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What occupations are good for geocaching?


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I'm the supervisor for a parks dept. I get to spend most of my day driving from park to park checking on my crews. Actually I don't get to do much caching since the wife and I have an agreement not to do new caches without each other.

My wife does IT for a Fortune 100 company. Occasionally she has to travel to other offices. If possible she tries to schedule work for the end of the week and I'll tag along and we'll stay the weekend to cache.

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I've got a good one. I'm a Catastrophe Claim Adjuster. I handle Homeowners Insurance claims wherever there is a need. It's hard to find time to cache when I'm working since I'm so busy with work. But, I do get an occasional day off to cache in a faraway place. When the need isn't there, I'm sitting at home, waiting to be deployed, so I have a lot of free time to cache nearby. The only problem is that, depending on the extent of the catastrophe, many of the caches may be gone or need serious maintenance. I was in South Florida last year following Hurricane Wilma. I had to pass on one cache since the logs said that it was technically still there, but trees and debris made the trail to it practically inaccessible.

 

As far as suitability for caching, I think its pretty great since it allows so much travel plus the time off back home when there are no claims to handle. It doesn't beat retired and on the road in a motorhome, though.

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I'm a truck driver, I have very little time for caching. Parking the truck along the side of the road to spend anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours hunting a cache would leave some very angry customers wondering why I'm late, and me trying to explain the lost time to my boss.

I hear a preachers life is idea for geocaching though. :huh:

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Traveling Computer system trainer for a nationwide company. Travel all over the place, have most evenings free, some weekend stays, and travel days often allow one to get a few caches on the way to or from the airport if you research the area pretty well.

Plusses- taking co-workers out cacheing and attending events away from home. Minuses- too many weeks on the road cuts down on finding the local caches.

-J

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My brother works for our state's Dept of Transportation and is frequently on the road covering long distances. Sometimes he has to stop and stretch his legs. Of course, there happen to be caches there coincidentally enough.

 

Nothing has been better for my caching than a few months of unemployment :huh: Its the only thing that's kept me sane.

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I wear several hats in life, but the primary one is that of an independent research and consulting scientist, and I work from home; I also have an R&D laboratory here which supports my work. Since I work from home, and since my clients know that they can usually reach me 7 days a week from 9 AM through 10 PM (and if I am not here, they can call back later or leave me a message), the only times that I am tied to my home office are those relatively rare times when I have a teleconference scheduled at a fixed time. The remainder of the time, which is the majority of the time, my time is my own to schedule as I please, and so I can go on a cache hunting trip or a lengthy extreme cache placement trip even during "normal work hours" on a weekday if I wish; since I work for myself, my time is my own. For example, on the Friday that I emplaced Psycho Urban Cache #13 - Impossible!, I spent much of the day either at the airport in planning sessions with helicopter pilots or up in the air in a hellicopter, trying to place the cache atop a 100 foot tall stone pier in the middle of a river. Much the same for the approximately 70 hours that I spent over a few months in finding the hide sites for the stages for my new extreme cache, Psycho Urban Cache #14 - Cliffside Catacombs; the placement required lots of leg work in the field, and lots of phone research work, and also required crawling in caves and rappelling down sheer cliffs; I managed to do all of this on weekdays when most people would be working.

 

I am also asked to travel at times to see my consulting clients or to deliver seminars, and I sometimes need to travel to visit outside laboratories to which I have contracted various tests, and such travel has allowed me to log caches in CA, WI, CO, ID, WY, MI and in India, and to hunt caches in Germany and Nicaragua as well. My life is much fun, as I only do what I enjoy and I get to follow my heart, but of course, I do not have the guaranteed fixed salary nor the benefits plans of someone who is a salaried employee of a large company. I also make far less income than most people in hourly wage or salaried jobs. Nontheless, I would not trade this life for the world! In fact, I am regularly offered full-time salaried research/management jobs by some of my consulting clients, and it is very easy to say NO to their offers and remain independent, despite the fact that I make quite a bit less income this way. :huh:

 

Interestingly, one of my industrial consulting clients (located in Pittsburgh) is a caver and cave diver, and now that he knows that I am a geocacher, he is always suggesting to me that we co-place an extreme cave diving cache at a 150 foot depth in a pit cave in Mexico! Two of my other clients love to hear my tales of placing extreme caches -- such as the two which I mentioned above -- and of the feats of the first finders. B)

Edited by Vinny & Sue Team
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I had the perfect part time job back in 2005.

