If I had my time again, I’d of knuckled down at school.

This. but I still hanker after paramedic-dom.

But reaching cross roads at the moment, so trying to figure out the next move!

I really, really envy Chris Hadfields career.

Fighter pilot flying Vipers then an astronaught. Bastard,

Or Bruce McCandless because he did an untethered jet pack space walk.

If I did that, I’d spend the rest of my life in low grade depression realising I’d never do anything that **** awesome again. Everything would be toned down, no amount of base jumping, fighting, heroin or hookers would achieve that rush.

Would you ever feel like someone had something you didn’t, if you did that? If you met Richard Branson at a party talking about how many billions he’s earned, you could just blow cigar smoke in his face and trot out the jet pack story. Very few men on earth have bragging rights that could top that one.

In fact this whole thread has me tempted to go and study the “Space Physiology” MSc at KCL. I can dream damnit!

I don’t however have the finances to go to med school but a more realistic goal would be a theatre nurse.

You pay for year 1 at graduate medical school then the NHS pays for the rest.

I’m pretty damn close to my ideal job. I work in rope access now, but I’d love to be on a proper mountain rescue team somewhere like the Rockies or similar. or even Snowdonia, and since it’s dream job, they will be paying a decent wage too rather that just having volunteers…

http://athertonracing.co.uk/2013/11/29/job-vacancy-world-cup-technician/
Fun for a year, fixing bikes and travelling the world (or driving vito’s everywhere fixing forks at 2am in a tent while everyone else is at a party and earning not very much)

On my list currently,
Trail Design/Building – was going to do some building last year when I broke my hand
Brewer with own pub doing the food (well the easy show off stuff then let the minions do the rest)
Bike Racer – hit the EWS and a few other events while clocking up air miles.

the beer over here is rubbish, and so is the coffee, and the tea, and the food. So…

i’d like to have a pub/brewery/cafe/tea shop/coffee importers coupled with a small bike shop selling Cotic bikes next door. And there’d be a little library, and stacks of bike and snowboard magazines. Perhaps it could deal with XC ski stuff as well and even snowboards. Every shopride would end at the pub with a dart board and a snooker table and top-notch beer. It would be full of things I’m passionate about, that’s the dream.

At the minute I’m a researcher in a big research institute. Unleashing new science into the world is great, but it is dampened when the primary aim of that is to increase the profits of large multinationals for little gratification or recognition.

Astronaut.

Failing that, I’d love to spend a season guiding experienced mountain bikers in Spain or similar.

! I wouldn’t mind doing something that actually makes a difference like a doctor, scientist etc but I’m not clever or committed enough for that to work.

A career as a nutritionist awaits you, you can pretend to be both without having to be clever or committed enough to be either. 🙂

Retired (with lots of money)

I’d be an outdoors instructor

My main barrier to doing this is the huge drop in pay and the required relocation to somewhere more hilly

Author. If I had my way, I would spend my life in a library, surrounded by books, with little physical human contact, and space to write.

I’d be a proper engineer. Someone who designs and builds big-assed industrial process systems. I work with loads of guys who do this stuff and I piss them off by constantly asking them questions and then getting excited when they show me a drawing of a water pipe.

its bloody tedious though when you actualy do it though. Everything has a procedure to design it so there’s very little ‘engineering’ and often youre job is so narrow that you will be responsible for a really small part of that pipe for weeks/months. For example I spent 3 months calculating pressure drops in pipes on a refinery. Some other bloke will have spent that time specifying manual valves from a tick list/catalogue, someone else will have done the 3d moddle, someone else the thermal relief cases etc etc.

No one person actualy designs anything.

Id rather work on yacht design. Lots of the same maths, but actualy nice to look at day to day!

I’d be the new John Peel.

I’d be the new John Peel.

Careful now. Wasn’t he a bit dodgy?

All part of the job description 😉

I’ve had a strong desire to be full-time Army for a long time now, but at the age I am and the career level I am now, I would not actually get to do any of the full stuff any more, just the paperwork.

