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Original poster

What career would you choose if there were I barriers in your way?

65 replies

tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 15:35

What would your dream career be? Ideally a rich stay at home wife is my ideal job but, alas, the husband is poor.

I'm looking for some inspiration as I have no real direction in my life.

I don't have children and I can potentially retrain (not as a doctor, mind) but I really don't know where to go or even start. If you were able to peruse any career, what would it be?

OP posts:
Original poster
tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 15:36

Title should say NO barriers

OP posts:
Loveduppenguin · 12/02/2025 15:37

Well what are you interested in? You have to start there surely? I couldn’t work in an area I had no interest in unless I REALLY had to! For example I couldn’t be a nurse or a doctor or anything in the caring capacity as I’m too Squamish.

Mulledjuice · 12/02/2025 15:39

An ICU doctor or an OB-GYN.

Does "no barriers" mean "if all salaries were equal?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

Jobs
loropianalover · 12/02/2025 15:40

Socialite.

Don’t really know what to tell you though? I’d just get an office job that allowed me to pay the bills. Why do you think you need to retrain if there isn’t even anything specific you’re interested in/want a career in?

Needmorelego · 12/02/2025 15:40

I'd be an antiques/collectables buyer and seller.

Original poster
tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 15:46

Mulledjuice · 12/02/2025 15:39

An ICU doctor or an OB-GYN.

Does "no barriers" mean "if all salaries were equal?

No barriers as in you could financially take the time out of earning an income to retrain or children were not too young, you weren't too old. That sort of thing

OP posts:
Original poster
tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 15:49

loropianalover · 12/02/2025 15:40

Socialite.

Don’t really know what to tell you though? I’d just get an office job that allowed me to pay the bills. Why do you think you need to retrain if there isn’t even anything specific you’re interested in/want a career in?

I do just have a normal office job now, to pay the bills etc. but I would have loved to have been a midwife.

My barrier is that I can't afford to take 3 years out of the work force. And I'm a bit of a panicker, so probably not an ideal role for me.

OP posts:
DeliciouslyEvil · 12/02/2025 15:50

I always wanted to be a pathologist

MrsTerryPratchett · 12/02/2025 15:57

Travel writer. If I really cared I suppose I could have.

HauntedBungalow · 12/02/2025 15:58

Ballerina.

Unfortunately I can't dance .

Dappy777 · 12/02/2025 15:59

If you mean any barriers (so not just money but talent, intellect, social skills, etc), I'd like to have been an academic. I'd love to have taught classics at some beautiful old university, and to have combined that with a successful writing career – publishing books on ancient history and literature. More generally, a life of creativity would have suited me. Learning and creating are the two things that make me most happy. If I could have spent my life studying, teaching, writing novels and poems, and producing good paintings...ahh, how happy I could have been. And if I could have had a big house in the country, with a large garden and fields and horses all around me...bliss.

Sadly, like most people, I live a life of mediocrity, grinding away at an unrewarding job and living in a small house on a new build estate with endless other pokey houses jammed on top of me.

Lifelover16 · 12/02/2025 16:01

Art restoration

Gymmum82 · 12/02/2025 16:03

I’d follow the money so probably something in banking or IT. They seem to earn the most money for very little work

EarlierDistraction · 12/02/2025 16:03

Jewellery design and making.

Ladamesansmerci · 12/02/2025 16:04

I'm a Mental Health Nurse and I'm passionate about it, but, my unrealistic job is musical theatre performer on the West End!! Alas, I have no talent in either singing or dancing lol.

The other one for me would be astronaut!

User543211 · 12/02/2025 16:04

Interior designer
Architect
Astronaut

But I have an office job that I can WFH that pays the bills, is flexible around life and I get to spend more time with my children than my previous career. In many ways the perfect job, if you look at it that way.

FridayNightDinnerForTwo · 12/02/2025 16:07

Historical location scout/ historical advisor for films and tv. Allow me to travel on expenses to beautiful locations, continually learn about different periods of history and get paid handsomely for it (I hope!)

Or one of those places that recreates history like the Black Country living museum (but maybe one abroad rather than in Dudley!)

Ponderingwindow · 12/02/2025 16:08

If I could earn my current salary and have the same job stability building props and costume pieces I would do that. I’m quite good at it so it’s not an issue of skill. Alas, I value job stability and a large paycheck too much so I am my own barrier.

mumofoneAlonebutokay · 12/02/2025 16:09

A barrister. Or a surgeon.

I thought about doing my graduate diploma in law and then training contract etc. But I'm 33 now, and the thought of all that training to just start at the bottom with a bunch of 23 year olds who've just got back from bali 🤢🙄😩 nope

Plus I've had some stuff to work on. Plus it's just me and dd. I want to be her mum more than anything now

Maybe when she's older

Edit, plus have no work experience in law itself. It's all too much

SirQuintusAurelius · 12/02/2025 16:10

I'd choose to be an actress like Cameron Diaz - made a stack of cash in a not very demanding job with a lot of perks, freedom to stop work for years and good enough to be offered a fun role when she feels like she needs to earn again.

What a great life.

Original poster
tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 16:14

Oooh I'd also like to be the person that decides what music goes over films and tv shows

OP posts:
Original poster
tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 16:16

Dappy777 · 12/02/2025 15:59

If you mean any barriers (so not just money but talent, intellect, social skills, etc), I'd like to have been an academic. I'd love to have taught classics at some beautiful old university, and to have combined that with a successful writing career – publishing books on ancient history and literature. More generally, a life of creativity would have suited me. Learning and creating are the two things that make me most happy. If I could have spent my life studying, teaching, writing novels and poems, and producing good paintings...ahh, how happy I could have been. And if I could have had a big house in the country, with a large garden and fields and horses all around me...bliss.

Sadly, like most people, I live a life of mediocrity, grinding away at an unrewarding job and living in a small house on a new build estate with endless other pokey houses jammed on top of me.

I'm not creative at all, but this sounds lovely

OP posts:
FridayNightDinnerForTwo · 12/02/2025 16:21

tinkersfig · 12/02/2025 16:14

Oooh I'd also like to be the person that decides what music goes over films and tv shows

My friend's dad did this job for films and TV (retired now). Good money. I remember lying in bed at sleepovers listening to him composing. I think he was quite well known in his field.

TheDandyLion · 12/02/2025 16:24

Hotel Bath Critic. A bit like a food critic but I would review baths in hotels all over the world.

Ruthietuthie · 12/02/2025 16:26

I love my current job but wish I had a better version of it (a better institution, more resources, more respect). I am a university professor and administrator (in the US, so very different circumstances than UK academics, but I dream of an institution that is a better fit). But teaching, writing, writing grants, building programs with others are things I love and would choose to do whatever my circumstances.