I graduated in 1991 with a degree in psychology but no intention of working in that field. I had a few false starts in sales jobs (boy did I hate the constant targets). I moved across into finance in about '97 for a few years and realised that was more or less sales work too, just selling money rather than computers. Got laid off in 2002 and retrained as a project manager (it seemed like something I’d be good at, and was about the only option that seemed open to me to be honest) and have had steady, good work since then. Ironically I’m back in Finance earning far more than when I was on the sales side!
Was project management my goal? No, probably not, but I’m good at it, I get some satisfaction from being good at it, and I make excellent money.
Would I do this job if I didn’t care about the money? I don’t know, but I discovered that those T-Shirts telling me about being a Bondi Beach Bikini Inspector were just lies, damned lies, so project management is a pretty good second place.
Still waiting to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up.
Meanwhile though … I finished Junior Year of HS and realized that I could finish up just by taking one summer school class so did. Unsure what direction I should go in and very seriously thought about architecture but did not have the confidence to think I could make it in what I knew was a competitive field. Applied to college in the Business School and got a job as a runner at the Board of Trade for my year off. Learned that I probably did not want to be in the Business School. At college ran into someone I had known from High School who was on a pre-med path and it changed my life … up until then I had thought you had to be real real smart to be on that path and meeting with him I realized that while I was no genius I was way smarter than that guy. Always had enjoyed working with kids so if medicine it was to be a pediatrician. Took science classes and worked in a biological psychology lab (whose head was an amazing teacher about how to think critically) and pretty straight path since with the only potential detours a consideration about applying for an MD/PhD path and research, a brief thought about combined Internal Med/Peds at the end of med school, and a brief consideration of Neonatology at the end of residency when recruited by an attending.
Nothing ever got in my way as far as career path goes (although family health events that occurred made internship year very stressful) and no regrets. Love what I do. Happy I have not had to grow up yet. Figure I can hold off a while longer.
FWIW my dad ran his own small business but was in his heart the salesman and I think of myself as being in sales too.
When I was in the fifth grade, my class went to Jekyll Island and the Okeefenokee Swamp. Previous to this trip, I’d never seen a sand dune, a maritime forest, mud flats, crabs, bivalves, aligators, canoes…It was like I’d been plopped into another planet. My mind was opened. I was suddenly aware of “nature” and the “environment”. Growing up in the big city, I hadn’t really been exposed to these things.
But still, it took a long time before I saw environmental science as a career path. It started when I was in college and I was invited to do undergraduate research in an ecotoxicology lab. From there, I graduated to more pure ecology–which was my focus in grad scchool. Pragmatism kicked in when I was doing my post-doc, when I intentionally started to aquire the skills needed to market myself as an environmental scientist. I’ve been wearing this hat for almost 10 years.
I don’t have any regrets. I feel like good choices along with spectacular luck have enabled me to have a pretty good career. I think one thing that has helped me is that I know what my weaknesses and strengths are. Like, for a year or so I put my hand at teaching. People encouraged me because they thought I’d be a good role model, and because I can occasionally give a good presentation. But I HATED teaching and being in academia. I could have grown to love it, but probably not. So I’m glad that I didn’t force myself to stick with it. You have to learn when to ignore people sometimes.
Sorry but I failed at that whole thing. I went from being a motorcycle mechanic, to a school teacher, to starting a flyfishing business (mostly manufacturing), to being a professional numismatist, to working in a shipping center. In-between I’ve been everything from a honeydipper (don’t ask; its not as nice as it sounds) to a waiter. I’m still “out there” somewhere.
Although I could argue that on a certain level I “found myself” from the beginning. If you are willing to work hard you will have fun and make at least some money no matter what the job is. Seeing so many people struggle in jobs they hated just made the fun part of the equation the more important to me. I never left a job because the money wasn’t right; I always switched because the satisfaction wasn’t right.
Much sense.
Started teaching in my 40s. With no experience or credentials (for a tech school my 15 years of random design jobs were qualifications enough). Did get a BS (Biology/Pre-Med) back in '76, but have never done anything remotely connected to that.
What did that entail? Did you go back to school? Get your PMP*? Something else…?
My nephew is one year into his first full-time job, and he’s interested in project management; I like to hear how other people got there. Hopefully this isn’t too much of a hijack.
*Project Management Professional certification, from the Project Management Institute.
:Dcareer planning, 10 year and 5 year plans? whuh?
I still haven’t figured out a career plan, I always envisioned how I wanted to live, not how I wanted to work. I am happy to report that after 25 years of labor, a couple of missteps and set backs I am finally starting to achieve the lifestyle I’ve always wanted since I was a kid.
In the course of my career life I’ve started college, hated it and dropped out in a two week period, worked my way from dishwasher to manager at the same restaurant, started a business, been bought out of a business, been dad, a soldier, homeowner (twice) a mechanic, a janitor, married (twice) a structural drying and mold remediation technician, adoptive dad (twice) a delivery and installation technician of exercise equipment, cat owner (more than twice) and a mover.
I was about 32 or so when it dawned on me one day what I was doing wrong.
I was working against my vision while trying to work to achieve it.
I was still in the army at that time, freshly divorced and feeling very bad when it struck me that it didn’t matter what job I did, it was a means to a life of wife kids, a happy family, and home and that I had been fucking it up by trying to provide all of everything and the very best of it as well by trying to succeed in the careers that I thought would pay the most (thus make me happiest if I could only just achieve that financial level of success called ‘wealth’) and not focusing on working the types of job that I like. I did however succeed in doing all the things I wanted to do as a kid in my life before 40 and zero of the things my mom wanted me to do in my life instead
Kopek, I know what a honeydipper is I shudder/gag in sympathy
Sort version; I was 18 years old, fell over backward into a job in the IT department of an insurance company, mainly I was hired because I looked like I could lift heavy objects. I looked around at what was happening and decided I could do the same thing people making a lot more money than I was were doing. It took four years moving from job to job until someone realized I could do that, and it’s been smooth sailing ever since. I tell people starting out now to develop their attitude, it may take a while but the right people recognize the can do spirit and will reward you if you can do it for them.
