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Original poster

What is the unlikeliest career that someone you went to school with ended up doing?

335 replies

CatDogMonkeyPOW · 28/04/2022 09:00

Shamelessly stolen from Reddit. Did anyone you went to school with end up with a surprising career.

Girl I did my a levels with was a county athletics champion and one of the smartest kids in school. She went on to be a singer in a mediocre girl band.

OP posts:
blueshoes · 29/04/2022 09:57

Baggal1983 · 28/04/2022 14:23

  • A girl I went to law school with worked as a so called high class escort. She went on, finished her degree and became a partner at a big corporate firm. She was not a great student, so I wonder how she became partner?!
  • A boy in my class at primary school became a very successful entrepreneur in the USA

To be fair to the other posters, I did read your comment as implying she slept her way into partnership. I read your explanation and fair enough but be aware of any inadvertent aspersions you are casting. Women who achieve success in their career should not have to deal with this shit.

Kennykenkencat · 29/04/2022 09:59

BiscuitLover3678 · 29/04/2022 08:55

Who are they?

Show quote history

Which school did you go to that produced all these famous/infamous people

Spidey66 · 29/04/2022 09:59

Neverendingmindfuck · 28/04/2022 14:12

A man from my year murdered his girlfriends baby. He was 17 at the time.

Another guy I thought would be in the entertainment industry, fabulous singing voice etc, ended up being a mortician.

Maybe he misread the job title and thought it was Musician?

I had a first best friend in Infants. When we were learning to read, we were the two who best at it. Because of that we were sat next to each other so we could read together. We used to go to each others houses for birthday parties.

I then went to a different Juniors so we lost touch.

50 years on, she's a famous actress on TV, radio and theatre, mainly comedy actress but does Shakespeare etc as well. Not a surprising story but a nice one.

I'm a bogstandard mental health nurse in the NHS.

Interested in this thread?

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General education
herbologist · 29/04/2022 10:01

A close friend became a GP. Nothing very out if the ordinary about that, however she was someone who excelled in arts subjects, hadn't a clue in any form of sciences, and switched from a totally unrelated career to becoming a GP after a 1 year conversion course. Literally 1 year. I was under the mistaken impression medicine required considerable study and experience before you were let loose on patients. I am sure she is kind and empathetic, but I wouldn't trust her to be able to diagnose and treat anything. Hopefully I am wrong!

Motnight · 29/04/2022 10:03

hjerkinn · 29/04/2022 09:35

I need to read all of these pages because I suspect I might be someone people in my school would write about as I have done something completely different to what they would have expected.

But the most surprising one was a girl who was sleeping around from the age of 12, taking drugs, getting drunk and all the rest and has since become a Religious Studies teacher. I'd never have expected that one.

There are two sporty people who were absolutely amazing at school but have been affected by life-changing illnesses and have very limited mobility now. That really saddens me.

@hyjerkinn, I think that you will find that the child having sex from the age of 12, taking drugs and getting drunk, was being abused. Good on her that she survived all that and became a teacher.

Ormally · 29/04/2022 10:08
  1. Headliner in a band that is named after a football club. Pleased for them but wouldn't have guessed that at the age of 15. People with incredible talent who were contemporaries are still playing the same pub gigs in the area where we grew up.
  2. Very talented scholar of ancient languages, academia would have beckoned. Became a variety performer in an act with an impersonator of a '30s Broadway singer.
ParisNoir · 29/04/2022 10:10

Kennykenkencat · 29/04/2022 09:59

Which school did you go to that produced all these famous/infamous people

Show quote history

I dont feel comfortable sharing that, but its in the Brighton area

Fanacapan · 29/04/2022 10:21

Boy in my class at school formed a band and was quite successful in the 80s. Now living the life in California.

Echobelly · 29/04/2022 10:35

I was surprised to found out that two guys from my year make a living as 'Motivational Speaker' types.

Echobelly · 29/04/2022 10:36

And my best mate from uni is a dominatrix and it's kind of my 'fault' as I introduced her to the guy who got her into that stuff. I say 'fault' in quotes as she loves her job and has done quite nicely out of it, thanks 😀

johnandsally · 29/04/2022 10:37

GMB Presenter

LakieLady · 29/04/2022 10:42

CEO of Stonewall.

