Reciprocating reproductive initiation technician.

Went through school with as minimal amount of effort as possible. Didn’t really enjoy many subjects apart from computing and a small photography course. Left with 5 highers and no idea what to do other than I enjoyed doing a community radio show when I was in my early teens and knew I didn’t want to go to uni.

Left home at 17 with my car and my dads trailer while he was away on holiday. Did an HNC in radio broadcasting while working for Macdonalds (had been working there since 15 anyway). Did work experience in radio and got a job doing news for a local station and decided it wasn’t for me.

Got a job working for a tax dodging arse bucket who used to set up companies and then fold them. I lasted 3 months before telling him where to go. I didn’t realise how dodgy he was until I started.

Landed a job in a call centre working doing tech support to pay my rent and beer habit. Then through persistence got a job in the same company doing telecoms support. Left after 5 years. Joined another company doing telecoms support and have been there (more or less) since. I love working with new technology and visiting sites, installing kit, troubleshooting, designing etc. I’m now about 60% telecoms guy / 40% network guy. I get paid well to do something I like. My only wish is that I get to combine more working outdoors with my job so i’m looking into VSAT training and wireless technologies to see where my next steps are.

Sorry, long story, not very interesting.

This thread turned out better than I’d hoped. Great stories and insight. Genuinely fascinating to see the paths people took and how and why they do what they do (currently).

I run a small loudspeaker manufacturing company.

Decided to join the army when I was 15 and went to their 6th form college to go on to become an officer in one of the engineering corps – in the process I discovered that although I’m good at leading, I’m not good at following and so stepped out of the system and went to a normal uni. Lucky escape considering I’d have left Sandhurst in 2001, just as it all kicked off… Started an e-commerce business in the dotcom boom after finishing my engineering degree, which didn’t work out. Ended up in various sales jobs, gradually getting more corporate. Started building loudspeakers as a hobby, that turned into a business somewhat by accident and then I quit the day job a few years ago to do that fulltime.

Many, many levels of dullness. Including some interesting sounding dull things.

Left school not knowing what to do so went to college to do an HNC Computing. Finished that not knowing what I wanted to do so went to university to do a Computer Aided Engineering degree. After graduating went for a job as a Computer Aided Engineer, which put me right off the idea (shown desk where I’d be working – a 6-foot square windowless cupboard with a big, fat, beardy bloke). Hmmm. Riiight. Now what.

Luckily landed a job helping folk apply for EU R&D funding. The thinking being that the techie background would help understand what the projects were hoping to achieve. Over the years drifted over to be a consultant on the intricacies of EU public procurement legislation. Also learned how to write websites and do ISO quality things.

Now job is primarily a researcher/data analyst, but still sidelining in website stuff and quality stuff and IT stuff when needs arise. And now I’m starting a bookkeeping course. Because, you know, that’s exciting sounding too.

I work as a tech op in a tv studio that broadcasts sky’s at the races channel and coral tv/ladbrokes extra to all their betting shops in the UK 🙂 not the most exciting as i have no interest or horse or dog racing but the job is easy and great experience for live evs/audio/graphics work as well as avid editing on a regular basis which is hard to come by! Before i got this job i studied media production at uni (seem to be one of the few who actually got a job in the industry!) with no idea what i was gonna do after… Did a load of web design after uni before getting a tech op job at a shopping channel, before being head hunted via linked in for this job!

Property investor – my own portfolio in UK & abroad.

Always interested in it but had to do 15 years in boring but well paid jobs looking out the window in Central London to fund my new venture.

Left that 10 years ago & never ever looked back. Sadly you need a fair pot of money to get started in property so you have to be a wage slave for a while.

It’s actually quite boring, lonely & repetitive but compared to working in an office no competition.

Fluffer

Went to art college, got a degree in technical illustration. Went freelance from college, was hard to begin with but slowly got my portfolio around London. Moved to London worked for Dorling kindersley building 3d front ends for their CDroms, moved back to Swanage set up a New media company with 2 other people, this was good for a few years, we got into animation, tv adverts and the like. We then got into the telecoms company’s and were making the cd for all the big telecom boys that they sent out to get you to switch your ISP provider to them ( this was all pre broadband ). Left the company as I could see the bottom falling out of this area as broadband was about to kick off but the other 2 owners didn’t want get back to the design side of things.
Start helping a mate who was fitting kitchens…..12 years on we have a good kitchen design/supply and install company.
A complete career change but a good one, no longer Gavin to deal with large company’s who don’t like paying.