 

Recovering SOGs took me all over Texas and Louisiana. It was sometimes hard work with some long hikes involved, getting them out of tall trees, finding property owners, etc,,, but i could set my own hours and set my own pace when i was out hunting them. The coolest thing about it was that i used my GPSr to find them just as we do with caching andddddd on top of that, got paid for doing it. Of course, i got to grab a few caches along the way too when i felt like it! B) I sure miss that job!!! :huh:

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I'm a truck driver, I have very little time for caching. Parking the truck along the side of the road to spend anywhere from 20 minutes to a couple of hours hunting a cache would leave some very angry customers wondering why I'm late, and me trying to explain the lost time to my boss.

I hear a preachers life is idea for geocaching though. :huh:

 

Except for weekend caching trips! B)

 

Too many Sundays off and they start to notice! B)

 

Bret

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Stay at home Mom! My job is the most perfect. When the house is clean and the laundry some what done....I get the kids and get some caches.

 

My vote (and job) is for Stay at home Dad! Unfortunatly it's hard to take an 8 month old into the woods when the temps are below freezing. I'll get more with her when it warms up. For now it's pretty much just on weekends when my wife is home.

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Being a photographer has been helpful to me when caching. I am very good at observing things that most people don't notice and geocaching takes advantage of being observent. Plus, when you don't work for a studio, your hours are fairly flexible. I'm not a pro yet and my schedule is dictated by when games are, so I can cache when I am not in class or at a game.

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i am a general contractor in hawaii and my jobs take me all over the state....howver in hawaii county where i live there are only about 80 caches......i have found most of them. i am also involved in importing construction materials from china...... i have cached in hong kong and beijing.......in my real life i never would have been able to do that. i anticipate trips to shanghai and japan in th enear future....my associate in china makes ourplans according to caches she has learned about......in march i will be spending time in oregon and there are loysa caches there....my finds will increase!!!!

i think self employment has an edge in planning caching trips

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I was in Social work as an Administrator for over thirty years. I have phased down and now only work 40 hrs a week at a group home for physically handicapped people. I am still new to this game (26 finds ) which more than half have been found on my late afternoon drives from and too work. I leave earlier and give myself 30 - 45 minutes caching time. I strive for one cache a day and am batting around .750 so far. I am lucky that there are so many caches along the way. I fear I would go into withdrawal if I didn't at least check one out each day :huh:

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Stay at home Mom! My job is the most perfect. When the house is clean and the laundry some what done....I get the kids and get some caches.

I have three kids and am also SAHM. Caching is great too because he likes cleaning more than I do so I take the kids out and he cleans. I caught a chill from yesterday's caching so I'm not sure if I'll be caching anytime soon. That and I'm living in hell right now - he's spring cleaning and I'm badly allergic to dust.

 

I'm thinking about picking up a cheapo (under 100$) unit for DS so that he can help mommy "treasure hunt." I had a dnf today and I can't find the page I was caching from or I'd register it.

 

The hunt is educational. If I could, I'd add in forest trivia, map use and more. DS was very interested in our road map in the car today. DD just enjoys the time outside. D2 is too young to care.

 

Thankfully, the other half enjoys getting out too.

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a good friend of mine is a 'packaging engineer' and does field trial work, and basically onsite product development/trouble shooting. He is traveling every week between 3 or 4 locations, with the occasional trip to other places (like Mexico, Canada). His nights are free, and cache he does. :huh: Hes just getting started but I bet he will be able to rack up some good numbers after he is more familiar with the whole thing.

Edited by ClayC
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Aside from the obvious 'truck driver' and 'traveling salesman', are there any lucrative jobs that tend to be well-suited for a geocacher?
How about being the owner of Geocaching.com! :huh:

I dunno, look at his find count. Pretty low for being one of the first cachers in the world.

 

Then again, it doesn't appear that he believes in logging temp event caches, pocket caches, retirement cards, couch potato caches, or most lame roadside park and grabs.

 

Hmmmmmmm.

Edited by Mopar
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Aside from the obvious 'truck driver' and 'traveling salesman', are there any lucrative jobs that tend to be well-suited for a geocacher?
How about being the owner of Geocaching.com! :huh:

 

I think he's a bit too busy keeping this site up and running to get out there and cache judging from his find count.

