What Are the Tools of Your Trade?

[Baraka_Guru]

We have a diverse group of people here, working in all kinds of positions and industries. Let's share some practical information about what each of us do.

What are the tools of your trade?

List the essentials you need to do your job. Feel free to list the not-so-essential things as well. I'm sure we have those things that make our job easier.

Okay, here I go:

Book Editor:

• Red pen — This is the main weapon of most editors I know. Highly visible, and sometimes used heavily. (Note: colour can be a source of debate between editors; other preferences include blue, black, green, etc., and some use pencils.)
• Paper — This should be self-explanatory.
• Style guide — A popular guide of choice is the Chicago Manual of Style. This helps us standardize many things, including punctuation and other typesetting concerns.
• Dictionary — In my circle, we use the Oxford Canadian Dictionary, and we hold it in high esteem.
• The Internet — This has largely replaced the need for libraries and research assistants in regard to fact-checking.
• A selected non-fiction library — This can be an indispensable source of research within arm's reach. Used where the Internet fails.
• Computer — The industry is heavily computerized now. Proofs of both interiors and covers are now delivered via PDF or QuarkXpress in most cases.
• Eyeglasses/contact lenses — A book editor who isn't wearing eyeglasses and says they don't need them is either a) wearing contact lenses, b) has had laser eye surgery, or c) is new to the trade.
• Music — The job is highly mental, and music helps keeps the synapses firing, especially classical. Vocal/talk radio can be distracting.
• Coffee/tea — Being mentally engaged as hardcore as editors can get, caffeine and water are important materials for the brain.
• Acetamenophen and/or acetylsalicylic acid — If you need to ask, then you have no idea, nor will you ever.
• Cardigans, pullovers, etc. — Editors don't generate a lot of body heat outside their heads, as they don't move very much in their work (if at all). Keeping body temperature at a comfortable level is therefore a concern.
• Cat(s) — Not always available at in-house locations, cats are the companion animal (familiar?) of many an editor, usually for freelancers at home. Editors are often solitary creatures, and so being able to talk to another being who won't interrupt work by talking back is important. Cats are not a remedy or preventative measure for editor insanity, and they can often be an accelerant. (Note: dogs are commonly mistaken as candidates for editor companion animals. This erroneous belief is quickly cleared up when one attempts to imagine an editor going outside—into the sun—to walk said animal.)
• Alcohol — In ample amounts, this is a remedy and/or preventative measure for editor insanity.

[World's King]

I actually have the whole set of these... Alton's Angles by Shun

[snowy]

Childcare and teaching:

My arms and hands. I need them to lift up children, to give hugs, and to illustrate concepts.
My mouth and lips. I need it to give directions, explain ideas, give advice, and to kiss booboos.
Coffee. I need a little help to keep up.
My brain. Want to overload your brain? Spend an hour with 8th graders. They keep me on my toes.
My sense of humor. If you can't laugh about it, why are you doing it?
My poker face. Sometimes it's so hard to look stern, but there are occasions when it's necessary.
My Hello Kitty SIGG water bottle. The kids all envy me.
My iPod. Music is necessary to getting my head into the right space. Sometimes bouncing to "Dragostea din tei" is better than a Red Bull.
My reference library (dictionary, thesaurus, history books, philosophy books, style guides). I said those 8th graders keep you on your toes. You need ammo. Information is ammo.

EDIT: Dear God, King, that's a sexy knife!

[CandleInTheDark]

Forester

Cruise Vest - a hi-vis cloth garment that is designed to absorb as much water as possible while allowing you to carry a back breaking 75lbs or more. The most expensive accessory you will tear apart. Usually loses your lunch.

ArcGIS - hey, let's use Windows as the OS for a complicated, buggy, and memory intensive program for specialists. People like maps.

Increment Borer - how about we drill a hole into every tree we see...that sounds like alot of fun.

Pick-up truck - transportation provided by the lowest bidder.