Simon

I am a middle manager at a Big Utility, working on the Smart Metering programme, mainly involved in commercial and strategy work. I Worked my way up from the bottom, started taking calls in the call centre in 1997. All my peers are from either the graduate scheme or are ex consultants, but you can work your way up if you try hard enough.

Ski patroller in the winter, bin man and wannabee bike racer in the summer. Later a bike shop monkey in the summers. Somehow managed to sail a tall ship across the atlantic and gain a BEng which was to be my safety net for when I couldn’t ski or bike any more.
Did a few seasons in UK and one in NZ, and then a bad Scottish season had me rethinking priorities so I joined the oil industry and started visiting bizzare parts of the world to stick metal down holes. Enjoyed the challenge and the travel… and the money which paid for ace toys and holidays. Swapped jobs a few times to broaden skills base before joining a super-major to get official training in sticking things down holes… so I could leave and set myself up as a “consultant sticking things down holes engineer”. Currently enjoy my family, my work and my play.

Didn’t know what I wanted to do, was told by a friend of my dad (a civil engineer) to come up with something quickly (at 13) otherwise you’ll end up as a civil engineer (like my Dad) got into electronic music, theatre and other stuff, did a BSc. in music tech asa degree, did a bit of teaching (kayaking) as a summer job and lived in my car doing it straight after uni along side a bunch of one off music bits, a bit of mixing here, some mastering there, then my girlfriend went to do a degree in Nursing at Oxford Brookes, I got a succession of temp jobs, free lancing music editing and mixing, and did my MA, we got married had kids, needed some more stable income, so applied for teaching jobs in music tech, got a job at an FE college in Essex, got my teaching qualifications, worked there for 6 years, didn’t much like the FE thing, applied for a host of university posts and got one, which is where I am now.

musician. studied violin from age 9, got to grade 8 at age 15, got offered a scholarship at cheethams age 12, turned it down (didn’t want to board, hang out with rich kids). joined a band age 17, toured the world for 3 years, left, bummed about, had kids, various crap jobs, bought a house, went to college to be a joiner, did house up, divorced, now work for myself as a builder/joiner, when not playing or writing in my own studio. love it.

Researcher in computer science. Graduated with a Physics degree in the mid 90s and spent a few years working in shops and customer service type stuff punctuated by a year in Australia and a year in NZ. In 2001 got fed up with always being a bit skint and doing crap jobs so took a loan to a do an MSc in Computer Science. A few research jobs later and I’m about to have my PhD viva next week. Probably be a lecturer sometime in the next few years.

Enjoyed a lot of the stuff I’ve done but I’m now about 10 years behind were I could/should have been.

I oscillate wildly between healthcare and archaeology.

I’m one them folks that’s pretty smart, but rubbish at exams. I always found school frustrating and smoked a lot of herbal remedies during this time and came out with C’s at A-level.
Took a year out and went traveling not knowing what i wanted to do and during this time got a place at a good uni to study conservation and sustainability. Really enjoyed my degree and that it was based more on coursework than exam scores so did OK. Managed to do a sandwich year working abroad as well which was brilliant.
Finished my degree but was skint so didn’t take up the option of doing a free masters degree (facepalm) and went to work at a local authority doing sustainability.
Did well and was acting up to a higher role but the cuts to council funding meant that was not made permanent and my wage got slashed.
Moved to a university but not challenged in my job and looking elsewhere. Wish I’d not gone into an office job after uni and worked outside doing conservation work like i trained to do

Failed to be clever enough to be a vet.

Failed A levels due to serious illness.

Did some more A-levels.

Studied Environmental Chemistry at uni, which failed to get me any decent employment.

Started doing clerical work for a college as a temp.

Now senior administrator at same college.

IT manager for a small family owned holiday firm.

No formal IT qualifications – did an English and History degree and fell into IT from a temp job in a BT call centre. Worked my way up and did around 8 years in the telecoms industry here and abroad and a further 9 years in rail in various quite specialised roles mainly relating to asset maintenance systems. Done everything from support to business analysis. Gave up quite lucrative job in London about 18 months ago to move to Devon.