 

I thin a forest ranger might be a great geocaching job. You can head out for daily "cache site inspections".

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Stay at home Mom! My job is the most perfect. When the house is clean and the laundry some what done....I get the kids and get some caches.

Exactly what I was going to say! My littlest mini-cacher is still kinda unsteady on his legs and doesn't enjoy getting tangled in thorns, but soon he's gonna be an awesome caching buddy! Plus, starting next fall, they'll BOTH be in pre-school 2 mornings a week :D

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I think that just about any job that requires heavy travel would be good for a geocacher. Obviously, I don't mean 'truck driver', but if you have to drive a couple hours for whatever reason, you can hit a few to break up the drive. Also, if your frequently overnighting in different cities, you can get out of the hotel and find a few.

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Aside from the obvious 'truck driver' and 'traveling salesman', are there any lucrative jobs that tend to be well-suited for a geocacher?
How about being the owner of Geocaching.com! :D

I dunno, look at his find count. Pretty low for being one of the first cachers in the world.

 

Then again, it doesn't appear that he believes in logging temp event caches, pocket caches, retirement cards, couch potato caches, or most lame roadside park and grabs.

 

Hmmmmmmm.

Could we maybe just maybe have one thread where that carp isn't flung around? Or does that just suck the fun out of posting in the forums for some people? :D

 

Maybe he doesn't believe in getting outside for his fun? :D

 

And to get back OT-owning a restaurant and catering company may be very rewarding and can be a lot of fun sometimes. I even get to do some 'work related travel' to locations that have fun caches to find, but it doesn't always allow for a lot of free time to spend caching. This retirement occupation some of you have mentioned sounds interesting. How does one go about getting into that field? :D

Edited by wimseyguy
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Reversing the question a bit but I find my job is good for geocaching. Not because I travel, though I do but because of the people I have started working with. Through my job I have access to mayors, City Councils, Parks and Recreation directors, City Engineers, Historical Societies, Archaeologists and the like. I work for the transportation department as a Project Manager.

 

It may not help me find more caches but it certainly does help me in a lot of other ways.

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I would think a school teacher would have it great. 3 months off during the summer, and every weekend off all year long!

 

Or a law-enforcement officer on swing shift, before my dad retired he'd work 2 days, then have 2 days off, then work 3 days, then have 2 days off...2 weeks on day shift, then 2 weeks nights. It's a crazy schedule, but on days off you have lots of time to cache!

 

As for me...full time college student, I'm in class 12-15 hours a week (read...two days) and the rest of the week I can go hunting! :D

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I would think a school teacher would have it great. 3 months off during the summer, and every weekend off all year long!

.....

My wife is a high School Teacher - 9 - 14 hour days for 9 months including extra duty grading, lesson prep etc. In the summer she takes college classes for 3 to 4 weeks and attends 2 - 3 seminars. Weekends we travel with the science club to competitions, more extra duty and more grading. She puts in all the hours and more of the average 12 month worker.

 

Back on Topic - I repair computers, teach, build web sites and do computer consulting. I get to travel my local areas within 150 miles frequently and I try to grab a cache or two when I can.

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My job is pretty unique. I fill Toy and Candy Vending machines in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho. I am on the road 10 - 11 nights a month. I am allowed to, and have time to do pretty much all the caching I want. I also drive a medium size delivery truck full of Swag. The boss pays for all my fuel and expenses. I am also home every weekend to cache with family and attend events.

Top that!

See you on the Trail

Scout Master

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I would think a school teacher would have it great. 3 months off during the summer, and every weekend off all year long!

.....

My wife is a high School Teacher - 9 - 14 hour days for 9 months including extra duty grading, lesson prep etc. In the summer she takes college classes for 3 to 4 weeks and attends 2 - 3 seminars. Weekends we travel with the science club to competitions, more extra duty and more grading. She puts in all the hours and more of the average 12 month worker.

 

Back on Topic - I repair computers, teach, build web sites and do computer consulting. I get to travel my local areas within 150 miles frequently and I try to grab a cache or two when I can.

 

Try being a DoDDS (Department of Defense Dependant Schools) teacher. You have the same schedule as almost all other American teachers, but you get to travel the world.

