What are the neatest things you've done in your career?

[Savonarola]

A couple weeks ago I designed a radio system for Mongolia State Rail as part of a GE bid.  The tracks ran from Chinese border, through the Gobi, into the mountains, through Ulan Bator and finally to the Russian border in the Khentii mountains.

As a Radio Frequency Engineer I thought that was a neat project; it's a challenging environment for radio and an exotic locale.  I was curious as to what other professionals found interesting in their careers.

What are the neatest things you've done in your career?  Not necessarily projects or accomplishments; it could be anything you've done.  I'll leave the definition of "Neat" open to you (even though I know it will lead to witticism about the time you cleaned your desk...)

[Josephus]

Once I edited a "Recipes for Shavuot" page.

Beat that.

[derspiess]

Well, nothing now.  Shit...






  But seriously, nothing comes to mind.  I've gotten to travel all over the continental US to see places I might not have otherwise, but nothing in particular stands out.

[Malthus]

I defended a lawsuit in which my client was sued by Jesus Christ (a/k/a The Son of Man).

And no, it wasn't a frivolous suit, or brought by a lunatic - millions of real dollars were at stake. 

I also participated in defending a lawsuit in which it was determined, as a point of law, that Martians did not have standing to sue in Ontario. That one was more, well, frivolous.

[Jacob]

Probably the neatest things I've done career wise are the research trips I've taken for Sleeping Dogs (Hong Kong) and Max Payne 3 (Sao Paolo). I got to meet all sorts of interesting people - from criminals to cops to celebrities and a bunch in between - and visit interesting locales in foreign places (slums, paramilitary police stations, private homes, industrial facilities) in a capacity other than "tourist".

The whole start-up/ entrepreneur/ business development thing is probably more exciting personally, but I think it's less of a "neat" story to others.

[Valmy]

I once got the shit beaten out of me by a teenager almost twice my size (I restrained him!  But I also got my glasses smashed.).  None of my jobs since 2001 have involved hand to hand fighting 

[Grey Fox]

Cameras I help make are on Mars.

[grumbler]

Back in the Cold War I developed and proved a method by which US SSBNs could be resupplied for additional patrols using commercial ports rather than their home ports (which would presumably be staked out by Soviet SSNs).  This developed into an entire black programs in which we actually carried out the replenishment of US boomers from various ports which had no existing USN presence.  There was also a 3-day limit on the replenishment, because that was the window for the Soviets to discover what was happening and redeploy their assets.  We had a SEAL team that played the Red Team, so operational and physical security were the two biggest challenges.

It was really neat to see an idea I came up with in a brainstorming session turn into an entire program with a budget and a cast of thousands.  Probably the thing that surprised me most was how readily all of the bureaucratic stakeholders changed all of their assumptions when presented with the logic of the program.

[The Brain]

I'm not gonna tell you details about my work.

[Ideologue]

On a scale of 1-10, 10 being Chernobyl, how would you rate your job satisfaction?

[The Brain]

Basking in the warm glow of STEM I give it an 11.

[Eddie Teach]

I delivered a pizza to a chick that answered the door naked.

[Savonarola]

I delivered a pizza to a chick that answered the door naked.

I've seen movies that started that way. 



I mean I've heard there are movies that begin that way.   

[Barrister]

I went into this line of work because it allowed me to do all sorts of "neat" things.  Let's see what I can come up with:

-flew into Nunavut and conducted court along western Hudson's Bay in January
-flew into Old Crow and conducted court north of the arctic circle in December
-did a fly-along in a police helicopter
-three jury trials
-got to argue a matter before the Court of Appeal
-my ongoing murder file
-did court in the historic Dawson City courthouse, which doubles as a museum when court is not in session

And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story.  Got to know a lot of what it is like to grow up in a remote native community, of course.  Dealt with several placer miners (and yet somehow I'm a sucker for those reality gold mining shows) and lots of oil roughnecks.  I have a couple of "cheating at a casino" files, so I've been learning about their security.  I had an employee theft from a jewelry store, so I got to learn all about their business.  Heck my very first court case (which got me interested in litigation in the first place) was all about a failing septic system, so even now I know lots more about home septic systems than I otherwise would have.

[Malthus]

And more generally, you meet all sorts of interesting and unusual people and get to know a little bit about their life and story. 

... and then fling them into jail where they belong.