If you could give your 16 year old self career advice…

[WinniePig]

Looking back, if you could encourage your 16 year old self towards a career (knowing what you know about yourself now), what would to be?

I would be a translator. Translating foreign novels into English. I don’t think I have any story telling ability or any original ideas (to be a novelist myself), but I would love the challenge of translating something beautiful from
one language into another (and leaving my mark in some small way). It would work for me on so many levels both intellectually and creatively.

What about you?

Go to uni while it's cheap(er), as when you go in your mid/late-20s they'll have trebled the bloody fees.
You'll also get to enjoy it more & have the "uni experience" rather than doing it in the evenings around a full-time job.

My advice would be to change employer frequently. More than 4 years in a company is too long, perhaps 6 if you've had an internal promotion, but don't become institutionalised. Plus companies always pay the new people more than current staff to do the same job.

Chemistry, science, maths. Be a scientist, anyway.

I knew no scientists at all growing up, but missed my best calling.