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I would think a school teacher would have it great. 3 months off during the summer, and every weekend off all year long!

 

Or a law-enforcement officer on swing shift, before my dad retired he'd work 2 days, then have 2 days off, then work 3 days, then have 2 days off...2 weeks on day shift, then 2 weeks nights. It's a crazy schedule, but on days off you have lots of time to cache!

 

As for me...full time college student, I'm in class 12-15 hours a week (read...two days) and the rest of the week I can go hunting! :D

 

Hope you don't plan on going into teaching after college. Your three months goes down to 2 (June 15-Aug 15) and your weekends often don't get started until after coaching the Saturday afternoon game and grading a pile of papers. ....but a retired teacher.... now that will make a difference!!! :D 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, ...... it's getting closer every day.

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As a housewife/mother I am not employed full time but part time I run a 10-wheeler for a local township and I take my GPS with me to scout general locations plus that driving job has really given me familiarity with the area. I don't cache without our kids so that leaves Saturdays. I do genealogical cemetery photo searches for hire and it usually happens that the little obscure cemetery that I'm sent to has a cache hidden nearby so I log my time for the photo and after I'm on my own time we track down the cache. Makes it a two-fer! I love my life right now!

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I would think a school teacher would have it great. 3 months off during the summer, and every weekend off all year long!

 

Or a law-enforcement officer on swing shift, before my dad retired he'd work 2 days, then have 2 days off, then work 3 days, then have 2 days off...2 weeks on day shift, then 2 weeks nights. It's a crazy schedule, but on days off you have lots of time to cache!

 

As for me...full time college student, I'm in class 12-15 hours a week (read...two days) and the rest of the week I can go hunting! :D

 

Hope you don't plan on going into teaching after college. Your three months goes down to 2 (June 15-Aug 15) and your weekends often don't get started until after coaching the Saturday afternoon game and grading a pile of papers. ....but a retired teacher.... now that will make a difference!!! :D 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, ...... it's getting closer every day.

 

Congrats on your pending retirement, tell me how it works out for caching in reality.

 

For the person who said teacher: I am a second year teacher and can tell you that my time to cache can be very limited especially during wrestling season; considering that I'm an assistant coach. I'm working about 10.5 hours per day at the school including practice, another 1 to 1.5 hours at home each night, and 15+ hours on Saturday at wrestling meets. After that is all done, I usually have to meet with the head coach for a couple of beverages to talk about what happened during the Saturday tournament and discuss future plans for the team. On top of that, the NSAA (Nebraska State Athletic Association) has decided to implement stupid new rules that make me do a ton of extra paperwork. After the season is over, we have budget requests to fill out, fundraisers so our kids can go to camp, of season conditioning for those going to camp - all while I try to coach jr. high pole vault.

 

Of course I get the 3 months off! That means I'm not actually required to be in the building, but in order to stay on top of things; I go in about once per week. Plus, I have to work on curriculum for next semester classes and take wrestlers to camp.

 

I do get to travel for wrestling camps, but I usually have to stick close to the hotel or dorm in order to make sure our team doesn't get into any trouble.

 

If you want to just cache or if you want to get paid at least minimum wage for the hours that you actually put in, I don't suggest that you teach and coach.

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I would think a school teacher would have it great. 3 months off during the summer, and every weekend off all year long!

 

Or a law-enforcement officer on swing shift, before my dad retired he'd work 2 days, then have 2 days off, then work 3 days, then have 2 days off...2 weeks on day shift, then 2 weeks nights. It's a crazy schedule, but on days off you have lots of time to cache!

 

As for me...full time college student, I'm in class 12-15 hours a week (read...two days) and the rest of the week I can go hunting! :D

 

Hope you don't plan on going into teaching after college. Your three months goes down to 2 (June 15-Aug 15) and your weekends often don't get started until after coaching the Saturday afternoon game and grading a pile of papers. ....but a retired teacher.... now that will make a difference!!! :D 90, 89, 88, 87, 86, ...... it's getting closer every day.

 

Congrats on your pending retirement, tell me how it works out for caching in reality.

