How many of you are in a vastly different career than where you thought you'd be?

[GeorgeG.]

I had a long hard journey to say the least. Having a kid at 19 made me grow up really fast taking on whatever job paid the best. From warehouse jobs, to insurance sales, to Lincoln Tech and auto tech jobs to jumping into IT at the bottom of the pecking order (tech support), I'm finally at a place career wise where I'm somewhat happy. Having no formal training, the IT career took the longest for me to be satisfied.

Truthfully I think I should be a little further along in my Cisco career but lack of employer support has made that difficult.

[BP]

Where do I sign up!?!?

This company actually recruited me. If you are bilingual and have some ASE certifications we're planning on expanding by May.

[Baron Von Crowder]

No. Hell no. Fuck no.

I dont know what I wanted to be when I was a kid. I have always been into cars, and the automotive industry has always sucked me back in. I found I am decent in sales, and working on commission, that nets a pretty good salary. I've been here over a decade, and passed a promotion a couple of times, since it seems to be a dead end. Management has always suited me, and I enjoy motivating people. I dont think it will happen here, but jumping ship is pretty tough to do with a family at home to make sure they are taken care of.

[svauto-erotic855]

My initial plan was to be an engineer for one of the big three Automotive companies or one of their suppliers. Went to school and got two degrees, got a job with an OE supplier and was burned out in 18 months. I ran a Dyno for a specialty technology engine company for a year, turned wrenches on a lot of performance cars, went racing and tried to make money at that and one day stumbled across pool service and construction and have never turned back. There were other Oddball short-term jobs and businesses throughout that but I think I'm where I'm going to be for the rest of my life.

[Big A]

Life in general is so much better today than I would have written down as my dream 10 years ago. I took the job in San Diego back in 2009 scared to death, with every intent to come home with my tail between my legs in a year or less. Lots of personal and professional growth (and a couple grey hairs) later, and I'm back in DFW on my own terms, family in tow, with a title that I at one point genuinely revered.

Not bad considering that I shoulda been dead more than a couple times.

[TX_92_Notch]

Life in general is so much better today than I would have written down as my dream 10 years ago. I took the job in San Diego back in 2009 scared to death, with every intent to come home with my tail between my legs in a year or less. Lots of personal and professional growth (and a couple grey hairs) later, and I'm back in DFW on my own terms, family in tow, with a title that I at one point genuinely revered.

Not bad considering that I shoulda been dead more than a couple times.

And 43,000 posts on this forum to boot! What more could you want from life...

[bubbaearl]

was always into cars since before grade school . been doing the same thing everyday since. cars just got bigger.

[kingjason]

I got into the broadcast field at the tail end of betacam and reel-to-reel just before everything went digital and had to learn what IT was all about. Nothing IT related was offered when in college other than how to use Word Perfect on an IBM 286. Fortunately I at least knew how to type.


Too much "RASPEK MA AUTHORITAAAAAAAA!" I take it?

Yes,

Some cops are as big of assholes to work for as they are to deal with on the streets. Plus the push for me to be an asshole never suited me well. Once I gained a little seniority they mostly left me alone. Some where along the way they realized my unique ability to talk to people and my motivation to catch really bad guys worked really well. It is funny because I have always preached procedural justice way before they even came up for a catch phrase for it. Last year, as a department, we took no formal complaints, not one. I like to think that teaching my methods in policing have helped with that a lot and will catch on more places. Being in a Admin spot helps with being able to push my points of view, even though I lead by example not by title. What is really funny is the guys teaching those courses now, were probably complete assholes back in the day and now think they have reinvented the wheel.

I could see one day being on a national review board for use of force events. I would like to think I am un biased enough to make those types of decisions. Plus I am pretty good at explaining why we do things to people.

[Strychnine]

I think I always knew I'd be in this general niche of shit, but not to this extent.
Grew up in the garage, at car shows etc. I remember reading Csaba Csere era Car & Driver (probably a Porsche 996 review article) in 7th grade math class and thinking "I'm going to work for a car or engine company one day."

Fast forward, I did that (engineer at Cummins), but then it really grew wings. Bounced from technical over to the dark side for a bit (technical sales, sales director, etc), then went back to grad school (MS Global Energy Mgmt). Now I feel I'm getting beyond what I'd even thought about back then. I'm the technical expert for my company on this side of the globe - we're the most sustainable energy company in the world (ranked 3rd among ALL companies in the world), and now instead of working inside one of the big engine companies I can call up the Head of HD Engine Thermodynamics for one of them and just go drink beers when I'm in Detroit. I get to speak at conferences hosted by groups like SAE, Diesel Technology Forum, Department of Energy, etc. That alone tells me I out-punted my coverage, but today...

I'm in DC right now. Today I got to speak members and staffers of the House Energy & Commerce Committee. I ran into Cory Booker (2020 Dem presidential candidate) in the hall in the Hart Senate Office Building this afternoon. I was in the office of one of the 9 reps on the new House Select Committee on Climate... but I snapped an instagram pic this morning and got a message from a back-in-the-day old school member here that just said "to me you'll always be the guy that can down a Guinness in 3 seconds."

