Why/How did you choose your career?

[megalicious]

... and when did you figure out that it's what you wanted to do?

[hannamaren]

In high school, all the teachers said science was a good field. So I did science. In 3rd year of science, one of our profs told us in class, "if you dont know what you want to do, and you have a B average, go to the US and be a pharmacist". I decided to stay in Canada.
Otherwise, I had no idea.
No calling.

[Deleted]

I had been interested in teaching for awhile, though I was planning to go to medical school when I started college. I got really interested in chemistry in college and decided that I wanted to be like my professors when I grew up. :heart:

[kaylie]

I needed to eat and no one told me that working on political campaigns didn't pay jack. So a year after graduating and starting in that field, I had to find something that would allow me to pay rent in NYC, pay my student loans, and used a similar skill set so I became a non profit fundraiser. Fortunately I'm very good at it and there are more jobs out there than there are professionals to fill them, so it was a great move.

[elizabethann]

I'm still not sure if this current career will be my forever career. But after graduating 2.5 years ago and finding nothing in my field for what felt like forever; it sure feels great to be employed, working towards savings goals and somewhat liking what I'm doing

[GailGoldie]

i was a Kindergarten teacher for 5 years.... i chose that my freshman year in college after taking some accounting classes and being bored out of my mind- i decided I'd rather love my job than be bored and have money, so i changed my major to early childhood education.

when i graduated I started teaching kindergarten... loved it... but then when i moved back to NJ after a breakup, there were no openings in my certification- and I was offered a job by someone to work at a software company doing various things (admin for regional manager, office manager, events planner, marketing assistant).

I loved working in the corporate world and decided I would never go back to teaching. When that office was getting closed down (layoff) another friend said "hey, we have an opening at my company you'd be good at" - in pharma sales. I had looked in pharma sales when i first moved back to NJ, since i worked at a pharmacy for many years in high school/college, i always had an interest in it - so i went for it, and now i'm here 10 years later still doing it.

sometimes things just sort of happen - i never planned any of my career changes- but took chances, and went for it- and every time my life got better and happier.

[DarcyLongfellow]

Well, since I still don't really know what I want to "be when I grow up," I'm not sure I'm really qualified to answer your question :-)

I double majored in English and Public Policy Studies in college. Then, I didn't really want to go into the real world and I wasn't really sure what to do with my life. So, I decided to go to law school. It could have been a truly dumb move, but -- luckily -- I was really, really good at law school.

I was not so great at practicing law. I was great at the writing and analyzing, but really had no interest in going to court. Or dealing with jerk partners. I dreaded going to work most mornings, and I quit when my daughter was born.

Long term, I know I'd be very good at teaching law. I may or may not try to do that at the one law school in my town (I could be hired there based on my credentials, but I'm not sure it's the right move for me for several reasons).

I'd love to get into writing and editing, but I'm not sure what exactly I could do where I live now. That's my real strength. Several of the partners at my old firm would have me edit their stuff even if I didn't work for them otherwise.

[ESF]

I served on jury duty. I liked it more than I liked my job at the time. So I went to law school.

[StJess80]

I got a job at the public library when I was 16. Then I got a job at a university library when I was 25. I decided I should get my MLS since I haven't left the library in 16 years.

[fbf2006]

Where I grew up, you kinda have to know what you want to do by 11th/12th grade because you apply to specific programs and take specific exams. We had 3 tracks by 10th grade - science, arts and commerce. I was in commerce, took accounting classes, liked it and decided I wanted to be an accountant.

[y4m]

I was a government and psychology (mostly stats) major, and I got a chance to intern at a political polling firm. I've been in market research ever since.

[Becca]

I was a social work major who wanted to work with teen moms. At the time I was working at a childcare center which served a very low income population. I quickly learned that not all teen moms WANTED to be helped. I went home every night worrying about 100 kids that weren't mine, and decided that social work wasn't for me.

Half way through my junior year I decided to switch my major. My roommate at the time was majoring in accounting, and we were always good at similar things, so I took an accounting class and found it super easy, so I switched my major to accounting without much other thought. I figured that at the very least it gave me a decent-paying, direct career path.

I am good at it and it pays the bills, but it certainly isn't my passion.

[Deleted]

I was a psychology major exploring my options.

