If you could go back in time and choose a new career...

21-11-2018 1:32pm #1

... would you?

Would you go back and choose something different to study after school, or change any of the decisions you've made that led you to your current job?

There are certain career moves I wish I hadn't made. I have some regrets with regard to what I studied after school too. I wish I'd researched my options more, but when you're 18 planning your career isn't exactly top of your priorities. At least it wasn't for me anyway. :rolleyes:

PlaneSpeeking · 21-11-2018 1:33pm

Deleted User wrote: »

... would you?

Would you go back and choose something different to study after school, or change any of the decisions you've made that led you to your current job?

There are certain career moves I wish I hadn't made. I have some regrets with regard to what I studied after school too. I wish I'd researched my options more, but when you're 18 planning your career isn't exactly top of your priorities. At least it wasn't for me anyway. :rolleyes:

Yeah, I had a three year temp contract out of school and I basically pissed around.

30 years on in a public sector job, I'd be near retirement!!!! Damnit!!

James Bond Junior · 21-11-2018 1:34pm

I did teaching. I like it but it is a very limiting degree in so much that you are trained in an exceptionally narrow way and it is hard to use the degree in any other way but teaching. I wish I had done business or something like that. I am toying with the idea of doing a MA in something business related.

Subcomandante Marcos · 21-11-2018 1:34pm

Coding. Get dat Google money.

21-11-2018 1:36pm

Choose the Information Management option instead of Multimedia back in 1997 for second year in WIT. Fool me.

prunudo · 21-11-2018 1:36pm

I'd be an electrician, they've a bright future.

21-11-2018 1:37pm

Into the civil service out of college, security for life.

NIMAN · 21-11-2018 1:40pm

Professional footballer.

endacl · 21-11-2018 1:43pm

Dragonslayer.

Deebles McBeebles · 21-11-2018 1:43pm

I'd be a professional waster.

21-11-2018 1:43pm

I'd would have loved to have been an English teacher.

Cockadoodledoo · 21-11-2018 1:46pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I'd would have loved to have been an English teacher.

I’m not sure if “I’d would” is intentional or not

MonkeyTennis · 21-11-2018 1:47pm

endacl wrote: »

Dragonslayer.

Too much paperwork these days

Foweva Awone · 21-11-2018 1:47pm

I started off studying Radiation Therapy but didn't like it, so switched to Commerce and then Financial Services .... went on to spend a few years working in Finance/Audit and did a few professional exams in accountancy and insurance, however I'm now 33 and getting ready to start a whole new career. Planning on going back to college in September to study probably something in Social Studies or Psychology. Might as well while I'm still young ... I'm good with numbers, but I want to do something I'm passionate about, and it's hard to find that in accountancy. Right now I'm doing a CE scheme in an addiction centre, I absolutely love it!

JohnCleary · 21-11-2018 1:48pm

I love what I do and it's by chance my college degree directly relates to career choice

gwalk · 21-11-2018 1:49pm

yep, ideally a professional footballer or professional boxer

in early, make money, retire early

valoren · 21-11-2018 1:55pm

I like what I do. IT. I followed the herd mentality at the end of the century gravitating towards computers.
It can be challenging and stressful but it's grand and it pays the bills. I have no discernible talent for it.
If I could go back? I still don't know what I want to actually do so the question is actually moot.
I would have loved to have had a passion for something like the Law and to become a solicitor. I just never had the appetite for the work involved though. I never had that calling for anything really.

circadian · 21-11-2018 1:59pm

Worked in video games for years, mainly triple A titles including the latest generation. it was my dream job as a kid but it's not a good industry to be in. Working late and weekends, deadlines come hard and fast, great money but it takes its toll.

Working in IT now, much better work life balance but the money isn't quite as good, yet. Much happier though.

Trigger Happy · 21-11-2018 2:00pm

If I could go back and choose a new career I would be a lotto number predition expert.

iamwhoiam · 21-11-2018 2:04pm

I was a paeds nurse . Its a tough challenging exhausting job , but also so uplifting and satisfying . I wouldn't change one single minute of the 40 odd years .

