If you could re do your career with hindsight ?

webboo

Left school at 15 did an apprenticeship in Engineering for 5 years hated it. Left to go climbing,worked in any old job to pay for it plus signing on the dole.
Went to work for a mate in Hull which for rock climbing is like moving to Lundy for cycling, took up cycling met wife. I thought I better look at long term career options. I saw an advert for Psychiatric nursing took the entrance exam and got offered a student nursing place. Left after 30 years with 40 years pension.
There were times when I wished I was doing something else but given I left school as the rebel with out a clue it didn’t turn out too bad.

norvernrob

I started as a postie when I was 20, absolutely loved it and stayed for 22 years. Didn’t love it so much by then as the job had gone completely down the pan, so I left late last year when I got the only job I applied for in those 22 years, as a trainee train driver.

I’m just about to finish my classroom stage and take my exams to go out driving with a minder, and should qualify sometime later this year. Less hours than being a postie, less hassle, same commute (10 minutes), miles better pension and 150% increase in salary when I’m qualified. Obviously there is a lot more responsibility, but I’m not worried about that.

I can’t help thinking that if I’d applied for the railways earlier I could have been laughing by now, but I enjoyed many of my years at RM so much that I don’t regret staying so long. I consider myself lucky to have had one job I loved, and have now more than likely got another - particularly as I’ve never known what I wanted to do with my life and never been really interested in a career.

fat_cat

I sort of ended up working in Financial Services by default, principally because at 17 I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and 32 years later I'm still in the industry.

Having drifted along for 10 years or so, I got a kick, up the backside aged 28 following the death of my father, resulting in the realisation that I had to stand on my own 2 feet financially. This coupled with a naturally competitive instinct led to me being much more driven, although in recent years, I have become much more focused on work life balance, and less driven as a result.

Financially my career has been quite good to me, I'm comfortably off, but certainly not wealthy, and over the years work has had its ups and downs. The financial crisis being a low point, involving a lot of uncertainty about whether I'd still have a job, followed by a period when the whole industry got a very bad reputation (not unfairly, as an industry, but not the fault of the vast majority of individuals, who were just trying to do a good job, and not earning massive salaries and bonuses).

If I could have my time again, I would love to have gone into sports journalism, but the thought never crossed my mind in my early 20's when I could have done something about it, and now aged 50 I feel its a bit late really.

No real regrets, but it would have been great to have a job I loved!

awavey

career wise, not sure, maybe I would have pushed getting to uni more, but I suspect Id have still ended up with the same style of career in IT, maybe Id have seen there were more opportunities or possibilities out there

but Ive always been someone who recognised I work to live, not live to work, Ive seen too many people, friends, ex friends and the like consumed wholly by a job and yeah they can buy flashier things, go on flashier holidays, but I don't think they are happier really, yes Id like to get paid more, who doesnt but I think Im smart enough to realise its not the be all and end all of life, there are other things to focus on whilst you still have the chance to be able to do so

DeVlaeminck

Hard to say, right now I'd quite like to have a trade like electrician, I have enough money not to work but I work because I'm too young to retire. Some kind of skill where I could work for myself maybe do 20-25 hours a week practical work in something that pays enough to make a difference without having to put the hours in to be completely shattered.

However I doubt being an electrician would have suited the young me so who knows. Probably made more career mistakes than most but maybe fewer in my personal life and if I had been more career driven perhaps the balance would have been different.

I think if I were 16 or 18 now I'd still go to university - I enjoyed both my degree and postgrad degree - but pursue a career helping disadvantaged kids in some way as I like working with kids and I'd find that fulfilling. Christ I sound like a contestant on Miss World.

sniper68

The only thing I would change is starting date.
Had I started my job at 16 in 1984 as opposed to 36 I would now be able to have retired with a large lump sum and nice final salary pension.As is it looks like I might just be able to go at 60 :roll:
On the plus side in the years between 86 and 98 I worked all over the country and didn't too bad money-wise

DeVlaeminck

Re. the ADD stuff, wouldn't surprise me if that chimed with a lot of us. I sometimes wonder if people who post regularly on these kind of forums - not the occasional members who come here for a specific reason but the regulars - share certain psychological traits - that for all the falling out we are actually more alike than just a shared interest in cycling.

