Did you end up in the career that you planned for , or did it just sort of happen?
 

Just thinking today about how events played out and how I ended up where I am today. It is surely not how I pictured my life turning out when I was in high school or college..
I really had little interest in what I am doing now, until after high school graduation. I planned on going to college, and went for a few semmesters, but I found that I did not enjoy school, and really enjoyed fixing things and as I got a little older I realized that is what I was programmed to do, plus the thought of sitting in an office all day really repulsed me.

well my planned career led to the one I have now. does that count?

Working on cars, race cars, working for race teams and a guy comes along and gets me a job doing fiberglass (pretty much my specialty at the race shops) on the Queen Mary when it came to Long Beach to become a hotel and tourist attraction. They put me in the painters' union because it was a closed shop (illegal in CA) and that was the closest fit.

Became a union painter w/o having to serve the apprenticeship, so was making journeyman's wages in my mid 20's. That's good money. Been in construction ever since moving thru the trades as fast as I could pick them up. Ultimately became a carpenter and general contractor. That took about 10 years.

Nope, no one in the family has been in construction and I went to college studying English, then marketing.

So, yeah, way different than what my parents had in mind (being a suit). But, when they divorced mid college, I was left to finish up what I could on my own. So, going from being way underpaid at race shops to making a middle class income overnight did capture my attention.

I wasn't cut out to be suit anyway.

Yeah, pretty much what I wanted.

No, yes, although one indirectly led directly to the other.

I worked as a carpenter summers in high school and for a couple years after I graduated. When I got back and out of the Marines I met some old friends that were Surveryors, I liked the hours and the fact in was always on the ground. So I became one. Through that I got to work in Mexico, Colorado, Alaska and California. It's been good to me.

Sorta kinda. I was always into photography. I got my first job while sitting in my math class as a junior in high school. The professional photographer that the school hired to shoot pictures for the yearbook hired me because I had taken the majority of his business from him. I worked in the commercial photography business for many years. Digital changes everything and I was lucky enough to get a job in aerial photography. Now I make photographic aerial maps.

My former planned career morphed into what I do now.

Went to college to study finance--I wanted to learn the secrets to getting rich quick.

I learned that there is no secret to getting rich quick, and many more end up broke than end up set for life by making risky bets in the stock market.

Junior year I gave in to my destiny and added a second major in computer programming. (Father worked for IBM when I was a kid and had been in IT his whole life.)

Graduated in 2000 at the height of the Dot Com boom, and entertained offers in both finance and IT.

The finance offers were along the lines of we will pay you peanuts + commission for the first decade and if and only if you don't wash out will you start to make reasonable money, with an even smaller shot at the big bucks. It's all based on the sales book you can build from walk-ins and cold calls--all of the existing customers go to the experienced brokers. Or I could be a market analyst, in which case you make peanuts without commision until you make some wild ass guess that happens to come true and you get booked on finance talk shows, write a book, and generally try to sound like you understand some deep secrets no one else does.

The IT offers were big bucks and generous benefits now, without the outrageous topside potential of the finance stuff. (And I pretty much guessed I wouldn't be in the .001% that made it big in finance.)

Snapper can probably relate.

I wanted to serve, preferably fly, in the Navy. I was going to be a two tours and out guy. My rational was that your are only young once: I thought I'd go live it and catch up with my peers later.

Life, as they say, happens.

Worked out that I stayed considerably longer...

Owning my own business now has been, oddly, a natural transition, a nice evolution, as much a result of planning as happenstance.

I still haven't decided what I want to be when I grow up.

I've been pretty good at acting on opportunity that arises.

I never said I grew up. It's never too late for a happy childhood.

Well, I'm sort of in the same general direction, but I took a circuitous route to get here.

