Cycle Chat Cafe Careers Fair

[Noodley]

Ok, I'm the tall greasy slightly creepy* careers teacher from your school days and want to know if you'd do anything differently, how things have developed, or if you got it right straight from school. And any regrets or things you wish you'd done differently....

*as hard as that might be to imagine of me

 

[darkstar]

I'm still at uni, in the process of applying for an internship at the BBC, would love to work for the Natural History unit. It is however just a dream at the moment, i understand the places are extremely hard to come by.

 

[Noodley]

I'm still at uni, in the process of applying for an internship at the BBC, would love to work for the Natural History unit. It is however just a dream at the moment, i understand the places are extremely hard to come by.

Do you know how to go about getting a job there? That was one of my problems when at Uni - I knew what I wanted but did not know how...

 

[Fab Foodie]

I think so, I'm doing science, it's immediate, creative, fast moving and edible. I get a lot of freedom, travel regularly, paid acceptably but not fantastically. I think I got it as good as I could. If I had my time again I'd try to do something more outdoorsey and adventurous maybe, that's my only gripe really, I'd prefer to be outdoors more.
I'd also thought I'd like to put together or present a programme about the food industry and food science rather than endless 'chefs' spouting. Magnuss Pike was the only (to my knowledge) celebrity food scientist. As I have the perfect face for radio this is unlikely to happen, but it's a dream I guess.

Oh, and I'd also like to serve an apprentiship as a builder of wooden boats.

 

[Perfect Virgo]

Probably an under-achiever after a good education. Tripped over my indecision and fell into banking where I remained in the lower echelons for 30 years. Getting released 3 years ago was the high point in my career! Family, mortgages and responsibilities kept me in the tunnel heading towards the dot of light until it became sensible to keep going rather than shuffle back out, despite being unhappy and unfulfilled.

Now I am doing creative things with my time, like writing. Coming to Canada was a great move, one of the few downsides being the shortening of my cycling year by 5 months!

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Now I am doing creative things with my time, like writing. Coming to Canada was a great move, one of the few downsides being the shortening of my cycling year by 5 months!

Lightweight! I agree on the coming to Canada bit though...

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I'd do just the same as I did, career wise. (Not that I have a career, it's more of a job.) I always knew I wanted to drive lorries, right from when I was little, and now I've been doing it for ten years and it's still fun, most days. Possibly my Environmental Science M.Sc. is wasted on me, but hell, I enjoyed doing that too.

 

[longers]

There's been a few crappy jobs along the way but looking back they make me appreciate the one I'm in as being right for me or I learnt something - no matter how small - that's useful, so no regrets.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Career? wots a career? left school at 15, couldn't wait to leave, now 57 still haven't worked out what I want to do.

 

[Wigsie]

After Uni, a degree in Psycology and Computing and a year in Egypt, I landed an awesome job, Digital Marketing for a company of 12 as a developer, moved into project management and sales where I helped it grow to 60 employees's. I was shafted by the Sales Director (who was acting MD while the founder/MD was setting up a US office) over a huge deal that I had been working on for 9 months.

Instead of learning from it and moving on, I exploded at him and resigned, I was bitter about it for years, I wondered the wilderness of crap sales jobs for 4 years before returning to Digital Marketing and had to learn it all over again. Now starting to get back to a level I was approaching at 25! The director that shafted me was fired a year later and my replacement became Sales director and is now the MD!

If I could go back I would have not been as trusting and would be running an agency of 200 people now.

Oh well.... If Grandma had balls she'd be Grandpa!

 

[rich p]

I'd have liked John Arlott's job as a wine correspondent and cricket commentator. Perfect!

 

[snorri]

I don't think we had a schools careers adviser, but I remember the day in the Fourth Year the rector came into the class and handed out five copies of a book titled "Opportunities for School leavers 19xx". I took this as a hint, and got myself a job interview. My future employer must have checked my credentials with the shool as one day the rector said to me "I see you have applied for a job". The other four pupils who were handed the book stayed at school for the full six years and some went to university, should I have done the same? I'll never know.

 

[gavintc]

I remember very well my interview with Career's Teacher at school. It was sometime over the winter 74/75. He basically informed me that to have a chance in life, I needed a degree and he could not recommend any other option. I was sold on joining the Army. He said he would not assist me in any way. My parents agreed with him. So, unknown to all, I went to the local recruiting office, went off for my interviews, passed them and went to Sandhurst in Sep 75. He was horrified, that I had cancelled a place at uni to join the Army. Looking back, my keeness to join was partly due to their dislike of my chosen career path. Before my peers had even graduated, I was an acting Captain, and had served in Hong Kong, Korea, Germany and of course NI. The university of life. I went back to uni later in life as a part time mature student.

 

[Alien8]

All I can remember is being told at secondary school that if I wanted to be an electrical/electronic engineer I needed to be doing woodwork 'O' level. I declined their advice and ended-up with a PhD in the subject matter (the engineering not the woodwork!). Mind you, I'm now one of the mass redundant/unemployed so perhaps they were right after all!

 

[sheddy]

Careers advice in 1974, girls = nurses, boys = engineering