How did you end up in your chosen profession?

[Phoenix84]

How did you end up in your profession?  Specifically, how did you take the first steps towards your current job?  Did you always want to be what you are, even when you were a kid?  Did you just fall into it?  Did someone inspire you or steer you towards your current profession?

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Always wanted to be in science since I was a kid.  Started with watching Jack Hannah on TV.  Then my mom bought me a kid version of Jane Goodall's autobiography.  They encouraged me by giving me lots of books on science and animals.

Decided I wanted to research after our zoo developed its labs and created the first "test tube" gorilla.  Talked a lot to a zookeeper friend of my dad's, found out what you need to work there.  Decided I was interested in academic research in college when I conducted my own mini research project.

I fell into pharmacy research, I needed a job and they encourage internal hiring here so I got an interview.  First research job was more along the lines of what I originally wanted to do involving molecular genetics.  I like pharmacy better to be honest, the skills are much more transferable to other industries.

The zoo as it turns out is a bitch to get hired at found that out after interning as a zookeeper and talking to a few researches that have collaborated with them.  Doesn't stop me from browsing their job site though for that one in a million job opening.

[Deleted]

I'm an actuary.  I heard of them when I was in high school (graduated 1971) but it sounded like a bunch of boring old men crunching through mortality tables.  I did like Math, though, so that's what I studied in college with a vague intention of doing programming for engineering applications.  I took a lot of applied stuff like Physics and Economics so I could actually understand the problems.  Trouble was, the Engineering majors were studying computer programming right alongside me in the same classes, so employers were just hiring engineers who could do their own programming.

Then a local insurance company advertised in the campus paper that they were looking for-you guessed it- entry-level actuarial candidates.  They weren't life actuaries, but property-casualty.  It was the only offer I got.  I took it.  The rest is history.

So I pretty much stumbled into the field. 

[Deleted]

I graduated from college during a time when women usually chose to be nurses or teachers.  If you majored in business, it was secretarial science.

Certain things turn my stomach so teaching was the winner.  My aunt was a teacher.  Her daughter was a teacher.  My sister was a teacher.  My mother-in-law was a teacher.  You get the idea.

However, you were always able to choose what you wanted to teach.  I chose English.  If I had it to do over again, I would have chosen math.  I really only chose English because I like to write.  Very few of the English courses promoted that except in an academic sense.

[wodehouse]

southernsusana, I spent my time in Engineering school back in the library stacks poring through books about my favorite 19th century English authors, Victorian newspapers and magazines, etc. I was so excited when I discovered a link between George Eliot and one of my favorite mathematicians, Russian Sofia Kovalevskaya!

[swamp]

I was kidnapped by john grisham

[Deleted]

Aug 2, 2013 13:08:09 GMT -5 @southernsusana said:

I graduated from college during a time when women usually chose to be nurses or teachers.  If you majored in business, it was secretarial science.

The feminist movement saved my life by making me realize what artificial boundaries those were.  I would have been bad at any/all of them except maybe secretarial science.

[kittensaver]

I started career life as a teacher. It was a rough go for 7 years (district layoffs due to budget cuts, change of schools, the problems associated with high-risk poverty/ghetto schools, being personally assaulted, etc). Everyone in my family seemed to be a happy teacher (grandfather, mother, uncle, brother, assorted cousins) but I just couldn't get happy. It was horrible. I used to come home with headaches and stomach aches. I used to DREAD the end of summer.

I decided to go back to grad school in School Counseling - it was a way to stay attached to the school district/a career but get out of the classroom. The first semester one class I wanted was not available, so I took a class called Introduction to Counseling in Business and Industry. I had intended to use it for GE credits. I LOVED it. I switched my focus within the grad school counseling program, quit my teaching job and after three months of intensive searching and interviewing landed an entry-level job in Human Resources at a real estate development company. I jumped to a bank to take a promotion, and finished grad school through their scholarship program. I worked my way to the top of HR by taking the directorship position with the agency that now employs me. When the chance came along to take another promotion (into executive management in contracts management), I took it and moved out of HR. I intend to retire from here.

I'm back taking classes at community college - - all the math and science I missed/actively avoided in high school and undergrad. When I retire from here, I intend to go to medical school!

