I have a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience. Midway through junior year, I realized that I had no job options...so I begged the Teacher Prep Program director to let me join even though I was a year too late. One principal took a chance on me and gave me a job. I taught in DC for 2 years and in Philly for 2 years. Was burning out, a friend was at my school and told me about an opening there. 15 years later, I'm still here! I teach middle school history and am a grade dean at a Quaker school.
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies-"God damn it, you've got to be kind.”
After getting a degree in business, I decided to go to law school. Why? I have no idea as I never had any huge desire to be an attorney. It was a big mistake. I liked law school, but hated practicing. After a little over two years, I knew I needed to make a change while I still could. I had worked for a property management co during law school and loved it. I decided to try selling real estate and see if it would pay the bills. 15 years later, I'm still an agent.
I work in admissions communications and marketing for a private university.
Loved marketing pre-college, focused toward public relations and advertising in college. Got my undergraduate degree in communications/PR. Worked in admissions all through college as a tour guide.
Stayed at the university for grad school, free with my assistantship in communications and marketing. Graduated with a Master of Public Administration. Internships and extensive volunteering in state legislature and politics.
Worked 5 years for ad/PR agencies focusing on government and non profit clients.
Moved for DH's job (again) and really wanted to get back to higher education. University in area is a major employer so it was a smart fit. Started doing special events and marketing, now more technical managing communications within our CRM, social media, etc. etc.
I'm in secondary marketing in the mortgage industry.
I graduated with a degree in business admin, emphasis in int'l finance and no job lined up because I didn't 'get' how important networking was and is.
A woman I knew from IRC message boards way back in the day worked in the mtg industry and her asst was going on maternity leave for the summer. She asked if I wanted an internship with her. I've been in the mortgage industry ever since. I'm good at math and analytics so secondary marketing really fit my skill set. I advanced pretty quickly in my career as what I do is pretty specialized.
A few years ago I took a chance on a lending company formed by people I had worked with in the past and have put in sweat equity for a piece of the pie. I love working at a small company after years at big banks. And I've been able to broaden my skill set into products and guidelines as well.
I had an international finance and international econ degree.
I graduated with no idea what I wanted to do with only sales experience. I mean what the hell do you do with an international degree anyways? So 100+ job apps and 20 bad interviews later, I somehow got a mortgage lender job at a big bank. It was ok until they closed my department and moved me into a banker job which I hated and quit a month in.
H was day trading commodities and so I started doing research/analysis for him while job hunting. I really enjoyed it. We did well and were getting asked to take on clients. We finally went with it. We set up a business and it took off from there.
4.5 years later we were burnt out at 60-80 hour weeks and no vacation. So I started applying for analyst jobs. And here I am, an international economist. Who knew there was such a job for that exact degree.
Really enjoyed reading everyones story. Hoping it will inspire me to take some time to think about what I really want to do...
I went to school for Business got a acocunting job at a Technology company and have worked in various finance/accounting analyst jobs for 10 years, I got an MBA in there too...but when I think about working another 25-30 years I really hope to be doing something a tad more fulfilling.
I majored in French for my BA, then took a separate certificate program focusing on translation. I after graduating I worked minimum wage jobs unrelated to my desired career mostly because bills needed to be paid. After dh earned a significant raise we were in a place where I could safely quit my job and his income would just barely cover household expenses. I then quit and started freelancing. It took a good 8 months before I was making any consistent money. Now* I work for several agencies regularly.