New role is very general compared to what I did previously – pretty much look after everything with a plug and more, and have had to learn a hell of a lot. Also as busy as ever but have got a very short commute, work for a great company and we get to live in a stunning part of the world. Recently became a retained firefighter too, which I’m loving so far and is a nice complement to the day job.

Failed all my exams at school. Was planning on going into the hotel and catering business but joined the RAF as a police dog handler, signed up for 9 years, bought myself out after 3.
Worked on fish market for a bit, then joined my dad in driving taxis, which materialised into a family business that let me work a bit, travel a lot. got heavily involved in Triathlons when they first started up over here, this involved having two years of having someone drive my taxi while I trained and raced at a reasonable level, made it into the top 20 of a few races, gave up when the money ran out.
Then taxi business went bust and lost everything so planned on travelling around the world but met what was to become my first wife who said I needed to get a real job, so started working as a volunteer with social services, which led to working as a nursing assistant in mental health. Went back to college and did and access course to start nurse training. Spilt up from first wife. Qualified as a mental health nurse and now working as a community nurse with children and adolescents in mental health. Sometimes fun always stressful.

IT sales channel account manager. I clubbed baby seals in a past life.

spent the last 6 month of school life in a naughty boys home in the north east.
came out and got a job delivering roof tiles and coal. bloke put me through for my class 2 licence. but i fecked about after that, and went away for a while again.
got a job as a blacksmith at a train builders, which was ace until the axe fell.
drove for parcelforce, hodded plaster, drove a big mofo crane at a steel works.
been selling satellite/aerial and cctv for the last 13yrs.
so far in my life of crap jobs, i have neer had to sign on, which i am proud of.

No idea what to do at school as crap at maths and English, went to do an aptititude test to become a car mechanic (under pressure from family to get a proper job) finished the test in half the allotted time and sat there looking at all the idiots in the room and had an epiphany moment and realised that this was not for me.
Managed to get into art college to do a 2 year btec in graphic design and then went to another art college to do a BA and ended up specialising in photography.
Left and sent 6 months as an admin assistant in the department of transport to pay off my £500 overdraft 😀 all the while staying at various friends and relatives sofas/spare rooms as there was not enough money to flat share and pay the overdraft off.
Then started assisting various photographers doing all sorts from big advertising shoots to fashion editorial, went to some amazing places and met some amazing people from all walks of life, ate a lot of posh lunches too.
Worked my way up the ladder and started doing more lucrative work for photographers like lighting cars/still life for those who didn’t know their arse from their elbow, all the while picking up various photography jobs for design and advertising clients, got a break with a worldwide campaign for kinetiQ which paid extremely well and kick started the move from assistant to photographer.

Picked up a few clients in the furniture world by accident which have been good clients for a fairly long time, I like dealing direct with them (instead of agency) and have a good working relationship.
I shoot all sorts but mainly still-life and location so the work is varied, recently shot a campaign for huffington post of portraits of their famous bloggers so hope to shoot more people. (cherie Blair, dawn porter and some music bloke called Labrinth)

Do a fair bit of retouching for a couple of other photographers and am involved in a moving image shoots so hope to find time to get a reel together for some directing work for online, tv would be nice but hard to break into.

Reading that back makes me realise how lucky I am as I wouldn’t last 5 minutes in an office/I.t job with a boss and 2 weeks holiday a year as my soul would be crushed by boredom.

Sorry didn’t realise that would be so long 😳

I’m a ‘specialist engineer’ if my job title is to be believed. In theory I do remote server support for a large “managed network services” company. In practice I tend mostly to deal with escalation cases and get drafted into areas I know nothing about in order to work out what the hell’s actually going on and then find someone who can fix it. Ie, something comes in that no bugger knows anything about, they give it to me.

Was a girlie swot at school, but by the time I got to University the wheels had come off and I bombed a Computing HND that I was totally disengaged from. In hindsight I should’ve done a degree.

First IT job was tech support for Time Computers, which was a baptism of fire as the company ostensibly didn’t give a toss about anything. Staff turnover was about 200%, I left after about four years and was one of the longest serving members of Tech staff they had.