Co-worker's dog - specially bred to piss off bears and bring them to you!

Ribbon - bright happy colours to designate where to mow down...err...harvest the forest.

Paint - designed for the tree, attracted to you.

[roachboy]

editor boy: a computer.

writing boy: a computer, notebooks/journals, my tfp blog, books, many many articles printed from motely sources, music sometimes (listening is a separate activity so i generally don't play much music when i'm doing other things)

piano boy: a piano, bolts, screws, scraps of blown glass, strips of cork, a collection of rubber stoppers, weatherstripping (to prevent things from hitting the struts of the soundboard), an assortment of oddly shaped metal plumbing objects, a glass vase and the demon it is possessed by, several strange pieces of stemware, a woody woodpecker hand fan, two metal spheres with bells in them, 10 lb fishing line with rosin, a pair of soft mallets, a pair of hard mallets, an assortment of laboratory glass items, brass tubes, glass tubes of various types and thickness, a beat up old sun ra arkestra tee-shirt (for gigs that make me nervous). optional items: playskool cassette recorders, bells, a child's violin bow.
a beer for after the performance.

[fresnelly]

My tools as a software developer are pretty boring so I'll go back to my days as a Stagehand.

1.) Crescent wrench to hang and focus lights. Used sparingly as a hammer.

2.) Small flashlight. AA Maglites were the standard until cheap LED alternatives came along.

3.) Leather Work Gloves to protect your hands from scalding hardware, metal burrs and general grime. A stagehand washes his hands BEFORE he goes to the bathroom.

4.) Steel Toed shoes. Comfort is important because you're on your feet a lot and grip for when you're unloading trucks in slippery wet weather. Also, sometimes you need to boot shit to make it fit.

5.) All-Black clothing for show calls. Even if the audience can't see you, you may need to run out on stage to fix something and don't want to draw attention to yourself. It's also more "professional".

6.) A Sharpie black marker for making notes and labling stuff, usually with white cloth tape.

7.) A Pencil for making notes on the lighting plot (blueprints).

6.) A MultiTool such as a Gerber or Leatherman for emergency repairs and adjustments. I had a Gerber because I liked the one-handed flick-out pliers.

7.) An invoice book to bill for your freelance services and keep track of your wages for tax time.

8.) An organizer to keep track of your many dovetailing gigs. You have to work several different venues and calls to pay the rent.

9.) A strong liver.

[Lucifer]

Ship's Officer:

Navigation triangle

One Hand Dividers

Binoculars

Pelorus

Marine Sextant

Paper Charts

Electronic Charts

Lots of Coffee

Radar and ECDIS

Radios


and WARM clothes for winter work!!

[Glory's Sun]

Editor/Producer

Avid Media Composer 3.1
Cinema 4d
Autodesk 3ds Max
Zaxwerks ProAnimator
Boris FX
After Effects CS4
Illustrator CS4
Photoshop CS4
SonicFire
M-Audio


various tape decks
various cameras (hd, sd)
various authoring decks
1 plasma montior for output view
tons of processing power
tons of memory

and stupid people in other DMA's who don't know what format they want their shit in..
just to name a few

[Push-Pull]

H&K P2000
Pair of Danners
Surefire flashlight
ASP CSB
Handheld radio

I'll leave the rest to your imagination....

[cj2112]

Project Manager for cabinet subcontractor:
1. Telephones, both land line and cellular.
2. AutoCAD, Excel, Word, Outlook, Acrobat, DodgeView. MS Projects or Primavera is helpful but not required.
3. Various pens, pencils and hi-lighters
4. Copier/scanner/fax.
5. Architectural scale
6. Steel toed boots, hard hat, orange vest for visits to job sites.
7. Tape Measure.
8. Laser templater

[SSJTWIZTA]

[telekinetic]

Project Engineer:

Calipers--for imprompteu measurements
Dremel--one stop prototyping and modifications...anything I can't dremel I send to a machine shop
Red Pen--for correcting drawings
Computer--for issuing orders
Notepad--on which to scribble tasks
Post-It notes and Whiteboard--tasks go on notes, categories get drawn on board.

