How did you choose your job??

I knew that I wanted to be an attorney since I was 9 years old.  (I love to argue)  I decided, as I got a little older, that I didn't want my parents to have to support me for that long, and I didn't want to work part time jobs to help support myself.  So, I decided to go to school to become a vet tech.  I have worked in a job that I really do love, while putting myself through school.  Now, I will begin law school next fall and I will still work too.  When I graduated law school, I plan on volunteering at the local humane society, so that my skills as a vet tech aren't wasted.

I got my BA and MA in history, and I assumed that I'd teach at a university, but I grew really tired of academia on that level. I liked teaching my classes as a grad student, and I wanted to teach, but I didn't want to write anymore papers, read anymore books unless I *wanted* too,  go to conferences, etc., and I really don't know if I could have continued without having a nervous breakdown. So I moved back to my hometown, which helped my spirits tremendously, and I started teaching at a private school for dyslexic students. I love it there, and I work with great people, which is often hard to find. So I guess I never really left school; I just moved behind a teacher's desk.

I guess I went with my heart. I went to College to become a Systems Analyst then took a serious pay decrease and got a job working at a boarding kennel. I worked there for a couple of years, I love, love, loved it!!! Then knowing I wanted to work with animals all my life but trying to make ends meet I went to grooming school to become a dog groomer. I work hard, don't make a lot of money but love my job!

i got my degree in electrical engineering, but when i got out of school jobs were kinda scarce in the area. most of the manufacturing facilities were being transported outta the country, and at that time web programming was golden (of which i have no experience).

so i took a class in how to use autocad, because most jobs that were available wouldnt even look at you unless you had some cad knowledge. thanks to our progressive curriculum that was dropped the year before i got into the program and was thought by many people to not be a necessary elective either. anyways, i got my first cad job working for an architect. learned a lot on that job, and realized how much i love drawing.

things happened and we moved to another state, and after much searching i found a cad job working for a surveying company. wasnt an easy road either. i did a lot of door to door job search. went to almost every architect and engineering firm in the city looking for a job. now, i really like the job i have, and have gotten what additional education i needed to qualify to take the first of 2 tests towards becoming a professional licensed surveyor. now i just need to take the tests.

When I first went to college  I wanted to be a surgeon.  I have always been really interested in medicine and even went to a medical forum in high school for a few weeks and saw and experienced some of the coolest medical things I have ever encounered.  My first year in college I found that science really just wasn't as interesting to me as math was.  I ended up majoring in accounting and taking the CPA exam and passing all 4 parts on my second try.  (This was when it was still written and required that you take all parts that you hadn't passed at once).  CPA stood for "Couldn't pass it again".  Anyway, I love what I do and 90% of our clients are doctors which is sort of funny to me.  I get my medical fill in a different way.  If I were to ever go back to school and further my education it would be to get a masters so I could teach or to go to law school b/c I am also one who loves to argue! 

From high school I went to college to become an occupational therapist. I quickly lost interest in the medical side and switched to accounting. Problem was, I hated math. So after taking a few years off from school and working a very boring secretarial job, I discovered a talent for creating fliers for the company and went back to school to get my degree in graphic design. School helped me build a complete portfolio and land a job doing magazine layout. It's amazing to finally be doing something I love.

How I chose my job? I think maybe it chose me. When I got out of high school I became a waitress,The world's worst! So I quit that and the boss was so relieved he did not have to fire me. I went to an employment agency and told them I wanted to work with dogs. I got a job in a grooming shop as a bather and because I did so well and liked it they taught me to groom. That was 43 years ago as of Jan 07. I still groom and poodles are my specialty.