Along the way I had to deal with my group of one company being closed, turning in my notice on one role that led to 108 days of funemployment (as I was finishing grad school), etc. To to answer you question, not really, but also very much yes.

And now I'm thinking about asking my company to pay for a MJ Energy Law degree. I'm retarded, but its fun

[32vfromhell]

My 2018 was not a good year. In late 2017 A start-up lured me away with high pay and serious equity (after a 1 year cliff) from a great job at Epsilon. After months of hard work on the product, our shithead sales team decided they were going after 10-25 million dollar companies, instead of 3-10 like our initial goal was. That plan failed, and at the EOY the next round of funding came up and the books had to look good, so they off-shored everything they could, including product development, to Vietnam.

Then I went to work for Citi as a contractor in an amazing role, i had better knowledge of the players, tech stack, and processes at Citi than even my bosses did. Again, quarterly budgets rolled around and as last one in I was first one out.

I now work for a great company that handles a major automotive brand sitting in the metroplex and really enjoy my team and co-workers, but jesus fuck was the ride to get here from 2017 a rough one. The financial stress in 2018 was extreme, and with my wife's career completely stagnant any growth has got to come from me, so there is a lot of pressure.

[Silverback]

I always knew I'd be in the IT/Technology field, just didn't know that I'd be more on the Customer Delivery/Leadership side vs the technical side. I was always technical, and felt that I would always be the guy behind the keyboard making things work. I've started a few of my own businesses along the way but they never really grew legs enough for me to feel comfortable and I always found myself back working for someone else in technology.

In 2009 I took a leap into Big IT with Perot Systems, as a Systems Engineer, and through two buyouts to Dell and NTT, I moved up into a Senior Leader role managing an organization of 400 engineers and 12 managers. I moved on to lead the IT team for a major hotel chain for a year and a half, then they were bought out, and my role was going to be eliminated.

Luckily when that happened I was presented with an opportunity to help a friend and previous business partner build up his business and joined as a partner. It's been a great journey and I've learned a lot, we balance the line between traditional IT and Manufacturing technology and get to get involved in a lot of cool stuff on the manufacturing side. However the travel is too much for me. Right now I have an iron in the fire to join, in my opinion, one of the biggest bleeding edge technology innovators on the planet. I've made it through a rigorous interview process and should hear a final decision early next week.

[Ruffdaddy]

I think ...

...
And now I'm thinking about asking my company to pay for a MJ Energy Law degree. I'm retarded.

I promised myself no more formal education after 30...Just money and reaping the benefits.

But I have come close a few times to going for an IP law degree. If the salaries were just a little higher then it would be easier to go for it...but its unlikely I would make much more...if I made more at all. And I hate reviewing patents. And SMU is expensive.

[Strychnine]

I promised myself no more formal education after 30...Just money and reaping the benefits.

But I have come close a few times to going for an IP law degree. If the salaries were just a little higher then it would be easier to go for it...but its unlikely I would make much more...if I made more at all. And I hate reviewing patents. And SMU is expensive.

My route would not be a full JD, just enough to open up the policy side of the world though... you should talk to guys like Sean88gt about going back for a full JD in your 30s. He'll probably tell you it's less work and less painful to row across the Pacific until you land somewhere in Asia, hike through jungles, climb an active volcano, and then jump into a lava pool.

[Strychnine]

I always knew I'd be in the IT/Technology field, just didn't know that I'd be more on the Customer Delivery/Leadership side vs the technical side. I was always technical, and felt that I would always be the guy behind the keyboard making things work. I've started a few of my own businesses along the way but they never really grew legs enough for me to feel comfortable and I always found myself back working for someone else in technology.

In 2009 I took a leap into Big IT with Perot Systems, as a Systems Engineer, and through two buyouts to Dell and NTT, I moved up into a Senior Leader role managing an organization of 400 engineers and 12 managers. I moved on to lead the IT team for a major hotel chain for a year and a half, then they were bought out, and my role was going to be eliminated.

Luckily when that happened I was presented with an opportunity to help a friend and previous business partner build up his business and joined as a partner. It's been a great journey and I've learned a lot, we balance the line between traditional IT and Manufacturing technology and get to get involved in a lot of cool stuff on the manufacturing side. However the travel is too much for me. Right now I have an iron in the fire to join, in my opinion, one of the biggest bleeding edge technology innovators on the planet. I've made it through a rigorous interview process and should hear a final decision early next week.

But more importantly you have the discretionary income to buy all the fucking ridiculous merch Whataburger can throw at the world

[Silverback]

My route would not be a full JD, just enough to open up the policy side of the world though... you should talk to guys like Sean88gt about going back for a full JD in your 30s. He'll probably tell you it's less work and less painful to row across the Pacific until you land somewhere in Asia, hike through jungles, climb an active volcano, and then jump into a lava pool.

yeah, but he's a dumb redneck