Career Change?

[AJL67]

Now here’s a job for me, probably make me start low and work my way up to first though.



But to make this a real thread, how long have you been at your current career and bonus points for what you do.

I’ve worked a lot of job and finally got a lucky break designing software, been at it about 30 years. I can just about guarantee that everyone here or 99% of the people here have used a site or software that i worked on the design for. I like what i do and i can only dream of being First Peon.

 

[Snook]

Haha, nice. That's totally the kind of detail I would notice watching movie credits. I bet something-something Casaravilla worked tooth and nail to claw himself up to a position of such high regard!

I work in banking. Started as a teller, then personal banker, now commercial loan servicing. I work remotely, which is nice, but the work is kind of boring and the pay leaves much to be desired. I recently went back to school (online) and completed my degree. Once my work's tuition reimbursement is fully vested in February, I'm going to try to find a new position that requires a degree and will be more demanding/rewarding.

Good for you being in software design for so many years. That's a great field! Did you go to school for it, or just dabbled in it and ended up in that field?

 

[AJL67]

Haha, nice. That's totally the kind of detail I would notice watching movie credits. I bet something-something Casaravilla worked tooth and nail to claw himself up to a position of such high regard!

I work in banking. Started as a teller, then personal banker, now commercial loan servicing. I work remotely, which is nice, but the work is kind of boring and the pay leaves much to be desired. I recently went back to school (online) and completed my degree. Once my work's tuition reimbursement is fully vested in February, I'm going to try to find a new position that requires a degree and will be more demanding/rewarding.

Good for you being in software design for so many years. That's a great field! Did you go to school for it, or just dabbled in it and ended up in that field?

Nope i was working hotel room service at the Charles hotel in Cambridge MA at the time (great place to meet celebs if you are into that) my brother worked at a startup and got me a job doing like html stuff, i bought a bunch of books and learned as i went. Back then <blink> was all the rage . Got a GED, never went to college, luck and hard work.

 

[sardonicus87]

I've never had a career myself. I'd get a job as a lowly dishwasher or slinging pizza or lawncare, be there 6-months to a year until my mental health would tank (schizophrenia), spend a week in a ward, then 6 months getting stable to get another crap job and start the cycle all over again. Last job I had was the best one, working for Home Depot Measure Services.

My initial career plan was to be a mortician (have the degree and everything). Problem is, the only part I want to do is embalming, and I couldn't make it through the apprenticeship as almost everywhere it's a joint license (funeral directing and embalming) and you have to work both sides. Being unable to stay mentally stable for a full 2 years didn't help either, on top of having to always be in at 7 am while suffering a circadian rhythm disorder (DSPD).

I got lucky to have met my wife and that she makes enough for us to be comfortable on just her income. So I guess my current job is "Trophy Husband"/retired. I also got lucky that I got hit by a commercial van on my motorcycle, that they had insurance, didn't run, were fully at fault, f***ed me up good enough that I got a decent settlement that I put into a brokerage account back when stocks were low.

Not rich, but comfortably lower-middle-class and will be OK at age 60 as long as the stock market doesn't have a catastrophic failure. Fingers crossed, because there's nothing out there I could do as a decent, livable career with my disorders (my best hope would be over-night street sweeper or something).

 

[VDL_Piper]

Been a farmer all my life just like my father, grandfather, great grandfather. My great great grandfather was a convict before he became a farmer so he had a change of profession along the way.

 

[ashdigger]

Been a farmer all my life just like my father, grandfather, great grandfather. My great great grandfather was a convict before he became a farmer so he had a change of profession along the way.

If he was a contractor he could’ve kept the same profession.

 

[VDL_Piper]

If he was a contractor he could’ve kept the same profession.

Absolutely or a politician.......

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I started getting illustration work while in art school, graduated in 1985 and had a pretty successful career doing a combination of magazine illustration, character design and storyboards for TV and film, and some graphic design. When the market crashed in 2008, my illustration career disappeared virtually overnight and I shifted into graphic design. I took my first 9 to 5 gig in the Fall of 2017 doing graphic design for a college. I still freelance and incorporate illustrations in books and a magazine I design. It’s sort of two separate careers, but I suppose I could say I’ve made money doing art the last thirty-eight to forty years and count myself as fortunate.