[ratbastid]

Web Developer

Mac
Software (Apache, Linux, perl, PHP, MySQL, Firefox, Eclipse, CVS)
Internet connection
Decades of know-how

EDIT: FINGERS!! I forgot fingers!

[ngdawg]

Graphic Designer:

Computer with:
Photoshop
Illustrator
Wacom Tablet
Printer
Motivation

Writer:
Dictionary
Motivation


Photographer:
Camera
Lenses
Batteries
Flash Cards
Image Converter
Motivation

[genuinegirly]

Research Botanist.

- Soil
- Seeds
- Water
- Nutrient solution
- Petri dishes
- Agar
- Pipettes
- Dissecting microscope
- Light microscope
- Rasor blades
- Dissection kit
- Stains
- Microtome
- Paraffin wax
- Paintbrush
- Watercolors
- Colored pencils
- Various metric rulers and scales
- Digital camera
- Excel
- Adobe Photoshop
- Region-specific plant keys
- Hand lens
A few other things that are specific to my current research project.

[BadNick]

VP of Engineering (we're a small manufacturing company making "special" small valves and control devices)
1) brain filled with experience of 37 years in directly related work (and basic good education with BSME)
2) ability to focus that knowledge quickly and accurately and communicate that to others to solve problems
3) pencil & paper for notes, in case somebody else says something important that I might want to write down, or for doodling.

[shakran]

Photojournalist:
Camera:


Recording media for camera: (for the geeks out there, it's called P2, and is based on the PCMCIA architecture)



Tripod (fluid-filled head, carbon fiber legs)



Satellite Truck (for long-distance live work) (trivia: you can always tell if it's a satellite live shot because there will be a lengthy pause between the anchor's question and the reporter's answer - - time for the signal to travel up to the satellite and back)



Microwave truck (for close-to-home liveshots)



Helicopter! (the big ball thing on the nose is a gyroscopically-stabilized camera. Some of them have infrared capabilities for night work)



Digital edit suite: (the one I wish I had)



And the most indispensable:

Leatherman Supertool 200

[Glory's Sun]

I <3 P2 cards

and nice edit suite.. except for the software

[Strange Famous]

I work in an office.

A PC
Printer
an AS/400
a set of screwdrivers and a box cutter
um... pens and paper, telephone, blackberry
thats about it

[flat5]

Selmer Mark6 alto saxophone. Sometimes a tenor or soprano sax, Bb clarinet, flute, music stand, stand light, stands for instruments, dressy black clothing.

[stevie667]

Rifle, Loaded.
Boots, Combat high.
Biscuits, Fruit.
Humour, Lots.

[Giant Hamburger]

[uncle phil]

when i was working:

- a copy of strunk & white
- a small tape recorder
- a dictionary
- a thesaurus

now:

- my golf clubs...

[The_Jazz]

Wholesale insurance broker.

Phone
Computer
American Express card
Photo ID
BlackBerry 9000

[SabrinaFair]

I am a law clerk. More specifically, I work in child support prosecution. Basically, my job is to establish paternity (if necessary) and set child support orders off Domestic Violence and Dependency dockets. I also conference some cases off motion hour. It's an interesting job, to say the least...

