How Did You Get to Where You Are?

[Rhythm Thief]

A levels (at a very good school), then drifted to Polytechnic and stayed for five years doing a B.Sc. and an M.Sc. in Environmental Science. Then when I left I got my HGV licence and I've driven lorries ever since.

 

[Globalti]

BA Modern Languages; muppet careers advisors told me I could be "a teacher, a translator or an interpreter" but I drifted into export sales instead and love it.

 

[Chamfus Flange]

Materials Laboratory Technician in Building Industry
Assistant Machine Operator at a paper mill
Materials Laboratory Technician in sheet and batch plastic moulding
Quality Control Technician in Road building Industry
Reseacher in plastic moulded packaging
Senior Reseacher in delivery devises
Carer to my mother-in-law (part time)
Physics Teacher (part time)
Physics and Mathematics Tutor (part time)

My plan has always been to do either what is need or, preferabily, what I like the look of. That's the past 24 years. I've still 30 odd to go. If I'm lucky.

The last is were I want to be for the ofrseeable future, but legislation may force me out.

 

[rich p]

I started at the bottom and stayed put

 

[theclaud]

I started at the bottom and stayed put

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of exemplary mediocrity. That's why I look down on you.

 

[ColinJ]

I got to Where I Am by not going to Where I Want To Be!

I knew by the age of 15 that I never wanted to work for other people, so why did I spend 30 years trying to?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I decided pretty early on that the most important thing about any job I did was that it didn't involve taking work home with me. An early finish on a Friday (or the ability to take impromptu days off at short notice) is a bonus. I'm not in the slightest bit interested in progressing up the career ladder.

 

[asterix]

Or maybe batman?

No, that was Bruce Wayne.

 

[Adasta]

I decided pretty early on that the most important thing about any job I did was that it didn't involve taking work home with me.

Yeah, I think I've realised that before my "career" has even begun. I don't have a strong desire for a lavish lifestyle, so I don't really need money in a social sense.

 

[rich p]

I worked my way up from nothing to a state of exemplary mediocrity. That's why I look down on you.

That's just the sort of bloody typical oneupwomanship I expect from high-fliers in shallow end.

 

[yello]

I'm not in the slightest bit interested in progressing up the career ladder.

No, me neither. In fact, I've pretty much cut off my nose to spite my face in avoiding progression (in the accepted career sense) as I saw it as an unwelcome intrusion on my life. I have never wanted to join the ranks of those that define themselves by their job.

I think I have what is called an attitude problem. And long may it be so because whilst I consider myself to have gotten wherever I am by pure luck, I wouldn't change a damned thing!

 

[Salad Dodger]

I did 27 years for a high street bank, then took voluntary redundancy, took a few months off and then 6 years ago took a job in the head office of a theme park, where I answer the phones, keep the website updated, and sometimes drive a fork lift truck in the warehouse.

 

[ufkacbln]

After discovering that a Rolling Stones Concert and bouncing ping pong balls for the A level Physics practical the following morning are incompatible I became a radiographer. Did my training in the Royal Navy.

Gradually gained experience, but over the years also did time as a paramedic, prison officer, fireman, search and rescue, first aid instructor as well.

Did my qualification in Nuclear Medicine (real mans imaging not magnets like some!) with an attachment to the Army, then completed my Masters on leaving the services.

I am at present Superintendent of a Nuclear Medicine department doing lots of different things and writing a research proposal for my Professional Doctorate (or ratheer typing on here to avoid writing a research proposal), in my spare time I am also qualifying in PET CT

Funny thing is a lot is by accident. My joining the Navy was because I went to see Dr Feelgood with a friend who was joining up and fancied teh better wages and condiions rather than being a student on a grant. My Nuclear Medicine qualification was because the previous trainee had fallen by the wayside, and my Masters was because the previous year's "end on BSc" was over subscribed and talking to a lecturer decided to push my luck with accreditation of prior learning and got on tho the MSc.

I suppose I believe in some sort of fate as although I am here by a chain of coincidences, I thoroughly enjoy my job,although less tme in teh office and more time with patients would be nice.

 

[mgarl10024]

I'm a software engineer.

As a kid, I wanted to be a Vet or a Software Engineer, and programming didn't involve putting animals to sleep.
My mum's old (now late) boss said "don't have a job to pay for your hobby, make your hobby into your job", so IT it was.
10 GCSEs, 4 (average) A-Levels, and a 1st in BSc Software Engineering. I'm now in job number 4 since 2005 - most seem to have a 2 year span with me either being made redundant or chasing better terms.

I enjoy software, and have since passed a number of exams in it. However, I tend to find that writing business software tends to leave me a bit restless. I'm not overly smart, I just work really hard. I need to be mentally challenged or I get bored - which is why I keep chasing technical exams. I also get frustrated that I don't know what I want to do with my professional life - I'm often tempted to go back into academia but for the time being the mortgage stops me. In the meantime, I'm considering taking an A-Level in something very different like physiology to push me, or a degree in Maths.

 

[JonnyBlade]

I took a 3 month contract to oversee Christmas spending after finishing a degree and I'm still at the same place 17 years later