firesorter

Hmm not a happy lot are you? i left school at 16 with nothing! got a job as a postie for 5 years, i wanted to join the police (but dad who was a copper blocked that) so i joined the Fire service, that was 21 years ago and i retire in 9, then i think i`ll be a postie again, somewhere near the sea

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Sounds perfect, when do I start?

mervil

iTrader: (5)

After school, I went to college for 2 years and gained a GNVQ Advanced in Business and Finance with scope to be an accountant. 6months later, I joined the Army (Royal Engineers) and wanted to become a Sparky but as I wasn't the best at physics in school I re-traded as a plumber.

8 years in the Army and I'm out now employed as a Heating Engineer Don't regret joining and certainly don't regret leaving I left 18 months ago and that has flown by!!!

Merv

HankScorpio

I always wanted to be a lab technician in a school, left school at 16 to work in a lab and became one in university within a couple of years.
Drifted into IT about 14 years ago, made a stack of money, spent it seeing the world and getting drunk
Still in IT in a non technical role but have never been as happy in a job as I was when I was a tech in a university.
If I downsize my "career" at any stage, would love to go back to it.

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

believe it or not, i always wanted to be a car/transportation designer.

i always did well in things like maths, art, design & technology etc, had pics published in mags and all that. decided when i left school i was gonna study art & design at college. did this despite a nervous breakdown at 16 (abusive step father), and left when nearly 18 with above average qualifications.

my goal was to go to uni and study transportation design as a whole to give me experiencve in designing all aspects and get to train in things like computer aided design. ive always been good enough at drawing technical illustrations, but i needed/still need more pc based knowledge (cant even use photoshop).

unfortunatley after going through the applying/interview stages and even being accepted to all 6 uni's i was interviewed for, i bottled it 2 days before i was due to move to huddersfield. this was partly as i was a bit too scared at moving away aged 18 and partly down to said abusive step father/mother going through what would turn out to be a 3 year legal battle.

i do kinda regret not going to uni, especially considering all i have done with my life since 18 is work in a warehouse and draw pics at amateur level. but ive met my future wife at least and i thank the lord for that.

maybe il meet someone one day who can help get me into something more design based. im not really clever, but im no retard either. i do get a little jealous when i read about people on here and their salaries/job enjoyment, but theres nothing i can do about that except say 'fair play to ya'.

so yeah, in answer to the question, id love to be in the design industry, whether it be architecture, engineering, transport design anything really. id like to have a successful career spanning years and years doing something i enjoy and im good at, with the ability to provide for the family i wish to create in future years with natalie.

ScoobyWon't

I've only jusy decided what I want to do now I'm approaching 30.

I just want a job in uniform that will help to pick-up chicks

merlin

At school I was really into maths and computers. Physics was ok but it wasn't my fave by a long way. When I left school dad was keen that I go into engineering as that was his background and I could get sponsored through uni doing an engineering degree. Guess that saved dad a few pennies! Also doing a computer degree wasn't fashionable back then. In the end I was sponsored by GEC (what happened to them ) and did an electrical / electronic engineering degree.

By the end of my 3 years at uni I realised that both electrical and electronic engineering were not for me. There was far too much physics and not enough computers or numbers. Fortunately back at GEC I landed a position working on a robot sewing machine project making y-fronts The work mostly involved writing software. Since then I have always worked with computers writing software in one form or another. I'm now working on software to stop spam. The money's been good, the work interesting and often challenging which suits me.

Not sure what I could have done had I been born before the widespread use of computers. Perhaps I would have become an unhappy electrical engineer or a train driver - something I wanted to do as a kid.

Simon C

Vice squad then

David Lock

McDonalds' battery farm depot?

ScoobyWon't

How did you know?

StickyMicky

i wanted to be a rally driver, but my dad said i could not

something about him not being able to afford a car for me

spoilsport

GarethE

iTrader: (1)

I knew at the age of 15 I wanted to be a photographer (probably something to do with the well thumbed copies of Amateur Photographer ), sold my first set of pictures aged 18, been doing it ever since

Wouldn't swap the career for any other, but I often look at all the other aspects of my life that suffered to do it.

You make your choices, and sometimes you have to look at what you have, rather than what you may have if you'd taken a different path.

Its taken me all my working life to realise that the career isn't (perhaps) the most important.

Gareth

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

I was always top of the year in the sciences and up there in maths / english yada yada so kind of didn't know which way to jump - I always knew it'd be something 'scientific' but I was never quite sure.

I vacillated between Human Biology (leading onto a medical career) or Computing, but we didn't have any computers at school.

Then my Physics teacher asked me to help out with a lunch time club that started when my school DID get a computer, and I was hooked.

As to pc support - that started when I was on my placement year at Uni and I was asked to look after the desktop p.c.'s (in a mainframe only environment) 'cos no bugger else knew how to. Once I saw p.c.'s networked together and talking to each other that got me hooked (again).

Got a job doing p.c. support for a British Airline based in the Midlands and two months into it got told I was taking over network support - been doing that ever since! (at least I was until Jan this year, now I do IT Security)

So as to when? Well - that day my Physics teacher asked me to help out and the day my first boss asked me to help out. Odd that....

pwhittle

get yourself to Diggerland - best laugh you can have with your trousers (skirt?) on! they even let my 4 year old drive Bobcat!

pwhittle

it does annoy me that everyone else in the entire IT industry makes a fortune. Is pent 9 years there and never earned over £19k (mind you I could never program, so my options were limited!)
moved sideways and upwards (weirdly without even changing desk), and am now a review manager for the council. Given the ongoing pay review, I'll be back on the salary I was on 8 years ago next April - now that's progress!

Slowly building my photography business, but it's so problematic (and I am a fatalist) and so competitive I don't really expect to go anywhere.

Would love to move away (probably the Lakes), but moving our daughter would be virtually impossible.

Would love to find something interesting which paid reasonably, bit I haven't yet...

Leslie

I always knew I enjoyed riding motor bikes and driving cars so when I was offered my job it took about 23 seconds to decide yes!

Les

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

It's really interesting reading everyone's stories, it's funny how sometimes fate lends a hand in deciding what you do. Most of the jobs I've had have been because of a funny twist of fate and more or less every one of them has been doing something completely different to the last. I've rarely ever applied for a job properly and I think I've only used my CV once! My favourite job was working for my parents at their boatyard, it mainly used to consist of sitting by the river on warm, sunny days and eating ice cream but unfortunately that had to come to an end when I moved 200 miles north.

One thing I'd like to do is run holiday cottages in the Lakes or Scotland, it would be nice to buy a few projects, do them up and rent them out at the higher end of the market. Unfortunately a project like that takes a lot of capital which is something I don't have. I really like the idea of retraining as I have a natural thirst for knowledge but it's so expensive to do unless you can find sponsorship and I have to accept that I'm getting on a bit now. In the meantime I've decided that I'm going to start writing which is something that I've always wanted to do but never had the confidence to go for. In my ideal world I'd be a top but anonymous author churning out books every year whilst living in my little cottage half way up a mountain

pwhittle

sounds ideal to me!
unfortunately property in the Lakes is seriously expensive (I looked as a log static caravan - £85k!), so I doubt there's much to be made at the moment.
I've always thought writing childrens' books would be a nice way to earn a living, especially for people like me who never grew up. I'm sure the reality would be loads of hassle with publishers etc, just as pro photographers spend 90+ % of their time on a computer, rather than shooting nubile young ladies / trains / landscapes (what ever flats you boat!)

Maybe we need a Scoobynet Job Swap