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Original poster

What did you tell the careers' advisor you wanted to be?

63 replies

Carouselfish · 30/03/2023 12:07

Just having amusing conversation with yesterday and thought it'd be a good one for chat!
Me - a romance novelist or private investigator...(as I am very noticeable at 6ft and have major trouble with facial recognition, the latter was clearly not for me...)
My mum - an astronaut or spy (this being a person who if you try to communicate something subtly to her, says 'why are you kicking me under the table?!' in a loud voice.)

OP posts:
Purplecatshopaholic · 30/03/2023 12:09

I think I said teacher as there were a lot of teachers in my family. Not a cat in hells chance I would be a teacher these days!

Witchofcawdor · 30/03/2023 12:09

A fire fighter, then shortly after that I accidentally caused a very serious fire in my parents' house so felt like I maybe wasn't the best person for that career... 😆

fancyfrogs · 30/03/2023 12:12

I told them I wanted to be a speech and language therapist. They gave me all sorts of reasons not to, and I came away with info about being an environmental health officer... bizarre and certainly not a career I pursued!

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 30/03/2023 12:12

Architect.

Now I do management accounts Grin

Still dream about being an architect tho!

Jules912 · 30/03/2023 12:15

An actress, despite having no acting ability what-so-ever. To give her her due, she gave me lots of information about the reality of acting and suggested that I go to university first to keep my options open.

LadyMacbethssweetArabianhand · 30/03/2023 12:15

I did Languages at school and wanted to be an air hostess (in 70s so that's what they were called). The careers advisor told me to be a nurse or apply to the civil service. That's what he told all the girls. The boys were advised to join the army. I did apply to the civil service and was selected to be an executive officer but declined. I ended up as firstly a librarian then an English teacher

ZittiEBuoni · 30/03/2023 12:17

I told them novelist or barrister.

They told me to apply for a Ministry of Defence admin job...

(The Ministry of Defence were a big local employer then...not any more. Glad I didn't take their advice.)

RaininSummer · 30/03/2023 12:17

I think I said funeral director and they said librarian as I liked reading. Pointless.

JacobsCrackersCheeseFogg · 30/03/2023 12:20

A police officer (given my current ideas about the police I now find it funny)
A mechanic (like Kylie Minogue)
A journalist
She suggested banking. In fact she told all my friends in my class about banking. AFAIK, none of us went into banking.

Original poster
Carouselfish · 30/03/2023 13:59

Ooh had never thought about them cunningly recruiting for local firms before.
I dont think mine knew what to do with me. Probably suggested journalist or police. When we did the online quiz the quiz gave me Medical Examiner!! I go faint at the sight of blood but that wasnt one of the questions!!!

OP posts:
MaidOfSteel · 30/03/2023 14:10

I wanted so much to be a window dresser. I ended up being steered by the careers office onto a clerical YTS. I still rue that day.

Redminionpenguin · 30/03/2023 14:11

Wanted to be a physio or ot she sent me to work in an office for work experience saying I'd be better off getting a job in admin. The only thing it did was show me I definitely didn't want to work in an office.
I had hoped careers advice had improved since my day but dc1 has left college and got no support except on how to fill in a ucas form and what uni courses were appropriate. Definitely didn't want to go to university and wanted to get a job. Has done this off own back with no help from college. It doesn't look good on statistical data.
My younger two already seem to have had more careers input since pandemic than dc1 got during all 7 years of secondary education. I'm hopeful it will be more rounded information rather than one size fits all or which ever sector is short of workers.

SettlingForANewPassword · 30/03/2023 14:15

Solicitor. Advisor suggested I think about being a legal secretary instead as it was more suitable. Hmm

I am a solicitor.

VeggieSausage · 30/03/2023 14:19

I said I wanted to be an MP... I ended up as a project manager...

Bluebellnewt · 30/03/2023 14:19

Solicitor
advisor told me I wasn’t capable so I did it anyway .
It served a purpose and I am where I am now as a result but I wish I had had better advice about alternatives . I haven’t worked as a solicitor in years

twolilacs · 30/03/2023 14:23

A vet. I asked what A-levels I would need to do, and which universities did veterinary courses, and also where there any other animal-related careers I might consider. The careers officer was useless and said they'd look it up, but didn't. This was in the days before computers let alone the internet, so you couldn't find this sort of thing out by yourself like you can nowadays.

The only thing they did say that I remember was a series of questions that went like this:

Did I want to work in a shop?
No.
Not even a pet shop?
No.
Did I perhaps want to be a hairdresser?
Nope.
Would I like to be a nurse?
No.
Did I want to train as a typist?
No.
Did I want to work in an office?
No.
Er........

I said I might like to work in a zoo - how do I find out about that?
Er.......

That's the sort of stuff we teenage girls had to contend with in the late 1970's when it came to careers advice. Total sodding waste of time.

Needmorelego · 30/03/2023 14:28

A Careers Advisor - oh it would have been marvelous to actually have one.
We did a computerised test (which we never actually got the results for) but that was it.
Careers advice was non existent in my school days (GCSE years 1989-91).

SlicerAndEcho · 30/03/2023 14:28

Interpreter at the EU or the UN.

They suggested civil service.

I did work experience at an international company and discovered I hated being in an office, let alone an interpreting booth.

I’m a teacher.

mindutopia · 30/03/2023 14:31

Ours was rubbish and annoying and I tended to try to avoid having to meet with her. But I did do a test that said I would be well suited to being a forest ranger - which thinking about it now, I'd probably quite enjoy that - more trees, less people.

That said, when I was 12, I told everyone I wanted to be a professor who went to live in the rainforest and study plants. I am in fact an academic, but I study people and I don't live in the rainforest.

dontwaitforever · 30/03/2023 14:32

I wanted Judith Chalmer's job on Wish you were here? Or Jill Dando's on Holiday.

I thought becoming a tour rep would be the way to go about it ( in my naivety!).
I was advised to go to sixth form to do some A-levels. Had a serious wobble on results day and thought about turning down my offer of a MFL degree to do a course in travel and tourism at the local FE college through clearing, but didn't. I sometimes wonder how different my life would have turned out if I had taken the other path.

MissGroves · 30/03/2023 14:33

Marine or RAF fighter pilot but told I couldn’t as they don’t take girls. Really do wish I’d pursued armed forces. I’m now currently retraining at the grand old age of 43 to be a software engineer.

Marsyas · 30/03/2023 14:37

We didn't really have a careers adviser as such (GCSEs 1990) although we had a "careers room" with loads of brochures etc, which we were let loose on every so often. I remember finding out about careers in publishing and advertising but they were always secondary to my desire to become a journalist, which I did. The quiz thing (wasn't online in those days, you had to colour in boxes in pencil) told me prison officer, no doubt they needed more of them.

Chemenger · 30/03/2023 14:38

When I said I wanted to be an engineer she said that I should really consider going to university instead. Obviously, because I had good o levels, I should have been considering medicine (which I had no interest in). I now teach engineering at a university.

ifonly4 · 30/03/2023 14:38

At the time it would have been Hotel Management as I had a course lined up September after leaving school.

However, I knew a business person who needed help in Easter holidays and he ended up offering me a job immediately I left school. After I leave him, I was a Legal Secretary for many years.

species5618 · 30/03/2023 14:52

@Witchofcawdor That made me laugh. You're not Bob Mortimer are you?