 

[warren]

I had a great career and retired. Now and for the past 30 something years I've been a wildlife photographer nicely supplementing my Social Security stipend, police retirement and investment income. Lately though, I've been paying the piper for a life fully lived and am slowing down, fewer excursions into the wild. Getting older isn't fun but, the alternative is even less inviting.

 

[nathaniel]

Ive worked odd jobs in everything manual labor-wise. Then i got a job changing oil at a VW dealership and worked my way up through experience and tech school to become a mechanic for a few yrs. Then i got real sick and had to quit that and find another less physically demanding job while intending to go the school for engineering. During that year long transition, my wife started learning how to code on her own and bagged her first gig in web development making twice as much as id ever made, and from home at that! She quickly advanced and now makes more money than id ever have imagined in my wildest dreams. So I stay at home now and homeschool our 4 children and run our offgrid homestead in the middle of nowhere while she works a 9-5 from home on her laptop.

It was really hard not feeling like a total loser being a stay-at-home dad, but i keep busy and pull more than my own weight I think. She's happy. So after almost 5yrs of this, i suppose im settling in to it. Of course, living in rural Costa Rica, the idea of a stay-at-home dad is even more foreign to our friends and neighbors. But i try not to let it get to me.

All told, im living my libertarian/anarchist dream, homeschooling my children and living off the land as much as possible. Its certainly the best option for my children compared to living in some cheap rental in the US with no yard and making less than 20k/yr for 60hr weeks never seeing my family.


.... Sheesh i just got way too personal..

 

[augiebd]

I’ve been working in education for nearly 40 years. I spent 27 years as a teacher and the last ten years I’ve been a curriculum designer. It has been a wonderfully challenging and rewarding journey.

 

[The Amish Tyrant]

I worked in the restaurant industry for about 18 years, primarily as a "dumb line cook". Despite working with modern-day pirates that can't function in the 9-5 society, I got paid to play with knives and fire while flirting with servers.

I even moonlighted as a cook while in my current profession. It helped me pay off my student loans in under 10 years while providing extra disposable income.

 

[Buzz Saw]

41 years as a mechanic, first 23 in the automotive field as a powertrain mechanic, that is, engine, transmission, differential mechanic and the last 18 as a diesel and heavy equipment mechanic working out of a service truck. City transit busses, tug boats, cranes, excavators and the like. Good career and a reasonable living, no regrets.

 

[Mortamyhr]

I’ve been in funeral service for 14 years now. Took the scenic route and have only been licensed for about 8 years. Until the past couple years I was strictly an embalmer. Have moved into a more dual licensed role now, which has its different difficulties. But either way, it has its ups and downs. Very rewarding in many ways, but some days are awful. I can’t imagine doing anything else, even the days when I just don’t want to do it anymore. Cognitive dissonance, much??

 

[anotherbob]

my job first peon. It's alright you get to be mean to the second peon.

 

[captainsousie]

That's interesting OP, some people pay to be peed on.

 

[ashdigger]

I used to be a professional chef, then I owned a landscape company and for the last 18 years I’ve been an aficionado of death and destruction. I get paid to interpret BBS (burned black shit).

 

[OzPiper]

Been a farmer all my life just like my father, grandfather, great grandfather. My great great grandfather was a convict before he became a farmer so he had a change of profession along the way.

True Aussie pioneering spirit and hard yakka

 

[OzPiper]

I used to be a professional chef, then I owned a landscape company and for the last 18 years I’ve been an aficionado of death and destruction. I get paid to interpret BBS (burned black shit).

Tim, your 1st career in the kitchen is coming in handy.
Who would have thunk

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I used to be a professional chef, then I owned a landscape company and for the last 18 years I’ve been an aficionado of death and destruction. I get paid to interpret BBS (burned black shit).

You worked with stuff that grew from the earth; then you worked with the earth itself; then you worked with stuff that turned back to earth. You’re a unicyclist?