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Did you go to school for your career or have a huge career change?

pumbaa

pumbaa

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Wondering how everyone ended up in their careers?

I work in Syndicated Corp Finance for Private Equity and Asset Backed Finance, have worked in all aspects of the Syndicated Loan world from loan trading to risk/controls, agency and member side servicing, and projects. Before I got into the banking world I was a pastry chef and before that worked on the hot food side all the way to exec sous chef. Can go into more details if anyone cares. Got into banking because I got married and had a child and the culinary industry is brutal on family life. I watched my Exec Chef almost miss his daughter being born on a busy Saturday night, when my son was born my wife had an emergency C Section and I was getting calls the day after the surgery on when I was coming back because my pastry cook couldn't keep up with volume. That is when I decided to leave.
 
@JB or @GolferGal can you move this to offtopic I didnt mean to put this in the food section.
 
Fell into my career. Was working in banking through college and kept getting promoted and was a commercial lender at age 21. I went to college for business management and planned on starting a real estate management company. The allure of a steady paycheck, job level well beyond my age and the 2008 banking crisis during that time slowed my entrepreneurial ambitions. In retrospect would of made bank if I stuck to my plans but my life is great so need to fret about it.
 
I went to A&P school to work on airplanes and ended up writing manuals for the L-1011. I got my AA, private pilots license and my General Ham radio license. Worked my way up to head lead of the dept until the company decided to move the commercial side to Georgia. Then I went to work for the dark side, got my BS, upgraded my ham radio license to Advanced, then Extra, and finally got my Masters. After a few years, I became the head mechanical manual lead and later flight manual lead. I spent too many years in school and most of it ended up being for personal growth and not company growth.
 
pumbaa said:
Wondering how everyone ended up in their careers?

I work in Syndicated Corp Finance for Private Equity and Asset Backed Finance, have worked in all aspects of the Syndicated Loan world from loan trading to risk/controls, agency and member side servicing, and projects. Before I got into the banking world I was a pastry chef and before that worked on the hot food side all the way to exec sous chef. Can go into more details if anyone cares. Got into banking because I got married and had a child and the culinary industry is brutal on family life. I watched my Exec Chef almost miss his daughter being born on a busy Saturday night, when my son was born my wife had an emergency C Section and I was getting calls the day after the surgery on when I was coming back because my pastry cook couldn't keep up with volume. That is when I decided to leave.
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Very cool background from something super creative to something very analytical. I have a very plain vanilla path to my job. Studied finance in undergrad and have worked in M&A ever since graduating.
 
ULEWZ said:
I went to A&P school to work on airplanes and ended up writing manuals for the L-1011. I got my AA, private pilots license and my General Ham radio license. Worked my way up to head lead of the dept until the company decided to move the commercial side to Georgia. Then I went to work for the dark side, got my BS, upgraded my ham radio license to Advanced, then Extra, and finally got my Masters. After a few years, I became the head mechanical manual lead and later flight manual lead. I spent too many years in school and most of it ended up being for personal growth and not company growth.
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That seems like a very interesting career
 
mson said:
Very cool background from something super creative to something very analytical. I have a very plain vanilla path to my job. Studied finance in undergrad and have worked in M&A ever since graduating.
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That's what I did well in pastry it's very analytical
 
I went into the Air Force from High School, after 10 years on active duty I moved to the reserves, i always had to have a full time job on the real and I have re-invented myself many times over to progress and learn new talents...
 
I kinda fell into my career. I started in IT thinking i would work for a little while and go back to music. Over 20 years later, here i am. I have studied for a number of certs and taken a few classes over the years, but no formal education.
 
I studied computer science in college and have been selling computer hardware or software ever since I graduated from college. I was never a developer of any sort even though that is what I studied in college.
 
Worked for 2 years after high school (construction, ag) and then pursued a degree in math and chemistry followed by a couple of advanced degrees in ecology and earth sciences. I had to pay my own way and worked every step of the way while going to school. I also ended up with some sizable student loans. Started my career in one area, passion focused, and then made a switch after about 10 years to work in a somewhat aligned area that gave me a little better income and stability. That's been 20+ years. I have enjoyed a work life with meaning and purpose, but my earnings have been on the lower side. On the balance, it's a good life for me.
 
mson said:
I guess that's very true. Lots of measuring and precision behind it.
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It is and it's a lot of technique and ratios. I can scale recipes based on ratios. Like my pizza dough recipe I could scale to as small as 4 5oz dough balls all the way to as large of a mixer I could find. I was more production and development so I could produce large amounts of dough and pasta and pastries easily and also loved the research and development side of menus and recipes.
 
