Is this what you imagined?

Never really had a defined plan growing up.. knew I wanted to do something with computers but not sure exactly what, so did a few years in college, was recruited out of there by one of the multinationals and spent a few years working up and around the business but still at "senior worker drone" level in various Support roles

Then in the Good Times I decided to join the public sector and moved into IT management which rounded out the skillset and taught me a lot and I discovered I was pretty good at it. Still allowed me to be hands on too so things were pretty good and I transformed the place from an IT perspective... until the recession hit and the culls in the PS started - including me

Spent a year out of work which was very tough and hard to keep motivated to apply for jobs in the face of rejection after rejection or total silence as a response. Worse again was the mentality that you're some sort of "waster" or "scrounger" for DARING to claim the benefits you've paid for for years! Not just from people on places like Boards either - from the very staff that are supposed to assist and support you too!

But eventually I got a contract role and managed to turn that into a permanent one and 6 years later I've a Mid-senior Global Management position with a very good team of guys working for me.

In between all this I became a Daddy too which was probably the BIGGEST change (and shock!) to my life but he's a great little fella and it actually helped me with the above too as when it's no longer just you to think of, you start to push yourself harder and less prone to getting comfortable in a rut.