How did YOU decide your career?

<p>So I was surfing through the 40+ pages of threads on this forum and came across a thread on how kids are deciding on what they want to become. In the middle of this process myself, I thought it would be wonderful to hear from parents about how THEY discovered careers they love. So: when, where, how? :)</p>

<p><em>ROFLMAO</em>!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>

<p>I got preggo six times (seven, if you count my early miscarriage).</p>

<p>Then, it just made financial sense for me to stay home, where I've been for about 20 years.</p>

<p>However, I DO want to be a writer when I grow up.....or when my kids do, whichever comes first. ;)</p>

<p>~berurah, proud mom to many</p>

<p>As soon as I decide what I'm going to be when I grow up, I'll let you know how I got there.</p>

<p>Life happens. :)</p>

<p>Actually, I originally wanted to be a teacher. Each summer, I worked with kids as a summer recreational aid. After about 9 summers, I realized that I couldn't be a teacher & also cheerfully raise my kids (would come home & yell at my kid brother after an exhausting day of being around so many kids all day), so I decided to go into law instead (mom is a teacher, dad is an attorney). It has been a good choice for me. I also enjoyed staying home with my kids for many years & raising them.
Hubby was always fascinated by computers, majored in accounting (there was no major in computers in those days) & got a job with the federal government working with computers where he's been working happily for decades now.</p>

<p>Well ... I was an animal science major in college, and did more of an equine and dairy concentration than anything else. After college, I ran a stable for a bit and then (as my parents said at the time) I got a <em>real</em> job. I worked in marketing and communications for about 10 years --always for technical products and my last job before the babies showed up was product manager for a dairy cattle test kit.</p>

<p>Fast forward 15 years (during which time I raised kids, ran the household, trained dogs in agility, had my own horse, did some freelance writing, and headed an important PTA committee) -- I now own a pet shop. Never worked retail before -- but I love it!</p>

<p>When I grow up, I want to play with my dogs and my horses. And by then, I might need to add parrots!</p>

<p>
[quote]
After about 9 summers, I realized that I couldn't be a teacher & also cheerfully raise my kids (would come home & yell at my kid brother after an exhausting day of being around so many kids all day), so I decided to go into law instead

[/quote]

HImom~
I can so relate to this. I have two degrees in education and wanted to be a teacher all of my life. But, after having my own kids, I realized that each endeavor, mothering and teaching, were SO "heart and soul" that I felt I could not do both in the way that I would have wanted. So, here I am, and yes, I HAVE been a teacher...of sorts....all of my life! :) ~berurah</p>

<p>I majored in nutrition in college because my mother told me to choose something practical. Wanting to travel, I then did a master's in International Nutrition at Cornell, then looked for a job in the Third World. Despite my ability to speak Spanish, I got hired by Catholic Relief Services to work in what was then called the Yemen Arab Republic. An exotic, challenging, although in many ways quite pleasant experience. I then married an engineer who had a job in my hometown (St. Paul, Minnesota), discovered that jobs for international nutritionists were not plentiful in MN, took some business courses and worked in marketing research for four years, had kids and discovered that young children and a business career were not compatible, stayed home for a few years, got a part-time job at the University of Minnesota for a year, hubby got transferred to Costa Rica, so moved the family down there for three years, came back and started doing freelance writing editing while my kids grew. Now I'm six months from an empty nest, planning to do an MFA, and love the endless challenges of writing and editing.</p>

<p>I started college in 1973 as a computer science major because I was a math n' physics gal (tuition: $240/semester). But between an inexcusably arcane honors calculus class and dropping those god-awful punch cards all over the floor one too many times, I changed my major after the first semester. To Medical Technology - selected because a girl on my floor was in it. I had never even taken a chemistry class before. No adult advised me one way or the other, not my advisor or my parents. </p>

<p>I graduated and worked in MT for 4 years when I realized it was now or never. I went back to school for CS (no more punch cards, thank god and calc was a snap). By then tuition was up to $650/sem. I supported myself with savings, taking 'on call' at my old job, and doing 2 semesters of well-paying co-op.</p>

<p>Since then (20 years), I've been a software engineer at an aerospace company, and have been happy with my career.</p>