I got my job when my mom saw an ad in the paper that the school district was looking for people to do home therapy for one of the autistic support programs. She pointed out the ad to me and suggested I call to find out more info on it. I had taken a class doing the same type of therapy when I was at the community college and I loved doing it, so it seemed like a great idea. I went in for an interview a few days later, but it really wasn't an interview. There were three of us there, and the woman just took us in to the classroom and had us watch the people working with the kids. I mentioned that I thought I recognized one of the kids from somewhere, and I sorta knew his brother. Then she asked us all what type of hours we could do, and let me go, since I had watched a kid I knew, and would probably get him. Everyone else went to see the other classroom. Later that afternoon, someone else called me and gave me the name of a child I was to work with, his parents' names, their phone number, and the number of hours I was supposed to set up per week with this child. They didn't ever actually tell me I was hired, but since I was being given the name and phone number of the kid I was supposed to work with, I assumed that meant I was.  But, it wasn't the boy I had seen earlier in the day. About two weeks later, another person called me up and gave me the information to contact his mom about setting up hours with him. I no longer work with the first child I started with because I made a switch with someone else, but I do still work with the second one. 

Well, I wasn't sure what I planned to do when I entered college, but I wanted to pursue a career in communication.  As I took classes and became more engaged in things, it became clear to me.  Or so I thought.  My first major was public relations.  That went well until an upper-level calculus class.  I bombed the first two tests, of course.  I hated math.  Always did, always have, and always will.  So, I stayed within the college of communications and chose journalism and electronic media, with an emphasis in news journalism.  I'm currently a staff writer for a newspaper.    

although being a sahm is hard work, i know its not a real job.
 
but once my babes are both in school i will be going for degree's in visual arts and secondary education, i would actually have started this fall but a certain little baby decided to alter my path
. i chose to go into teaching art because i know myself, and if i do not have a job i enjoy i will end up dwindling right out of it, i did the same with school when i became bored with it. just being an artist does not pay very well, and having one art credit is now mandatory in my state as of 2011, so i figure there will always be jobs as an art teacher, and i dont think there are enough good art teachers out there, quite a few of theo nes i had were real quacks, but i had one that was awesome and i strive to do for others what she did for me. and the pay isnt bad at all.
 
my advice, do what you love to do the most, you may not be able to do exactly what you like, but there are always ways to make what you are best at pay.

ORIGINAL: gaylemarie

my advice, do what you love to do the most, you may not be able to do exactly what you like, but there are always ways to make what you are best at pay.

Such good advice. I've been so caught up with what my friends say I should do, what my parents say I should do, what pays well enough for my dad to be pleased, what is challenging enough intellectually/creatively for my mum to be pleased...it's made me forget what I want to do. But when I think about what I really do love to do the most and what will get me out of bed in the morning, I'm pretty sure I know what that is...Well I don't know the exact job, but I know I want it to revolve around dogs and maybe horses one day, too. Shelter work, maybe. I love to write as well, only that's not a career (novelist)...and I don't want to make my hobby my career b/c that would only stress me out lol.
Okay...I prob didn't need to post all that LOL but it feels good to get it out! Guess where I'm going today?? A therapist! My mum goes to him and she thinks he can help me figure out why I can't decide on plans for the future....[:'(]

I always wanted to either be a vet or a artist. (Such related areas, right? [8D])  Anyway I ended up with a art major in college, but after grad. had no idea how to use it! I worked a variety of temp jobs I liked, and then worked for the airlines for several years which I HATED. (The pay and flight benifits kept me there.)
 
My DH works at a boys ranch with as risk kids. It's a remote location, and he commuted for several years. Finally we decided to move to the country to be closer to his job. I happily resigned from the airlines, and planned on sub. teaching once we moved. It's a tiny town with very few work options. DH convinced me to start subbing at the on site school where he worked. I was not very excited about working with really tough kids. They can be violent, and I was nervous.
 
That was 4 years ago, and my subbing position, turned into a part time aide position, which later turned into a full time position as the art teacher. I LOVE my job! I would have never imagined myself working where I do, and liking it so much.  I think my job was meant to be, and it found me. It makes me happy to bring out the creative side of my "tough" kids. I spend my day doing all kinds of cool art projects with a variety of age groups, and I cannot imagine a job that would be a more perfect fit for me.