 

For the person who said teacher: I am a second year teacher and can tell you that my time to cache can be very limited especially during wrestling season; considering that I'm an assistant coach. I'm working about 10.5 hours per day at the school including practice, another 1 to 1.5 hours at home each night, and 15+ hours on Saturday at wrestling meets. After that is all done, I usually have to meet with the head coach for a couple of beverages to talk about what happened during the Saturday tournament and discuss future plans for the team. On top of that, the NSAA (Nebraska State Athletic Association) has decided to implement stupid new rules that make me do a ton of extra paperwork. After the season is over, we have budget requests to fill out, fundraisers so our kids can go to camp, of season conditioning for those going to camp - all while I try to coach jr. high pole vault.

 

Of course I get the 3 months off! That means I'm not actually required to be in the building, but in order to stay on top of things; I go in about once per week. Plus, I have to work on curriculum for next semester classes and take wrestlers to camp.

 

I do get to travel for wrestling camps, but I usually have to stick close to the hotel or dorm in order to make sure our team doesn't get into any trouble.

 

If you want to just cache or if you want to get paid at least minimum wage for the hours that you actually put in, I don't suggest that you teach and coach.

 

Actually the start of this thread said "lucrative jobs" that are good of caching. When my wife was a teacher in FL, it was definetly not lucrative. If you're a teacher and up for adventure look into DoDDS (I'm not selling anything but it's a great career oppertunity for teachers). We've been in Japan for four years and have traveled to Singapore, Australia, South Korea, Alaska, Hawaii as well as many places in Japan. I just wish I'd started geocaching four years ago :D . Aside from the traveling the pay and benifits are way better than in FL and probably most other area's.

 

(Please note: My wife is the teacher. My grammer/spelling isn't the greatest. Sorry)

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I am still working for another 458 days (but who's counting) for a power plant on a 4 on 4 off schedule. I've only been aquainted with my GPS for about a week and a half now and only just got my first 2 caches today but I think my schedule will work out quite well to allow me time for chaching. My wife is retired (teacher) and is all for it.

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Alot of really good jobs out there that lend themselves nicely to geocaching. I would like to add mine to the list. I travel all over 5 counties in NY and PA. Lunch is in a different town almost daily, and I can take lunch whenever I want. Great for cache and grabs. I have to leave the really fun ones for the weekends though. Being a phoneman is a great job.

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My job is pretty unique. I fill Toy and Candy Vending machines in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and Idaho. I am on the road 10 - 11 nights a month. I am allowed to, and have time to do pretty much all the caching I want. I also drive a medium size delivery truck full of Swag. The boss pays for all my fuel and expenses. I am also home every weekend to cache with family and attend events.

Top that!

See you on the Trail

Scout Master

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Wow, there are a lot of great answers in this thread. The reason I started the topic was because I am thinking of changing jobs and some of my options are not so conducive to the hobby/game/sport of geocaching. My current job requires me to work a normal five-day week but also be on call some weekends.

 

One of the caching-friendly options that I am contemplating is Supervisor of a coffee shop at the local university. The supervisor position allows my entire family to get a free education and the benefits are incredible. The vacation, sick time, personal time and general downtime due to the campus being closed equals about 6 months off. The university also teaches rock climbing, scuba and more so I could really start placing some nice caches.

 

I'm not saying that my life revolves around geocaching, but I'd rather take a job that doesn't put a damper on the fun we've been having. :P

 

BTW, vending machine guy gets my vote, too!

Edited by Team LaLonde
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I serve warrants for ICE (formely INS).

I travel periodically for training and on details to assist other offices; I was recently involved in the Iowa worksite raids, and just got back from the Los Angeles, CA detail. For LA I took my bicycle and hit some of the power trials. Iowa was freakin cold, but I managed to grab 20 or so caches.

Five years ago, I was involved in deporting prisoners to their countries and did some caching out of the country. I was just getting into caching then and managed to grab some caches in Belize and Switzerland before I transferred to the warrants unit. I would have grabbed some caches in China and India except I didn't know back then that I had to re-acquire satellites on my Vista :P .

Edited by Chuy!
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While it doesn't involve much traveling (cept when we have training). Being a 911 dispatcher is nice, we know all the officers so if we are out late at night and are spotted it's just a swap howdys deal and not only that but all of our officers know what it is now (helped us out before we got our GPS by trying to locate a couple for us lol) and if they come accross any other cachers it won't be an awkward experience for either parties.

 

 

We am off 3 days a week so road trips are easier. And where we work we have internet access so we can look up stuff at geocaching.com during down times :laughing:

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