Just read this
I'm an IT Manager, specifically working with diagnostic imaging – that's x-rays 'n' stuff. I'm happy, I like my job and I think I'm good at it. There's enough technology to keep my inner geek satisfied and enough patient care for me to think it's worthwhile. I was into computers at school, so something like this seems pretty obvious.
Careers advisor recommended I go to Aberdeen and take the tests to join the trawler fleet, because that's what some of my family did (eg great grandfather). FFS have you seen Trawlermen on Dave?
Anyway, how did you get one with careers – close to the mark or missed completely?

Fluffer

Careers advice options at my old school

a) 6th form
b) Armed forces
c) Prison

YTS. I can't remember them mentioning anything else.

I kind of knew what each question was trying to get me to say so chose the appropriate answer for what i actually wanted to do.

As a result I did what it said – became a journo

Engineering apprenticeships, Came out of one of their interview things and there was a job for British Rail as a junior railman, applied and got it over hundreds of others (helped that my dad had been on the railway for 33 years I think) That was 1991, and i'm still there, but as a Signalman now 🙂

The best recommended job for me was Aerial rigger, because it got you out in the open air.

How daft. I mean who would search the ads looking specifically for an aerial rigger job?

no matter what you put into our computer 'what job will you do' thingy it always gave the same answers but differentiated between boys and girls 😆

i'm doing the job i've pretty much wanted to do since i was 12 and looked round the BBC outside broadcast trucks when One man and his dog was filmed below our house.

flashing lights, knobs and sliders, music etc

flashing lights, knobs and sliders, music etc

Cool, and I don't care what you do.

Told me to be a farmer as I lived on a farm at the time despite me saying NO. I told them I wanted a job with the Met office, but was told no chance, whish i'd ignored the little prick now and chased my dreams, i'd still love to do it.

Currently on holiday whilst serving my notice from a job in the pub industry, who knows what i'll be doing next.

Love them.
I went to school in Rotherham.
Was told to pack in at 16 and go work for British Steel or the NCB – job for life!!
Ignored them, went and did a degree in Glacial Geomorphology – been invaluable in a career in PR!!!

The one at our school always gave "binman" as one of its answers.
Can't remember what it told me to do…

One guy had "money" as his primary, secondary and only interest. They advised him to become an accountant.

I got pegged for either the army or a doctor (which is what I wanted to be). I am now a release manager fr a software company after realising that medical sciences (degree in applied biochemistry) sucks donkey balls.

Funny how life turns out eh?

i was told to be either in

sales
armed forces
engineering

so i combined the last two and have never looked back

museum curator or insurance underwriter.

I am a mental health nurse.

careers bloke at my 6th form had me pegged on choosing degrees:

advised against medicine as he didn't think i was cut out for that much hard work 😳
& When I suggested chemistry as a degree he said "Teesside's closing down, do you want to be a chemistry teacher?" (he wasn't sure I was cut out for that either ! (He was a chemistry teacher))

we never had any careers advice at my school- which is why Im sat here looking at this forum, and drinking Stella 😕

Mine advised me not to stay on for sixth form and instead do a YTS…the guy had never met me before !!!
I did leave school (a few of my teachers were asking where I was when the 6th form started) luckily I didn't take his 2nd piece of advice and went to college then on to do my BSC(Hons) in Computing Information Systems.

Never bothered to see them, knew what I wanted to do. Teachers did try and sway me to something scientific and academic as apparently I was a clever one who could go far – all I've wanted to do is cut down trees and I do and I love it.

You don't have to aspire to power and money to be happy, so why inflate peoples ideas of what they could achieve, they may be happy in a 'lower' job.

Being from the Midlands (Oh go on then Staffordshire).. when I was due to leave school the careers advisors always pushed apprentiships.. mainly Coalboard, and to a huge degree if you chose the correct apprentiship and got accepted it was ace, a lot of my then friends went that way.
I decided to enter an engineering apprentiship (not Coalboard) and I have found throughout my career of 3 Jobs in since 1974 and never out of work that was the correct decision for myself.. the careers advice to get an apprenticeship was therefore spot on.

IIRC:
1. Foreign Office
2. Civil service
3. can't remember

Lecturer now

Careers adviser must be the most futile job in the universe. I mean how are you supposed to advise a 16 year old with no aspirations what to do with his life? Most other people giving and receiving advice have at least a vague idea of what they want out of it! e.g. Mortgage adviser and mortgage applicant.

Not a job I'd want to do!

