spudguns on resume

[Blackett]

if you work in construction or plumbing or anything hydraulic (machinery) or general shop, these are all usefull skills.

[psycix]

Well, I would say keep it off. Period. Well, you can put parts about experimenting with valve and such, but why would somebody, other than a spudgunner, want to do that??? They will wonder why somebody does such things, and unless you come up with something good, your in trouble...

your right, you may tell that you can build piston valves, but you will need an excuse for having made one too!
Anyways: dont tell em about combustions because when there is "Fire" people panic automatically not knowing pneumatics are more powerfull.

[williamfeldmann]

I work in accounting as a CPA. However, the firms I work with do all sorts of different things, farming and agriculture, manufacturing, electronics, service industries, etc.

When I was interviewing for this job, I mentioned that I was a "hobby engineer" as part of my hobbies and other interesting stuff, so during the interview they asked me about it. I told them I was basically interested in anything that I could build, take apart, or generally get my hands on to "look" at, after testing the waters to see what the response was, I was able to comfortably talk about some of my projects.

The partners in the firm I work for love me. I have been able to get three new, big clients for them in under a year, because I know real guns (got us a bigger sportsmans club and outdoor store client), I know pneumatics and valves and what not (got us a huge piston manufacturer), and I make custom furniture as a second job and know the woodworking industry (local custom cabinetry guy).

Don't necessarily discount your skills as useless in an office setting, but don't write that you make midevil weaponry on your resume either. Feel out the potential employer or college to see what skills they might be interested in hearing about or not interested in at all. If you are a good speaker, intellegent enough to convey thoughts and plan your projects, and smart enough to keep things under wraps until the time is right, most employers might be interested to hear sometime about your "safe" hobbies.

EDIT:Spelling

[jimmy101]

Williamfeldmann put it well.

It would be OK to include something to the affect of "home tinker" or that you enjoy technically oriented DIY projects. But, I would not mention anything with "gun" in it.

Unless you are applying for a job with the NRA...

[paaiyan]

If you can tell us exactly what it is you're applying for, we could make a determination much easier.

[iknowmy3tables]

What sucks for me is that I enjoy the building process much more than the shooting. If colleges and jobs could understand that, my life would be a lot easier...

same here man

well I'm not really applying for jobs any time soon, but I am a junior in high school so I think I might use it when I have to talk about stuff like internships and stuff

since applying for collage usually doesn't involve interviews I'll have to mention it in writing, probably in a very light manner avoiding any words like "gun" and "canons" and constantly referring to the safety and care involved, maybe if I can get some guns into scenario games I can mention that lightly since it implies nonweapon things

[Killjoy]

I had the same dilema for my college applications this year, I just put it as "metal fabricater" and discussed it in my essays as "object accelrators". My college counsler said it was great. Just leave out the words gun and cannon and you should be fine.
And its suprising how many people actually love the idea of what we do, I had an internship at one of the enginerring departments at caltech, and the people I was working with were very enthuisiatic about my cannons and projects. Of course most had played with explosives and black powder cannons growing up so they were open minded, but even the ones who didn't were cool.

[Marco321]

I had the same problem, i wanted to put spud guns into my resume, so i put something like "designing and building things" under my hobbies list.

[altxf4]

I just started a Career in a Facilities maintenance position for a Large Food distributor, and I mentioned some of my hobbies in the interview, and my now boss loved it! Crazy how much has came into play from spud guns in relation to my job! I work with Pneumatics and Hydraulics all day!

No to apply ammonia phase change into super cooling and magnetism!

[paaiyan]

It kind of depends on what you're applying for. I mean, if you're applying for McDonald's then jus tforget it. But if you're applying for anything like an engineering-related job, call them experimental matter accelerators or something.

[iknowmy3tables]

I had the same dilema for my college applications this year, I just put it as "metal fabricater" and discussed it in my essays as "object accelrators". My college counsler said it was great. Just leave out the words gun and cannon and you should be fine.
And its suprising how many people actually love the idea of what we do, I had an internship at one of the enginerring departments at caltech, and the people I was working with were very enthuisiatic about my cannons and projects. Of course most had played with explosives and black powder cannons growing up so they were open minded, but even the ones who didn't were cool.

sweet thanks man
now I wonder how I can make this sound more formal

[Killjoy]

Glad to help, good luck.

[TurboSuper]

Yeah, remember- it's all in the wording.

If you want to just say you have extensive experience with plumbing supplies for scientific demonstrations. If they ask you to get into specifics, then get into them, but at least you won't seem like an arsonist on paper.

I could see spudguns as a plus on a resume since it shows that you can complete a project, and have an attention to detail. Companies seem to like that stuff.

[psycix]

Just leave out the words gun and cannon and you should be fine.

100% true, when people hear about guns, cannons, explosions, shooting, destroying etc. they wil think of you like a terrorist or crazy maniac.
There are just a few "trigger words" wich trigger people's madness so just leave out those words, also dont even try to give direct hints to those words.

[Killjoy]

^^and we can thank society and our wonderful media system for that.

Its amazing though how people are so much more opening and accepting about something when you leave out trigger words. "I use a massive chemical reaction to return things back to the earth" sounds a lot better then "I blow shit up".