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Your childhood dream job vs your currrent career? Any ragerts

closetohumping

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Underdog

Underdog 28711

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When reality hit early on not being the next great UK basketball player or Staubach 2.0, architect was the next dream.  Loved drawing/designing houses and stadiums and arenas, then shifted to being a screenwriter during high school still have a few I wrote back then.  Followed a girl to EKU but the folks moved to Texas and I helped them move and never went back.  Most work experience is as a mnt tech in semiconductor industry.

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millhouse

millhouse 2615

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I wanted to be an astronaut. My dad said that isn't a major, you should be an engineer. I told him I didn't want to drive a train.

Started at UT thinking I'd do something medical and realized I hated biology and chemistry.  Switched to engineering and turns out my dad was was right (and no trains are involved). I love what I do, and though i have remained terrestrial, it has still taken me all over the world and allowed me to build a pretty good life thus far.

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Onboard 2.0

Onboard 2.0 9083

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3 minutes ago, millhouse said:

I wanted to be an astronaut. My dad said that isn't a major, you should be an engineer. I told him I didn't want to drive a train.

Started at UT thinking I'd do something medical and realized I hated biology and chemistry.  Switched to engineering and turns out my dad was was right. I love what I do, and though i have remained terrestrial, it has still taken me all over the world and allowed me to build a pretty good life thus far.

The son finally figured out he needed to really apply himself in school when he announced he was gonna be an astronaut, and applied to the AF academy. He's a computer engineer now, and getting ready too make some serious coin after 6 years in the Air Force.

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When you get into sales, you start getting addicted to "Yes."  Then you go deeper and start solving your customers' issues. Then you start influencing the wellbeing( income/ careers) of others.

yeah.  I'd say there are some very gratifying parts of my job.  is it what i wanted to do when I was 7 or 8?  Well, I had no idea...  If you described the concepts from paragraph 1 to me, well, yeah, I'd be cool with that.

It's never boring.  Ever.  When that phone rings, the customer is trusting ME.  i get to make it a better job for others.  Those elements will never stop being rewarding.

 

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10 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

My only childhood dream was to not be dirt ass poor.

and then there's that aspect. Dudes vow never to go back to prison.  I never want to be poor again, and yes, it has driven me to do better.

Fuck that noise...

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deadshank

deadshank 24653

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1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

The son finally figured out he needed to really apply himself in school when he announced he was gonna be an astronaut, and applied to the AF academy. He's a computer engineer now, and getting ready too make some serious coin after 6 years in the Air Force.

Air Force Academy, huh?  He must be a fine tenor in the choir. 

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52-80

52-80 19162

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1 hour ago, slorch said:

When you get into sales, you start getting addicted to "Yes."  Then you go deeper and start solving your customers' issues. Then you start influencing the wellbeing( income/ careers) of others.

yeah.  I'd say there are some very gratifying parts of my job.  is it what i wanted to do when I was 7 or 8?  Well, I had no idea...  If you described the concepts from paragraph 1 to me, well, yeah, I'd be cool with that.

It's never boring.  Ever.  When that phone rings, the customer is trusting ME.  i get to make it a better job for others.  Those elements will never stop being rewarding.

 

Never considered sales, but my arc rolled into very sales-centric career. Large multi-country responsibility with lots of traveling and interacting with different people. Even then I never saw myself as a “sales” person. Then due to perfect confluence of covid, family situation, and curiosity - i switched to product development with 0 travel. 
 

Holy fuck the vertical work is boring and I miss sales tons. 
 

Though with the aforementioned new kid, I want to impress on him neither biz/sales or anything else in corporate context, but just the general inclination to build stuff - be it software, or physical things, or creative things (eg music), or intellectual things (eg writing). Just make and create shit. 

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closetohumping

closetohumping 17446

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10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

As a KID….I wanted to be a firefighter or garbage man (any job where you got to ride on the outside of the truck was key). Then, I wanted to be a brutal RB just like Earl Campbell.

But by the time I was 9, I decided I wanted to be a trial lawyer. And I am.

BUT….if there’s any way to cash out and make as much money being the world’s worst fishing guide and middling chef, I’m all ears.

I’ve said this before, I’d dig ditches over what I’m doing now.  If it paid the same.  It doesn’t. 

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4th&Five

4th&Five 41558

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I wanted to be a rock star or pro football player of course. 

Out of college I was offered a really interesting job with a great non profit here in Austin. I turned it down to do sales for my dad’s company. I fucking hated doing sales and all the travel, first to Mississippi and then to West Texas. I really regretted that decision until about 5 years ago when he gave my wife and I the company. Now I’m home for dinner every night and haven’t missed any of my kids games or plays or recitals. I still don’t love the job or feel fulfilled by it but I don’t think there’s anything I could be paid for that I would feel that way about. 

