Career choice

Did you make the right career choice ? were you given advice at school and did it turn out well in the end ?

Never had any career guidance myself and my parents steered me towards a career that i had shown no interest in. I stuck at it, and it kept me in work, but the rewards were small and satisfaction diminished in time as loyalty no longer counted for anything and people became disposable at the drop of a hat.

I did show an interest in technical drawing, not something i had experienced outside of my college days, and have wondered if that would have been a direction i should have pursued.

Latterly my interest in the natural world, local history and landscape, meant i would have liked to have made this as a choice of future work,, family and health issues conspired against that choice.

How did it work out for other members?

Re: Career choice

My 'career guidance' at school was restricted to being urged to work in Smedleys knicker factory I am sure the career officer was on commision .

My stepmother had different ideas and insisted I should stay at home and run the house when I left school so she could pursue her career as a Fashion Buyer ensuring she had lots of money to buy the latest clothes and furs (she was under the impression she looked good with a dead animal around her neck )

I was determined to leave home and my stepmother so I looked for any job which offered living in as an option and at 15 years old found myself a live in job in a kennels and left home with all my worldly goods in a tiny suitcase.

Re: Career choice

I went into coal mining as it was the family's business and I went into lecturing to get out of coal mining.........so I never really chose a career.

Re: Career choice

Come from a long line (females in the family) who cleaned so was happy when I found a job in a factory sadly that ended when Taiwan became the place to get your manufacturing done and went back into cleaning.

If I had my time over I would chose something less manual as we no longer reward manual working like we did when I started out, the brass is no longer where the muck is.

Re: Career choice

I can't remember us having much in the way of career advice in school in those days.
When I first left school, I started a hairdressing apprenticeship, but didn't stick to it. I have often thought, perhaps I should have done. The nearest I get to hairdressing now is clipping 4 Bedlingtons! Perhaps I should give them some 'hi-lights' to keep in practice.

There are far more 'professional' women nowadays than there used to be years ago.

Re: Career choice

My life's Career started with my Brother getting me a job at the Engineering company in 1970 at the age of 15yrs, he worked at as a Draughtsman. I worked as a Punch Card Operator in the Computer dept for 8yrs until the office was made redundant.. so went to a Industrial Cleaning Company as a Punch Card Operator and after 1yr they change the systems so that we were then working on Key to Disc ( Floppy Disc) computers. Eventually after 5yrs i decided to move on to a Mail Order Company as a Telephone order clerk on the company mainframe computer and stayed there for 17.5 years, things were getting harder by the minute so i left and went to another Mail Order Company but this time i was keying orders for customers and other office duties. Then we were made redundant, we were all older and found it hard to find a job in an office as all we new was how to use a mainframe Computer.
I had little knowledge of a PC and still have. I got jobs with Agencies but were only temporary. I worked at Asda Living on the shop floor, till and customer relations for 2yrs then i met hubby and he wanted me just to work through the week, so i changed my job again as a Cleaning lady at the local school i loved it as it was manual work and i could get stuck in. Then it was pulled down about 1.5yrs later so i found another cleaning job in the next town and been there ever since... Whew!!! Now I'm Knackered

Re: Career choice

I didn't really get any career advice. By the time I was finishing school, my father, being both a drunk and a violent bully, had beaten any enthusiasm or ambition out of me, so by the time it came to careers, I had no ambition or motivation to do anything.

As it happens, I had to go to my local career office once a week as part of 'sighing on' and they said would I be interested in working for a nationalised industry. I agreed to go for the interview with only a vague hope of getting it with plans to go back to college and get some qualifications. But I remembering saying I only wanted something temporary. That was 38 years ago and I'm still there. (Yes, I did go back to college in the meantime).

Re: Career choice

I was laughed at.. I told my careers officer I wanted to study archaeology and work in a museum.

She roared with laughter and told me to stop dreaming and concetrate on something normal.

In the end when I got married I took over the office work for OH plumbing business which sometimes felt like archaeology, with his awful handwrinting I was often left digging for clues!

Re: Career choice

I had no direction as a young girl , also had a bad education , mostly my fault , but also huge family issues. Left school at 15 , but had hardly been for 2 yrs was always bunking off . Left. Home at 16 , so did any job I could find . I worked at meniel. Low paid jobs. Until the age of 50, when I went to college. To learn computer studies , and typing . Then again at 57 , retrained as foot health care professional which I'm still doing . I was a very late learner . Wish at a younger age I'd been helped with direction .

Re: Career choice

It is quite sad reading here how few of us had the opportunity to reach our potential when we were young.

In the 60's when I left school girls in particular were laughed at for having ambition. I would have loved to go to either agricultural college or catering college but needed money at that time to do either.

I am not grumbling thought I have done many interesting jobs and had an eventful life.It actually feels like I have lived four or five lifetimes in contrast to my sister who has moved just a few hundred yards from our original home and done very little in her life. I don't regret a thing.