[Cookies Galore]

I always wanted to be a writer. I was going to write a book, then I wanted to be a screenwriter, and in high school I realized journalism was the only "practical" thing I could study in college. I found I was a better editor, so I concentrated on that. I found a job (through someone I know) in a sciency office at the university I attended and I was the editor of their journal. I left to work for a friend's company, got laid off, found a job with a test development company, and I transitioned into medical editing. It's an awesome field.

[swamp]

I am the love child of Christopher Darden and Marsha Clark.

[Phoenix84]

Aug 2, 2013 12:55:55 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Always wanted to be in science since I was a kid.  Started with watching Jack Hannah on TV.  Then my mom bought me a kid version of Jane Goodall's autobiography.  They encouraged me by giving me lots of books on science and animals.

Decided I wanted to research after our zoo developed its labs and created the first "test tube" gorilla.  Talked a lot to a zookeeper friend of my dad's, found out what you need to work there.  Decided I was interested in academic research in college when I conducted my own mini research project.

I fell into pharmacy research, I needed a job and they encourage internal hiring here so I got an interview.  First research job was more along the lines of what I originally wanted to do involving molecular genetics.  I like pharmacy better to be honest, the skills are much more transferable to other industries.

The zoo as it turns out is a bitch to get hired at found that out after interning as a zookeeper and talking to a few researches that have collaborated with them.  Doesn't stop me from browsing their job site though for that one in a million job opening.

My understanding is that in the biology world, getting a job at the zoo or the aquarium is like making it in Hollywood.

[swamp]

I want to be Nancy grace.

[Chocolate Lover]

Aug 2, 2013 14:05:23 GMT -5 swamp said:

I want to be Nancy grace.

I was with you right up until here.........

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I want to be Nancy grace.




My understanding is that in the biology world, getting a job at the zoo or the aquarium is like making it in Hollywood
 
Pretty much.  Zoos like to poach from other zos which is understandable.  They don't hire outsiders very often.

I can dream though,  I sent my resume in for a lab technican job with them.  Odds are low but it was worth a shot.

[Phoenix84]

Growing up I always liked science, and I always figured I'd end up with the government because that's what my dad did.  I didn't know what I wanted to study in college.  It's kind of funny because I just picked physics kind of at random.  I got tired of people asking what my major was at freshmen orientation so I finally just picked physics.  My parents had talked to me about possibly doing environmental science and working for the EPA, but the professor I talked to in that department basically talked me out of it saying I'd never get a job.  So it was a surprise to them when I picked physics. 

Anyway, I stuck with it and graduated.  At the departmental end of year banquet my senior year, one of my professors also talked to my parents about how physics undergrads likely wouldn't find jobs.  After I graduated from college I applied for every job on USAJOBS I qualified for, and ended up starting with the Navy about six months later as a technician trainee.  The job was working in radiation safety, and I just parlayed that experience into my current field.

So growing up I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, but I fell into the specifics.  The Navy was the first place to offer me a job, so that's what I ended up being funneled towards.

[Chocolate Lover]

Accidentally. I may be the least ambitious person in the world, I know I'm the least ambitious reading YM.  My big ambition was to get out of high school. Because I hated it, not because I couldn't keep up.  

After that I wandered from retail job to retail job to fast food to various other sucky jobs. I found this one (nope, not telling you, too specific) and I like it just fine. Not high paying but I'm not on any government assistance. You're welcome. 

[Phoenix84]

Aug 2, 2013 14:10:01 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I want to be Nancy grace.




My understanding is that in the biology world, getting a job at the zoo or the aquarium is like making it in Hollywood
 
Pretty much.  Zoos like to poach from other zos which is understandable.  They don't hire outsiders very often.

I can dream though,  I sent my resume in for a lab technican job with them.  Odds are low but it was worth a shot.

I can get a couple of alpacas, some goats, and some chickens and call it a zoo, then hire you to be my head of research .

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I can get a couple of alpacas, some goats, and some chickens and call it a zoo, then hire you to be my head of research

Probably would pay close to the same.

[Deleted]

I'd argue about who is the least ambitious, but it sounds like it'd be a lot of work... 


I am here because of my first midlife crisis! I had been doing support work at an Auto/Home/Life Insurance carrier and I knew I didn't want to become a Claims Adjuster (they all looked miserable) and I didn't like the new Office Manager and, finally, there were rumors that the company was going to centralize all of the offices in the State.

