Other careers you might have taken

[Alloy Dave]

Have you ever looked back and thought..."Gee, I think I would have been good at XYZ" or "That career appears to be fun"? I have! And although I'm satisfied with the careers I've had, there are certainly others that would have been interesting and I think a good fit for me. List some of your thoughts.

1) Architect - I love math, and like some of the more geometric aspects of art...so I think this would have been rewarding.

2) Forensic technician - I love seeing the bad guys get caught. And, I love the science behind it. I'm not sure what I'd specialize in, but it would NOT be one of the more gross aspects such as studying body decay from larvae. Maybe something more like tire tracks, fingerprints, DNA, blood spatter, etc.

3) Financial Planner - Probably the hardest part about this job would be that I know some people expect their advisor to work miracles, thinking they can turn $100k into a million in 5 years. The key is SAVING and doing so early. But the reward of seeing customers become self-sufficient later in life would be nice.

4) Electrician - If I could pick one of the trades, this is the one I'd do. It's a bit "cleaner" than others like plumbing or concrete work. It requires intelligence. You do much of your work standing up and indoors.

5) Talent agent (attorney) - but only the type representing people in salary negotiations...a la Jerry McGuire.

And then there are a few jobs I could NEVER do:
1) Doctor - I can't stand the sight of blood and I get dizzy when I see a needle go into an arm. Also, I think most people don't appreciate what doctors do for them and only want to complain how much money they charge. Plus, you have a relatively short career...getting out of med school at 28-29, and then depending on specialty some can't work when their motor skills or eyesight get poor in their '60s.

2) Police Officer - There is no way I could tolerate how much crap the police have to put up with from the public. People saying "why don't you spent your time catching the REAL criminals instead of me for speeding", the people who spit in your face when you handcuff them, and so on. Bless the people who do it.

3) Reporter for the media - To accomplish their jobs, most of them have to be pushy and rude, and nosy and prying. They have to "create a buzz" to get stories printed, which leans them towards exaggeration or extreme cases. Just like when there is a hurricane, they pick the ONE WORST THING like an overturned boat and they show that...trying to make you think the entire city is like that.

[68fastback]

What? Dave, you never considered goat herder? :haha:

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I guess when I was younger I wanted to be an electronics engineer but sort of glad I didn't go that route.

Was also deeply interested in physics as a kid.

Love tinkering and fabrication -- invention!! When I was 10 I literally fabricated an electric motor out of bits of junk (mined my own mica from local landfill rock for the insulators) -- it ran!
At 12 I loved souping-up electric motors (rewinding them and playing with the armature 'timing') for the slot cars I used to make ...fabricated the chasses from tubular brass. Experimented with sprung chasses too (unsprung turned out to be better -- for slot-cars anyhow). That was a fun time!!

Loved playing in bands and singing but I was never a good enough player to pursue it professionally. Vocally I was quite good tho -- until I got a serious flu infection from a friend's wife when I was 26 ...permanently damaged my voice. I can still sing well (probably better than most) but I used to have an outstanding voice. I actually miss it because I could sing anything whereas now my range is more limited.

Probably would have enjoyed being a race-car driver -- really followed it back in the late '60 - early-'70s. Was definitely a car nut as a kid. Drag racing was simply awesome but you needed money for that!

At Big Blue my fave job was when I managed a communications technology sandbox -- we were exploring delay-compensating protocols ...quite successfully. Our code was running on over 3000 mainframes in big blue but due to political reasons (SNA) we were barred from taking it to product, despite numerous requests from customers.

All in all I'm happy with the path I wound up on there except the last several years were in a division that sucked (which will go un-named -lol) but we didn't want to move south. Life is full of tradeoffs.

I would love to work at a top notch auto fabrication shop (e.g. Bitchin' Rides, Texas Metal, ...). The challenge of making things from scratch for a specific problem solving and functional purposes and making it excellently is something that touches a special spot.

I also enjoyed teaching my building classes for a few years -- helping others was the real satisfaction with that.

Pretty boring stuff overall! :rofl3:

[onecrazydog]

Stunt man

Bobcat/Equipment operator


I have also thought it would be cool to work at a parts place or dealership, but there is not enough money in it... I worked at a buddies auto wreckers for a summer, that was fun everyday...

[Alloy Dave]

Dan, nothing at all boring about that. My dad was a "tinkerer" and loved electric stuff. He used to buy me those kits from Radio Snack to build to try to get my hooked on electronics.

OCD, love the stunt man idea! Would you like being a professional welder? I could see you specializing in it and being one of the best welders in the country, doing things like nuclear power plants, underwater welding, and so on.

[68fastback]

OCD made me think...

I absolutely loved playing with my friends excavator -- BIG excavator! I could see being a heavy equipment operator. :banana:

Well, Dave, whatever your dad did it worked -- you're a multi-talented guy!!

[Tommy Gun]

Gigolo

Still thinking about it.