SLP is consistently ranked as one of the best jobs to have. most of the SLPs I've met have high career satisfaction, and I've also met a couple other healthcare professionals (one PT and one Audiologist) who told me they wish they would have done SLP. this won me over, lol.

helping people + medium-high pay + high career flexibility + only two extra years of school = winna!

I haven't actually started yet so I don't know if it's the right thing for me. I've done some clinical practical work as a student, but I know it's not really the same.

[cahabalily]

In high school I wanted to be a landscape designer. In undergrad I loved design but wasn't super passionate about it.

My senior year I realized I really wanted to be a professor, and have been working to that end ever since. So I've known my industry since high school, but my career goals became more refined over time.

Please excuse typos, I'm on my phone.

[Deleted]

Oct 5, 2012 19:48:57 GMT -5 y4m said:

I was a government and psychology (mostly stats) major, and I got a chance to intern at a political polling firm. I've been in market research ever since.

This sounds really cool.

[Lilac]

I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I was in high school. As a female who was always really good at (and enjoyed) math and science, I got pushed into engineering for college. I did really well in my classes, but actually working as an engineer just isn't that interesting to me. I stuck with it because it's a high demand, high paying career. I like my job now because I don't do much design on a day to day basis. Most of my job is interacting with other people, coordinating projects and taking a more management role. I could never sit in a cube and design circuit boards all day.

[megalicious]

Oct 5, 2012 19:58:59 GMT -5 tacom said:

I was a psychology major exploring my options.

SLP is consistently ranked as one of the best jobs to have. most of the SLPs I've met have high career satisfaction, and I've also met a couple other healthcare professionals (one PT and one Audiologist) who told me they wish they would have done SLP. this won me over, lol.

helping people + medium-high pay + high career flexibility + only two extra years of school = winna!

I haven't actually started yet so I don't know if it's the right thing for me. I've done some clinical practical work as a student, but I know it's not really the same.

I'm actually an SLP and "went back" for it. You'll have to take some pre-req courses--one of which is almost always observation since ASHA requires 25 hours of observation before you start seeing clients as a student. I took it first and found it really helpful in helping me decide (1) if I wanted to do it, and (2) what kind of SLP I wanted to pursue. There are a lot of different career choices in SLP--I'm medical, but most do work with kids, there's also aural rehab, voice, AAC, etc. LMK if you have questions!

[caramia17]

I decided in high school that I would figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up, so I narrowed down my talents to science and foreign language. I decided I needed to be able to support myself and that science had more avenues for remuneration. So I thought about careers paths in that. I decided that I was a people person, so I should try a healthcare field and called everyone in the phone book in my local area who was a physician, dentist, PA, PT, NP, nurse, and OT. I asked the all one question: "If I were your daughter, would you advise me to choose your career path?". It was in the middle of the Hillary Clinton HMO stuff and physicians were rather sour on medicine at that time, so it was the dentists who were uniformly positive about their profession. My choice of specialty and my choice to stay in academia were much more serendipitous, but I was very deliberate about dentistry.
#nerdalert

[Deleted]

Oct 5, 2012 20:15:17 GMT -5 megalicious said:

I'm actually an SLP and "went back" for it. You'll have to take some pre-req courses--one of which is almost always observation since ASHA requires 25 hours of observation before you start seeing clients as a student. I took it first and found it really helpful in helping me decide (1) if I wanted to do it, and (2) what kind of SLP I wanted to pursue. There are a lot of different career choices in SLP--I'm medical, but most do work with kids, there's also aural rehab, voice, AAC, etc. LMK if you have questions!

hi! thanks for sharing.

I actually just started my M.S. in a medically-based program. it's killer and I don't sleep, I miss out on every life event, and my body is giving up on me, but I am still sticking it out! lol

I agree the observation requirement was very useful. I don't think it helped me decide what I want to specialize in, but it definitely gave me an overall y/n on whether I wanted to pursue the field further.

[Deleted]

Oct 5, 2012 19:18:55 GMT -5 hannamaren said:

In high school, all the teachers said science was a good field. So I did science. In 3rd year of science, one of our profs told us in class, "if you dont know what you want to do, and you have a B average, go to the US and be a pharmacist". I decided to stay in Canada.
Otherwise, I had no idea.
No calling.

