Well, where to start?  I worked in my first machine shop before I graduated high school.  My senior year was divided between classes and the local technical/career center.  After graduation I began an apprenticeship in tool and die, specifically sheet metal stamping dies.  While an apprentice, I was cross trained in several different skills, among them welding, manual machining and even some sheet metal work.  I also spent some time in the prototyping department before moving into die assembly and then into tryout and part development.  I earned my Journeymans Card in 1998 and spent a few years building stamping dies.  During an industry wide downturn, I took a job running a cnc lathe in an aerospace machine shop to pay the bills.  While working there I discovered that I had a talent for computerized machining and also enjoyed the challenge it presented.  A couple of years later, the aerospace sector experienced a slowdown and I found myself building dies again.  When an opportunity to work in the shop cnc department came up, I transferred over and learned how to run vertical machining centers.  During a shop reorganization, I was put in charge of setting up a new department that would complete and inspect all details coming off the mills before they went to assembly.  With my previous experience in both assembly and machining, I was able get the department off the ground quickly, but it wasn't what I wanted to be doing long term.   I left the tool and die trade and accepted a position in a small job shop doing custom machining and small lot production.  The variety of the work combined with the daily problem solving suited me very well.  Job satisfaction aside, my experiences had gotten me thinking about owning my own machine shop.  Eventually, I invested in my own machining center and decided to strike out on my own.