keef66

Sniper68 wrote:

The only thing I would change is starting date.
Had I started my job at 16 in 1984 as opposed to 36 I would now be able to have retired with a large lump sum and nice final salary pension.As is it looks like I might just be able to go at 60 :roll:
On the plus side in the years between 86 and 98 I worked all over the country and didn't too bad money-wise

Well I started in 1981 and I haven't got a nice fat final salary pension and I'm still working as I head towards my 62nd birthday...

sniper68

keef66 wrote:

Sniper68 wrote:

The only thing I would change is starting date.
Had I started my job at 16 in 1984 as opposed to 36 I would now be able to have retired with a large lump sum and nice final salary pension.As is it looks like I might just be able to go at 60 :roll:
On the plus side in the years between 86 and 98 I worked all over the country and didn't too bad money-wise

Well I started in 1981 and I haven't got a nice fat final salary pension and I'm still working as I head towards my 62nd birthday...

You obviously don’t work in the same industry as me!
Our final salary pension was frozen last year and I didn’t have the 30 years required to be able to leave on full pension.
I can go at 60 but will lose 25% of my full pension to do so.

keef66

My pensions are all over the place due to changes of employer. So I have 2 years FS, 10 years DC, 10 years FS, and 11 years DC. Seeing an IFA in a couple of weeks to discuss sorting them out / transferring into something the kids will inherit if we both snuff it sharpish. And of course working out if we can afford for me to stop work. Company is about to go through another major upheaval so I'm hoping they offer financial inducements to get the head count down....

orraloon

Keef, just be keenly aware of what fees IFA will charge you plus what commission he/she will be on for any recommendations made as to alternative homes for your existing funds. There be bandits about.

I have consolidated my various pots from my multi various jobs into SIPP, all bar one FS scheme, which means those funds are part of my estate, and my responsibility to manage, though there is loads of relevant info available as to where to invest, all without paying extra commissions to an intemediate IFA.

ddraver

So...

I was 5 makes over 2 subjects away from doing medicine, I switched instead to geology on the day of my results.

At the end of my MSc I grabbed the only job that had been offered and ended up specialising in a relatively niche area of a niche area. I am/was a solid, albeit far from stellar geologist and like what I do/did. This took me to North Wales and The Netherlands. However, had I had the confidence to wait until I'd finished the course and reapplied with the solid grade I got, I would likely have found something much better.

After 3 years in NL, all my friends were leaving as they were finishing their 3 year stints, I was heartbroken, probably a little unwell in myself and again jumped at the only job on offer, aided by a big salary jump and a skilled recruiter who sold me and the company a great story that turned out to be less than realistic. This turned into a total disaster and, with a large amount of relief I was sacked after 5 months and went back to my old job in NL.

Slightly unfortunately the Oil industry went into a prolonged slump and I'm now into a third winter season driving airport transfers. Cos Switzerland, the wage I get is actually not that different from what I had before.

Looking back I can see that many of the "problems" have been caused by jumping at things I had through fear of missing out or having to take a few months off doing something different.

Being 34 now and surrounded by people 10 years younger than me a) makes dating difficult, and b) means I get asked for advice a lot.

Basically, from my own experience, it is usually, Yes! Have a plan, but don't be so beholden to it that you don't give yourself time to find the right position for you

The second is to make sure you do the best job you can, be that the best driver, barista, geologist, barman etc - I've done them all. And make sure that you are taking something from the job

I learnt more about managing from running a bar/cafe than from running geology projects...

keef66

orraloon wrote:

Keef, just be keenly aware of what fees IFA will charge you plus what commission he/she will be on for any recommendations made as to alternative homes for your existing funds. There be bandits about.

I have consolidated my various pots from my multi various jobs into SIPP, all bar one FS scheme, which means those funds are part of my estate, and my responsibility to manage, though there is loads of relevant info available as to where to invest, all without paying extra commissions to an intemediate IFA.

Noted. This bloke has been used by colleagues of mine and they seem to think he's OK. My wife's quite good at sussing people out so shall see where we go after the first meeting.