… and two things happened within a few months of one another. My 7th grade English teacher was a confirmed cinephile. He adored filmmaking as much as films themselves. He put a movie camera into my hands and I was good to go. ( Oddly, even though it was 1974, it wasn’t a Super 8mm camera. Rather, it was a nascent video camera hardwired into an Aiwa reel to reel video recorder device. )
The other thing that happened is that my Dad gave me my first camera. It was a Yashica 635, which offered the wonderful opportunity to shoot both 120mm 2 1/4" square negative AND 35mm negative.
Since I was 14 all I have wanted to do was be a Cinematographer. I’m 53 and in about 55 minutes, I’ll strap on my Steadicam and do some more shots here at MSNBC - my office for the weekend. At 14 I discovered shooting in all aspect. ( Still, video and film ). At 17 I conspired to design and get approval for a Senior Workstudy project. Half of every day in that school year was spent learning to shoot, light and edit video projects. Many of them were aired on the local cable access using the Head End Drop installed into the school building. I also finessed a paying job shooting and editing video documenting municipal meetings. Both for legal / archive purposes and so that the meetings could be aired over said cable access for all to see who could not attend.
Since there was a rather hot legal / real estate battle happening that year in my township, the meetings were heated and very well-attended. The videos were actually quite useful and viewed by many hundreds of folks. ( Hey- back THEN I thought having hundreds of people watch my work was incredible !! )
Every single day at work is a gift. I love composing shots and have been fortunate enough to find myself everywhere from the set of Notorious B.I.G.'s first video (“Juicy”) to preceding Pope Francis down the center aisle at the Basilica in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago.
I found my way and never deviated. I’m also very aware of how unusual this is.
When I took my first French class in 9th grade, I decided I wanted to teach French. I got into my first choice college where I intended to pursue studies to enable me to teach foreign languages. Within the first couple of months, I decided I HATED being in college, but I stuck it out till the end of the second semester. Then I talked to a Navy recruiter.
That August, I went to boot camp, and that fall, I started studying electronics and and in less than a year, I went on to work on aircraft, specifically communications and navigation systems. Then I looked at the pay scale for officers and decided I wanted a piece of that, and I was accepted into a program to get my degree and become an officer.
I got my degree in Aero Engineering and became an officer. I sucked as an officer - seriously, it was absolutely the worst career path I could have taken. But I gave the Navy the 5 years they required of me in exchange for the degree, then I got out. I took my diploma and after a brief sojourn as a Veterans Advisor as well as teaching a couple of Algebra classes, I was hired as an engineer working for the Navy. I did that for the next 26 years, retiring with a total of 37 years of federal service (which included my Navy time.)
Since then, I’ve had 3 temp jobs - 2 as a drafter, one working for the Maryland dept of natural resources. Just recently, I started working as a senior drafter employed by a contractor for the Navy - I’m back on base in a dusty cubicle. I don’t want to be an engineer any more - drafter is easy and it pays better than retail or food service. I plan to work for maybe 3 or 4 more years, then retire for good. (Unless I get bored again.)
What do I want to be when I grow up? Comfortably retired.
I dunno. Grew up with a Vic-20 and Commodore 64. Wrote stupid BASIC programs. Got good with computers. Went to college in computer science. Wrote a program that got fairly popular. Got noticed by a company. Interviewed with that company. Did an internship. Hired full time. 15 years later, here I am. It all seemed fairly… automatic.
The first was in law enforcement. That ended when I decided to go back to college and finish my degree. I was going to major in police science, but I saw the degree plan for management information systems. Career change time.
I have worked as a computer wonk since 1975. In 1987, I got back into Taekwondo after nearly 20 years “on the bench”. In 1994, I became the owner and chief instructor of my school and had two careers running side-by-side.
I pretty much retired from full-time computer work after I became a Master Instructor and decided I wanted to devote myself to the school fulltime. I still dabble with databases and do some on-call support for a company, but right now, career #3 takes almost all my time.
I am currently in college majoring in Astrophysics.
How’d you figure that out?
I took an Astronomy class on a whim my first quarter in college and that eventually led to this… Obsession.
**What age were you? **
I’m currently 25.
Did anything get in your way?
Yes. College in general has been extremely difficult for me. I grew up in poverty and became homeless when I was a teenager. So instead of focusing on applying for scholarships, I was busy focusing on where I’d sleep that night and what I’d eat.
I got married at 18 (mostly out of desperation) and the next couple of years was trapped in an abusive relationship. Finally got out of it - was working full time as a security guard and also attending college full time when I got into a car accident and broke my neck and had a lot of memory loss. It has taken me nearly 3 years to recover from my injuries.
Now I’m working graveyard shifts as a caregiver for adults with developmental disabilities, and taking morning classes. Work, college, sleep, work, college, sleep. That is my life. I’m not complaining - I enjoy my job and I’m glad for the opportunity to be back in school. But it hasn’t been easy.
How many times have you changed your career path, major of study, etc?
More times than I can count. My problem is that I’m passionate about many, many things - so it was very hard to narrow it down to one career path. But I think I’ve chosen correctly. It’s an extremely competitive field - we’ll see how it goes.
Any regrets?
I try not to regret how long this has taken me. I know if I had taken advantage of my HS running start program, and gone to college right away, I’d be almost done with college by now. But dwelling on that doesn’t change anything. I try to just keep moving forward.
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