If you chose your job (rather than 'fell into it') how did you get there?

[7inchesFromTheMiddaySun]

I'm in marketing, but I never really planned to. I wanted to be in TV production - but quickly realised how difficult it'd be to make it in that space, so I went for marketing instead (and am doing quite well). But that sort of 'happened' when I started looking for an alternative to TV production.

If you are doing the job you wanted e.g. you studied law and you're now practicing, or you trained as a dancer and you are now a professional dancer, etc.what was your path? And has the job lived up to your expectations?

I decided age 12 that I wanted to be a secondary school languages teacher. I followed the standard path - 3 language A Levels, a joint degree in two languages, a PGCE and then straight into teaching. And here I am still doing it at age 53!

Has it lived up to my expectations... Well, it has depended very much on the school I was in at the time. Sometimes it's been awful. At it's best, it's a wonderful job. The workload has got worse and worse though, and is virtually untenable now if you're full time.

Overall though, are you happy you followed your plan / dream?

I changed careers after 20 years in retail management by conscious choice and switched to Adult Education. I've now done 25 years in that.

I very recently switched careers (although I did kind of fall into it as I made the decision after wandering into an open day at a vocational school when I was out in town in bad weather ). Studied aircraft maintenance for a year, chose for my work placement a company I wanted to work at (but tbf i was limited in my choices as I couldn't work at the other nearest employer), did 12 weeks placement and asked for a job and got it.

I'm in TV production - to be honest, you're probably lucky you didn't end up in it as it's a dying industry. For at least 2-3 years it's been almost at a stand-still, I know many who've had to jump ship, and some who've just about clung on with 5 months work out of 12.

What part of TV production are you interested in? If you still want to explore it I'm sure your marketing skills would be transferable in some way, and there will still be a TV industry around in the future, it'll just have shrunken in size.. There's also crossover with corporate films (and probably more ££).

The route I took wasn't exactly planned - I studied Fine Art at uni, was drawn to documentaries (the art world was too insular!), did a free short course in film production after uni, got a placement at the BBC. The BBC were very good at supporting newcomers and offered me a job as a runner. I then had to decide whether to go down the editorial route (eg becoming a Director), or the production route (eg becoming a Production Manager). I realised that (obviously) there were too many cooks in the kitchen when it comes to making stuff for TV and the process wasn't exactly the most creative, so I decided to go down the production route instead. The bonus being that no one wants to go down that route so it's actually very easy to find jobs. Luckily it turns out I love spreadsheets and budgeting, so it worked out well lol.

I work in environment. I did two degrees and worked in the industry alongside my second degree. I always knew I wanted a job where I could be outdoors. Might be looking for a new job if Labour get their way!

I did lots of volunteering experiences, did lots of courses, but when I got to my dream job I realised how shit it was and hated the entire industry even though I'd spent years working and volunteering studying for a degree and training courses, working for nothing or pennies to get there.
Because of the nature of the job you don't get to slag off your service users or your sector, certainly not to eager minions as you could be reported and all you hear is how 'rewarding' and 'life changing' the work is until you're there and see the type of shit people you're literally ruining your health and putting over your family, for ungrateful lying scum.

Other people always had a specific intetest eg obsessed with tv or theatre or make up or teaching and they just did this in various roles and contexts or went into a uni course with almost guaranteed jobs post graduation and a very specific pathway like nursing.

Most people these days have a zigzag career though.

Yep. Did an undergrad then doctorate in my chosen field and now work in that role, which I plan to do for the entirety of my career. I enjoy my job and it has plenty of benefits (good holidays, flexible working, reasonable pay, opportunities to progress) so feel like I made a good choice overall.

I studied psychology, thinking I’d go into counselling, but after uni I realised it wasn’t for me. I fell into admin work, which led to digital content and then SEO.
It wasn’t a planned route, but it’s worked out well.

My dad is a physics professor, one of my sisters is an astrophysicist and the other an engineer. I was never good at maths so studied law. At some stage during my BPC I realised that I hated courts (everything about them) but I had already spent too much time and money to do something else. Still happily working in law but not practicing.