She was very conservative politically when we were at school, and bookish. I thought she'd have some sort of academic career.

LakieLady · 29/04/2022 10:46

purpleboy · 28/04/2022 11:17

Mine is the current chancellor of the exchequer Grin

He went to Winchester, didn't he? Has it gone co-ed?

Mummyoflittledragon · 29/04/2022 10:47

LakieLady · 29/04/2022 10:42

CEO of Stonewall.

She was very conservative politically when we were at school, and bookish. I thought she'd have some sort of academic career.

As in Nancy Kelly?

BiscuitLover3678 · 29/04/2022 10:47

Motnight · 29/04/2022 10:03

@hyjerkinn, I think that you will find that the child having sex from the age of 12, taking drugs and getting drunk, was being abused. Good on her that she survived all that and became a teacher.

Show quote history

Agreed. A lot of these kids were obviously very messed up. You don’t realise it when you’re a kid yourself and they just annoy you. Good on them for being able to change.

LakieLady · 29/04/2022 10:53

Comvit · 28/04/2022 12:51

It's not exactly about her career but more of a 'where they ended up' story. I went to a rough comprehensive school in a big city. But there was a gaggle of posh girls who inexplicably went there too.

One of the cleverest, most well-to-do of these girls had very sights set on being an architect. When we were messing about during lessons, she'd be spending time drawing (and I mean technical drawings, not doodling) new buildings and making lists of building materials. When we had to bring in the book we were reading at home for an English lesson, she brought in a book about concrete and its use in building.

At some point along the way (no idea when, where or how) she developed a crippling heroin addiction and became homeless. I've seen her a few times over the years when I've visited my home city. She's unrecognisable, clearly neurologically scarred from the drugs she's used, and eeking out an existence any way she can. It's very sad. I don't see her making it to 40.

That's unbelievably sad. Shows how easy it is for a life to unravel.

pinkmoomin · 29/04/2022 10:57

I went to an awful secondary sink school in the 80s. It wouldn’t have passed an OFSTED inspection nowadays. The girl sat next to be in English Class went on to become a Baroness and Chairwoman of the Conservative Party.

GhostofMaudFlanders · 29/04/2022 10:59

Reading this thread makes me think my school must have been the least achieving one in the country.

I don't think any of us amounted to the careers posted in here.

I think one lad did languages and is now a translator, but out of a huge school year, I would say less than 10 kids went to university..we are talking late 80's here.

Ones I know, one of my bullies joined the police, which seems a common theme, and if we taking it a bit further, when I went to uni as a mature student, the biggest wasters on my course who barely managed to keep on the course despite it being a quite easy English one, ended up doing PGCE's and becoming teachers as they thought it would be easy money and even the thickest/laziest could find a course willing to take them.

JudgeJ · 29/04/2022 11:00

CatDogMonkeyPOW · 28/04/2022 09:00

Shamelessly stolen from Reddit. Did anyone you went to school with end up with a surprising career.

Girl I did my a levels with was a county athletics champion and one of the smartest kids in school. She went on to be a singer in a mediocre girl band.

Played in the '66 World Cup Final!

RoostasTowel · 29/04/2022 11:02

A girl at my school who wanted to be an astronaut and the first woman to walk on the moon became an underwear model.

thegreylady · 29/04/2022 11:05

Political activist and author (same person)

Carryonmarion · 29/04/2022 11:07

Girl who went to my school was an infamous nanny who went to prison in the US & was all over the news 25 years ago - now a dance teacher.

PastMyBestBeforeDate · 29/04/2022 11:07

My school seems to lack any notable alumni but I have just discovered someone I knew is a leading light in the Morris dancing world.

50ShadesOfCatholic · 29/04/2022 11:08

one of the girls from my class is now a non-binary professor of physics which is so cool.

RoostasTowel · 29/04/2022 11:09

Blahburst · 29/04/2022 09:19

The unlikeliest is the head girl who was extremely clever, went to Oxford, could have had any career of her choice then married a born again Christian and became a minister’s wife/baby maker. It seemed like a waste to me but she seems very happy.

You mean a mother?

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