Camp Counselor-----> retail clerk ------>Video Store clerk/manager ------>Travel Agent ----->Customer Relations Drone-------->Travel Agent--------> Mom
English Lit grad student --> Statistical research analyst --> College instrucor --> Carpenter (well, I’m stretching here) --> College instructor --> Magazine editor --> Internet journalist --> Law student.
(The red bit begins next year.)
Bicycle mechanic/store manager —> restaurant manager —> video operator (closed circuit video broadcasting and production, at a dog track) —> oilfield geologist —> assistant manager of the beer and wine department a a HUGE liquor store (if I get it).
“what a long, strange trip it’s been”
unclviny
Bar back/body piercer/musician-------> lawyer.
I go about as radical, but in the other direction.
tailor —> financial information security analyst
Leading up to that was:
Grcery store clerk --> Media delivery specialist (school projector pusher) --> Television master control room tech --> shipping clerk --> movie usher --> tailor
I’ll just throw in the famous person who I think wins the prize on this one:
Alan Bean - Astronaut, third man to walk on the moon. He later became a painter. Can’t get much more extreme than that.
What’s way cool is that he paints moonscapes, and he’s the only person in the world who can do it from memory!
I spent 10 years on the road as a rock & roll musician. When my eldest was born I went back to school (while continuing to work nights) and got a Business Degree. Then I got a job at AT&T (and other places) doing tech support–5 years. Then my dad left me some money when he died and I went back to music for a few years, then got married again (plus 3 more kids) and went back into computer work, which has been stable for more than 10 years now. Somehow that doesn’t seem to all add up to how old I am, but I guess it must.
Oh, by the way, being a computer geek pays about 8 times what being a musician pays.
Warehouse Assistant > Internal Auditor > Buyer > IT Manager here, it all just seemed to ‘happen’.
English teacher --> stay-at-home mom --> typist/data processor --> programmer/systems analyst.
Social psychology professor------>clinical rehabilitation psychologist
Doesn’t sound like a big change, but I had to go back to graduate school (post Ph.D.) for two more years, live on loans for two years, move cross-country for a one-year internship, and then move cross-country again for a one-year postdoc. Despite the effort required, I am glad I did it.
Good luck to you guys.
Retail (wedding gowns)----->roustabout----->sales manager
Julie
gun/ammunition/explosive design and testing to writing aircraft maintenance and flight manuals.
I won’t list the dozens of side jobs I’ve tried just for the experience.
Public-works labourer (sewers and sidewalks, mostly) --> student (chemistry major) --> hippie --> psych aide (long-term hospital, then a short-stay place) --> computer support.
Somewhere in there, early on, I also did some hot-tar roofing and worked in a plastic-pipe factory for a while.
Right now, I’m open for a support job or another career change in the DFW area, if anybody wants to hire me!
Hmm. Architecture student --> depressed suicidal bum --> Electronics student --> electronics graduate --> assembler --> drafter --> circuit-board reparer --> assembler (at another company) --> radio tuner --> animation student --> test-equipment programmer --> manual writer --> omanual writer and online help developer. Currently hoping for —> something else.
I’ve always admired my father for many reasons. Among them is the fact that, in his late 30s, he quit his government job, which had taken us to live in Japan and the Philippines, to return to the States and join the Teacher Corps. He became a math teacher in an inner-city school system, something he continues today even though he’s officially retired.
Myself: mathematician/professor --> mathematician/administrator. Doesn’t sound like much, and it’s not an unusual step up the academic food chain, but it’s still pretty wrenching to go from the casual schedule of a professor to the 9 to 5 of an administrator.
I’ll be going through a very drastic change in a few months. As I am a Guardsman, I will be deactivated and put back on Guard status in a few months. After two years full-time in uniform, the two best years of my life, I have to find a job and go back to normal living.
Man, is that gonna hurt. I still have no idea what I’m gonna be doing. None at all. So, I’ll report back in a few months with an update.
Pipefitter/Welder => Accountant => Retired
All in all pipefitting beat accounting, hands down. Much nicer people to work with. Though being retired is best of all.
“the two best years of my life”
Hm.
“anybody taken that big plunge into something wildly different & lived to tell the tale?”
Only about a half dozen times. Plunging is what makes life interesting. I’d tell you the stories, but you’d probably get bored after page 2.
- PW
Post-grad in automotive engineering (studied and working in Germany too!) => managing director in a small construction company.
I switched before my engineering career really took off - after investing about 6 years into my sutdies, I realised I didn’t want to be sitting in front of a computer for the next 10 years (great timing!)… fortunately for me, this new option came along at around the same time I was contemplating switching. It was still a tough decision to make, but I’m the happier for it.
Good luck to you!!
The following threads (Warning: will take you out of the fuzzy, warm confines of the SDMB!) detail my experiences of leaving the family business. It isn’t a major career change as I’m still in the same industry, but it was quite traumatic on a number of points.
Btw, it might be more prudent if your hubby could wait until after the twins are born before leaving the current position, as pregnancies are a “pre-existing condition” and might not be covered by the new health plan.
In short, no matter the short term pain, you’ll come out better in the end:
God, I quit my job… left the family biz… and I’m so happy I could just scream!