<p>It was the beginning of my senior year in college. I had figured out how to graduate by the end of the year, by comparing the grab-bag of couses I had taken over the previous three years to the graduation requirements of different departments and determining the one major which required the fewest additional courses. Suddenly I realized that if I didn't figure out a way to stay in school the following year, I'd have to get a j o b. (shudder.) I mean, I'd worked at various joe jobs since I was 16, but a real, full time job? A career? Be serious. I also realized that I didn't know enough about any particular area of study to qualify for graduate school. What to do?<br>
So I took the LSAT, because law school didn't require any particular prior academic knowledge, and got a good enough score to stay in Berkeley where my girlfriend was. Four years later I was actually ready to start working for a living. So I did.</p>

<p>So you applied and was accepted to Boalt on a whim?</p>

<p><em>-</em></p>

<p>I knew what I wanted to be since second grade: a veterinarian. Although I grew up in a NYC apartment that didn't allow pets, I had read all of the Dr. Doolittle books so I was set. I mostly applied to colleges that had agriculture programs so I could fulfill my dream. All it took was one large animal course freshman year where I realized I had no clue what I was getting into. Immediately after the lecture & demonstration on castrating pigs and checking cows for pregnancy, I made a beeline to my GC's office to discuss alternatives to pre-vet. So now, instead of sticking my arm into cows' rectums, I use small tools (some rotating at 400,000 rpm) in people's mouths. Oh, and I love what I do and have no regrets.</p>

<p>DontPanic1: I had the same experience. Started as CS major in '72 at a UC because a friend said that the scarcity of women in the field would assure me of a job. A separate CS department did not exist, the major was within the engineering dept. Got tired of the 11pm-midnight assignments to the card punch "lab" and returning to pick up my printouts the next morning which invariably contained an error resulting in some endless loop which maximized my allotment of 36 pages. Debugging was fun for a while, but usually only involved just one card that was causing all that trouble. It was hard to think at 11pm after all the fun I'd had during the day. Got to the weed out class and ran after prof pronounced that 50% would fail. Majored in math, took classes in accounting, taught secondary math for a while. Took classes in programming once Basic and DOS and PC's came out while raising kids and dabbling in accounting. Now I'm back teaching math and very involved with professional development in the use of technology by my peers.</p>

<p>mycorner: well, umm, yeah, basically. Remember, this was 35 years ago, in a galaxy far, far away where things were a lot different than they are now. I am constantly and honestly amazed at how hard everything is now compared to the way things were back in the day.</p>

<p>Congratulations audiophile!</p>

<p>My favorite HS teacher taught shorthand and made being a secretary glamourous. I got a job in a medical building and decided to be a medical secretary-the best possible. Took business couses geared for secretaries at the local cc. Being 18 I thought I was smarter than my bosses-the pharmacist had a clean job. So off to USC-took premed courses, picked up a history degree (now communications) and got into pharmacy school. I am happy and can send the kid to college.</p>

<p>I had absolutely no idea what to do as a college senior so I applied to law school. I also took a film course that year, as a "gut" course to fill out my schedule. By the end of the year I realized I liked working in film, and I really didn't wanted to go to law school (was going to go to Georgetown). So instead of law school I went to graduate school in film, and ultimately ended up as a broadcast journalist. Life happens.</p>

<p>As a teenager I wanted to be a teacher but after a year of bad babysitting stints decided that maybe I didn't like children and should think of something else. I loved it when we went camping and decided to be a forest ranger. I soon discovered that that would require a four year degree and just didn't think I could take four more years of schooling. My father had an associates degree and my mother had not gone to college. They both thought that the local community college would be fine. There was a major in Natural Resources, the classes looked interesting so I went. There were a couple of surveying classes, some ag classes and some criminal justice classes. I really didn't think about what I would do after getting an associates degree but as it turned out, it was the perfect background for a job with the Soil Conservation Service, a branch of the Department of Agriculture. As a women, I probably had another "in". I worked for them as a technician when we lived in upstate NY and in WV when my husband went back to college. It was great fun to be outside doing what many considered a man's job in the late 70's and early 80's. </p>

<p>I happily gave it up when I became pregnant with our first child and moved to Pennsylvania. I was a stay at home Mom and heavily into volunteering for 20 years. It was a year ago that I started working as a clerk in our public library, and slowed down my volunteering to a manageable level. My job might not be considered a career, but I like it!</p>

<p>On the one hand I wish I had gone to a 4 year college and become a teacher or something more "professional." On the other hand, I was in the right place to meet my husband, provide a job when we needed it and stay home with my kids when they (and I) needed that. As much weight as we give our jobs and careers, raising my kids well is something that gives me great satisfaction. (Feel free to remind me of that if/when I complain about any of them)</p>

