I got a microscope when I was 6 and a chemistry set at 8, so I pretty much followed a science/engineering track through grad school, then accepted a job in the O&G field. I’ve been doing this for 25 years and still continue to learn new things.
I thought my talents lay in research-working with birds and such in the field. I was a fair-to-middling TA, but found when students came to visit me in my office that I was much more effective getting concepts across in a 1-1 setting than in a classroom or lab. I soon switched careers into tutoring and never looked back (part of that decision also involved becoming disillusioned with groupthink in huge bureaucratic university settings).
Not even remotely. After a false start in college with an engineering field, I found that I had an aptitude for, and an intuitive skill in, the field of psychology. Through a series of mistakes by the university, I ended up as 1A in my second year and joined the Navy to avoid the Army. They trained me as an electrician, which I was also good at, and I parlayed that trade and experience into a later career in construction and facilities management.
Throughout those careers I excelled at personnel management and at mentoring others, and it’s where I found my greatest satisfaction, which leads me to believe I could have done well as a psychologist or as a therapist. I was able to eventually obtain a degree in the social sciences, but it was only of use as a resume check box.
That’s a constant dilemma I hear from my consulting peers. They find that the constant travel, workload and politics of consulting wears on them. But when they switch over to “industry”, they get bored by the slow pace and the more apathetic nature and lower professional caliber of their coworkers. I tend to agree. When you go from a “do whatever it takes to keep the client happy” to a “5:00…time to drop whatever I’m doing and go home” environment, it can be a bit of an adjustment.
Yup. I didn’t think very hard about it though. I suddenly realized at the end of high school, “Oh. I haven’t decided my major for college. Uhhh.”
I decided I liked working with computers. And I liked making art. So…graphic design! That used both. I’d become a graphic designer. Problem solved.
Well, despite my lazy half-brained way of picking out my future career, it’s worked out remarkably well for me. I’m a graphic designer and happy with what I do. If I thought a little harder and had more engaging classes and some guidance I might’ve picked something else, because I had a lot of possibilities open from being good at math and writing as well. Not sure I’d like them as much as this though, in the end.
I remember taking one of those “job match” tests in high school as a class assignment; the job types were way out of date (no computer related jobs) but I remember the top three results were: carpenter, librarian, physicist. All three of which I thought were great choices. I could’ve also gone in to academia with a focus in Greek mythology/history, or maybe been a politician, or an archaeologist… but I really wanted something with computers. I remember reading an article about professional whistlers and professional mannekin makers back then, and realized the breadth of jobs out there is incredible. Schools tend to pigeonhole you pretty well so you don’t even realize a lot of job types exist.
I was never a kid who wanted to be a cop. I didn’t have anything against it, it just didnt occur to me.
The military always interested me. After I started hating college I joined the army. Did 4 years of active duty then signed up for the National Guard.
Went back to school and expected to have an office job the rest of my life. Then I started talking to some cops in my guard unit. I liked what I heard. Better pay than I was getting, good benefits and I liked the schedule. I applied for multiple positions and got lucky enough to get hired in the town I grew up in.
So I’ve been working in 2 different careers. I am eligible to retire from the army now. I’ll be eligible to retire as a cop in a few years. Both were my choice but its not like it was where I thought I would be back when I was a teen.
Yeah, been meaning to talk to you about that. We’re going to have to archive and delete your site. Nobody has looked at your reports for over 180 days.
The money is the best part. Travel can be mitigated if you’ve got skills that are in demand locally. I used to travel extensively (bi-coastal) but not for a long time now and there does not seem to be a need for me to do so. To be honest, on very rare occasions, I miss the frequent flyer air miles. But the part almost as good as the money is the variety of projects. There’s a lame one every now and then but for the most part, it’s interesting stuff and you can move on when it becomes dull.
I wanted to be an architect. My dad, the ever pragmatic engineer, gave me some of the best advice I’ve ever received. He said, “Son, I’ve seen your technical drawing. I think you should pursue a career in computer programming.” So off I went.