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52-80

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10 minutes ago, 4th&Five said:

I wanted to be a rock star or pro football player of course. 

Out of college I was offered a really interesting job with a great non profit here in Austin. I turned it down to do sales for my dad’s company. I fucking hated doing sales and all the travel, first to Mississippi and then to West Texas. I really regretted that decision until about 5 years ago when he gave my wife and I the company. Now I’m home for dinner every night and haven’t missed any of my kids games or plays or recitals. I still don’t love the job or feel fulfilled by it but I don’t think there’s anything I could be paid for that I would feel that way about. 

Just think in a few years you could recruit your kids to do the sales in your company and have then hate you just the same way for the same reason. 

The great circle of irony. 

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CHIEF

CHIEF 5092

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20 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

The only thing I ever wanted to do was be a fighter pilot.  I passed my flight exam on my 16th birthday (back when you could get your pilot’s license at 16) and went and passed my driving test the next day. I managed to get an appointment from Bill Archer and was accepted to the Air Force Academy.  I ended up turning it down to go to UT (my backup school) with my first ex to get an accounting degree.  I hate to say I ragret not going because then I wouldn’t have my kids, but I think about it a lot, especially as I get older.  

This was me to a tee. Soloed on my 16th birthday, got a hundred hours or so, and got my pilots license on my 17th birthday. Had better than 20/20 vision. Got accepted into the Air Force Academy (thanks to Chet Edwards), then my parents flipped their shit. "How could you want to do this? You are our only child. What do you think it would do to us if you were KIA? You can't see into the future. What if we go to war during your career, etc...". Of course, I would have been fresh out of the academy for the first Gulf War, the Bosnian War, and late career in Desert Storm.

Real Estate and Oil and Gas work has been good to me, but I still would rather have been a fighter pilot. Now I would probably be shooting the shit with Daysoff in the pilot's lounge.

CHIEF

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Your Mom

Your Mom 4806

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11 hours ago, DaysOff said:

I'm allegedly doing it.

3,649 more days and I'll never have to do it again.

I get it, but it beats working for a living.  For the money that can be made working 3 days a week and 90% of that "work" tine is spent shooting the shit with the guy next to you... I still say it can't be beat.   The bad days suck for sure but the best part of this job is how seldom they make me do it and never ever having to take the work home or catch up on it after a vacation.   Knock out a 3-day out and then forget you have a job for 4 days.  Or stack 2 together and then take a week off without using vacation.  I think I worked about 120 days this year.  

11 hours ago, markstanco said:


After I got my pilots license 6 or 7 years ago I am jealous of what you guys do for a living. I wish I would have known more about the airline industry at a younger age. I know it is stressful unlike when I fly, but my God there can’t be a more beautiful office in the world.

I haven't flown GA in a while but it would be more stressful that a typical day at work for me.  Monotonous is what'd I'd call most of the work days.   My son wants me to get checked out in something so he can see what it's all about and I'm sure I'll make a complete idiot out of myself in a GA plane for the first time in 17 years. 

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markstanco

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I haven't flown GA in a while but it would be more stressful that a typical day at work for me.  Monotonous is what'd I'd call most of the work days.   My son wants me to get checked out in something so he can see what it's all about and I'm sure I'll make a complete idiot out of myself in a GA plane for the first time in 17 years. 

Not seeing your point Flying GA on this thread.
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Brew

Brew 3049

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6 hours ago, slorch said:

and then there's that aspect. Dudes vow never to go back to prison.  I never want to be poor again, and yes, it has driven me to do better.

Fuck that noise...

My only goal through my teen years was to not be my parents and to not just get by. When I fucked around my first year of college and had to transfer back home, I met with the admissions people and found the job with the highest starting pay of the degrees they offered. That is how I ended up with an accounting degree. I’m pretty good at what I do, so it worked out although I don’t do much actual accounting work day to day any more. 

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mininghorn88

mininghorn88 2293

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Plan "A" was to be a professional baseball player.  Plan "B" was to be an architect.  Plan "C" was to be an archeologist.

I was offered some scholarships to play ball in college but none of the programs that offered me scholarships to play ball had architecture as a major.  Plus, there was a "girlfriend" involved at the time so I gave up baseball and went to architecture school at UT.

Upon graduation I worked for a small firm in east Texas for about 4 months.  They went belly-up and let everyone go after not getting some of the jobs that they were banking on.  Fortunately for me I had worked for a civil engineering firm for 5 summers doing some design work for them so I had gained a bit of "engineering" background.

