Would you choose your same career?

[XanaDUer2]

I wouldn't. I wish it was 1985 again. I'd finish my BA and then I would have trained to be a court reporter.

I could have stayed in my home town, where there was so much crime and lawyers I would have been able to work for yrs.

Instead, I chose a demanding low-paying stressful career*, and I deeply regret it looking back.

* that required a master's

[PJMcK]

1. I have a different view

I've had a successful career in music as a writer, producer, performer, publisher and educator and it's been fun, creative and modestly lucrative. I didn't get as high up the ladder as I had hoped but I got to try everything I wanted to.

However, there is no way I could accomplish the things I did in today's music world. It's too compartmentalized and regimented and the business has become less interested in the art and too focused on the money.

So, I'm happy with the career I've had but I wouldn't recommend going into the business today.

[3catwoman3]

2. I spent 45 years as a pediatric nurse practitioner and loved it most of that time.

Some jobs were better than others, but overall I relished the independence of being the one to examine and diagnose the kids, and then explaining to the parents how best to care for whatever the problem was. I loved the teaching aspect, and seeing people go from worried to calm and confident. After the advent of electronic medical records in 2013, the charm began to wear off at a pretty rapid pace because there a lot of bullshit required in EMR to keep the insurance companies from denying a patient's claim, and many docs, NPs and PAs complain that we spend more time taking care of the computer than we do taking care of our patients.

I retired March 31, 2021, and overall don't miss it except for first time parents and newborns/young babies.

That said, it occurred to me a few years before I retired that some lucky people have careers designing toys for kittens and puppies and then watching them to see which ones they like. I can't imagine ever having a bad day at work if that was your job. Had I only known.

[dickthegrouch]

5. I hope you know the Tom Hanks Gene Hackman movie "Big". /nt

[multigraincracker]

7. Wife is a home care RN for babies. She loves the kids

Parents not so much. Ventilating and feeding tubes.

[dickthegrouch]

3. Absolutely

I am one of those fortunate people who fell into a career I loved right until the end. I fully understand what was meant by the phrase “A person who enjoys their job never works a day in his life”. It was fun. Hugely challenging in many ways. But all the more rewarding for beating the challenges.
I was an electronics technician whose talent for diagnosing both software and hardware issues was recognized and encouraged early.
I never designed anything from scratch, but spent 40+ years diagnosing and fixing problems the engineers hadn’t anticipated.
So sorry you didn’t have the same experience or satisfaction.

[XanaDUer2]

4. TY

Hindsight

[LoisB]

6. Yes.

[multigraincracker]

8. Had a clerk job. Just a job, have 23 years of retirement

behind me now.

[XanaDUer2]

9. I probably would have been

Content with such a job. I'm not sure what I was thinking. I used to play librarian as a kid.

[Boomerproud]

12. Same here. A job, not a career.

Hindsight can be illuminating if you allow it. Plenty of regrets, especially if you don't have have a family of your own and yes, work does define you.

[XanaDUer2]

13. Its too late for me

I just have to live with my dumb decision

[mike_c]

10. probably

I really enjoyed my academic science career and would do it again if I had the opportunity to be young again, lol. I've never really stopped it, even in retirement, but my other interests have broadened and become more immediate.

[debm55]

11. I would. I taught for 42 years. Didn't like some of the principals. Low pay--nonunion. But I loved the kids.

[Iggo]

14. I would have made better choices in my late teens and early twenties.

Career? I never had a real job for longer than a year until I was 42…lol.

[XanaDUer2]

16. I'm so old

There was no popular internet when I went to school. Things were so different. Now ten mins of searching would tell me a lot about my profession..i had good times, but its just not something I recommend anymore

[KewlKat]

15. No...i would have become a doctor, a diagnostician.

Someone that drills down and finds the cause; relieve pain in those that suffer endlessly.......well, you get the idea. If only. If I had a dollar for every doctor I've seen that has told me I know more than them or why to I care to find the source of my ailments...I could fund the government for a year.......

[MissB]

17. I would choose the same path

Completely same.

[Niagara]

18. I've always had jobs, never what I would consider a career

I'm grateful for all the experience and skills that these jobs gave me.


I wish that I had saved more instead of spent more though.


I had experienced a rough and financially inadequate marriage which took it's toll on me and I regret that marriage more than anything in my life.

[hunter]

19. It's a bloody miracle I didn't end up a belligerent homeless person...

... or a suicidal wealthy person.

In most universes where I made other choices I'm dead.

My could-have-beens all meld together into a macabre comedy. I have a guardian angel who laughs at my poor choices and misfortunes knowing full well I'm just an idiot who has to learn most things the hard way.

[Skittles]

20. oddly enough, even though I never loved what I did - yes

for a woman, back in the day IT offered the best way to get ahead - I didn't want to work in a field that was majority female

[Aristus]

21. Yes. Just fifteen years earlier.

If I had become a PA at twenty-seven or so, I would probably be retired by now with a very nice nest egg.

[ProfessorGAC]

22. Yes

I liked my work. The companies treated me well. I got to travel the world.
Admittedly, I got tired of the travel (as did my wife, who wished I was home more), but comes with the territory.

[Ziggysmom]

23. Yes, I love IT and systems analysis. Was also a programmer back in the day when companies

used to run big old mainframe computers. There was no “cloud” back then.

[LogDog75]

24. Yes, I would

I worked at K-Mart for two years and enjoyed it. But I knew if I stayed with them I wouldn’t get rich nor have much in the way of retirement money-wise or healthcare-wise. So I joined the AF knowing the benefits were better for a regular person than my civilian counterparts. My dad retired from the Navy as a Captain (O-6) at age 48 and didn’t work again. I enlisted in the AF delayed enlisted program for Radio Communications Specialist but in the 5th day of basic I was in the hospital for two weeks with a sinus infection. When I was released I went back to a new basic training flight but the school for Radio Communications was closed. I was give a choice of Security Police, hospital laboratory, or medical materiel (supply). I chose medical materiel and served for 28 years before retiring.
Looking back, it was the right decision. I was stationed in six different states, four times in Europe, and once in South Korea. It wasn’t all smooth sailing. There were good times and bad times but the good times overwhelmingly beat the bad times. There were some thing’s I would have done differently mostly I had no problems.
I’ve now Ben retired for 22 years and I’m doing well. Last week I had to go to the hospital for vertigo and stayed there for two days. Medicare covers most of the cost what what they don’t cover Tricare-for-Life (military health insurance) covers most of the rest.
So yeah, I would choose the same career.