I wish I had gotten this advice, honestly. I was a pre med major for three years and never once thought of pharmacy (and my uni has a very good program too). I think I would have liked it.

I decided I couldn't handle the idea of med school/ residency and switched to political science/pre-law the end of my junior year. Went to law school. I thought I wanted to do patent law but (in law school) I looked at the study guide for the patent bar and said, eff this. So I focused on health care law. Then I got a job at a firm that didn't practice health law. I got the choice to be in one of three departments- matrimonial, commercial litigation and employment law. I chose employment law. At least that was a smart decision.

[mbcdefg]

I liked reading and I was a good speller, and my mom said I was always asking questions.

I majored in journalism and have held mostly editing jobs since then (plus a couple reporting gigs and a PR job that did not end well).

[BNL2]

I was a secondary ed major but realized Junior year that the classroom wasn't for me. I floundered for a year or 2 after graduation but realized I really did like working with children. I basically happened upon school psychology on the internet while looking for "jobs working with children." I'm not in love with the field, but it has its perks.

[steph96]

I did some light bookkeeping at our family business and I enjoyed it. I needed an extra elective class to take in high school, so I took accounting. I exceled while all the other students struggled. It was something that came naturally to me.

My senior year I decided that I wanted to be a pharmacist (mainly because I thought the $$ was great, it was a stable job, and prescription drugs are so interesting), so I picked a school with a good pharmacy program. Organic chemistry and my partying, sorority girl lifestyle did not mesh.

My bf at the time was taking some business classes and I was really interested in his classes he took, plus I remembered enjoying accounting. I changed my major to accounting and maintained close to straight A's from then on while I still got to have lots of fun. Sometimes I regret picking the easy track. Part of me thinks I may consider going back to school later on in life.

[rex]

I always new I wanted to work with children who needed help in some capacity.

During my internship in college, I worked with a certain population of young people and a particular child was extremely interesting to me. It lead to my interest in the field I am in now. I love my job. It does not feel like work even though it is a career that you would need to seek out in order to work in it. Not everyone is equipped.

I'm sorry I am being vague. I can't be detailed as it would reveal certain confidential diagnosis information about the population I work with. All I can say is I work in the Public School system.

[KaraOrNot]

I am a vocational counselor for people w/ disabilities. My uncle had Down Syndrome and growing up in the 60's, he was never pushed to work or really do anything independent. When I started school, I didn't know what I wanted to do and was commuting over 2 hours per day. I knew I didn't want to do that long term, so I transfered to a school that would require me to move away. They had a vocational rehabilitation program and due to my family experince, I thought it was interesting. Lucky for me, the school happened to have one of the best vocational rehabilitation programs in the country.

[Myrrhine]

I was planning to major in biology or French. Then I took art history 101 and loved it. I switched to English major, art history minor and then applied to my top choice grad schools. I decided of I got into one of them, I would go. If not, I would look for an editing job. Now I am an art historian.

[mollz007]

I was a psychology major. When I graduated from undergrad, I knew I would need to go to grad school for something, but I didnt know what yet. I considered studying psychology further (which would mean I probably would need a phd) and I considered social work and counseling. Finally in January I got a job working at an after school program with kids in K-5. I decided I really liked kids and wanted to teach. I started in August getting a MA in Curriculum and Instruction (basically just a masters in general education) but then I decided I was really interested in working with kids with disabilities, so I switched to the special ed program.

[Deleted]

I went to school for PR--I wanted to plan big events (the state fair, fun runs, etc.) I got a job in the theatre's costume shop and discovered I was very good at it. My mentor helped me get my first job after college, and I have been working ever since.

I also love beautiful things that (mostly) make people happy, hence the addiction to working on wedding gowns.

[bronxgirl]

I had never heard of my field, occupational therapy, until I was a senior in HS and someone told me about it. I shadowed an OT for a day and eventually volunteered in a variety of different depts with various different specialty areas. When i started college I decided to major in it and here I am. I've been working in the field for 16 yrs and I still like it.

[Deleted]

I always liked fighting with people. And I was always good at social studies. So now I fight with people for a living

But I majored in Spanish and philosophy because I liked them way more than the traditional law school feeder majors. And I knew I would get better grades if I majored in things I loved.