What occupation do you wish you pursued?

[Mierin]

So everyone who wishes they'd gone into something else, why not change now? Sure you'd take a cut in pay for a while. And probably other sacrifices as well. But then you wouldn't have to wonder "what if..." Just sayin..

Because I would have to go back to school and probably be in my upper 50s when done

True, but you'll be in your upper 50s anyway. In a career you don't like.

With more retirement $

 

[RunMickeyRun02]

Just wondering if people have thought about this?

For me, I wish I would have become a professor. I still could I suppose but I doubt that I ever will. But the idea of being on a college campus my entire adult life sounds awesome (For many reasons, wink wink) ...........

I'm right there with you man. I'd love to teach on campus and like you I doubt I ever will. :-(

Other than that I went off to college thinking one of two professions, the one I chose and coaching. I didn't choose coaching, probably for the better. I'm not motivator.

I also which i would have at least studied more music and arts. I still write on occasion, but don't have as much time for it as I'd like, and never seriously considered it as a career choice.

Good idea for a thread. +1

 

[Bowfin]

I can certainly tell you what job I have now and wish I didn't have: Disconnecting people's electricity. When the local power company gets behind, I get to help "catch up". Thank God I don't do it 40 hours a week, because it wears on the spirit, so to speak. Normally, I do IT work, the whole gamut from networking to computer repair to writing HTML and being the "help desk".

If I could, I would like to plant trees, starting back when I left home. That would be 40 years ago, it would be great to see what those trees would look like now. I have some hickory trees planted out at a public place, but I will never live to see any nuts from them feed the squirrels, as it takes some of them 40-50 years to mature that much. If I got a job planting trees in 1978, they would serve as a yardstick of my life, so to speak. They would also be there when I am gone. There are few endeavors that one can do in fifteen minutes that can last 150 years. Planting a tree is one, though...I just don't know how one makes a living being a modern day Johnny Appleseed. He was actually pretty wealthy at the time, since he claimed land at the edges of civilization and sold it later when settlers came behind him. One of his trees is still alive in Nova, Ohio.

I would also like to work full time at the local homeless shelter. It seems more real than anything else I have done...and I don't know how to explain "more real", except that everything else seems less important, I guess.

 

[NUinID]

Microbrewery owner, I think it would be fun, but I think the market is getting pretty saturated. There are only so many different varations of beer you can do. I think it would be hard to make it even a break even venture now.

IDK, Bud and Coors still have yuge market share. That tells me there is plenty of room left for good beer. Probably wouldn't get rich but I sure think you could make a living at it in the right area.
I too have thought about this. May still one day do a combination microbrewery and barbeque place. Can't think of anything better than smoking meat and making beer for a living. Problem is, the business end of it doesn't seem too appealing but brew master or pitmaster....hell yeah.

Out here in Idaho in and around Boise there is probably 8-10 microbrewerys. They make some pretty good beer, but I not sure there is room for any more in the area. Nebraska I think could still handle a few microbrewerys.

 

[teachercd]

Just wondering if people have thought about this?

For me, I wish I would have become a professor. I still could I suppose but I doubt that I ever will. But the idea of being on a college campus my entire adult life sounds awesome (For many reasons, wink wink) ...........

I'm right there with you man. I'd love to teach on campus and like you I doubt I ever will. :-(

Other than that I went off to college thinking one of two professions, the one I chose and coaching. I didn't choose coaching, probably for the better. I'm not motivator.

I also which i would have at least studied more music and arts. I still write on occasion, but don't have as much time for it as I'd like, and never seriously considered it as a career choice.

Good idea for a thread. +1

Thanks!

Teaching on campus, on a college campus, seems like it would be amazing. Or at a private type boarding high school. Where for the most part you have classes that can be a bit smaller in size with the ability to talk about things, discuss topics, explore ideas. Not just hand out worksheets and working with 30 plus kids in every class.

The idea of not having annoying emails from parents...not worrying about locker duty and morning duty and lunch duty...

Of course, there are annoying college students. (probably some on this site...ZING) but it is not the same.

I had one professor ask me about going into college education, probably because he knew how freaking awesome I would be at it (or because he thought I was someone else) and I looked into a bit but not enough.

