I think I’m one of the rare individuals who knew exactly what they wanted to do at an early age, and did it. Here’s my story:
Starting around 8 years old (1975) I became fascinated with electronics. I would disassemble old TVs and radios, trying to figure out how they worked. I would unsolder every resistor, capacitor, etc. and store them in drawer cabinets. Using these parts, I would try and build circuits from schematics I found in magazines. I later discovered that some people work as “electrical engineers,” and I wanted to be one, too.
Things were going O.K. until high school. My parents divorced, and we children were living with our mother in near poverty. It affected my greatly, and I started doing poorly in school. I was also hanging out with the “long-haired, heavy-metal kids” who only wanted to party. I remember sitting in the guidance counselor’s office at my high school and him asking me, “So, what are you plans after high school?” I said, “I want to be an electrical engineer!” He gave me a dubious look and said, “Ahem, well Crafter_Man, your GPA is only 2.8. I really think you should enroll in a trade school.”
I didn’t want to go to a trade school. I applied for a couple local engineering colleges after I graduated, and (not surprisingly) neither accepted me. Not to be dissuaded, I enrolled in something called “University College” at the University of Cincinnati with an undeclared major. I was so poor that I qualified for all kinds of grants. I took the same courses the engineers took (calc, physics, etc.) and worked my ass off. Got a 3.8 GPA at the end of my freshman year. Applied again to UC’s College of Engineering, and this time I got in. Graduated with a BSEE from UC in 1992, and a MSEE from the University of Dayton in 2010. Been working as an EE ever since, and love it.
I sometimes think about the advice from my high school guidance counselor. Was he right or wrong? I don’t know. Statistically he was probably correct, I suppose.
I was going to be a doctor. My dad, grandfather, and great uncle were all ophthalmologists. My uncle was a gastroenterologist.
I started college assuming pre-med. I joined the Army National Guard as 91A (combat medic) because I figured military medical experience could only help my career goal.
But it did not take me long to realize I was not cut out for the medical field. I hated being a medic.
I took my background and readjusted and went into marine biology and spent my grad program SCUBA diving in the Keys and the Bahamas. Although my actual professional career (25+ years) is not specific to marine biology, I definitely benefitted from my biological background, as my profession deals with evaluating all sorts of environmental impacts.
Boy, howdy. I did, however, complete a BA in Social Sciences, with heavy coursework in psychology. I had to do it at night, so it was a grind, but fifteen years after I started, I finished a degree. It was only useful to me for being able to check the “four year degree” box on job applications, but I was hired at least twice because of that edge. And I have to say that the coursework helped me gain insight into what motivates people.
I got a civil engineering degree and decided to get into construction management (I also started down city planning/engineering but changed my mind on that). I worked for two years in the field and decided it wasn’t for me. This was back in the early 90s and construction crews were ROUGH. As an undergrad I did IT work and that’s where I went for the next 20’ish years (well, I’m still there, but it’s not all I do). I’m now back in construction but on the capital planning and design/build team side. The construction environment has improved in those 30 years. I’m not in the trenches like I was, but I talk to the PMs, CMs, and job supers and they agree things are better.
My career ambitions and work have bounced around a lot.
As a kid I wanted to be a doctor, mostly because of TV shows like MAS*H and whatnot, but I soon realized that I am too squeamish to be an MD or anything like it.
Then later in the 80s, I wanted to be a high-flying finance guy and make a lot of money. I actually worked as an assistant to a bunch of traders at the Chicago Options exchange for a while. It was fun, but I decided it wasn’t something I could devote my life to.
So I thought I’ll be a teacher. I taught math for a few years, but quit because it doesn’t pay well, and I wasn’t that good at it.
Finally I settled on working on business statistics for the government, which is fine. If I had it to do over again I might go into bio-statistics. I’d be good at it, and it would be cool to be on a team that discovered a new cure for a disease or something like that.