# What's the most unusual career change you've ever seen? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 13, 2023, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091 "2023-03-13T03:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/21 "2023-03-13T06:35:06Z")
No he didn’t list Astronaut. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/22 "2023-03-13T07:01:11Z")
As a college freshman, Tom Dowd got a job as an assistant in the Columbia University Physics lab at the age of 16. At 18, he was drafted into the Army to work for the Manhattan Project. After the war, he returned to Columbia with the intention of completing his degree in nuclear physics. Only problem was, all of his experience and knowledge was classified and he couldn’t use any of it. So he quit school and got a job as a studio engineer. He eventually wound up at Atlantic Records where worked with everyone from Coltrane to Primal Scream. He talked Atlantic into purchasing one of only two 8 track recorders in existence (the other built by Les Paul). He’s the guy who produced and mixed Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say” so half could be put on the A-side and half on the B-side. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/23 "2023-03-13T07:01:36Z")
I guess Brian May would qualify. He went from being Queen’s lead guitarist to Ph.D astrophysicist who has made real contributions to astrophysics. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/24 "2023-03-13T07:46:15Z")
My best friend got his degree in accounting, while working summers in an amusement park sign shop. After graduating, he bought and expanded the sign shop business. This was so successful that he retired at age 34. Since then: Volunteer work for Sea Shepherd. Grocery store clerk, then manager. Instructor for motorcyclists. Elementary school science teacher. Home builder. He’s now considering his next career move. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/25 "2023-03-13T10:46:16Z")
I personally know a physician who quit doctorin’ and got his degree in business administration. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/26 "2023-03-13T11:42:12Z")
I knew a trader who also taught finance in a business school on the side. He became a masseur. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/27 "2023-03-13T11:47:18Z")
A friend of mine completed his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering - and then entered medical school. He now practices medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/28 "2023-03-13T11:49:19Z")
There are some transitions that are quite common. Entering a religious order is one. People transiting in or out of law is another. I know two people who did law degrees after nursing. Law seems easy to study part time, and nursing shifts make for great study periods. The dental surgeon who too out my wisdom teeth took up law as well. (He was a bit odd.) Another common one is musicians who move profession after their time playing rock and roll on the road. I know a professional cello player (he played in the local symphony orchestra for a good decade) who threw it all in to become a programmer. He learnt to do it over the Covid lockdown. As I said to him, if someone had told me I could learn to play cello at a professional orchestral level over the Covid lockdowns I would have cheerfully turned in my coding skills. I still think he is nuts. My favourite multi-professional would be Deniz Tek. Touring rock and roll guitar player, physician, flight surgeon for US Navy, pilot, flew back seat in F-4s, back to physician, still tours playing loud rock and roll. Minor infamy as being the original Iceman, from whence the name came to be used in Top Gun. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/29 "2023-03-13T11:55:36Z")
My nephew’s gf did tattooing to support herself while working on her PhD. She switched careers from tattoo artist to molecular biologist pretty much overnight. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/30 "2023-03-13T11:56:51Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > He went from being Queen’s lead guitarist to Ph.D astrophysicist I guess more accurate would be to say May went from being a succesful physics graduate student with a job offer in astrophysics to rock guitarist to PhD in astrophysics. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/31 "2023-03-13T12:00:09Z")
My own, LOL. I was an elementary school teacher for ten years and transitioned to IT support. Those are two very different professions. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/32 "2023-03-13T12:31:22Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > violent stand over man ??? ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/33 "2023-03-13T12:36:53Z")
I have a friend who went from being a software engineer to a professional sports broadcaster. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/34 "2023-03-13T12:51:09Z")
Apparently, “Aussie slang for an extortionist who uses physical violence (or threats thereof) to extract payment on behalf of another party.” @steatopygia : wow, fantastic! ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/35 "2023-03-13T12:56:58Z")
I know a film editor in Hollywood who later became a doctor. Likewise a classmate of mine at film school, who’d been an actress earlier in her career but wanted to transition to directing, is now a surgical nurse. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/36 "2023-03-13T13:47:37Z")
I’ve alternated a couple times between airline pilot and IT / software developer / manager. My barber has a BS in electrical engineering and a Masters in computer science. He got tired of the tech rat race so now he cuts hair. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/37 "2023-03-13T14:15:03Z")
Some years ago, I read in Springfield, Illinois’ _State Journal-Register_ about a local man who had trained at Le Cordon Bleu and had worked at some of the finest Michelin-starred restaurants in France. He was also Catholic AF and for reasons that made sense to him, returned to Springfield and went to work as the chef de cuisine, in a manner of speaking, at (wait for it) a local Catholic elementary school. The kids were getting high-quality food made to French standards and with the freshest ingredients (how he was able to keep costs down I’ll never know) in their school cafeteria. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/38 "2023-03-13T14:51:46Z")
I worked 13 years in water damage mitigation, then went back to college to get my BS in civil engineering and am now working in that field. ---
**Author:** ![NinthAcolyte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ninthacolyte/32/13676_2.png) [@NinthAcolyte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinthAcolyte)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/39 "2023-03-13T14:53:47Z")
I have a problem with chronic chest congestion. I’ve seen a dozen specialists and been tested for everything from allergies to asthma to GERD. Nobody’s ever been able to explain why I constantly produce all this thick phlegm in my lower throat/chest. During one of my last attempts to get some kind of answer, I was referred to a pulmonologist named Dr. Bok. Dr. Bok was a tiny old gnome of a man, a minuscule Malaysian doctor who wore polo shirts tucked into plaid golf pants and moved with the manic explosive energy of a caffeinated jackrabbit. I was referred to Dr. Bok because he was allegedly an actual genius, and I believe those allegations wholeheartedly. Dr. Bok referred to himself exclusively in the third person. He radiated chivalry and courtly manner. He literally hopped about with excitement at all times. This tiny little old doctor kissed the back of my hand when he met me, standing on tiptoe to do it. Really picture it - this wrinkled four-foot-tall doctor in bright red golf pants, literally vibrating with excitement, standing on tiptoe to gallantly kiss the hand of a six-foot-one trans woman who has absolutely no idea what to make of any of this. He was the most memorable person I have ever met. Dr. Bok, as my mother would say, “knows no short stories.” Every piece of information he gave would be accompanied by a lengthy, rambling third-person anecdote in his thick Malay accent. I have never listened to anyone as intently as I listened to Dr. Bok. He spoke so quickly that it was legitimately hard to understand him, and I never wanted to miss a word. On to the point: Dr. Bok wanted me to have some kind of lung function test, and he got very excited about the machine that I would be using. He launched into a highly technical lesson on just how it worked, then explained that he was very interested in such things because his first PhD and first career was in _electrical engineering_. He had _worked on designing missile defense systems_ in Japan. “Then,” says Dr. Bok, bouncing up and down on his stool and waving his arms around like an overexcited toddler, “Dr. Bok decide: IS BORING! I think I try be LUNG DOCTOR! Come America, get MD!” I’ll never forget that guy. When he had finally exhausted everything he could think to try he told me over the phone, in an utterly dejected moan, “Oh poor Dr. Bok! You have stumped him!” God bless you, Dr. Bok, wherever you are. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091/40 "2023-03-13T14:54:44Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > Is her name Barbie? 😃 No, it’s Joan. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-unusual-career-change-youve-ever-seen/981091.md?page=3)