Out of HS, I was thinking Elec Eng, but I didn't know why really. I thought that since I was good at math and science, that it sounded like the most interesting direction that was lucrative. I didn't actually know what was out there and what I wanted to do, so I didn't apply myself. I quit college and went to work at a retail auto parts store. I was really good at it and advanced quickly, but soon realized that retail was a HORRIBLE option. I moved to Texas after meeting my wife. I still didn't have a clue, but my wife knew some folks and got me into the bar business. I bartended at topless bars for about 5 years. After about 3 years of that I realized that it was an OK job, but not the career for me. By then, I'd noticed the Microsoft certifications and was generally a geek so I started studying Microsoft stuff and got my foot in the door at an entry level position in a call center helping your average idiot get on the Internet. From there, I fell into the position that I'm in now. I'm a network engineer. I don't really work with PCs other than as tools to help me work with Cisco gear, firewalls, Voice over IP, routers, switches, etc.... I really enjoy what I do, and a Comp Sci or Comp Eng degree which is really close to an EE would have gotten me here, but I didn't go that route, because I just didn't know what I wanted to do.

I had no idea what I wanted to do after high school. Went to college for a few semesters, then worked for several years at stupid jobs, realized I needed a degree and went back to college to get a degree in mgt. After I graduated, I didn't know what I want to do then either, but had a friend in residential construction. Since I like the outdoors and working with my hands, I went there. It was good until 2-3 years ago. Now I wish I might have taken a different path...

Like Steve, I too had exceptional apptitude in math,logic, etc. and arbitrarily picked computer science as my major in college way back when (stating I would change majors if I didn't like it). I was VERY good at it, thrived, and really enjoyed my career for years (only regret, I was hitched to BIG corps due to my niche) and then the corporate bs got old...30 years later, I've changed majors :)

Under my high school senior picture I stated my career goal, which is what I am now doing. But, when I was in college I modified the plan, intending to follow my original plans but then segue into a completely different occupation. That segue is a little tougher than I anticipated - too many kids, too much personal overhead. . . .

It...just...happened...

I certainly can Seahawk. I was going to serve long enough to get time to be an airline pilot. Got out in 2000 to pursue that....it sucked, 9/11 happened, joined the Army doing something different than flying and I LOVE it.

I'm set up to run my own business when I retire like you as a Colonel and I can afford then to take the risks.

Sure didn't plan my life to be this way but I love it!

I wanted to be a rocket enginer since grade school, now I are one.

For many years I was doing explosives work with solid rockets, more fun and challenges than you can imagine.

I got my BA in math and thought I'd go on to PhD and then academics. In my last year of college I realized that I was spending 8 hours straight in a chainlink carrel 6 floors underground in Doe library working on math problems. I'd emerge disoriented, no idea if it was day or night, having spoken to no-one all day. I didn't like that. Directionless, I took the GMAT and LSAT and went to law school because that score was higher. So law was an accidental career, though it turned out well. After a decade I realized that the older lawyers weren't very happy people, that I was spending more time on billing and chasing business than on actual lawyering, and I didn't like that. So I took a year off and then went to business school. My goal was to get into investment management, which happened. So this career is somewhat less accidental. I hope to have a third career before I die but can't really think of one right now.

I knew I was never cut out to be a suit even though I did the dentistry thing for a few years, ran outta money so I decided I needed a job that paid big and gave me lots of time off, so I went and got that job, still have it 34 years later.

Burt Rutan was my idol while in high school, and I wanted to work for him or be like him. I wanted to be in aerospace with Rutan or NASA. Got accepted to the U of Illinois' highly competitive AE program, but was later sent a letter saying that I got bumped and I could choose any of the engineering program offered at the school (the only one I applied to!). I wanted to be at the school anyhow, so I chose Mechanical Engineering, and found my interest in cars and hooked up with the SAE club. I was then going to go work in Detroit and be the next powertrain genius. But I ended up changing my major 3 yrs in and got a .... get this... BS Geology degree! Lol

Had enough of a start in engineering that I felt I had to see it through. So I applied to some southern schools to get out of the Midwest for a couple of yrs before I return to spend my career in the cold of the Midwest. Ended up at Florida State and graduated with a BSME.

