How did you end up in your career? (license, job opening, 2015)

[lwilson80]

Currently, I work in the mortgage industry for a major banking institution but this was never the plan and I needed a job as I was laid off at eighteen. Now ten years later, I'm still at the same company (laid off once and came back because the city I reside in does not have job growth) and consistently doing entry-level work that leads to career path that I could care less about.


I know that most people typically have an idea as to what they want to be when they grow up. However, I think we can all agree that life happens and sometimes we find ourselves going in a different direction. My reason for this post is because I wanted to see how many people stuck to their original career goals and how many people just took a job because they needed one. And then job turned out to be a long drawn out career, in a field that you had no aspirations to pursue.


Thanks!!

[timberline742]

I stuck to mine. Don't get me wrong, for about 10 years I was out of my "career" because I couldn't find a job in it. I never quit trying though, and 3 years ago I was hired back into it. I always knew what field I wanted to work in, since high school anyway.

[Girl]

I've been a career secretary for the past 25 years and only recently made the jump to management.

I became a secretary because in college I typed up everyone's term papers and by the time I graduated I could type 100 wpm and knew WordPerfect 4.2, Lotus 123, dBase and MS-DOS really, really well.

I worked my way up to management by constantly volunteering to learn new processes, programs, skills. I worked my way up by not settling for being "just" a secretary/word processor/executive assistant. I learned to do things outside my job description so that I could pitch in and help anyone at anytime.

The result is that when I recently went in to my boss to request a raise, outlining all the things I did above and beyond my job description, she gave me a promotion instead (with a higher raise than I requested). My new title and job description fits EXACTLY what I do now.

That's how I ended up with the career I have today.

[Hemlock140]

I ended up in my current career (7 years now) because when I lost my business in the recession, I found a job opening with requirements for skills and experience that combined what I had done in the first two careers of 17 years in another state and 16 years here with the business. While I never went into the kind of work I had anticipated when in college and graduate school, I have held several positions in which the education has helped greatly.

[SQL]

I started out not knowing what I really wanted to do. All I knew after college was that I needed to get a job. When I relocated, I applied for anything and everything. After doing some temp jobs, I landed a role in Supply Chain Management, primarily logistics. I did that for a bit before landing into more of a purchasing/project management role. It was a great job, but then I started getting burned out. I was ultimately recruited back into Procurement, but this time as a data analyst. This is what I'd now consider my career focus to be; data analytics. I'm now on my 3rd analyst position, and I'm very happy with it. I really have the freedom to do what I do best, and it can't get much better than that. I would like to beef up my technical skills so that I can perhaps get into more data science type roles later on in my career.

All in all, there was no direct path, per se. I just kept looking for jobs that I wanted to do, and built up my skill set and experience to reflect that.

[shellymdnv]

As a Psych major I realized that I enjoyed the research aspect but I knew I really didn't want to get a PhD in order to work in the field. Fortunately I started working at the survey research center at my school and realized there was a field that used the research methods we had learned about. I worked my way up from being a telephone interviewer into other survey research related roles and eventually went back to school to get my Masters in Survey Methodology. I really love this field because it allows me to work in a variety of subject areas so I never feel like I'm stuck and I know my skills will always be needed.

[Serious Conversation]

Just stumbled into a help desk job when I graduated several years back in a bad economy.

[nicet4]

Graduated from high school then drafted into the army.

After the army had some crummy jobs and I decided I wanted to be a pilot so I went to fight school under the GI bill. Used every last cent.

Got my commercial pilots license with instrument and multiple engine rating. Went ahead and earned my CFI&AI (Certified Flight Instructor Advanced and Instruments) flight instructors certificate and went to work for a small FBO as a flight instructor and charter pilot flying Part 135 operations.

A wonderful life as long as I was single. I didn't make much money at all but I've been to every state except Vermont, I flew over Vermont but never landed there, Canada, the Bahamas, Mexico and Central America delivering airplanes.

I was single and extremely poor, all my friends were earning twice what I was, but I've seen the sun rise at my back when approaching the Grand Canyon 5,000 above the rim and that is a sight you got to see.

I was single, my car was a total piece of garbage but I had access to a wide variety of airplanes, among them my favorite a Beech B-55, so I had the wherewithal (airplanes and gas were free) to impress my dates.



220 mph in a straight line we could cover some distance.

I wanted to go airlines but in the 70's Vietnam was winding down and pilots were a dime a dozen. One job opening and you had literally 5,000 applicants.

I met my future wife and knew I couldn't make it if I got married so I started looking around. Was thinking of flying pipeline and almost applied.l

One of my primary flight students owned a fire sprinkler company and he said he had an offer to train me as a fire sprinkler layout technician... to go from flying airplanes to a drafting table drawing fire sprinkler systems and I didn't even know what a piece of pipe was.

What he told me was he thought I would be good at it because I obviously didn't have a problem with work, at the airport I flew 70 hours a week, that I could read and understand regulations and that I had an eye for seeing things in three dimensions.

He offered me a starting wage and my leg started to shake... it was twice what I was earning as a pilot.

He refused to accept me right then... it was a Friday and he told me he expected a yes or no answer Monday morning but if I said yes I had to promise, upon my honor as a man, that I would stick with it for six months. If I didn't like it after six months we would shake hands and part friends but he insisted I stick with it for six months.

I accepted Monday morning. Good thing he make me give the six month promise because I so wanted to bug out of that office environment at mid morning I couldn't take it. All from being more or less my own boss and pilot in command to being a trainee was tough.

Here I am, over 40 years later and I am still designing fire sprinkler systems.

For flying I bought my own airplane, PA-28R-200, so it all ended up well.

I stopped flying about 6 years ago now.

I am still married to the lady that caused me to give up flying professionally.

Moral of story? Life throws curves and most often how you end up somewhere isn't always a straight line.

[oh-eve]

I wanted to become a princess or a model when I was a kid.


After graduating from highschool, my parents told me to get a job and don't waste my (and their) time at college. I knew I wanted an office job. My opportunities were very limited (small city) and there were just a few apprenticeships advertised in the newspaper. I applied for the paralegal one and got it (it came with 3 years paid college). Coincidental best choice of my life because it fits me perfectly. I grew into it and I am still passionate about legal stuff overall. I modeled on the side in my 20s.

[chiluvr1228]

I wanted to be a nurse when I was in high school. However I failed Geometry and Chemistry, two subjects I needed at that time to get into college and/or nursing school.


So I became a secretary, then admin assistant, then low level management. If I could redo my younger years I would definitely have gotten a degree so I could have made better money.