Would you stick to the same career if you could have a do-over?
If I could have a do-over, I think I would go into the fashion industry. Not making the clothes. I think I’d fancy being a fashion buyer for one of the big houses.
What career would you choose if you could go back?
Venus Vaughn
August 22
5:00 pm
Hell no.
Once people see that you have sales experience they seem to think that you want to continue talking people into shit they don’t need.
Alexandra
August 22
5:37 pm
I am actually finishing up an English major right now, and I wish I hadn’t enrolled in it. I switched to a Performing Arts major briefly, but our school’s program sucks (to put it nicely) and I had too many units to transfer somewhere else without starting completely over (if I had the money, I’d do it in a heart beat).
If I could go back to community college, I would quit all my English courses and dig into my music. I love writing and I hope to be published, but my English major has not helped me in my chosen genre, and I would rather have my day job be involved with music in some way.
Las
August 22
10:09 pm
The older I get the more I realize that liking what you do is HIGHLY overrated. Granted, I have a very high tolerance for boredom, so as long as my boss/coworkers don’t suck I’m perfectly happy to do mind-numbing work for 8 hours a day. But when it comes right down to it I just want to make money. I enjoy what I do, it’s very interesting work and I’m never bored, but the pay sucks. If I could go back I’d study engineering, chemical or maybe mechanical. (I was always really good at math even though I didn’t like it.) The pay rocks right out of undergrad, no need for postgraduate studies. Hell, my engineering major friends made more money in their internships than I did my first few years after college. I’m actually starting to consider law school now–the idea puts me to sleep, but…MONEY!
Liking what I do just does not make up for the fact that I can’t have the material things I want. And it’s not like I’m into anything lavish, but I’d like to be able to, say, travel more, or buy a house in a city/town I actually like rather than just tolerate. Work isn’t my life, I don’t need to enjoy it like I do the other 128 hours of the week.
HeatherK
August 23
2:53 am
If I could go back, I would have done my damnedest to finish college the first time through (dropped out due to illness from pregnancy) and gone into the criminology/forensics field, however, my career would have been short lived thanks to the turn my health took, but at least I’d be able to say I had done it for a while. It’s my number one interest and has been for a good number of years. I think I would have really enjoyed it, even if parts of it would have been less than favorable to see/experience.
I’d still wind up writing, though. That’s in the blood and too difficult to deny, plus I love it.
anny cook
August 23
3:12 am
Huh. I’ll be 60 this year. Would I change things? No… How do you decide which of the kids you would send back? Or the 40+ years marriage? Every job I ever worked from the years at McDonalds to the stint as Executive Secretary at a NY school system has lead to who I am today and what I’m doing today. So NO. I kind of like where I am.
Shiloh Walker
August 23
12:26 pm
Yes, i’d stick to my career-both of them. Nursing until I could support myself writing, then writing.
Like Anny, I like where I am and I don’t want to undo any of the steps that led me here.
Moriah Jovan
August 23
9:54 pm
Architect.
Fae Sutherland
August 24
1:16 am
I’d still be a full-time writer but instead of starting to pursue it seriously in 2005, like I did, I’d have started a lot sooner so perhaps I’d be able to actually support myself and my oh so supportive (literally and figuratively lol) lifemate by this point lol. But then again, I really kind of started when my genre began to pick up speed, so starting sooner might not have done me any good, you know?
I like my life, very much, and if I could change anything in the past it wouldn’t be choosing my job, I’d go a lot further back and change one day when I was 17. My life would be so much more amazing now if I could, which is saying something because my life as is rocks my socks. 🙂
Venus Vaughn
August 24
1:21 am
Now THAT is the germ of a book idea right there.
“It all started when I was 17 years and 138 days old.”
“If I could change anything in my life, it would be that day, fifteen years ago when I was 17 and life was still something to be conquered.”
“When I was 17, it all changed and I wish I could say I knew why.”
There are a number of delicious opening lines I could form with just that idea.
Nat
August 24
5:06 am
I’d be a plumber.
I spent untold thousands getting my MA in politics and now i work in a semi crappy job for terrible wages.
I’d trade virtual crap for real crap but at least i’d be paid at a better rate.
Anon76
August 26
7:06 pm
I’d go for being an accountant or architect/engineer.
I adore numbers and the intricacies of drawing things that all fit together.