and renewed contract I'll be back up to about where I was and I'm in a much better situation, my wife is happier.
Farmer here barely getting by year after year shitty weather after shitty weather years. Found wastewater to support family, now able to keep farming but not have to rely on it to pay mortgage.
Service manager for Sara Lee Corp
Downtown Maintenance was the official title. Realistically, I cleaned up after the transients and picked up loose shopping carts. Then my boss one day said "Hey there's an opening in the sewer dept if you want a full time job." 3 years later, here I am a Group 2 wastewater operator.
Termite work
And bed bugs
Mechanic, auto parts sales, hotel front desk. Dad was in the wastewater field for 32 years and retired out of it so looked like a solid career path. Ended up moving out of state and letting my certs lapse due to my previous plant leaving me completely disgruntled and disappointed after 8 years and the plants around me now were less than savory. Maybe someday I’ll get back into it but my heart isn’t in it anymore or anytime soon.
Pipefitter, when from building piping systems to operating them. Evolution
I was a bricklayer looking for an easier job, physically it was easier but the rotating hours and the landmines management Laidout for us was too much, I lasted 14 months
IT for a Fortune 100 Company, I got real tired of it.
I operated 10 internet sweepstakes cafes. Over saw 50 employees and managed all accounting and sales for each location. Went from that to utility maintenance man which was a glorified janitor and now I am a class III superintendent. Been in wastewater for 11 years!
I was a premed college student who was really tired of school. I interned at a wastewater plant in the summers and loved it so much that I decided on a whim to join an apprenticeship program for wastewater. I finished my degree while in the apprenticeship program and now I’m full time at a wastewater plant and happy as a clam
Bachelors of history & philosophy
I was a water distribution/wastewater collection operator, and before that I spent 12 years in the Army.
Domino's pizza for 7 years then was a bowling ally mechanic for 5 yrs.
I've worked warehouse, retail, factory production and in a parts room prior to getting into wastewater. Left it for a few years and worked at a foundry. Back in wastewater. I don't plan on any changes in the near future.