Since then I’ve been a “programmer” – internal web dev – an IT Manager and internal systems / infrastructure support. I tried my hand at contracting for a while but couldn’t get enough clients to be worthwhile long term. I also spent about a year building kids’ playgrounds during a dry spell in IT jobs – the soft play things with ball pools and such that were all the rage at McDonalds for about ten minutes. Bloody hard work but kinda interesting.

Had placed to study engineering or Hotel management, took the Hotel route as haven’t a scooby about physics. Have worked in contact catering and hotels/events business for 22years now run a venue in Edinburgh, almost joined the Navy and also walked away from an economics degree course at Heriot Watt. not sure if I am happy as such but make a good living and don’t seem to have as much stress as before. Would like my own pub.

Wanted to be a vet, spent lots of time at school cleaning kennels, mucking out horses and getting covered in poo on farms. Was lucky enough to pass the exams and get a place at Uni.

Love it. Started in mixed and now small animal only, kind of miss the yarns from the farmers etc but on a day like today being inside and warm has its own appeal. Can be stressful and its a vocation rather than a job that you leave at 5pm and don’t worry about till the next day

Now doing management stuff too which brings different stresses but has its own rewards. Can’t think of another job I would like to do but am slightly envious of Medic friends payscale and pensions. Then sometimes you look up and are glad its the dog/cat you are having to examine rather than its owner. 😀

Started college to do A levels but dropped out after 12 months as I hated it, joined the RAF Police, did 6 years, left that, worked as a Debt Manager (2yrs) for a large finance company before joining the Old Bill. Been doing that for 16 years.

Left school in 1985 and did 4 years studying to get a HND in the audio video industry. Worked at the BBC sound engineering at wood lane in London before getting a job in a video production company in Manchester. When the firm went under I somehow got into selling shoes as a market trader, which I came to hate over the next 2 or 3 years. Applied for the cops and what do you know? 17 years on and it turns out I’m fairly competent at it. Been a detective for 15 years and spent almost 6 years on the major incident team, mainly working on murders. Got promoted 3 years ago and can’t see myself doing out else.

I don’t actually know

Senior Consultant Simulation Modelling & Software Sales

Long way from where I started
Grew up on a family farm so always had that route open.
A Levels Maths Chem & Physics
Decided Chemistry would be a good solid career path (idiot)
2 years of degree before I failed and left after screwing up resets
Working in my year out job which turned into longer as they were closing down so weren’t taking more students.
Got into Air Monitoring (by accident/needed a job)
Moved on in that for 3 years until leaving 1 company that were a nightmare.
Ended up to air monitoring in R&D at Sellafield.
Picked up loads of projects in R&D before getting involved in some computer modelling work. Swapped departments and did that for 7 years.

Missus wanted to move back to Oz so ended up here brief chat with the guy distributing the software I used to work in and here I am. Currently doing about 3 days per week from home in the sunshine 15 years after leaving school to be a chemist.

Work for DICE game studio on the Battlefield franchise (and other stuff).

Got here by working in IT for far too long!

Degree in Electronic Engineering.
Few contract jobs as a Junior Project Engineer (not degree related).
Couple of years as a Business Analyst implementing an ERP system.
Year for a call centre company doing Client Relationship work and Management Reporting.
Six years as a Compensation & Benefits Consultant, which I’m sticking with. It’s innovative, analytical, diverse, interesting, changes day by day, I work with great people and the pay is pretty good.

Photographer – weddings, dogs and a wee bit of commercial stuff.

Did well at school – excelled at languages and got English, Russian and French Highers. Discovered drugs and loose women at the start of my last school year and dropped out and down, hard and fast.

Spent many years doing really crappy jobs in retail, catering and driving before an injury forced me to hit rock bottom. Came out the other side with a totally clean slate and started over at 29 years old. Went (back) to college, then uni, became a photographer. Still doing it. It ain’t glamorous and I’m mostly skint but I love it.

Worked for Birdseye for the last 5 years (field account manager for coop) now I’m training to do what I always wanted to do and become a teacher.

Hopefully this time next year I’ll be enjoying a job I love.

