How did you decide on job/career?

[Remarkableriots]

I've only ever been a cashier and would like to do something else but no idea what that would be. How did you figure out what you wanted to do for job/career?

[TUFKAK]

I had ems experience so nursing was a logical next step for me.

[Remarkableriots]

4 minutes ago, TUFKAK said:

I had ems experience so nursing was a logical next step for me.

Any luck on that other job you were looking into?

[TUFKAK]

4 minutes ago, Remarkableriots said:

Any luck on that other job you were looking into?

People with more experience took both. Now we’re on a hiring freeze so unless I’m gonna toss my pension away and leave my system, which I’m nearly to that point because fuck the ER, I’m stuck.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I wanted to be in the medical field since I was a kid.  Nursing seemed doable without a decade of schooling and it paid well and provided a secure future.

[Guest]

It was just something I wanted to do so I decided to do it.

[Biggie]

I’ll let you know when I decide on something 

[gamer.tv]

I wanted to feel satisfied with the outcome of my job, wanted to work with children, and wanted a job that actually paid enough to get a mortgage, improve my life outcomes. It isn’t perfect, but teaching is about as good a job as I could ask for. 

[Bloodporne]

Did construction in some form or another for years and ended up with a work injury that meant I had to go into the office or change careers entirely. My boss was kind enough to offer me to train for Estimating/Project Management for about two years and I'm still glad every day that I took that offer despite the severely reduced pay for a while. I've been doing that for about 13 years now.

[Remarkableriots]

24 minutes ago, gamer.tv said:

I wanted to feel satisfied with the outcome of my job, wanted to work with children, and wanted a job that actually paid enough to get a mortgage, improve my life outcomes. It isn’t perfect, but teaching is about as good a job as I could ask for. 

I've had 4 friends that I can think of that teach. One that taught for years before switching over to some program where she now teaches teachers. One friend became a principal, another that became a high school football coach but went back to teaching and one that helps children with learning disabilities. She has a master's degree in child development psychology or something like that.

[Littleronin]

My current career path is something that my wife and I talked about as more of a legacy career choices where I can hope to leave a mark of some sort with whatever time my health provides. Just trying to help make the world around me a little better is all.

[skillzdadirecta]

3 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

I've only ever been a cashier and would like to do something else but no idea what that would be. How did you figure out what you wanted to do for job/career?

Before I went to film school, I was a janitor, a security guard and a parking attendant. I knew I didn't want to do any of that stuff full time but I also knew I didn't want to work in an office because I had spent the summers in high school working at my mom's job and while it was good money, I hated it. After a few false starts in community college, I took a night time screenwriting course at a continuing ed program and was encouraged by my teacher to pursue it full time because she saw promise in my writing. I applied to film school that fall with the writing samples I produced in that class and got in. My initial plan was to pursue screenwriting but I fell in love with ALL aspects of filmmaking in school and figured I would be a director. I learned how to edit during an internship and got a job before graduating as a client coordinator at a post production house and then became an assistant editor then an editor all while continuing to write and produce my own stuff on the side. Now I mostly edit and produce but I'm getting back into writing and directing now in a big way. For me it's about finding something you do that you don't entirely hate. Life is too short to be miserable in how you make your living.

[TheLeon]

I started working at this warehouse a few years ago just to get out of retail, and I wasn’t qualified to do much else. My current position is fine, and I make enough money to get by for now, but I don’t have a clear next step. There isn’t anything I really want to do as far as a career goes, so I’m basically looking for anything that pays a little more and wouldn’t stress me out too much. 

[Mr.Vic20]

I actually started in IT at Cornell and then the head of project management asked if Iwould be an IT design reviewer for all capital projects, as I was already coordining IT infrastructure projects. From there the PM group had a big mix up back in 2008 and a few PM/CMs left and I was asked to step into the breach. As I was already familiar with design and bid phases of project management, it was a logical next step to learn the consturction and closeout phases of project management. Nearly a decade and a half later, here I am. 

[Ominous]

I more or less stumbled into my current job. I worked for 10 years in hospitality and didn't see any real growth so I took a job as a loan processor at a local / national retail mortgage company. Did that for a few years, did some underwriting, and then moved into leadership for a while before deciding I wanted to go back into an hourly role to spend more time with the family. Been here about 11 years now, don't plan on going anywhere as long as I have control over that. 

[Jason]

On 1/15/2023 at 5:17 AM, Ominous said:

I more or less stumbled into my current job. I worked for 10 years in hospitality and didn't see any real growth so I took a job as a loan processor at a local / national retail mortgage company. Did that for a few years, did some underwriting, and then moved into leadership for a while before deciding I wanted to go back into an hourly role to spend more time with the family. Been here about 11 years now, don't plan on going anywhere as long as I have control over that. 

 

I remember Wade saying he stole a hotel pillow and you having an opinion about how the hotel probably didn't even notice.

[Ominous]

33 minutes ago, Jason said:

 

I remember Wade saying he stole a hotel pillow and you having an opinion about how the hotel probably didn't even notice.

Hahah yes no way they noticed. Also, I wonder how many people drooled on that thing.