My tools of the trade are....
*My "Mary Poppins bag" of forms. I have forms for paternity admits, paternity denials, wage assignments (where the take child support directly out of your check), Judgments of Paternity, Orders of Support, Agreed Orders, etc.
*Kentucky Child Support Guidelines Worksheet--Statutorily, a child support amount is calculated by using the joint paternal income.
*Calculator--I'm in law school because I can't do math, and I calculate child support for a living. Go figure.
*A thick skin--I am NOT a popular person. In fact, I've been called some god-awful names, including "Child Support Bitch". It requires a tough hide, and the ability to see through people's bullshit. Moreover, I see and hear about some really horrible stuff--domestic abuse, child neglect, etc. Not only do I have to hear about these things, but I have to see past them to do my job.
*Patience and Understanding--no one I see at work is having a good day. Sometimes they're having their kids taken away from them. I try to be as kind as possible while still doing what I have to do.
*Strong coffee
*Professional Dress: preferably a suit, but since I'm on a student budget, I don't have enough suits to wear one every day. Dress not only helps establish authority (which helps when dealing not only with clients but with attorneys) but it also helps give me an extra boost of confidence.

[The_Dunedan]

Gun Dealer


Sidearm: Springfield Armory XD-40 subcompact with two spare magazines.
Pens: Black and blue ballpoint, black and red fine and coarse-point markers.
Receipt book.
Bigass stack of Form 4473's.
Computer with photo-editing software.
Camera: Nikon P80 digital with spare batteries.
Square of rumply red felt.
Tripod.
Heavy-duty can opener (for those damned Russian ammo cans.)
Metric and Standard Allen wrenches, full sets.
Metric and Standard star-drive and square-drive wrenches/screwdrivers, full sets.
Phillips and Common-head screwdrivers; large, medium, small.
Gerber multi-tool.
Vise-grips.
Vise.
Channel-lock pliers.
Bore Snakes, .17-.75" sizes.
1 gallon CLP Break Free.
Bore light/scope.
0000 Steel wool.
Boresighting set, .17-.50 calibers.
Hearing protection, electronic.
Glasses, shrapnel-proof (because some doofus might want you to fix his home-workshop fuckup, and it might blow up in your face thanks to aforementioned up-fucking.
Pocket knives, 2.
Pocket magnifier with light, desk magnifier with light.
Large spiral-bound notebook.
187,592 notepads.
Phone numbers for: BATF&E, FBI, State Police, County Sheriff, Secret Service.
Brownells, Numrich Gun Parts, Ellett Brothers, Century Arms and Southern Ohio Gun sales catalogues.
7 years back issues of The Shotgun News and Double Gun Digest.
Band-aids.
Infinite patience for gun-newbies, moronic questions, and misinformed newspaper columnists.
Industrial-strength degreaser.
Industrial-strength coffee.
Targets.
Spotting scope.
Spare magazines for almost any commonly-made firearm manufactured within the past 50 years.
Assorted ammunition (for test-firing), .17M2-.50BMG.
Bronze punches and hammer.

[silent_jay]

When I'm working in my field:







Some other things as well:
north seeking gyro
winch to lower and retrieve gyro

[SecretMethod70]

Political Campaign Operative:

* Candidate
* Caffeine
* Laptop
* Caffeine
* Cell phone
* Caffeine
* Printer
* Caffeine
* Charm
* Caffeine
* Pen & paper
* Caffeine
* Contribution envelopes
* Caffeine
* Website
* Caffeine
* Yard/Window signs
* Caffeine
* Volunteers

Lots more, but those are some of the basics

[dlish]

Managing Quantity Surveyor

at least half a brain - preferably with a head of hair so you can lose it
calculator
construction drawings
microsoft excel
people skills
managers' anger
negotiation skills

lucifer - thats the best ive seen you looking in a while

[ametc]

No nurses yet?

Well, for nursing it's:

*black pen (we write and sign a lot of reports)
*shredder
*patient medical folders
*pill crusher
*wound cleanser
*lots and lots of different kinds of bandaids/wound covers/protectors
*lots of needles
*lots of tubes
*medication logs
*scissors
*towels...lots of towels sometimes..the more towels.. the more hectic the situation



Those are pretty much what I use on a daily basis.

[murp0434]

this thread is cooler than I thought...

