Why did you choose your trade/career?

[MikeH]

I never really knew what I wanted to be, so after graduating high school, I went to community college for business management, because it was a blanket degree that wasn't too specific, but satisfied my parents by going to college. Did two semesters and got put on academic probation, due to simply not showing up for class half the time. After essentially failing out, as well as accruing about $10,000 in student loan debt, I bounced around to odd jobs here and there. After my girlfriend/now-wife basically got tired of me being broke and unstable, I decided to join the military to earn a paycheck. I enlisted to be in special operations, but ended up injuring myself and being reclassed before even leaving for basic training. I then joined as Security Forces, which is the Air Force version of an MP, so basically, a fucking nerd that every other job hated, including me. After ascending the ranks pretty quickly, I was able to retrain to be a K9 handler, which was always something I'd admired, even before getting the idea to join. After 3 and a half years of that, I decided I wanted to get out and be a dog trainer. Did that professionally for about 3 years, up to now.

My last employer was good at what he does, and has a bit of a viral presence online, but was also an extremely unstable person. We were expected to metaphorically shovel the shit of the business, but because of his reputation, we were expected to be happy about it. On top of that, all of his trainers were getting reamed on wage percentages, which again, we were told we should be grateful to even be receiving that much, despite being friends with people who trained for other companies in the region who also agreed that we were getting reamed. After deciding to leave that company, I intended to start my own training business here in Ohio. We are an active LLC, and a legitimate business, but at this point, I am realizing how burnt out I am with dog training, on top of my own dogs not getting the attention they need because of how mentally smoked I am from training client dogs all day. Because of that, I'm now setting my sights on barbering. Having the GI bill, as well as a nice chunk of disability pay, from my tenure in the military puts me in a good spot to be able to pursue school full-time while still bringing in a reasonable income for my family.

tl:dr It's never too late to start something new, as long as you set yourself up to do so.

 

[Drew]

C’est lease correct me but I read many people who have not choose their professional life but have followed events in life.
The dreams of our teenage years are not really fulfilled.

Oh, idunno... teenage me would be FLOORED if he saw what 42 year old me could do on a guitar, or on a bike, or one of my paychecks for that matter.

I think it's not about whether we lived up to our childhood dreams, so much as if we learned from our experiences as we grew and took the opportunities that came to us, regardless if they were the ones we were looking for or expecting. I mean, speaking as someone who was one once, teenagers are pretty dumb. Trusting us to be right about what our career paths should be... That's a lot of pressure on someone who's not even two decades out of diapers, you know?

 

[TheBlackBard]

I'm not the smartest person that ever lived, so college wasn't for me, and I hated school.

Got my first factory job when I was 19 years old, and got laid off (this was in 2008), and basically bounced from factory to factory until the economy somewhat stabilized. My last job, which I had for ten years was building shocks and struts for vehicles, until demand just wasn't there and I couldn't make a living. Now I make cereal for a living, I get treated much better by this company, more benefits, more pay, the work is mostly automated, and it's not a strenuous job. I make more now than I ever have, get better bonuses too. Low effort for higher pay? That's only ever been my motivation, and I don't work five days straight either. I work 12 hours, two on, two off, three on, two off, two on, three off. I never had a thought about what I wanted to be, I just wanted to make enough money to get by and focus on my hobbies once in awhile.

 

[TedEH]

I had a thought the other day that I catch myself sometimes saying things like "I work so I can live, not live so I can work" etc., the implication being that I only work because I have to in order to support the non-work things I'd much rather be doing. And there's some truth to that.

I hold no ill will for someone who thinks of work as just a means to fuel literally anything else, or people who are willing to admit that if they didn't have to work, they just wouldn't. But instead I recognize that I got lucky to be able to do the kinds of work that I'd like to be doing, and maybe would do some of anyway, out of interest for the field, if we weren't trapped in a system that requires us to do it one way or another.

I strongly suspect that if we didn't actually need to work, our philosophy around what work even is would change pretty dramatically. Making music is work. Cooking for yourself is work. Building things because you want to is work. Hell, if you're a streamer or something, even just entertaining yourself is work.