[Nokra]

I work as an engineer at a major tech company. I've always been into computers (I'm 37 and have had a computer in the home since I was born, thanks to my dad) and started teaching myself programming in high school, so getting my BS and MS in Computer Science seemed like natural steps. After finishing the MS, I got a contractor job at this company and worked at it for two years. After those two years, I had met the right person who helped me get an interview with a hiring manager and I was finally made a full employee about six months ago. 

 

 

To help you identify a possible job/career: What kinds of things do you like about your current job? What do you dislike? Do you have a broad general direction in mind (e.g. technology, healthcare, construction, etc.)? 

 

[legend]

For myself, I was a computer nerd since I was old enough to use a computer. Certainly I loved games, but I also had a general fascination with them. The fact that computers were nerdy things that the majority of adults (and most other kids) sucked at using even for basic tasks back then probably fueled that interest because it gave me something to stand out on even as a child.

 

Those facts made it "obvious" that I should do something with computing, but my ultimate path in the field would not have been obvious at the time. Being that I was already good with computers, hated school with a passion, and was an abysmal high school student (I graduated with an utterly mediocre 2.7 GPA) made me strongly consider not going to college. But I did anyway and managed to go somewhere decent probably on virtue of having at least passed the CS AP courses. Not long into college I started looking into more advanced CS topics. For a topic that was always easy for me, it was wild to flip through AI books and not have a clue what was going on. I didn't even have the requisite math to understand them. Since I've always been a nerd, AI also had a special appeal to someone like it and that for once in my academic life actually motivated me to learn more, so I started working in an AI research lab as an undergrad and the rest falls from there.

 

 

In many ways, I am deeply lucky. The thing I had a passion for just happened to also be a solid career path and I happened to fall into the right path for it despite being a terrible student. Unfortunately, that's not true for many, if not most, people. If you're feeling stuck though, I would still try to identify if there is something exciting you can work toward making a career. If that's not possible, then I would look for something you would feel good about doing, e.g., something that helps society in some way. You can of course just look for jobs only as a paycheck and nothing else, but I think that will be unfulfilling. Instead of a generic corporate ladder, maybe consider joining a non-profit and doing something you can be proud of. The world could certainly use it.

 

Of course, that's just my view and maybe that won't work for everyone!

[Remarkableriots]

On 1/17/2023 at 1:42 AM, Nokra said:

I work as an engineer at a major tech company. I've always been into computers (I'm 37 and have had a computer in the home since I was born, thanks to my dad) and started teaching myself programming in high school, so getting my BS and MS in Computer Science seemed like natural steps. After finishing the MS, I got a contractor job at this company and worked at it for two years. After those two years, I had met the right person who helped me get an interview with a hiring manager and I was finally made a full employee about six months ago. 

 

 

To help you identify a possible job/career: What kinds of things do you like about your current job? What do you dislike? Do you have a broad general direction in mind (e.g. technology, healthcare, construction, etc.)? 

 

I can't think of anything I liked about my last three jobs. I'm tired of dealing with customers especially dealing with alcohol/tobacco and having to card people.

2002-13 convenience store cashier

2014-19 parking garage attendant/cashier

2019-22 convenience store cashier again 

[Remarkableriots]

I wouldn't mind a physical job if I get back in shape and hopefully can walk normally again. 

[gamer.tv]

This thread has told me two things really, either you work an entry level job and end up catching a break, or you opt for a graduate position and you’re lucky to secure it. 

[Ghost_MH]

My second job ever was in IT with my first working sound at a radio station. I wound up with IT...after discovering graphic design was a ton of fun personally and not much fun professionally. After giving up on that one I gave writing a shot and rediscovered the exact same thing. Two strikes, so I almost jumped into sound engineering again before realizing it was easy easier to go for IT. I've stuck with it ever since.

 

After a bunch of years in IT, I've met many other IT folks that also went to college for art. Makes me feel a lot better.

[johnny]

On 1/16/2023 at 8:14 PM, Ominous said:

Hahah yes no way they noticed. Also, I wonder how many people drooled on that thing.

my friend broke the phone that was in the hotel room and he never got charged for it. he was drunk, his wife played a prank on him about their pool that was being dug getting all messed up, he did not find it amusing. like it was BROKEN, into multiple pieces. never charged him. i was shocked. 

[Dodger]

Randomly got a job in insurance so now it’s just what I do.

[SuperSpreader]

20 years ago I went to a job fair at my college and told the biggest company in my industry I didn't want to work for their stupid company and they hired me that weekend. 

[Ghost_MH]

Nope I feel like sharing how I got started. My first job was at a radio station.. Friend if the family owned a local AM station and needed some help, especially when it came to converting his 8-track ads to MiniDisc.

 

First IT job was on a technicality. I was close to the teacher than ran the math computer lab in high school. For the first few months of the school year, her class was hair filled with boxes up PCs. Myself and a few friends saw how frustrated she was with the clutter, so we hooked up all the PCs for her and dumped her 486 desktops out in the hallway. That apparently pissed off someone in district IT management. I think there was some warranty or union issue at play, so the district hired us all to keep things on the up and up. However, they then choose to keep two of us around for the rest of the school year and even offered me a job as soon as I graduated. I took up their offer until I wanted to go to school for graphic design and my previous post tells you how well that went. My other friend actually stuck around. He's actually still there, 23 years later. Not too many IT union gigs in the US, so not a bad place to stay.