Story time: I left high school, got my GED, and enlisted in the Navy. After my second enlistment was up, I departed the service and eventually ended up as an air traffic controller. While working ATC, I decided to improve on that GED and get a college degree. It took a while, but I finally finished my Bachelor’s Degree in accounting. Upon ATC retirement, I got bored, so I went back to school and completed a Master’s program in accounting. Now that I had a Master’s Degree, I figured I might as well put it to good use, so I applied for yet another government position as a DoD auditor. I’ve now been with the agency for five years as a contract auditor.
 
I attended a program in college that could have easily put me into any one of about a dozen different careers.

I was recommended by one of the professors to a company in Guelph that only hired grads from my program, and that was that.

The company I'm with now (16 years) was a supplier to the company I worked for in Guelph; they told me early on that if I was ever thinking of making a move keep them high on the list of people to talk to. That day came, and as they say the rest is history.
 
A mutual friend of mine told me they were looking for help where he worked as a service technician. I had no training or experience as a technician or mechanic but the company trains it’s techs to work on the equipment it manufactures. Turns out I had an aptitude for mechanics/electrical/plumbing and stayed on the job for 36 years.
 
I was originally a history major, then political science then yelling at grad students. Once I realized yelling at grad students wasn't a degree seeking program at FSU, I told my boss to give me a full time job. Almost 20 years later and still with the same agency telling other agencies when they mess up their payroll.
 
I majored in science in undergrad with a vague plan of working in a lab. I never did. Instead I took that Ivy League degree and worked full time for two years delivering pizza. My parents must have been so proud. After getting married I went to grad school for education and I’ve been a HS teacher for 25 years now.
 
School and grad school are directly correlated to my career.. BA in psychology, EdM in counseling psychology, and additional graduate credits to get my licensures

while I love what I do, I sometimes kick myself I didnt venture out a little more before pursuing this path
 
My undergrad degree is in Communications and right out of college I got a job working in the marketing dept for a small regional ISP here in MA, which at the time (1997) was a novel place to be. One thing led to another, one acquisition led to another, and I found myself working in a giant marketing department for a nationwide telecom. Unfortunately my whole dept was basically laid off so the national sales manager could consolidate marketing under his umbrella in TX, and with our first kid on the way I took a sales job at another regional ISP figuring I'd be there maybe 6 months until I found another marketing job.

I ended up being there for 16 years.

Around year 10 I knew I didn't want to spend my life in sales and whenever I tried to get an interview for a marketing position I was told "oh no, this isn't for you but we'll let you know when we have sales position open!". So I went back to school and got my MBA over the course of 5 years, taking one class per semester. As I was wrapping it up, I met the now president of my current company. They didn't have any openings in marketing but we stayed in touch, and when they reorganized and needed a new marketing manager, they gave me a call and I jumped over. I've been there 6 years now and I genuinely love this job and enjoy working there every day.
 
russtopher said:
My undergrad degree is in Communications and right out of college I got a job working in the marketing dept for a small regional ISP here in MA, which at the time (1997) was a novel place to be. One thing led to another, one acquisition led to another, and I found myself working in a giant marketing department for a nationwide telecom. Unfortunately my whole dept was basically laid off so the national sales manager could consolidate marketing under his umbrella in TX, and with our first kid on the way I took a sales job at another regional ISP figuring I'd be there maybe 6 months until I found another marketing job.

I ended up being there for 16 years.

Around year 10 I knew I didn't want to spend my life in sales and whenever I tried to get an interview for a marketing position I was told "oh no, this isn't for you but we'll let you know when we have sales position open!". So I went back to school and got my MBA over the course of 5 years, taking one class per semester. As I was wrapping it up, I met the now president of my current company. They didn't have any openings in marketing but we stayed in touch, and when they reorganized and needed a new marketing manager, they gave me a call and I jumped over. I've been there 6 years now and I genuinely love this job and enjoy working there every day.
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I don't know if I could do sales. Just not my personality. I give props to anyone who can succeed in sales.
 
pumbaa said:
I don't know if I could do sales. Just not my personality. I give props to anyone who can succeed in sales.
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I learned a LOT doing sales, and I'm glad that I took the chance because I picked up a lot of skills. But I really wish I was able to get out when I originally wanted, because living on commission in an industry that's going by the wayside sooner rather than later was not a fun experience for me for a number of years.
 
Went to college, graduated and worked for a couple decades in the field I had studied.

Decided it was time to try something different, went back to grad school, then worked for a couple decades in that field.

Then I retired.

I would not have wanted to spend my whole working life doing the same thing decade after decade but then again I would not have wanted to make such a major change more than once in a lifetime, if that makes any sense.

I think working in the same (or closely related) field for 30+ years would make it hard to avoid burnout. Not many people I know really, truly are as enthusiastic about their career after 15 years as they were to start with.

P.S. I also realize and am grateful that my life circumstances allowed me privilege of deciding what I wanted to do and when I wanted to change. Not everyone has so many options available.
 
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