Ah well, maybe next time.

its bloody tedious though when you actualy do it though.

I think a lot of ‘dream jobs’ are like that. While I was a video game developer, a lot of folk asked if I could get them a job as a tester. I never felt my replies did justice to just how bloody hard, repetitive and thankless a job that actually is.

Physiotherapy

or

Carpentry/woodworking/furniture making….

or

CNC toolmaker

Doing some sort of digital concept/matte art freelance, in a home studio. I’m frantically getting back into drawing and painting since (stupidly) dropping it in my late teens as “everyone knows it goes nowhere”. After life in corporate hell and going from meaningless job to meaningless job I’d love to do something folk actually say I’m good at!

I’ve got it lucky but you always find something to complain about. Work at home in the peaks. Work for myself. Don’t have to work full time. Work is interesting. It pays well.

You still find yourself thinking you’d rather be doing something else (classic car resto a favourite theme) even though you know you’d regret it eventually!

I pay assistant retouchers £250 just pathing and layering up stuff if I don’t have time to do it myself.

Erm, intrigued by this!

I’m pretty handy on photoshop but I didn’t realise it could be a job. How do I become a professional retoucher?

As a little boy I dreamt of being a door gunner on the space shuttle………….

Gadget manufacturer … 😀

What gadget? I have no clue but I like looking at how the machine works.

I’d be a Pheasant Plukers Mate 😆

Lead singer of Led Zeppelin

RAF

Bottled out signing the form when I was 18. 😐

Head of casting for porn movies?
F1 racing driver
Professional footballer
Professional musician in a massively successful rock band

3 of those were on my list of dreams when I was at school. Never managed any of them. Back in the real world I would love to have been a doctor / consultant but never felt I was intelligent enough to have made it. In the end have managed to become an IT consultant (yes, living the STW dream!) which I do enjoy but I feel that the positive impact on lives that a doctor can bring would give me that much more job satisfaction and fulfilment.

If I had a massive reserve of money that meant I did not need to work I would happily work for a charity or some organisation working for the benefit of the disadvantaged to help make their lives more fulfilling.

Suspect I will be in IT for a bit longer yet…..

My 2pence:

How happy you are in life can be linked to how much control you feel you have. So along those lines I’d say make sure whatever you do is going to bring several options for the future: options to develop, learn, take more responsibility, travel etc – whatever you feel would be a good challenge.

OP seems to be dealing with his job loss pretty well and he also sounds like a guy who’s been happy to give most things a try – I think that attitude is a winner in terms of life enjoyment.

FakeAgent

Wish I’d had the balls in my early twenties to quit my boring going nowhere job to have relocated in Woolacombe working in a bar, gone surfing when not working, and become a surfboard shaper.

Erm, intrigued by this!

I’m pretty handy on photoshop but I didn’t realise it could be a job. How do I become a professional retoucher?

dunno if that was you who mailed me about this but most of the ones i know trained as photographers, printers or artists.

I’ve always fancied either trading standards officer or environmental health officer. Downside is both require a specific degree and both are working in the public sector and all of the badness that involves.

Photographer and chocolate taster.

Oh wait, I do both of those already 😀

small lottery win would se me managing this place, possibly starting an outdoor pursuits centre for the scouting association.

well, smallish!

I’ve had a strong desire to be full-time Army for a long time now, but at the age I am and the career level I am now, I would not actually get to do any of the full stuff any more, just the paperwork.

I applied three years ago, but recurring injury I was trying to sort hasn’t stopped recurring.

Shame as it was part of my masterplan and now I’m too old, with no substitute masterplan.

I could be a fluffer, I suppose…

Otherwise a blacksmith or a carpenter/joiner.

If only I wasn’t completely cack-handed!

Independently wealthy layabout…

Run a boutique bed and breakfast(Ambleside area) aimed at the biking crowd with optional guided rides.
Will look closer into it when my daughter gets a bit older.

Any of the many that I keep applying for but not getting!

Any of these: Pro motorcycleracer/surfer/mtber/porn star