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

Gimme A Pound · 21-11-2018 5:09pm

Feisar wrote: »

AH Answer - Bra Fitter

Very sparse answer. Needs padding.

Gimme A Pound · 21-11-2018 5:11pm

I did journalism too and ended up the other side - comms with a bit of marketing. Much prefer it but it's a big advantage to have seen the other side.

BrokenArrows · 21-11-2018 5:16pm

Steve F wrote: »

Sex symbol....oh...wait

Which symbol do you want to be ♂ or ♀

topper75 · 21-11-2018 5:57pm

Subcomandante Marcos wrote: »

Coding. Get dat Google money.

Nope, plumber for me.

As a plumber, you can call around to a coder's house on a schedule that suits you and start rubbing your chin to figure out the tune to which you are going to do his google-sized bank account.

You, on the other hand, will never need to hire him under any circumstances. I have used Google products for two decades without paying them a brass cent.

corner of hells · 21-11-2018 6:04pm

I'd like to work in the lift industry , though I hear it has its ups and downs.

Ray Palmer · 21-11-2018 6:14pm

circadian wrote: »

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.

That is really weird to hear. I looked into the game industry as a possible move out of IT. The salaries were way lower with some being 50% less. It certainly seemed to be a young person's game with the salaries. It also seemed to be a bit of a trap as the skills weren't transferable to regular IT development.
The other things is if you work in a development house that release products you have the exact same deadlines and over time issues. Very different to working in IT in a company.

Anybody who thinks being a civil servant is great obviously never worked in a government department. It is soul destroying and the pay is bad. If you are willing to do a dead end civil service job you don't want a career you want a job.

Shanotheslayer · 21-11-2018 6:21pm

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

I work in investment banking in Frankfurt, and absolutely love my role. Each day brings a fresh challenge, which is one of the things I appreciate most about it. I also enjoy working with some of the most intelligent, diligent, and hard-working people in Germany, and getting very well paid for it.

I genuinely feel sorry for those stuck in a role they hate, or find mind numbingly tedious. Those working in the lower rungs of IT for example – the type that reset my password, clear a jam from a printer, or come up with dashboards and reports from datasets I provide them. We also have floors of ashen-faced accountancy drones who I feel tremendous sympathy for.

If I wasn’t able to do what I do, then I would have liked to become a writer/journalist. Journalism in the early part of my career. I can imagine myself as a bright, brash, and intrepid reporter uncovering financial scandals. My later career would be spent on speaking engagements, and writing both fiction and non-fiction works. Obviously there are challenges with the financial viability of traditional media outlets that employ journalists these days, but I’d be certain my talent and intellectual curious nature would see me employed by some well-known and respected publication.

Oh you're back.

DEFTLEFTHAND · 21-11-2018 6:22pm

Never too late for a change.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 21-11-2018 6:42pm

Sleepy wrote: »

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.

Me too, me too. I lacked confidence in my abilities despite being an A stream student all the way through school. When I see some of the thicks I went to school with go on to scrape through Engineering degrees and earn the qualification, I can’t believe I doubted myself so much. I always scored highly on spacial awareness in those tests, up with the lads (men are generally much better in that area) and my best subjects were the practical non-humanities ones like maths, science and art. I did really well at those subjects and enjoyed them. I’d love to shake 17 year old me and tell her with a bit of perspiration and focus, Engineering would pose no real problems.

And Engineering opens many doors as I’ve seen from Eng grads I know. Obviously working as engineer but Eng grads are also sought after in finance, statistics and more niche fields like systems biology. Whereas my biology degree left me quite limited outside of academia or testing roles in laboratories. It was also not maths- and stats-heavy enough for my liking.

Feisar · 21-11-2018 7:12pm

Chaim Obedient Tanner wrote: »

Very sparse answer. Needs padding.

Plenty of padding in my minds eye!

Cookie_Monster · 21-11-2018 7:16pm

100% without question. I hate my career

DoozerT6 · 21-11-2018 7:50pm

I'd probably study the same thing I put on my CAO form back in the day, although a) I really, really wish I had put in enough effort in school to get enough points to do it in college instead of PLC courses, and b) I have never actually worked a day in that career in my life. I still think I would have liked it though.

