How'd You Arrive At Your Present Career?

[Uisce Beatha]

A really long story which begins with a possession of alcohol ticket in Sugarhouse Park and ends with a missed bus.  Typical, really.

[Blader]

My earliest memory of thinking I'd do what I currently do was as a 4th grader.  Everything I did since that time was directed to fulfill those dreams. 

[Walfredo]

So in college my dumbass that Business Management would be a good major.  I minored in Economics and really liked it much better but found out too late to change.  After graduation I realized that management is very broad and you don't get hired as a 22 year old to manage people with no experience.  This was during the 2002 recession and entry-level professional jobs were hard to come by in OKC.  But student loan interest rates were shockingly low.  So I went to grad school for a masters in Econ which I found out was basically the PHD track.  The first math class I found out that the business college sheltered me from 3 years of Advanced Calc and Statistics that I missed and my classmates received.  I didn't want to catch up that much so audited my classes and quit.  Enjoyed that semester as a Teaching assistant for a Macro Econ class though.

While most of my friends went to law school I decided to get a real job first.  Got in with my insurance company in the risk management department with the help of my father's friend.  Started as an underwriter tech and quickly got promoted to underwriter.  Then took the job as an analyst in the same department but now work with people I like.  But I still despise what I do so I'm about to change my career path as you all know.  Just waiting for my wife to get out of hair school and start her salon before I quit and go to law school. 

[stegerman]

A slow diagonal from psychotherapy to organizational psychology...

from locked-up kooks to working crazies

[stroh]

Where I grew up your post high school decisions were limited.

Inherit the family farm.  Lived in town.

Go to college.  Didn't have the money, and according to the old man wasn't smart enough, and they wouldn't have me.

Work at the local fillin' station.  Again, possible qualification issues, but saw no long term growth.

There did exist however another viable alternative.  Enlist in The United States Army.
Met with recruiter dude.  "Let me get this straight.  I sign up, you train me in one of these 200 some odd careers, for free?  You pay me while I do it?  I eat, sleep, and live for free?  While I'm in, you pay 90% of college tuition if I go in my spare time?  Then when I'm done, you give me 17 large to go to college, and or continue what I started?

Hmmmmmmm.  What the hell.  So I tested out, and contrary to the old man's propaganda, I was fairly leonard, and could choose almost any job I wanted.  After much deliberation, and consultation we decided on 91Papa.  Radiologic Technologist. (Thanks, Dad.  )

I'll cut to the chase.  19 years ago I set out on that path.  A decorated Gulf War Army Veteran, Nationally registered technologist in all 4 disciplines of medical imaging, and pretty decent career later (advancing through the ranks and different imaging modalities)  Here I am.

Still, often I find myself lying back on the cool green grass, caressed by a Summer's breeze, tickled by bronzing drips of sun, in a barely coherent state of intoxication that can only be the result of a Saturday wasted on greens fees and beer in plastic bottles......wondering if pumpin' gas may have been better.

Unless Delusional in Sacramento gets that DeLorean up and running, we will never know.

[tdcoly]

After gravitating from college (married) with a basically useless B.A. in psychology, I went back to trimming trees to start to pay off the loans and maybe save a little to put to graduate school.  Got laid off (with enough time to collect unemployment), worked three under-the-table jobs.  Then, I got hired by *brown*.

Had a kid, fell in love with full benefits, had another kid, and here I am 29 years later, still pushing a *brown* truck around.

Would I change anything?  No, I love my two sons, my daughter-in-law, my soon to be daughter-in-law, and am totally happy with my life.

(Wish I would have started golf earlier. )

[lennyquai]

With a little more than a year left in college, I got a job selling furniture b-2-b to hotels, universities, etc..  2 years later, I still had 16 credits to go for the degree.  Another 18 months later, I was National Accounts Manager, with 11 credit hours left to complete.  2 years later, I took a job as National Sales Manager for a company based in NC (and forever quit worrying about finishing the degree, 11 credit hours short).

After 9.11, company policy mandated we not travel.  Rather than spend 60% of my time on the road, I got to spend it with my wife and little girl.  10 or 11 months later, I moved to Atlanta to become a manufacturers' rep for hotel furniture/furnishings.

Had I finished college, it would have been with a degree in English.  I would have then either gone on to business or law school. 

I'm very happy with my choices and feel fortunate.  I love what I do.  I work from my home office 3-4 days / week, and have appointments 1-2 days / week.  I average probably 60-75 hours working per week.  Other than the occasional tradeshow or overnight travel, I am home every night to see my family.  More often than not, I'm here when my little girl comes home from school.