A local mining equipment manufacturing company was ramping up their engineering staff so I applied and was hired.  This was in 1989.  I am still with the company even though we are now on our third owner.  I spent about 15 years in engineering being responsible for all hydraulic and pneumatic systems on the mobile mining equipment.  For the last 15 plus years I have been on the commercial side being heavily involved in product management, sales/marketing and applications.  The job has provided a very comfortable living plus it has allowed me to travel to most States and over 30 different countries.

About a year into the job the architectural firm called me and wanted to know if I wanted to come back.  No thanks and no regrets.  It did, however, take about a year before I would even talk about or watch a baseball game once I hung up the cleats.

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Knoxtnhorn

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True story.  I wanted to be a meteorologist.  In 10th grade, the local met, Troy Duncan, returned a letter I wrote him.  He said if I really wanted to be one, I should look into going to aggy.  I, quite literally, gave up on that one on the spot.

I then decided to be rich.  Got accepted to McCombs.  Freshman year I found out I sucked at all things business, so I spent 4 semesters taking science classes.  Had no idea what to do or be.

Met my wife in '98.  Put her through undergrad, then Masters.  She became an ESL teacher.  That's when I decided to go that route.  I've been teaching for 8 years and love it.

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bluto

bluto 4932

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23 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

True story.  I wanted to be a meteorologist.  In 10th grade, the local met, Troy Duncan, returned a letter I wrote him.  He said if I really wanted to be one, I should look into going to aggy.  I, quite literally, gave up on that one on the spot.

I then decided to be rich.  Got accepted to McCombs.  Freshman year I found out I sucked at all things business, so I spent 4 semesters taking science classes.  Had no idea what to do or be.

Met my wife in '98.  Put her through undergrad, then Masters.  She became an ESL teacher.  That's when I decided to go that route.  I've been teaching for 8 years and love it.

Put some respect on the man’s name, Dungan. 
 

and similar on meteorology only to realize you’re moving to bumfuck Kansas to start your career and maybe getting to Shreveport size market if you work real hard and have some luck. 

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Leeroy Jenkins

Leeroy Jenkins 2409

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I was all over the place but I always wanted to be a firefighter.  I grew up in a VFD where my dad volunteered. 
 

I loved being on the water.  Went to USNA with the idea I would be a ship driver.  Ending up becoming an Aviator.  Never wanted jets as I really liked flying with a crew so I went P-3s.  Never had the desire to be an airline pilot.  
 

Now I sell defense software and I am a Chief of a pretty busy VFD that I had to turnaround as it was in horrible financial shape.  I guess I can’t shake the call to serve and desire to lead people.  

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tbone_

tbone_ 14128

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I wanted to be a rock star.

But I went to business school because “that’s who gets jobs”. So now I’m 25 years into a somewhat marginally esteemed career in creating places for people to live. Or, viewed another way, building vehicles to enable institutional owners of housing to reach deeper than ever into the pockets of the great unwashed and further the concentration of the ownership of the housing stock in this country in the hands of fewer and fewer groups. But I’m not cynical about it at all.

So a few years ago I set a goal to try and get paid to make music. Took singing lessons at 50. Started a duo and have been doing paid gigs for about 20 months now. We’re actually starting to get referrals now for private parties, corporate gigs, etc. and it’s a total blast.

I haven’t spent any of the money I’ve earned playing music. Not sure what I’ll do with it. But in 20 months I’ve managed to accumulate a little more than what I get in one paycheck from my day job. So there’s that.

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 15068

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I’ve been fascinated for thirty years with the careers people choose and whether they are happy with their choices.

At one point I even went so far as to look at building a startup to help people make better informed decisions (and occasionally still think about launching one if the situation were right). 

Some people have the capability to do dozens of careers successfully, but pick poorly and are unhappy. Some can only do a few things well, but have never figured out those few things. Some happened to get it right.

As I interviewed many many people over the years, I swear it was just a crap shoot and a dice roll for most. Few really understood themselves well enough at an early age to be able to consciously pick the best career for themselves that brought happiness, satisfaction and some level of success unless they either lucked into it, or happened to be naturally gifted in some major way that made it obvious, OR they happened to have the type of personality to be happy in many different careers. 

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52-80

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1 hour ago, Dbeasy said:

I’ve been fascinated for thirty years with the careers people choose and whether they are happy with their choices.

At one point I even went so far as to look at building a startup to help people make better informed decisions (and occasionally still think about launching one if the situation were right). 

Some people have the capability to do dozens of careers successfully, but pick poorly and are unhappy. Some can only do a few things well, but have never figured out those few things. Some happened to get it right.