Mentally, I don't fit into my own life at all, I never really have since secondary school. It's like I'm a dejected observer to what's going on around me. Office drone was very far from my mind when I was thinking about going to college. But hey, er'body got bills, right?...

Ray Palmer · 21-11-2018 7:51pm

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts wrote: »

Engineering would pose no real problems.
.

I went to study civil engineering while I don't know how much work was in your study but it is really tough. About 40 hours of classes and about 20 hours of work on top. It isn't an easy subject.

I would have loved to be an architect but the hours and length of study were something I knew and still know I would never have done. After that seeing what people I know who did study it ended up working at I am really glad. They design things that are very mediocre and nothing exciting. Civil engineering buddies have worked on some truly impressive things. The things is they spend loads of time on the road, on building sites and crappy offices. Glad I fell into IT and if anything I would have shortened my path but loads of former engineers are in IT and it requires most of the same skills.

The things is no matter what you do there is really a lot of repetition and dull parts. You have to fill in reports and follow some process.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 21-11-2018 8:00pm

Ray Palmer wrote: »

I went to study civil engineering while I don't know how much work was in your study but it is really tough. About 40 hours of classes and about 20 hours of work on top. It isn't an easy subject.

I would have loved to be an architect but the hours and length of study were something I knew and still know I would never have done. After that seeing what people I know who did study it ended up working at I am really glad. They design things that are very mediocre and nothing exciting. Civil engineering buddies have worked on some truly impressive things. The things is they spend loads of time on the road, on building sites and crappy offices. Glad I fell into IT and if anything I would have shortened my path but loads of former engineers are in IT and it requires most of the same skills.

The things is no matter what you do there is really a lot of repetition and dull parts. You have to fill in reports and follow some process.

My college course was very full on too. Lots of lectures, multiple labs to prepare for each week, tests that contributed to our year end mark every few weeks, study to do every single evening, a research project at the end. It was a morning until going to bed course. So the Engineering hours wouldn’t faze me at all. I was better off doing a full time course than one with ten hours weeks. I’d get way lazier on the latter course.

cannotlogin · 21-11-2018 8:18pm

I would love to be a detective but didn't want to be a guard which the necessary pre-requirement.

Often wonder if I should have given it a go. Would especially love cold case stiff, loving problem solving & real like worthing through things that don't make sense/add up

r93kaey5p2izun · 21-11-2018 8:28pm

I think I should have stayed in my retail job and done a degree in retail management funded by the employer and then stayed on with them. That's what was on offer back when I finished my LC, and my friends who took that option earn a lot more than me and aren't stuck in the nightmare rental sector.

I have already been around the houses in terms of career though so I think I'll just have to stick with it now. I graduated and worked in one area, then specialised in a particular related but obscure field with further study. I liked but not loved this work. I then retrained for another area and loved that work for over a decade but have left it again now to go back to my original career for financial reasons. It'll have to do because owning my own house is my number one priority so job satisfaction is a luxury I can't afford.

LirW · 21-11-2018 8:31pm

I'd go back even further to make another choice in education.

Back home the educational system is quite different and there are schools you attend to 5 years from when you're 14 and older (some enter when they're 17 or 18) and you not only get your leaving cert but you're readily trained in a field.
Now when I was 14 I wanted to go to fashion school, there was a well-known one in my city.
My grandfather offered though to pay for an elite fashion school with boarding a few hundred kilometres away which would have meant relocation when I was 14.
And the idiot I am, I turned that offer down. I met the wrong people and was absent a lot and changed school twice after dropping out of the local fashion school.

I eventually graduated from another school, same type but in film and media, a field that's horrible to work in and went on to work in an office of a restoration company for a few years.

omeara1113 · 21-11-2018 8:50pm

I'm a painter by trade while it's been very good to me I would have looked to have been a plumber

fuerte1976 · 21-11-2018 8:57pm

JohnCleary wrote: »

Off topic, what's Frankfurt like for a boozing weekend? Myself and GF thinking of heading over for 3 nights for the randomness of it all.

