Long and Winding Career Paths

[AR]

I've always been interested in people who change their careers dramatically in midstream. Me, I wasn't one of them. I pretty much knew what I wanted to do from the time I was about 12, and it never changed. But that's certainly not the case for everybody.

My high school pal Sue began as a lawyer in Boston. She was with a public interest law firm there for about a decade when she decided she didn't care for the gig. So she quit, went to Harvard Divinity and became a minister. She's still a minister and still a great pal.

My college buddy Bob became a teacher. He had a broadcasting background like most of our gang did, so he worked as a DJ on weekends and became the host of the high school quiz bowl show on TV in his city. But that wasn't the career change. About 18 years ago he did a seismic shift and became a hotel bellman. I believe he continued with the TV show. After 15 years of humping suitcases he retired last year. I've never asked him whether bellmen make more than teachers, but someday I will. I'm not embarrassed to ask, I'm just afraid of what the answer might be.

And on our cruise a couple weeks ago the cruise director's bio in the daily activities sheet said that she had quit her job as the Vice President for Strategic Planning at Toshiba, and joined the cast of Mamma Mia on national tour and in Vegas. From there she got into the cruise directing racket. We were chatting with her and Terry said, "So I see that you made your mark in the corporate world, then decided to go join the circus." She laughed pretty hard and threatened to start using the line.

Any other serious career pivots out there?

[Lakers Fan]

Originally Posted by AR

I've always been interested in people who change their careers dramatically in midstream. Me, I wasn't one of them. I pretty much knew what I wanted to do from the time I was about 12, and it never changed. But that's certainly not the case for everybody.

My high school pal Sue began as a lawyer in Boston. She was with a public interest law firm there for about a decade when she decided she didn't care for the gig. So she quit, went to Harvard Divinity and became a minister. She's still a minister and still a great pal.

My college buddy Bob became a teacher. He had a broadcasting background like most of our gang did, so he worked as a DJ on weekends and became the host of the high school quiz bowl show on TV in his city. But that wasn't the career change. About 18 years ago he did a seismic shift and became a hotel bellman. I believe he continued with the TV show. After 15 years of humping suitcases he retired last year. I've never asked him whether bellmen make more than teachers, but someday I will. I'm not embarrassed to ask, I'm just afraid of what the answer might be.

And on our cruise a couple weeks ago the cruise director's bio in the daily activities sheet said that she had quit her job as the Vice President for Strategic Planning at Toshiba, and joined the cast of Mamma Mia on national tour and in Vegas. From there she got into the cruise directing racket. We were chatting with her and Terry said, "So I see that you made your mark in the corporate world, then decided to go join the circus." She laughed pretty hard and threatened to start using the line.

Any other serious career pivots out there?

I began college as a pre-VMD student . After my first year of college I opted to change my major to Psychology .I graduated with a dual major of Psychology and Sociology with a minor in English .

After a very short experience as a NYC Social Worker I began a job as an Industrial Psychologist with one of the largest health insurance companies in the US .My job involved designing motivational studies and job evaluation programs .However ,the idea of working in a corporate setting was not to my liking and I left to do the same type of work in a non-profit setting .
After 2 years with the company I accepted a position working jointly with the NYS Department of Labor and US Department of Labor in designing programs for recently discharged members of the armed services .This was a very rewarding job but very sad as well because the majority of the service men were suffering from disabilities that they would have to deal with the rest of their lives .
After one year (when the program ended) I returned to a non profit job and spent the rest of my working career as a Health Insurance Frauds Investigator . I was able to do motivational studies and job evaluations as well.

[KDGodwin]

Originally Posted by Henry43

I began college as a pre-VMD student . After my first year of college I opted to change my major to Psychology .I graduated with a dual major of Psychology and Sociology with a minor in English .

This explains a lot!

[Sistersolo]

Ive never considered my work history either as having been a career path or being twisted, but it sure did wander around. It started because I wanted to go to the moon and I knew that as a female I could never get all the jet pilot experience required for the early astronauts. But hey, if we were going to get there by 1970, then 15 years later, 25 at the outside, we would have a research station there, right? So I majored in electrical engineering, specializing in data systems and transmission. After graduation I worked for a company that did a lot of military contract work, and then another in the microwave field. When the space program was shut down, I decided I might as well start a family, and thus left industry for several years. Once the kids were in school I worked what was supposed to be part-time for a company that made particle injectors and accelerators. About the time my part had grown to 50 hrs per week, I got dragooned into teaching a program at the community college that was designed to get women with several children (what they called displaced home makers) off of welfare. Since it worked so well, it was inevitable that the funding for it was pulled. After that I joined with a friend to buy a small company that manufactured Christmas ornaments; we never made lots of money, but sold out 6 years later to a competitor at least in the black. Then I taught mathematics at a local commuter college and helped develop their online program. After that I ran for the state legislature, which I quit after 5 terms because it was getting nastier than I could tolerate. Then I bought the exercise facility I had been attending for years, which the economy finally forced me to close last year. So now I have lots of time to cruise.