<p>Took my NMscholarship and got a degree in (gasp) modern dance - to the chagrin of my H.S. guidance counselor, graduated and danced and worked at Whole foods market (when there was just one of them) for $4.00 an hour, married the cheese cutter who also made about $4.00 an hour, had a baby, lived with 2 roommates in rental shack, used cloth diapers, ate off the "free shelf" at WFM, danced w/ small company, darling hubby finished up his undergrad degree having transferred from lucrative computer science field to Humanities field(sigh), I tore up my knee and we both decided to go to grad school in library science, lived in married student housing, had another baby, hubby got job in the Legislative counsel doing GIS stuff, I went back and got a teaching cert. so that I could be on the same calendar as the kiddies, worked as a school librarian for 9 years then got tired of dealing with "stuff" and went into the classroom. Husband ended up in the library system, now branch managing. See a straight career path! (I just have to sigh and roll my eyes when I read the 157,000 post by some 17-year-old kid who wants to know if he should go to school A (ranked 14th) over school B (ranked 18th) because the prestige will help him get a better job in the field he has already decided upon. Sigh....)</p>

<p>Four people, among others, affected me greatly and put me on my path.</p>

<p>First,I read a book by Zig Ziegler. He noted that, "if you give people what they want, you will get rich."</p>

<p>Secondly, I heard Sam Walton note that "successful entrepreneurs are problem solvers. They find problems occurring in society and market solution to those problems."
Third, someone,who was wealthy and famous, noted, " you will never get rich until you get your taxes down to the legal minimum."</p>

<p>Finally, I met a man who told me that I didn't need to invent the wheel. I just needed a good idea and, most importantly, I wiould need someone who could serve as a mentor. I would need expert people to "show me the ropes" and teach me what I needed to know in a field. Once I understood the field or profession, I could then implement my idea.</p>

<p>I kept hearing complaints about people who felt that they were paying too much in taxes and didn't know what to do about reducing them. Many complained that their accountants simply took the numbers that were given them and prepared a return without any good tax planning advice. In addition, few were told or even knew how to audit proof their records from an IRS audit.
I, therefore, decided that taxes were a permanent problem, and no one was telling people the correct information that they needed to legally and morally reduce them. In addition, there were surprisingly no good books on bullet proofing record keeping so that most deductions could withstand the closest IRS scrutiny.</p>

<p>Thus, being the practical kid, I felt that there were two long-term practical choices of professions: I could have been either an accountant or a mortician, and I didn't feel that I had the charisma for being a mortician.</p>

<p>Thus, I majored in accounting and focused on learning what I needed to solve these problems. I figured that taxes are forever. I guess I read too many tax jokes such as "the only things permanent in life are death and taxes; except that you can only get a limited extension on taxes."</p>

<p>... and now for the rest of the story......</p>

<p>I eventually became knowledgeable enough to write a book on the subject, which became a best seller. I also traveled around the country lecturing on my material. </p>

<p>In addition, I realized that Canadians had the same problem. Thus, I developed a program that deals with Canadian Tax Advantages of Home Based Business.</p>

<p>Finally, I developed a product to help bullet proof deductions and prevent procrastination. It had many of the required IRS questions for entertainment, travel and automobile placed in front of the user every day, 365 days a year. This became the standard used by people to document all of their deductions. Even some IRS agents were using my materials.</p>

<p>I should note that there was one addition that I made to my life that also proved crucial. I never was happy with just coasting. I learned that I either improve my product or die. Thus, I ascribed to the philosophy of "constant and never ending improvement." I always try to make my products better. I never get mad at criticism. In fact, I encourage it! I am always listening to customers and even answer some questions from readers of my material in order to understand what problems they are facing that I may have missed or may need some elaboration.</p>

<p>I have to say that agree with the prior poster who rolls their eyes at kids who wonder if graduating from a school with top 20 rating will provide more success than graduating from a lower tier school. Frankly, this never occured to me as a kid. I was solely focused on finding a solution to people's problems and developing suitable knowledge towards finding solutions.</p>

<p>kathiep, I totally agree with you about the importance of child rearing! I thought I would work half-time for a few years when my children were very young, and then go back to full-time. Well, motherhood was a much bigger and better job than I imagined, and I never worked as much as I intended. Funny how things work out.</p>