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[68fastback]

Gigolo

Still thinking about it.


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Amazing!!!!!!! I just came back to this link to add gigolo!!!! :rofl3: :beerchug:

[twobjshelbys]

Stunt man

Bobcat/Equipment operator


I have also thought it would be cool to work at a parts place or dealership, but there is not enough money in it... I worked at a buddies auto wreckers for a summer, that was fun everyday...


I owned a bobcat (what people use to refer to a skid loader), mine was a case. I loved operating it - it was really fun to operate, except on hills.

[Alloy Dave]

Comedian

Still thinking about it.


.
Keep thinking

[twobjshelbys]

Keep thinking

Don't quit your day job

[onecrazydog]

Dan, nothing at all boring about that. My dad was a "tinkerer" and loved electric stuff. He used to buy me those kits from Radio Snack to build to try to get my hooked on electronics.

OCD, love the stunt man idea! Would you like being a professional welder? I could see you specializing in it and being one of the best welders in the country, doing things like nuclear power plants, underwater welding, and so on.


I wouldn't want to do anything under water!! Tried scuba diving, didn't like it...

[twobjshelbys]

Thought several times about going back to school for a law degree. My uncle did it at 52 and did criminal practice until he retired even though he specialized in intellectual property (patent). DEC tried to recruit me and would have paid me to go to law school and tuition while I would have been more or less a clerk or paralegal while in school. At the time I would have had to move us to downtown Boston (school was Boston College) and we decided that with toddlers that wasn't going to work so I passed. One of those "looking back" events.

The other one was when I was in college I majored in physics and math and was working as a computer programmer for a federally funded Alcohol Safety Action Project. I did all the statistical analysis (some of it dictated by the feds some "on our own" that showed some interesting things that I got some attaboys for). Anyway, I took Quantum Mechanics and my favorite professor told me that I was one that "actually got it" rather than just memorizing it. Anyway, one Friday morning after I got off my midnight to 8 shift for using the computer (an IBM 1130) at about 10:00 there was a knock on the door, and there were two guys dressed in really classy Navy uniforms. One was a captain (surprising that he was doing recruting) and they wanted me to go into their Nuclear Navy program, would have paid me to go to Stanford in a Nuclear Reactor Engineering program directly from a BS to PhD (no MS in the middle) in an accelerated program. They wanted me real bad. After about two hours I finally said that I needed to cut to the requirements - since I had also considered the Naval Academy after high school I knew there was a mandatory service requirement). The bottom line is that with a PhD I would have started as a 2nd Lieut with fast track to captain, and would have had to serve two years on a nuclear vehicle, almost certainly all two on subs since the big guys serve on the carriers. Since we were getting married that summer I politely told them that my little head needed more service. :)

Again, probably should have done it but hindsight is always 2020.

Oh, and if I had, I would have hit my 20 years, and all of those navy nuclear guys went to work for Westinghouse or GE running reactors in the private sector, so my time woul dhave been up just about the time that I could have been the guy that brought you Three Mile Island...

[68fastback]

That's really very cool, Tony!! Who knows how things might have worked out?

You never know what life may have brought. I tend to have no regrets about things ...especially since you never know how other things might have been good or bad.

I guess the closest to a regret I'd have is leaving big blue when I did but, as it turns out, overall, I'm glad I did. Financially it hurt a bunch but I weighed 312 pounds and the stress was killing me (I was on executive staff working 1/2 with corporate and half local) in those years just before big blue almost went belly-up. Plus all the work I liked had left NY (for NC) a few years earlier so I decided to leave big blue rather than do work I disliked, but I decided to lose 100# (and did) and we both connected with the outdoors even more. Jan and I took numerous trips -- cross country (my 4th) and many to the Adirondacks and other places for canoeing, canoe-camping, a little backpacking, etc., and had the Quadravan stealth camper to travel in. Some of the very best years of our lives. So I guess no real regrets there either, except that it sacrificed many of my prime earning years but, in return, I'm healthy, happy ...and 2/3rds of my former self -lol As the say: c'est la vie!

[HSURB]

If I wouldn't have chosen this career, I would no doubt pursue a Homicide Detective position. The First 48 is my favorite show that I have on the TV until 3:00 AM every night. Then I switch it over to Forensic Files until the Headline News comes on at 5:00 AM and have to change over the CNBC for financial updates prior to the market open daily.

HSURB®

[68fastback]

Tim, when do you sleep?!

[Alloy Dave]

If I wouldn't have chosen this career, I would no doubt pursue a Homicide Detective position. The First 48 is my favorite show that I have on the TV until 3:00 AM every night. Then I switch it over to Forensic Files until the Headline News comes on at 5:00 AM and have to change over the CNBC for financial updates prior to the market open daily.

HSURB®
Try watching Bloomberg for financial news in the morning. We get it on DirectTV. I like forensic files too, but I'd rather work in the lab.