Still wanted to got yo Detroit, but I happened to get an internship with a gas pipeline company in the South my last summer of college. They later made an offer that was had to pass up, so I took the job and didn't return to the Midwest like I planned.

Years later I'm happy to still work in the gas and oil industry, and very thankful that chance didn't take mento Detroit!

Learned my trade in college, practiced it for 20 yrs (clinical lab), then had an opportunity to try something different...I mean really different....and it changed my life and career. Have been to places and done things in the last 15 yrs that would leave my former coworkers stunned. OBTW, they're still doing (or are recently retired from) that "boring" job. We used to joke it was like putting fenders on Buicks. Trust me, there's no glamor in doing lab work.

Definitely, a just sort of happend affair.
Had moved to a different state and found out auto mechanics didn't make much there. It was either move again or find something else to do. It seems like I've had the pawn shop about ten years but it's been 25.
Jim

I don't want to be a gigolo but the ladies just won't let me quit!

I was a horrible high school student but was interested in electronics... did one year at community college and sucked at that.

My dad offered me a job at his HVAC contracting company as an installer... which also morphed into sheet metal mechanic and some service work.
After ten years I decided I couldn't keep up the level of physicality. Much to my dads dismay I quit and went to ITT tech to study electronics.

I was hired before graduation by Johnson Controls, a year later they closed the branch I worked at and laid off all us new guys.

I had friends in the computer industry who got me a lot of work on the side that turned into real jobs after a while.

While I was between computer jobs and opening came up at the science museum. All of the above experience helped me get that job. It has been a long strange trip and I couldn't have planed it.

My first choice was aviation. I invested a lot into it, paid a lot of money to get all my ratings, etc. Pursued it for a while and then realized it's a "carrot dangler" profession that has changed and lost a lot of its allure. Gone are the days of the six-figure pilot in the left seat of some jet powered piece of heavy iron with a 15-on/15-off schedule. No more. More likely you'll languish away for years flying the first and last 30 seconds of flights to boring locations for $20k a year for many, many years in the right seat of an ERJ or CRJ cracking dirty jokes as you watch the autopilot fly the plane and wonder how many more days it'll be until you can get home and see your family again. Nah. So I put that on the back burner and used my aeronautics degree to get into doing some airport planning and design work, which eventually led me to pursue a graduate degree in architecture. That opened a lot of doors.

So there's a kind of weird logic to how I ended up here, but a logic nonetheless. Not what I'd have expected to be doing 25 years ago, but those are the things that make life interesting.

Looking forward a lot depends on the greater economy. I'm doing okay for now working on CM stuff for major capital projects, but let's face it - the construction industry in general is in pretty piss-poor shape. We're collectively overbuilt as a society in virtually all building types although there are some bright spots and some growth areas. Granted I'd probably want to be doing more architectural design stuff, but at least I'm doing some and I'm drawing on the same body of knowledge to help build better, more liveable and more energy-efficient facilities. That's not too bad. But it could all disappear pretty quickly too if the projects stop (and they could). So there's a lot of uneasiness too.

If this blows up I'm probably going to seriously look at going back to school for law. Lawyers and bankers are about the only two types of people out there I don't see hurting too badly out there these days. If ya can't beat em, join em maybe...

I planned to be a mechanical engineer, but dropped out of college because I couldn't see myself doing that kind of work and because I had an opportunity to get a job as a millwright making $15.21 an hour. That was huge money back then.

5 years later I was back to school at night, and went to school and worked full time for the next 12 years.
Eventually I became a mechanical engineer but now I spend most of my time being a manager.

So I guess the answer is yes and no.

Did Not know Any Better...
 

You got it...

