My father was a high-school dropout who worked in grocery stores, eventually working his way up to district manager before the corporation pulled out of South Carolina. After that, he drove a delivery truck for a bread company, eventually working his way up to training new drivers.
My mom graduated high school, had a couple of kids with her first husband, and when that marriage didn’t work out too well, she moved to the big city (Columbia) and got a job as a secretary. She’s been a secretary ever since.
I went to college, worked in libraries (including a little time as a secretary*), worked for a bank that paid for my grad school (including a little time as an administrative assistant*), then came back to libraries after I got my master’s.
Closest I ever came to following in parental footsteps.
My father was an electrical engineer, who eventually had a PhD, which he referred to as Piled Higher and Deeper. He worked for General Electric his whole career, designing and testing many widgets. Started out in radar and ended with the MRI. Mom was a music teacher with a BA. She quit when she had baby#1, which is what you did in 1950. My sister is a civil engineer, and has managed to live in Texas for 35 years and is still sane. I went into nursing/medicine, which isn’t what my parents did, but as an FNP I do more than the many physicians on both sides of my family could do before 1920. My nevvie’s a chem E, one daughter is a graphic artist both with a day job at a newspaper and as freelance- she illustrates young adult books; the other daughter is also an artist who paints faces (makeup for brides and the like) part time and is a not quite stay at home mom. So far the grandson is going to be either a famous baseball player or a race car driver, or maybe a Ninja, the granddaughter will be In Charge, and the one on the way is an unknown. (we don’t even know the gender;))
My father was a County Extension Agent. His speciality was breeding cattle. And not the old fashioned way. Both ends (!) of that business were … yucky.
But he a bit of interest in electronics. Built some radios from kits, etc. I seem to have come by that naturally. Alway interested in electronics and then computers.
Became a Computer Science prof. (The most common occupations in our family after farmers had been teachers and preachers. So that sort of came natural as well.)
My kids are very different. Took completely different paths. One is in education, the other is a computer person. So both like me, neither like the other.
My dad was a veterinarian (retired). My mom was a SAHM after she got her Ph.T. (Putting Husband Thru). I am a computer programmer. None of my siblings nor anyone else in my family have anything to do with veterinary medicine, although my younger sister is about to become an RN.
My dad didn’t follow in anyone’s footsteps either - my grandfather was a furniture salesman. My mother’s father was a carpentry contractor.
I haven’t followed anyone’s path. My dad worked at the local university hospital for many, many years, mostly as an electronic (and then later as an anesthesia) technician. My mom was a secretary/program director for many, many years for a local health care facility. My sequence goes something like this: local university hospital, then a dishwasher, then I worked at Costco, then I joined the navy, then I went back to the hospital, then I worked for Microsoft (but probably not in the capacity you’re thinking), then I worked in I.T. for 3 or 4 different places, then I worked (briefly) for an environmental science lab, then I worked (briefly) for Amazon, and now I work at a major university at the front desk of the main office of the math department. This all over the span of about, oh, 30 years, or so. I’ve just ridden my own path sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
Both ends (!) of that business were … yucky.