 

[jaxadam]

You gotta do what you gotta do in order to do what you wanna do - Denzel Washington

Make what you want to do what you gotta do! - jaxadam

 

[lost_horizon]

C’est lease correct me but I read many people who have not choose their professional life but have followed events in life.
The dreams of our teenage years are not really fulfilled.

Teenage dreams are fueled by misinformation, from your parents, from your teachers, about how the world works and what it really wants. You can't do whatever you want wherever you want to live, some compromise is always required.

Top student from a low socioeconomic household on benefits, always got top marks in school. My mum asks in Year 12 (after 11 years of purposely choosing the hardest subjects) 'What do you want to do? It's up to you!' Bit late for that.

Did all the top subjects in Year 12, su!cide 5 they are dubbed. Maths 1&2, Top English, Chem, Physics. Even though I only needed 5 subjects did Music Ensemble as a 6th.

Marks were high (never did homework, never studied, played too much guitar) didn't know what I wanted to do, choice was:
1. Journalism (liked writing and history)
2. Forensic Science (loved X files and mysteries)
3. Physiotherapy (didn't have the marks for Medicine, didn't bother applying, friend was studying it too)

Got into uni whatever I wanted, couldn't defer journalism so decided I didn't want it and would prefer science instead.

Took a year off (still studying in Gap year) and did Solo guitar course.

After first album, band didn't take off, went to uni, Forensics offers Legal studies, Archaeology, Bio, chem, physics, thermodynamics and professional courses and wanted the variety.
Didn't like uni plus our course was only 3 years so 6 subjects plus 6 exams per semester . Uni was 45 hours a week (long experiments) worked one night in a bar a week, no time for a job.

They don't tell you there is only 1 job in Forensics in SA and it is reserved for Dux of the year and there were 88 of us graduating.

Got a job in a recycling company analysing waste and loved working.

Soon managing my own materials investigation lab 1 year after graduating with a sales budget and testifying in court. Paid around 31k a year.

Left and moved into a mineral processing role as a grad now and spent 3 years in pure hell. Most profitable business in our company and we were paid $45k. When i finished the grad program got nothing. Same pay, same everything.

Soon as I had the opportunity moved to a mine site. $140k plus bonus per year. Worked 3 years before mining crash.

Another mining job $100k, company is liquidated.

Did anything to survive, sold cars at Toyota, new and used, worked in a IT call centre, worked my way up to enterprise sales, over time hated sales (was good at it, made about $10k a month commission, didn't like project management and delivery guys screwing my customers), loved the training and became a technical specialist.

10 Years without really playing guitar or buying any gear. I'm back to it.

Now work in one of the worlds biggest miners as a data analyst. My scientific background helps, as does the planning and mine site experience. Also have experience being a vendor and contract managing vendors so it's a rich tapestry.

So I have had about 15 different jobs in 17 years. I probably would have been in the same overall financial position if I had just stayed in my original city managing my own lab rather than moving 6 times, maybe not.

I learnt a hell of a lot about the world on my journey and wouldn't really change it. I said yes to lots of things, often taking the crappiest jobs on the crappiest pay that no one else wanted. Only really started saying no in the last few years. Happy to do my job 7am-3pm, see my kids everyday and not travel.

I could still apply to a forensics job tomorrow and get it. Chances are I would be bored.

I could probably quit and play guitar, chances I would be bored of that too.

Sometimes dreams aren't all they are cracked up to be.

 

[OneTwoThrill]

Rich history.
All my apologies for my auto correct in French.
As you mention it in your intro, all depend on the environment we are coming from at the very beginning of our life : intellectual stimulation, culture, good care from parents to support you and telling you everything is possible.

For my personal case, I will always run after a self esteem to reassure the young kid I was and to shut up the voices of violent people I was raised with (quite dangerous schools).

Today I have reached a quite good and comfortable social position but it will never be enough to bury my worse experiences (example: a teacher was stabbed in his classroom).

I salute your free mind to do what you want and to adapt yourself. I really admire the way you are rejecting some failures and take it for experience.

All the best to all of you.