So, I heard through the grapevine that my in-laws' friend was hiring at her billing company and here I am! 

I did not even know what a Medical Coder was until I started working here. 

[kilroy]

I decided at the last second of college that I wasn't going to law school, which I'd been programmed for most of my life.  Ran off to the opposite coast (Seattle), floundered around for a while, ended up having a "midlife crisis" at 25 and realized I really wanted to be a librarian.  Went to grad school, did an internship with the local paper & fell in love with news research.  When I graduated a job came up in NYC I couldn't say no to, so back eastward I went.  Had a good run of 14 years until  my whole department got laid off.  I landed on my feet (sort of) but am trying to figure out what's next.

[Chocolate Lover]

I'd argue about who is the least ambitious, but it sounds like it'd be a lot of work...

I just knew that post would bring you out of the woodwork. We could call it a tie, no work required.

[Deleted]

Works for me! BA DUM DUM *chee* 

[justme]

My resume was posted on my university's job site. I got a call from them saying Lockheed Martin wanted me to apply to them for an internship, got hired in their finance department. After I graduated with my masters the only jobs I got interviewed for were financial/cost analyst - which is what I had done at Lockheed.

I wanted to be so many different things growing up, and none of them were this! It's not bad, though considering my undergrad was economics I guess that pushed me towards this being a possibility.

[movingforward]

Shit, I am supposed to have a profession by now .  Seriously, I ended up in my current profession because back in 1998 I decided I was bored out my mind after working 3 yrs in the bankruptcy dept of a large bank.  One of the company perks was tuition reimbursement so I went back and got my masters degree and they paid for 60% of it even though the degree had absolutely nothing to with working in the banking industry.  I worked there another 2 yrs until I finished my degree then moved out of state and on to what I am doing now.  I have now been in the same industry for 13 yrs and once again I am starting to  become bored out of my mind so now I am working toward a professional certification and hope to pass the test at the end of 2014.  Hopefully, I can move onward and upward from there...

[cael]

I always loved science - started as a biology major, switched to geology so ended up w/ a degree in that. Fell into public health and am still there. Definitely not a boring field and keeping the public safe is an important job! I would like to go to graduate school for environmental science so if I ever do that, we'll see where it takes me (ideally I'd like to stay in government in an enforcement/regulatory capacity somewhere)

[midjd]

I always wanted to be an author. But I also wanted to make money, and knew my odds of being the next Stephen King were pretty slim. So I went to law school.

Between emails, memos, law review articles, press releases, charging documents, and case summaries, I probably write an average of 3000 words a day. I also have to deal with annoyances like payroll, but all in all I think I made the right decision.

[Deleted]

100% by accident (logistics).  

[Phoenix84]

Aug 2, 2013 14:48:10 GMT -5 midjd said:

I always wanted to be an author. But I also wanted to make money, and knew my odds of being the next Stephen King were pretty slim. So I went to law school.

Between emails, memos, law review articles, press releases, charging documents, and case summaries, I probably write an average of 3000 words a day. I also have to deal with annoyances like payroll, but all in all I think I made the right decision.

So did you go into law for the money, the prestige, or the chicks .

I guess that question can apply to anyone else too.

[flamingo]

I always wanted to go to law school. Which I did. But I don't practice law. I work in higher education. Total fluke. I had a job lined up at a law firm when I graduated law school, but they wanted to pay me peanuts, so I kept looking. My alma mater was hiring, I applied, and was offered the job before the interview was over. They offered more money than the law firm, so I jumped at the chance. 8 years late, I've changed institutions, but still love working in this field. I'm glad I randomly found it

[vonna]

Joining the military for me was a total fluke.

I was double majoring in Math and Chemistry, and planning to eventually teach Math in college.  A navy recruiter on my college campus offered me a commission in the navy and a job teaching math and chemistry.  I was tired of being a poor college student, and signed on -- thinking it would only be for the original four year commitment.  Towards the end of that four years, I called my detailer to find out what else the Navy could offer me.  Ended up staying for a total of 20 years!! The Navy did pay for my master's in Math, but I have yet to pursue the phD.  I'm too lazy to work that hard now. . .