Sign the paper... and the guy says, by the way, it's in the Navy :D:D:D

OK, I did not really know we had one. It turn 100 this year; Canadian Navy: Canadian Naval Centennial - Welcome

Did my 24 years+, retire as a Chief and been collecting my pension for the last 10 years while working for a Defense company for the... Navy. Life is good.

Been all over the world, had a great time.

Good for you Sammy. A true American Dream Opportunity...

Maybe you should post on http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-politics-religion/569806-obama-snubbs-canada.html and tell your story :D:):D

I wanted to build houses since age 15. Took what I could in highschool. All the usual shop classes. It was great fun and have always done well. Went onto college without any direction. Did geology for 2 years while building furniture for variuos people making pennies. Got a break working for some designers and big contractors in the late 80s. rented a shop and try to go big time. finally finish college with a degree in Industrial and technical managment 8 years later. During those years, got my General contractor's lic. and compete with the best of the rat race. I have been doing it ever since. about 7 years ago, went back to school and wanted to teach and give some back. Now I teach Woodshop three hours a day in a local high school. Its been great fun. In the past couple of years, my new job or direction is to buy, fix and sell old houses around here and doing all those other thing all at the same time.

Jeff

And there were all those years wasted training to be a ninja... I'm pretty good at being invisible, sliding down ropes in the dark, beheading people with the sword... but I could never get the hang of those throwing stars.

DARN YOU THROWING STARS!!!

LOL! And Nunchuks! Watch out for the nug nugs!

Mostly not. I started out in Environmental Engineering in college, did that for 15 years, moved into Health and Safety as part of Environmental Engineering on Superfund projects, started doing some consulting for other industries including the motion picture and TV industry and have pretty much been doing that for 15 years.

I went for a PhD in chemistry/electrochmistry and wanted to work in industry. Got an opportunity to be employed in the USA, and spent 4 years working on Li-ion batteries for Bellcore/Telcordia. I was really happy with that job, but things were too good to last forever. When they closed our division, it was donated to Rutgers, and I ended up in academia, doing research industry style and not teaching. I have been trying to make it work for several years, even got promoted to associate research professor, but is a very difficult situation with no job stability at all.

I can appreciate the differences: academia is the art of fully understanding stuff that does not work and pretending to know how to make it work. Industry is the art of making things work, without the need to fully understand why.

Sophomore year in high school, the teacher asked us to write essays on what we wanted to be. I wanted to be an "ad man." And that's what I did for 29 years, phasing into marketing consultant, then inventor/entrepreneur. Pretty linear course, all in all. Got to work with some of the smartest marketing people in the world (Steve Jobs) and some of the dumbest (Steve Ballmer).

Ever since I saw my first James Bond film, I've wanted to be a secret agent. It didn't work out......:(

Work with your hands. I started welding seriously after doing a bunch of cars just getting by on the welding. Well, I did take some welding classes 30 years ago and I don't really remember why.

Oh yeah, it was the car thing. ;) (I stayed away from car restoration for almost 30 years before one landed in my lap 10 years ago.)

If the economy was roaring, I'd find a part time gig welding. It's a lot of fun making things whether you're cooking, building, fabricating, hobbying (building your interests yourself) or growing things.

Always wanted to be an architect. Took mechanical drafting classes in HS circa 1965, majoring in Arch drafting in college. Never got a degree cause I had to go to work to pay for my first Porsche, 66 911. Worked on the docks. Warehouse mgr. Managed Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories during the 80s. Retired very early from buying Home Depot stock in 87. Three years ago went to back to work as a graphic artist, so the drafting/architecture training finally came in to play 40 years later.
My other lifelong career.......freelance gynecologist!

I've been training to be a mammographer since H.S. but i ended up owning a trucking company instead........go figure.

I had to draw... I couldn't imagine doing anything else since 7th grade. And when I was in high school I found I really liked cars. Now, I get to play with cars and draw them - and even it is just mostly suspensions - I adore my job. I am a graphic artist/art director as well R K T - haven't ever been anything else.