I had originally intended to go into meteorology, from the time I was about 6 years old, until I was about 16. At that point, I discovered just how much higher-level math and physics you need to take to get a meteorology degree, and I changed my mind. 
I went to college with a declared major of business, and discovered the field of market research during my freshman year (I had a work-study job with the university, which entailed working on market research projects). At that point, I started seriously looking into the field, and had pretty much chosen it by the end of my sophomore year. After getting my bachelor’s degree (marketing), I stayed in school for two more years to get a master’s in market research, and have worked in the field ever since.
As I’ve gotten to know people in the industry, I’ve discovered just how unusual my path into market research has been – an awful lot of people in the the industry were in marketing, or some other field, and stumbled into market research.
I remember taking such a test as part of taking the ACT (college placement exam) when I was in high school. Extremely unhelpful – it placed me in the dead center of the graph, with the description “you have the potential to excel in any career”. Gee, thanks. 
Mine chose me. I started off as a data entry temp; now I’m one step below paralegal and approaching 20 years of service.
I don’t know if I’d call my job a career, as it’s, well, just a job to me. My dream career is to be copy editor for Reader’s Digest. My job is letters analyst/IT for a health care company. At one point in time, I had aspirations to work at university as a career, as a staff member in one of the departments. I got a job in Criminal Justice and was over the top about it – until I realized it’s all a bunch of beauracratic bullshit and teachers can’t even spell. It didn’t help that at first, it seemed my boss and I were best buds and that she was grooming me to take over her position as main secretary, but as it turns out, we were polar opposites and, after watching Office Space on my lunch hour, I decided on the spot I needed to get out of there, and so I did. I know that’s a run-on sentence, but oh well, that’s how it felt like it happened. It was just like ok-i-love-this-new-job-oh-wait-no-I-don’t-I quit.
I did make a conscious choice to have my career.
I have been a working as a stagehand since I was a sophomore in high school. In college I worked as a stagehand while I studied anthropology. Eventually I realized that although I loved anthro, I could not see myself teaching for a living. Since there are few other careers for anthropologists (how many times have you ever met one at a party?), I began to consider my options. I made a list of things that I would find attractive in a career and quickly realized that being a stagehand fit my requirements and my knowledge/skill set perfectly.
I have never regretted my decision in any way. I’ve traveled quite a bit for work, done television work (both live & taped), worked on films, theatre, music recording… I’ve been involved in virtually every aspect of entertainment I can think of. It’s been a great ride so far and I have no intention of getting off any time soon.
Kinda.
I’m a securities trader at a small proprietary trading firm in Chicago. I accepted the job when I graduated about seven years ago. In that time I have seen many people (and firms) in the industry disappear, yet I find myself still here. As I approach my 30th birthday, I’m pretty sure that I don’t want to be a trader forever. The skill set is pretty limited and not very applicable to many other areas. I also don’t find the job emotionally satisfying (though as far as intellectual challenge, it’s hard to beat). Thus far my career has provided me a solid financial position, and I’m lucky enough to be able to realistically consider transitioning into something I feel more passionate about without worrying about paying the rent. The problem is I’m still not sure what that would be. I’m quite jealous of people that know what they want to do and then pursue it.
I sort of wandered into my first career (marketing copywriter) but I chose my second and third (barn manager and lawyer, respectively).
Not at all.
Growing up I wanted to be a veterinarian, a career path I had pretty much given up by the time I got into college. But once in college I was neither career nor goal-oriented. I drifted around for years in school, generally enjoying the experience while working odd part-time jobs and not thinking too much about the future. I eventually had a vague idea of a two-pronged approach to career - either a field biologist for some government agency or a history teacher. But I lacked the focus and drive to put in the necessary grind for the first and I kinda loathed public speaking which was a serious impediment to the second. With perfect hindsight I might have actually been better off heading towards becoming an academic librarian, but it never occurred to me at the time.