Railway signaller,
Spent my teenage years obsessed with wanting to join the RAF as aircrew, so spent 4 years in cadets and went to Biggan Hill at the ripe age of 17! Passed the aptitude tests and medical, all went wrong at the panel interview, I didn’t play cricket or go to opera or theatre, so sent packing due to not having depth of caracter. Went home and joined RAF as a telecomms tec, stayed in a full 2 weeks and bought my self out, never seen that coming! Went home and had a job in the railway within 2 weeks and started as a signaller, never knew what a signaller was but hey I had a job happy days! Still at it 23 years later with probably the best view in the UK “if you like Ben Nevis and that sort of thing” not planning changing anything, all going well will retire from it one day!
PJ.

Work in the bike trade. Loved bikes since I was a kid. Worked for giant when I was in Germany, used to do Xc races in Black Forest and Switzerland… Am so lucky, turned my hobby into my life 😉

I work as a chocolatier for 3 days a week, been doing this for 6 odd years and i also work in a bike shop as mechanic/bike sales etc for 3 days a week, been doing this for the past 3 months but i’ve fixed/repaired all my bikes, including moto-x since the age of 8+ (now 40-gulp!) as i’ve always been mechanically minded thanks to my upbringing, i guess i was born with a silver socket set in my mouth rather than a silver spoon.

I left school at 17, got very good O’ grades and Highers but nae fear of me going to college or uni at that point as i just wanted a job and money so got apprenticeship as vehicle mechanic, did that for 5 yrs, got bored so worked at a newly setup local wildlife park for 2 years as animal handler/feeder – loved it, left that to go to college/uni and studied Mechanical Engineering/Electronic Engineering/Cad for 4 yrs. I got a good pass despite doing the absolute minimal work on my part and was immediately offered a job at Gates power transmission, i didn’t apply for it but my old thermodynamics tutor put my name forward and i got a phonecall one friday afternoon offering me the job. I started work the following monday testing and designing Power transmission belts (timing belts) to destruction, sometimes on a variety of exotic engines in the test bay’s but mostly on rigs where we measured various parameters, it was the best paid job i’ve ever had (36k & bonus scheme at 25yrs old) but it bored me shiteless and i don’t do, nor like factory work so i left after a year to go on walkabout in Africa for 10 odd months, came back and got offered a job in a local fibreglass factory as mech engineer/cad engineer but i only lasted 6 months as the job entailed me delegating to knuckle dragging, football loving, lager swilling **** so i quit, i realised i just wanted to get out and ride my bike when i wanted without the hassle of a full time job so i did without a “proper job” for 8 yrs but in that time i was sort of self employed and helped out now and again wi various mates who run their own small businesses, some house renovations, some electrical, some mechanical, some plumbing, some blacksmithing, basically a bit of everything. And finally i was asked to help out one of my mothers old work colleagues as she had set herself up as a small artisan chocolatier and i thought “why not?, it’s something new to learn”, so that was 6 yrs ago and i’m still doing it 6yrs later along wi working at a mates small bike shop, there’s only the two of us but we build nice bikes and are very good mechanics if i do say so myself, Ibis, Lapierre and Cotic’s make up the vast majority of our custom and sales.

I’ve never even thought about a so called career?, not interested in money or chasing it in the slightest, i’ve had plenty in the past but the type of job i had to do to get it was demoralising so years ago i made the choice to always do what i want, when i want and if i dislike what i’m doing i stop and do something else. I’m lucky as i don’t have kids or anyone else to worry about so i can be pretty selfish in my lifestyle choices but that suits me perfectly.

Sparky, hate it. Mrs kerv and me thinking of selling up, moving to Wales and becoming bums.

Not all it’s cracked up to be,as with all jobs you find yourself stuck in a groove.

I’ve done all sorts over the years. I disliked school and didn’t do as well as I should have. Worked in retail, hospitality, bike shop and programmed in IT for a while before my brain temporarily went into melt down.

Currently a sometimes employed photographer, but more often than not, my days revolve around looking after our kids and keeping a messy house.

Grateful my wife loves having a proper job, and that our kids look like they’ll do better than both of us.

Oil refinery shift operator or (shift availability technician)to give it its proper title. started out as an apprentice steel fabricator and other heavy engineering work followed. Then got involved in the oil industry which was what I always wanted to do but thought offshore was where it was at but the job I was offered was refinery based and I really like it now I would only go offshore if I had to the T&Cs are great 15 years and still enjoy it.