Sacsenhausen looks like good craic.

Frankfurt itself is a kip. Was there on a stag, so that's saying something.. Cool market tho just near the EU € symbol..

On topic,
Should have tried harder at those pilots exams..

byhookorbycrook · 21-11-2018 8:59pm

Primary teacher here, absolutely no regrets in my career choice. But I wouldn't suggest to anyone to take primary teaching now. Being destroyed by " initiative overload" and box ticking.

embraer170 · 21-11-2018 9:12pm

After finishing my Masters', I did a few traineeships and jumped into the first secure and well paid job I could find. I am now mid-30s, still here almost 10 years later and it gets harder and harder to take the step to leave. There are some great things about my workplace, but also some dreadful ones (no attempts to grow or develop staff).

I really wish I moved jobs a bit more and tried different things early in my career.

Subcomandante Marcos · 22-11-2018 2:23am

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Im a software developer, its easy to make better than average money as a developer, but quite hard to make really good money. Those high rolling google engineers on a few hunderd k a year also work 24 hours a day 365 days a year and are likely to make a mid life crisis at 25.

Who do you work for?

erica74 · 22-11-2018 7:52am

I wish I had just chosen any career. I left my parents house when I was 18, they didn't have any money for college and I wanted to get away from their house. I moved to Dublin and started working straight away in admin jobs and have worked since. I've worked in some really well paying jobs but am now working in a horrible job for around €23,000 pa with little to no job prospects where I live and very little promise for the future. I regret not going to college when I was younger. Life now is so hectic. I did try part time college 2 years ago but, unfortunately, I have so much going on in my life right now it just wasn't the right time. I'm not sure when the right time will be. Employers now nearly want you to have a degree just to work as a secretary, I can see less and less opportunities for someone like me and I honestly don't know what I'll be doing in 5 years.

Suckler · 22-11-2018 8:10am

Shop40 wrote: »

IA teacher in school said I’d be too shy for it, so I chose a different path.

This has annoyed me for years; Teachers with no experience of other careers (possibly a few exceptions) deciding that their pre-conceived ideas are some sort of basis for pushing children towards/away from particular areas. Career Guidance Counsellors were a joke in my schools with little emphasis on their role and resources by the schools. I've never heard a good word about them in any school which is a shame.

CrankyHaus · 22-11-2018 9:32am

erica74 wrote: »

I wish I had just chosen any career. I left my parents house when I was 18, they didn't have any money for college and I wanted to get away from their house. I moved to Dublin and started working straight away in admin jobs and have worked since. I've worked in some really well paying jobs but am now working in a horrible job for around €23,000 pa with little to no job prospects where I live and very little promise for the future. I regret not going to college when I was younger. Life now is so hectic. I did try part time college 2 years ago but, unfortunately, I have so much going on in my life right now it just wasn't the right time. I'm not sure when the right time will be. Employers now nearly want you to have a degree just to work as a secretary, I can see less and less opportunities for someone like me and I honestly don't know what I'll be doing in 5 years.

Get into the Publuc Sector as a CO. They're very good for educating and training yourself up as you work which sounds like it would be perfect for you. They'll look after you much better than private employers at that level.

3DataModem · 22-11-2018 9:39am

After almost 20 years in financial services I made the leap to online gambling... it's never to late to jump trains.

Dr Strange · 22-11-2018 9:44am

cannotlogin wrote: »

I would love to be a detective... Would especially love cold case stiff...

I see.

erica74 · 22-11-2018 9:50am

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Get into the Publuc Sector as a CO. They're very good for educating and training yourself up as you work which sounds like it would be perfect for you. They'll look after you much better than private employers at that level.

Are you messing or being serious? I'm in the public sector as a CO:pac: I work in the HSE, it's absolutely awful. I've worked in the HSE for 18 months now and have had literally no training to even do my day-to-day work, just trial and error.
I do appreciate the reply though. Maybe it's just that the HSE isn't great or the hospital I work in isn't great.