IMO peoples competence, interests, and ultimately their journey is highly individualized and necessarily organic.  Even ignoring the success or happiness component, very few people consistently wanted to do 1 thing, or end up actually doing it, or are doing what they foresaw.  I plan on just giving my kids values that transcends jobs and industries and letting the rest play out like an acid trip

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105154

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IMO peoples competence, interests, and ultimately their journey is highly individualized and necessarily organic.  Even ignoring the success or happiness component, very few people consistently wanted to do 1 thing, or end up actually doing it, or are doing what they foresaw.  I plan on just giving my kids values that transcends jobs and industries and letting the rest play out like an acid trip

Bottom line, it’s usually more satisfying to do something you’re good at (and thus you achieve things) vs doing something you’re not good at and suffering defeat and failure.

I had natural aptitude and gifts that made trial law a good fit, and I’m good at it. Had I dedicated all my focus to being a star RB….I would have experienced a lot of disappointment.
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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

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Didn't think about it really much other than being a nebulous "Aerospace Engineer" whatever the fuck that was.

So, I got a degree in Aerospace Engineering. 

First job - LEO rockets, ABM missiles and anti-tank missiles.

Second job - F-16/F-18 simulation (this REALLY piqued my interest, but management at company SUCKED).  Left before 2 years because of the management (and money)

Third job - Job shopper (contractor)...over doubled my pay from the second job, but I hated it.  However, it helped pay the bills on my super-expanded family quite well.  It was nothing but programming in Ada.  Bad times, but sucked it up for 4 years.

Fourth job - Helicopter simulation.  Did this for 17 years and it was awesome.  Loved the company, job, people I worked with (except for you, Steve Lewis, you fucking piece of shit)

Fifth job - UAS research.  I'm now the chief engineer at a research center based out of TAMU-CC that does Unmanned Aerial Systems research.  When I got the job it was WAY out of my comfort zone which was invigorating.  Now I'm actually combining my new found knowledge in UAVs with a new Simulation system we're setting up.  This should be a badass way to finish out my career and retire.  (NOTE:  I originally just took the job because I wanted to move to N Padre Island for retirement and both my GF and I found jobs the same week.  Call it kismet or whatever.  Now, I'm really glad I took it because it's a badass job)

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

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4 hours ago, bluto said:

Put some respect on the man’s name, Dungan. 
 

and similar on meteorology only to realize you’re moving to bumfuck Kansas to start your career and maybe getting to Shreveport size market if you work real hard and have some luck. 

I work at TAMU-CC and they have a undergrad degree program in Atmospheric Sciences with two tracks:  Atmospheric Science and Weather Broadcasting.  The curriculum for the upper levels is quite different in its focus.

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Dbeasy

Dbeasy 15068

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56 minutes ago, Ag with kids said:

Didn't think about it really much other than being a nebulous "Aerospace Engineer" whatever the fuck that was.

So, I got a degree in Aerospace Engineering. 

First job - LEO rockets, ABM missiles and anti-tank missiles.

Second job - F-16/F-18 simulation (this REALLY piqued my interest, but management at company SUCKED).  Left before 2 years because of the management (and money)

Third job - Job shopper (contractor)...over doubled my pay from the second job, but I hated it.  However, it helped pay the bills on my super-expanded family quite well.  It was nothing but programming in Ada.  Bad times, but sucked it up for 4 years.

Fourth job - Helicopter simulation.  Did this for 17 years and it was awesome.  Loved the company, job, people I worked with (except for you, Steve Lewis, you fucking piece of shit)

Fifth job - UAS research.  I'm now the chief engineer at a research center based out of TAMU-CC that does Unmanned Aerial Systems research.  When I got the job it was WAY out of my comfort zone which was invigorating.  Now I'm actually combining my new found knowledge in UAVs with a new Simulation system we're setting up.  This should be a badass way to finish out my career and retire.  (NOTE:  I originally just took the job because I wanted to move to N Padre Island for retirement and both my GF and I found jobs the same week.  Call it kismet or whatever.  Now, I'm really glad I took it because it's a badass job)

Funny side story. I got my degree in aerospace engineering, practicing as an engineer for several years but eventually transitioned into the career I really wanted to do.  Years later my kids were taking high school surveys for career choices, so my wife and I decide to take it too. Out of 325 career choices, the online system predicted aerospace engineer as the number one choice for me, proving unequivocally that the entire system was garbage. That was without question a terrible career option for me for multiple reasons. 

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Ag with kids

Ag with kids 581

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11 minutes ago, Dbeasy said:

Funny side story. I got my degree in aerospace engineering, practicing as an engineer for several years but eventually transitioned into the career I really wanted to do.  Years later my kids were taking high school surveys for career choices, so my wife and I decide to take it too. Out of 325 career choices, the online system predicted aerospace engineer as the number one choice for me, proving unequivocally that the entire system was garbage. That was without question a terrible career option for me for multiple reasons. 

That's funny...I wonder what I'd get if I did it.

I know it's worked out for me though.

But, I'm hoping my last job is bar owner in Sint Maarten.

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