FWIW, I was advised to be a lawyer, then a paramedic, but I'm actually a middle management bean counter

Kids these days don't know what they want to do (on the whole) until they have sobered up after Uni and realised either a) they chose the right degree for what they want to do in life or b) that media studies or similar has woefully underprepared them for real life and they decide to do something else.

I wonder if anyone has done serious research into school and uni-leavers five or so years down the line to see whether they are actually using their degree, or are in employment of a related sort.

If I'd done social sciences, I might have been tempted to use that as a PHd subject…

if you ticked the box marked 'like to work out side' it guarenteed the computer would put golf course green keeper in the top 10!

computer offered me jewellery designer, golf course green keeper, and architect.

I told the careers advisor that i wanted to design, he said like boats i said no product design. he sent me literature about shiop design!!

Did a design degree, now work in engineering dept at a uni.

Mining Engineer.

A great computer generated career path at the height of the miner's strike.
Actual path uni geek.

Not all Kids Willard.
My 2 have been pretty focussed on whay they want to do sine they were 5/6.
They are now 11/12 and they have not waivered once!

Ben came home from school at 5 years old having been told to choose a hero from the ref books in the library – without prompting he chose Isambard Kingdom Brunel.
From that day to this he is obsessed with becoming a Design Engineer!

Joe at 6 decided on becoming a film maker, we are now knee deep in videos, animations, wildlife films, cameras , etc, etc.

People tell me it is not good that they have chosen so early, but I am happy to support them in every way I can, if they change their minds later on at least they will have had fun and learned a lot in the interim. My education/careers advice was awful, a mix of parental obsession/crap careers teacher/and me being clueless.

Hey TomThumb – any pointers for my eldest?

IIRC they suggested Engineer or Lawyer for me.

I did a mech eng degree and ended up working in IT so I guess they weren't a million miles off.

When I was 6 I was torn between being a dustman or a ballet dancer.

I got given Glasgow Uni and Strathclyde Uni details and a minibus trip to Glasgow. I got VERY lucky, was going to do Accountancy or Physics.
Physics Presentation – very boring people in white lab coats
Accounts Presentation – even more boring people in suits
Accidentally strayed into computing – blokes in jeans running about, game on, a good thing to do in 1977…..

(RTC my gf is a nurse, wanted to be a nurse at 4, tried to repair animals etc etc, now senior paediatric surgical sister, so game on I'd say)

I think the whole idea that you are in a position to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life at 16 is nonsense.

They told me to be an astro- or theoretical-physicist

But I'm actually pretty crappy at maths!

My sister decided at the age of about 5 that she wanted to be a vet. Did her degree at Cambridge and is now a vet and loving it, so some people know at an early age what they want to be!

Granted that not all kids have no idea, but most don't.

Take me. I wanted to be a doctor from the age of, well, early. Was heavily into science biology from about half way through primary school and did ward rounds and observed surgey when I was doing my GCSEs. Then came A levels and my grades were rough enough that the medicals schools would not take me, so I did Biochem instead on the understanding that if I got a 2:1 or better I could reapply for med school.

Four years of that (well, after the first year) I decided that I did not want to spend more time at uni and, as I had spent a lot of time doing this new fangled bioinformatics and computer stuff in my last couple of years, I decide to get into it after I graduated. Ok, I dabbled with joining the RAF at that point too.

Several years later (13 in fact. Has it really been that long?) and after doing support, networks and software testing, I'm now a release manager for the security team. Not what I had planned at 11.

I was instructed by the headmaster to 'leave' school just before the end of 4th year (now year 10) and as my only present parent couldn't bother his arse to get me into a new school, I didn't get any careers advice.
I ended up (eventually) with a Sports Science with Biology degree and currently work part time for a charity emergency relocating / rehousing vulnerable adults and families (love it) and part time for Greater Manchester Councils (MAGMA) doing various finance processing work (hate it but I get the Cycle Scheme)

holds hand up as careers adviser ….surprisingly it was not my job choice at school mine was animal experimenter (from careers adviser)an excellent choice for a vegan I thought.

They are still (psychometrics tests)used but are better but they are generally only used with clueless people who do not know what they want to do to…they give some ballpark things of interest to them. Many peoples interests do not lead to any real jobs though and as this thread shows most people doing their current jobs truly just fell/drifted into them?
Most people I meet these days know what they want to do (college as no jobs/apprenticeships about) and only need information on how to do it.

Amasing how many females stil opt for hairdressing, childcare and beauty therapy despite all the hard work to explain they are pi55 poorly paid etc very liitle has changed in that respect in terms of SOME females aspirations sadly allthough we get the blame for this.

You only help a smal percentage of those you see.

Recent classic moment doing a CV with someone
Client : What does education mean?
Me : Just leave it blank