21-11-2018 2:09pm

valoren wrote: »

I like what I do. IT. I followed the herd mentality at the end of the century gravitating towards computers.
It can be challenging and stressful but it's grand and it pays the bills. I have no discernible talent for it.
If I could go back? I still don't know what I want to actually do so the question is actually moot.
I would have loved to have had a passion for something like the Law and to become a solicitor. I just never had the appetite for the work involved though. I never had that calling for anything really.

The vast majority of solicitors I know do not like their job and wish they could find something else to do, but are trapped in the profession due to the decent(ish) wages and their own ego (they are the type to hate walking away from stuff and are generally risk averse).

I would have studied english and history and headed abroad to teach english, the fun you would have etc.

Sleepy · 21-11-2018 2:16pm

Most definitely. I did Commerce with a focus on IS and followed it up with a H Dip in Systems Analysis. It's given me a decent, but unfulfilling career.

Wish I'd done Engineering.

coffee_cake · 21-11-2018 2:21pm

I get to do maths and be a computer nerd and i find the work interesting, always more to learn, so no

Toots · 21-11-2018 2:26pm

I think I'd like to have done criminology or something like that. Still time, I suppose. Maybe I'll go back to college when the kids are in secondary school.

ginandtonicsky · 21-11-2018 2:33pm

I've had a very lively and exciting career but I'd probably go a very different route if I could go back to LC age and fill out the CEO form again. I'd do something that supported more of a "having a life outside of work" buzz :pac:

I now work in Tech after about a decade working as a roving reporter for some big global news channels. I've seen a lot of crazy sh1t and I could certainly write a book or 5 on it but being 33, single and living abroad with few career options at home does tend to make me re-evaluate. I'd love to have established myself in Dublin and invested more in my social / personal life there to have more stability now.

I'd probably go back and get into something a bit more traditional, law or medicine maybe. I was smart enough for it, I was just a total daydreamer at 18 and thought I'd be sitting in my castle writing my fourth bestseller by now. God bless the innocence eh

CPTM · 21-11-2018 2:33pm

I like what I do, but sometimes I wonder how a career in psychology would have went. I enjoy helping people gain different perspectives and dealing with issues. I enjoyed the tv show Frasier, but I realise that's a romantic view of how counselling and psychology work. I wish I did transition year to get an insight into this.

What's the name of that exam they make students do which shows what area they have an aptitude for? Apparently all my results pointed towards hotel management. Overwhelmingly so. So I often wonder about that field as well.

21-11-2018 2:37pm

ginandtonicsky wrote: »

I've had a very lively and exciting career but I'd probably go a very different route if I could go back to LC age and fill out the CEO form again. I'd do something that supported more of a "having a life outside of work" buzz :pac:

I now work in Tech after about a decade working as a roving reporter for some big global news channels. I've seen a lot of crazy sh1t and I could certainly write a book or 5 on it but being 33, single and living abroad with few career options at home does tend to make me re-evaluate. I'd love to have established myself in Dublin and invested more in my social / personal life there to have more stability now.

I'd probably go back and get into something a bit more traditional, law or medicine maybe. I was smart enough for it, I was just a total daydreamer at 18 and thought I'd be sitting in my castle writing my fourth bestseller by now. God bless the innocence eh

Write those books now?

I don't regret my career per se, but I wish I worked abroad for longer and had a few fun years in some random European city. Most office work converges into the same type of work anyhow, reports, spreadsheets, meetings etc.

Hotblack Desiato · 21-11-2018 2:40pm

PlaneSpeeking wrote: »

30 years on in a public sector job, I'd be near retirement!!!! Damnit!!

No you wouldn't.

Noveight · 21-11-2018 2:42pm

Secondary teacher here.

I wouldn't change from it to be honest. If money wasn't in the equation, I'd love to be a truck driver or full time agricultural contractor.

Unfortunately, money is very much in the equation.

Hotblack Desiato · 21-11-2018 2:42pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Into the civil service out of college, security for life.

If you value security much higher than money it's a good choice.

w/s/p/c/ · 21-11-2018 2:47pm

I would have sat around and done nothing and get everything handed to me by the government.

Only fools and horses work

nah nah nah nah naaaaaah

If you could go back in time and choose a new career...

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