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If you could have any career...?

Tom

Member
Joined
8 Sep 2007
Messages
2,631
Location
Kawanabe, Kagoshima, Japan 鹿児島県南九州市川辺町
...What would it be?

I am at a complete loss of what I want to do!! I'm 20, and have 2 National Diplomas at triple distinction level (6 A at A level equivalent), but subject-wise I'm finding them fairly irrelevant. I qualified in Fish Management at Sparsholt and went to work in aquatic retail. This didn't work out, but at least I've learned one thing I don't want to do!! It was a dead-end job on minimum wage, and could never be a long term thing. Locally, retail is the only aquatic option on the cards at the moment.

From there, I went back to college and joined a photography course in the 2nd year as I had already been doing some freelance work for various companies, including PFK. Through doing this course, I realized how irrelevant it was for any real-word photography work unless you plan on specialising in wishy-washy fine art rubbish (might get myself in trouble there!). The benefit though was an awesome trip to NYC. But anyway, I finished that in summer this year, and started again with freelance work. I got quite a bit of work to start with which was good, but I have very low confidence and the work is beginning to dry up. It doesn't help that people try to worm out of paying for anything at the moment, and I'm not able to charge enough to make profit.

Anyway that's the frustrations out of the way so the question is, if you could completely restart everything and do whatever you liked, what career would you pick? Or did you get it right first time? I'm determined to do something I will enjoy!!!

Tom
 
I learnt a 'trade' at a very early age. Roofing, and now specialist roofing. This gave me something to 'fall back on'

I've since in my life, travelled the world with a band, played on records, interviews, radio, played festivals.

semi pro photography. I'm looking for advancement's in the aquascaping world, but what allowed me to do all of this was the roofing! i relied on that for income whilst chasing dreams.

If i had the choice?....A spaceman!

I've met many people along the way, who are qualified to the nines, with no job and no common sense. IMO they mean nothing. Architects are the classic! think they know it all on their 100K+ a year job, and yet they still ask me how to do something :lol:
 
I want to work for myself or at least be the person in charge of others - I'm better at that than doing my own work on occasion :)
 
Stationary engineer. Kind of like operating an aquarium but with fewer moments of terror. Pays very well and there is a lot of demand right now.
 
I left school at 14 (37 years ago) while my class mates stayed on to do Os & As.
Some of them have done very well in finance, some even better in the property market but, I am not sure in any of these guys are happy, contented or satisfied?
My best mate went on to be a chiropractor & he remains a good friend, I think that sort of career would of suited me.
So I would say if I had another chance then I fancy the satisfaction of healing folk & the money that goes with it. However that would be another 4 year degree course for you!
Myself, well I am semi retired working freelance about 15-20 hours a week so I guess it all worked out for me anyway.
I was just in the right place at the right time, I live in a tax haven environment surrounded by folk with plenty of money to spare.
I got into garden design & then specialist koi pond construction, my business grew & I invested in koi farming.
This happened in the mid 80s-90s when there was a huge demand for a new & growing hobby in the UK.
One thing I would say is if you want to work for yourself then you will probably need to employ people to get anywhere & that takes a certain kind of personality!
Dealing with people as staff is not always easy, every body wants top skilled staff but those types are one in a million, more often you get good guys but not brilliant! People make mistakes, dont turn up, get sick & always want a pay rise!
Anyway be lucky & think hard...
 
if you are interested in photography have you thought about the military?

We have a few photographers and they get to see EVERYTHING. Be it taking pasport type photos for ID cards, attending events like airshows/tatoos, parades, acident scenes and battlefield photography.

Also quite a few do weddings/events on the side to add to an already pretty reasonable wage and to top that off if you do some competitions etc within and outwith the forces you can leave with a pretty impressive portfolio.

I kind of wish I'd joined to do that instead of being an electrician but either way the RAF has been kind to me.
 
In a dream world I'd like to re-wind the clocks 100 odd years and become a steam engineer but since that's unlikely to happen any time soon I'd like to go more and more in depth in my studies on landscape architecture and design the outcome ideally being to be the founder of a specialist practice for green design. One can only dream in the current climet however, all you can really do is read a lot, get your head down and be ever aware and see where it takes you.
 
Lol. I would like to wind the clock back 100 years, make Unions illegal and then wind the clock back forward to 20 years ago.

Then we'd have loads of engineering and manufacturing companies able to compete because of the lower wages (All actual living costs of course would not have risen in line with this because their staff would also be on les money) and then I would still have the job I loved in the late 90s before all the engineering companies couldn't compete anymore.

AC
 
Making unions illegal in itself prompts the needs for unions...paradox eh :)
 
Tom said:
...What would it be?

I am at a complete loss of what I want to do!! I'm 20, and have 2 National Diplomas at triple distinction level (6 A at A level equivalent), but subject-wise I'm finding them fairly irrelevant.
I also have two diplomas at distinction level (Broadcast systems engineering). The courses were excellent and I have good transferable skills. I worked really hard, but even so, I count myself lucky.

Tom said:
so the question is, if you could completely restart everything and do whatever you liked, what career would you pick? Or did you get it right first time? I'm determined to do something I will enjoy!!!

I'm 34 now and still do not really know exactly what I want to do. I doubt I ever will. However I do know that it is important to me that what I do helps people. So I work for charity and find it so rewarding that I no longer worry so much about what I want to do.
(If anyones interested, I've worked full time for the last 3 years establishing a registry for those in the UK with Cystic Fibrosis http://www.cftrust.org.uk/aboutus/what_ ... cfregistry ).

:)
 
Toulouse said:
Lol. I would like to wind the clock back 100 years, make Unions illegal and then wind the clock back forward to 20 years ago.

Then we'd have loads of engineering and manufacturing companies able to compete because of the lower wages (All actual living costs of course would not have risen in line with this because their staff would also be on les money) and then I would still have the job I loved in the late 90s before all the engineering companies couldn't compete anymore.

AC

I have a small manual engineering company and we have never been so busy its the big cnc shops that are struggling
 
Big tme DJ. like the likes of van buuren and tiesto. (notice the better comes first)

getting paid sh*t loads to essentially listen to and mix music..

or would love to be a pro race car driver... but im now 18 and have missed out on my chance really.. should have got into karting at a young age.
 
I got a job as a waiter in a hotel when I was 16, now two years later I've been promoted to food and beverage supervisor and am quite sure that I want to stay in the hotel industry. I have my doubts sometimes, like that's all I've known in terms of jobs but yeah for now that's what I'm aiming to progress in.
 
I left school 16 within the week was self employed and working with a friends family roofing business getting paid £20 a day picked up at 6am droped home at 6pm and I loved it but the work slowed down and I had to look else were

Worked with a platerer progressed over 3 years from Labrador haha to spread and I liked that but again work slowed down as we got priced out of work but won't go into that.

Now in college and working as an electricians mate and llooking to progress in this.

Realistic goal. Build houses sell houses.
Unrealistic goal. Become patrick bateman...........
 
Well now I'm an web developer, this is what I'm good at but I like you mates I wish for a decent "job" outside the office like a diving instructor or a professional photographer or both, lots of free time and doing what I like. :) Who knows, if I stick on it maybe this dream could come true.

Cheers,
Mike
 
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