CrankyHaus · 22-11-2018 9:55am

erica74 wrote: »

Are you messing or being serious? I'm in the public sector as a CO:pac: I work in the HSE, it's absolutely awful. I've worked in the HSE for 18 months now and have had literally no training to even do my day-to-day work, just trial and error.
I do appreciate the reply though. Maybe it's just that the HSE isn't great or the hospital I work in isn't great.

Sorry, I was just basing it on people I know in other parts of the public sector. You may just be in a bad spot. Everyone I know working in the HSE is going 90 all the time. Councils can be fairly cushy. Have a look at a sideways move. Loads of public sector organizations are hiring to make up for nearly a decade of little to no recruitment.

erica74 · 22-11-2018 9:58am

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Sorry, I was just basing it on people I know in other parts of the public sector. You may just be in a bad spot. Everyone I know working in the HSE is going 90 all the time. Councils can be fairly cushy. Have a look at a sideways move. Loads of public sector organizations are hiring to make up for nearly a decade of little to no recruitment.

That's spot on. The place I work in is bananas. Many many clerical officers have left because they thought they were coming into a "cushy" number and soon realised it's the opposite. Very badly managed and very badly organised.

I apply for every job I see, I'd love to move anywhere but, sadly, the job market where I am is still very quiet in terms of admin, clerical, secretarial staff.
Thanks for your advice though.

_Kaiser_ · 22-11-2018 10:11am

I'm happy enough with my role now (senior IT manager in a multinational). Worked my way up from answering the phones to where I now look after the IT Services team for our locations in Ireland and parts of Europe (it's looking like I'm going to be more involved with our UK locations too).

I suppose the only regret I'd have is that I may have stayed in a role too long once or twice, but overall it's working out OK, especially since I changed companies a few months back.

High road · 22-11-2018 10:32am

I'm not sure I'd say I had a career more a series of tangentially related jobs.

Worked in Dublin airport - in a poorly run service area. Lesson: there was a lady there ten years straight outta school with no LC. Union mandated pay rises meant he was taking home circa 37k. Loathed the job (which was boring with a passion) knew he couldn't leave as he'd never get that money working in Tesco, which was his only alternative.

Then was a risk management firm. People were good, work was interesting and it had potential. Sadly they lost a big client so a bunch of us got let go. Very dissapointing but they managed the process pretty well.

Next I worked in a PR firm. Loads of stress, presure, bullying, and horrible people. They did a lotta blow and we're generally deadful people at the higher levels. It could be fun too, when the low level staff were left to get on with work, as it was a laugh sometimes but not on the whole not worth it. Lesson don't do shady stuff it'll catch up with you - as several of my bosses have found out.

After that was financial regulation. Job looked good on paper but wasn't in practice. Very high staff turnover as most people were miserable. Of 50 people in my department 23 were "managers" - the structure was fairly shambolic. There was a lot of lip service to staff needs and lots of hippy dippy diversity stuff, but when somebody actually complained of a real problem they'd get eased out or put on performance. In saying that I had many decent colleagues, I could tell some of the seniors hated the athmosphere as much as I did, again tho they were trapped by the money. Lesson: if you've a bad day forget it, if everyday for six months is bad run!

I've a new job now we'll see how it goes...

Think that since I got out of education just as the recession broke it's gone okay. If I was 18 today I'd love to go for medicine as it seems worth while, Army as I always had an interest, guard as again worthwhile or set up my own biz. That may still happen. I'd not go near academia or finance I reckon bad things are coming down the track there.

22-11-2018 6:17pm

sullivlo wrote: »

I did go back and choose a new career and it was the best move I ever made. It meant a loan, poverty and a new qualification, but I have honestly never been happier.

What new career did you choose, out of interest?

pawdee · 22-11-2018 6:22pm

Lion taming steeplejack.

Hotblack Desiato · 22-11-2018 7:52pm

Cleaning lobsters out of Jayne Mansfield's ****

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

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