Instead by semi-happenstance ( family connections to a large extent ) I ended up in a skilled trade in my early twenties and stuck. I kept attending school part-time until I was ~30, thinking I might make the jump to somewhere or something else, but it never quite gelled. And by then I was vested with a secure job with a very good paycheck and benefits. So as I close in on a quarter century at my job, I guess I’m not going anywhere.
And I do think of it as a job, rather than a “career.” But, eh - it pays the bills ;).
I’ve often wondered about certain jobs, especially car salesmen. Did anyone ever say, “I want to sell cars when I grow up!”? Or did everyone in those types of jobs just fall into them out of lack of other options?
Anyway, I always knew I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. I find math and science easy and interesting, and most other subjects difficult and boring. And I love to see how things work and how they are made. So it just made sense. And here I am, an engineering consultant and professor.
Well, when I was 4, I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a used-car salesman when I grew up (this was before I discovered meteorology ). They had no idea where that came from, but it lasted for a few months.
Sales jobs, in general, require a certain personality type to be successful (and those who have the right personality can, indeed, be very successful, even with selling cars).
I suspect that, for some people, car sales has the attraction of (a) not generally requiring a lot of education (unlike some other white-collar sales-oriented jobs, such as being a sales rep for a manufacturing company, or a real-estate agent), (b) having the potential for making good money, and (c) letting you work with cars (big attraction if you’re a car nut).
That said, I also imagine that there are a lot of guys who quickly bomb out of car sales, because they just aren’t good enough at it to make a living, and they wind up going into something else.
I am a Project Manager - the accidental profession.
After high school I did not know what I wanted to do with myself, so I kinda had the idea I would go into drafting or CAD since that is what I did in my Jr and Sr year. I did not have the grades for the local University, so I went to the Community College and took a class in Geography that I loved, and the instructor was a real character. I decided to major in Geography, and got a degree a few years later after transferring to the University.
My first few jobs were related to the field, and I ended up working at two digital mapmaking companies, and loved the entreprenurial culture at the time, and the fact that it related to my field of study. The company slowed down the mapping production for a while, and someone suggested I become a Project Manager for more client-oriented work. Since being a PM has more transferrable skills than a mapmaker, I switched, and have been on this path for about 15 years, and in a totally different industry for the last 12 years (Health Insurance).
I confess I have settled and accepted my fate, as providing for my young family at the time was the driver of my decisions as opposed to doing what I really want. It has been more practical. Maybe that will ease someday and I can get back to something I really want to do and not be swept along the current path. I can hope.
I would say “yes” overall, but I did discover my career by accident and make a choice to change careers.
In college, I started working for myself because it was the only way to pay my bills. Part of working for myself meant doing the bookkeeping and taxes. Over time, clients who knew me well started asking questions about bookkeeping and taxes.
At some point the light bulb went on. Hey, I actually like the bookkeeping and taxes better than my main job, and I’m good at it. People are practically begging me to do it. I would never have sought out accounting if it wasn’t for this sort of accidental exposure.
However, that’s the point where I did make a conscious decision to ditch the old career and move into accounting. I went back to school, got my degree, became a CPA, etc. and now all I do is accounting.
Lawyer all my working life.
I remember when I was about 4 or 5 I was on a kick about “suing” people, and asking my Dad a lot if someone could be sued. My recollection is that I thought it was something like a lasso. (In my defence, we watched a lot of old Roy Rogers movies.)
Didn’t really plan it, but guidance counsellors did nudge me towards it - said that I seemed to have the aptitude.
Did an Arts degree in History, minor in political science - one of the classic preps for a law degree, but I did it because it was interesting.
When I was close to graduating, there was a major recession on, so I poked my head up like a gopher from the warm shelter of university, thought, “I think I’ll stay here for three more years, instead of going out into the cold.” Took the LSAT; scored 782 (don’t know what that is nowadays); applied to a few law schools; went to the one that Alan Fotheringham wrote approvingly about on the back page of Macleans; have been with the law ever since.
So, not really planned, but not really accidental, either; more of a general progression to something that I like doing (except the occasional file), and that I’m good at.