I work in feed manufacturing so on a daily basis I use or directly impact operators who use:


Mixer




Pellet Mill



Cooler




Sacking Machine



Forklift




of course, the finished product....



we make about 12,000 of these a day (or 300 Tons)

and some other stuff.... trade secrets I can't talk about

[Sue]

Pediatric Medical Assistant:

Stethoscope, BP cuffs, thermometer, nebulizers, syringes, strep, flu, and rsv tests, urinalysis machine, centrifuge, EHR (electronic health record), tablet pc, stylus, some paper charts, but we're sealing them and going completely EHR

You would not believe how used to EHR we've gotten. If our wireless connection goes down, we act like a bunch of spiders on rollerskates.

[Ourcrazymodern?]

i mix shampoo.

pliers, screwdriver, knife, thermometer, tape measure, forklift, spatula.

[bobby]

Gardener...small one man operation...xoxoxoo

15 good clients
self propelled mower
weed eater
chainsaw
hand tools ...rakes ,shovels,handsaws ,english fork,etc.
tree pruners
my truck main truck
an old truck used to haul stuff to dump
2 riding mowers (a craftsman 42" and a john dreere 48")

[grumpyolddude]

Auto Parts Store Manager

*catalogs... hundreds of them
*pencils, pens, markers
*telephones
*computer, printer
*note pads
*knife, box cutter
*soap, degreaser, shop towels, paper towels
*micrometers, drum gauge, bore gauge, dial caliper, ruler
*reliable employees
*coffee... lot's and lot's of coffee
*patience, humor, a calm demeanor
*customers
*a secure place to blow off steam
*rolodex filled with reliable suppliers
*a sincere concern for customers and employees

[n0nsensical]

Computer
SSH client
UNIX shell account
vi, and some editor for windows
Subversion (Etc.) client
Compiler or interpreter
Bug tracking system
Web server
RDBMS
Plenty of caffeinated beverages

Can you guess?

[noodle]

laptop
caffeine
big heart
ability to tolerate stupid meetings and dumb people
working vehicle
suncoast "solutions" patient database software
resource list
cell phone
pager
sweaters for long meetings and in the hospital
patience
patients
thick skin
spare change of clothing
My Wishes and Five Wishes
phone list
list of schools, nursing companies, supply companies, etc
friends
good coworkers
red wine
coping skills


i'm a pediatric hospice and palliative care social worker.

[raeanna74]

Condominium Housekeeping -
-lots of rags
-paper towels
-vinyl gloves
-window cleaner
-toilet brush
-toiletbowl cleaner
-furniture polish
-all purpose cleaner degreaser
-vacuum

Teachers Aid-
-the teacher's look (I've never seen anyone do it better than my mom though)
-a loud voice or whistle (for when we're in the gym)
-a sharp mind
-an observant eye (also the proverbial 'eyes in the back of my head')
-Patience

Student-
-books (lots of them)
-pencils and pens
-paper
-a listening ear
-a brain to remember it all with

Those are just the ones right now. Hopefully soon it'll all be teacher's tools. In the past it's been so many things that it would take me days to list them all.

[mixedmedia]

physician credentialist:

computer
copy machine
godless amounts of paper
stapler/staple puller
paper clips
correction tape
folders
binders
file cabinet
pens
pencils
Sharpie
highlighters
post -it notes
stickie flags
ruler
scissors
various labels
various envelopes
letterhead (and the ability to forge signatures, very important)
expedia.com
hotels.com
mapquest
the internet in general
charming repartee

I'm going to school to be a nurse, though. And I cannot wait to get the fuck out of office jobs.

[noodle]

oh wait, my other job.


money. lots of loans.
plane tickets
free time
books
paper
filing cabinet
brains
file folders
laptop
AND desktop
printer
stock in Office Depot
fax machine
money
caffeine
bottled water
ability to bullllllllllllllllllllllllllshit your way out of anything
internet access
pencils
red pen
binders
more books
general understanding of how to access search engines
working knowledge of PsychINFO and the like
ability to function on little sleep
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Ed.
thick skin
xanax

i'm also a first year PhD student.