 

[Lyons in the Sea of Red.]

I'd want to be Bruce Read

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Microbrewery owner, I think it would be fun, but I think the market is getting pretty saturated. There are only so many different varations of beer you can do. I think it would be hard to make it even a break even venture now.

IDK, Bud and Coors still have yuge market share. That tells me there is plenty of room left for good beer. Probably wouldn't get rich but I sure think you could make a living at it in the right area.
I too have thought about this. May still one day do a combination microbrewery and barbeque place. Can't think of anything better than smoking meat and making beer for a living. Problem is, the business end of it doesn't seem too appealing but brew master or pitmaster....hell yeah.

Out here in Idaho in and around Boise there is probably 8-10 microbrewerys. They make some pretty good beer, but I not sure there is room for any more in the area. Nebraska I think could still handle a few microbrewerys.

I just volunteered at the Great American Beer Festival this past weekend in Denver. I am sure the brewers there represent a fractional % of the medium and small brewers across America. There are microbreweries popping up every where across the Denver area. I can think of at least 5 that are within 10 minutes of my work office, and there are probably more than that.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

I was really good at math as a kid, and my dad was an engineer, so I always wondered what it would have been like going into engineering. However, a good % of my classmates in business school were former engineers that were getting their MBA and then going into the business side of things.

I don't think I would have been any good at any other profession. I hate blood and guts, so I would have been an awful doctor. I can't argue things, so I would have been a terrible lawyer. I love sports and it would have been great to have gone into the business side of sports, but there just aren't many of those opportunities out there.

I did have an insurance professor at UNL tell the class that they should look into being college professors and he spent a few minutes of the class going into how great of a life the college professor has. I wouldn't have been a good teacher though, and not sure I would have wanted to be on the research side of things. As others have said, it would be cool to work on a college campus and college city.

 

[rawhide]

Since 1967 I've been a ranch hand, construction laborer, weapons mechanic(USAF), certified welder/hydraulic assy,roofer, equipt. operator/oiler, A & P aircraft mechanic, maintenance worker, public works supt., and best for last Registered Nurse. None of the jobs before RN have lasted 5 yrs or less. Been an nurse since 1998. So it seems to be the best career for me. People think my wife and I are confused; since I have a job normally attributed to women and my wife is a CPA, a majority of a man's career. Suits us both to a T. She can't stand all the yucky stuff

, and I don't like accounting or statistics or all the other heebie, jeebie things she does

GBR

 

[RunMickeyRun02]

I can certainly tell you what job I have now and wish I didn't have: Disconnecting people's electricity. When the local power company gets behind, I get to help "catch up". Thank God I don't do it 40 hours a week, because it wears on the spirit, so to speak. Normally, I do IT work, the whole gamut from networking to computer repair to writing HTML and being the "help desk".

If I could, I would like to plant trees, starting back when I left home. That would be 40 years ago, it would be great to see what those trees would look like now. I have some hickory trees planted out at a public place, but I will never live to see any nuts from them feed the squirrels, as it takes some of them 40-50 years to mature that much. If I got a job planting trees in 1978, they would serve as a yardstick of my life, so to speak. They would also be there when I am gone. There are few endeavors that one can do in fifteen minutes that can last 150 years. Planting a tree is one, though...I just don't know how one makes a living being a modern day Johnny Appleseed. He was actually pretty wealthy at the time, since he claimed land at the edges of civilization and sold it later when settlers came behind him. One of his trees is still alive in Nova, Ohio.

I would also like to work full time at the local homeless shelter. It seems more real than anything else I have done...and I don't know how to explain "more real", except that everything else seems less important, I guess.

Beautiful post. +1

I was recently in DC. There was a GIANT tree between the side walk and one of the busiest circles downtown. I thought it was really cool they left it instead of cutting it down so close to the road, they sidewalk narrows there just to make room for the roots. A few houses down a flag for some country, the house, that country's embassy. The things that tree has "seen". I always meant to get a picture but was to busy/never had a camera on me.

 

[KUfaninNebraska]

Freelancing. Would have been nice to set my hours. But I wouldn't have been able to retire at 60.