Do you ever wish you did things different in your career?

I enjoy my job and I'm in a period at the moment, with young children, where I'm happy to sit in the position I'm in and have a good work-life balance so I can spend as much time with them as possible.

However, sport has always been my passion and I do wish I'd have tried to get into it in some capacity. Ideally as a journalist, although seeing the standard of what is out there these days it's clear that it's all clickbait rather than good honest work and I'd have struggled with that.
 
Went in the army straight from school at 16 and when I left, I applied for the fire service at 19. After passing the exams, physical and mental, I decided that I didn't want to work in another regimented environment. What a dick move that was!!!
I've worked in sales/management for 30 years, and while I'm good at it, I sometimes feel that life has passed me by, as if I'd stuck with the fire service, I'd now be retired on a great pension and doing all the stuff I can't now. Bugger.
 
From leaving school i chased all sorts of sales jobs , chasing the big money and it was always boom n bust. Have a run of earning decent money before it inevitably crashed.

Spent years not being home til late, not putting my oldest son to bed, missing out on taking him places after school.

Towards the end of that cycle of my life i was a sales manager at a mortgage company , approx 25 staff under me, earning real decent money but once again the lure of the bigger bucks took over and i set up on my own. Had a really good run until the financial crash came (2008?) and there i was, back at square one. The stress and strain of that time took its toll and i suppose i had a very minore breakdown.

Never again!!
So 17 years ago i set up on my own, in the cleaning industry. Normal working hours, no stress, do a good job, get paid, go home.
It took 2 years to get properly up n running and i took a little part time job to ease any income concerns and ive never looked back.

At first i was a little embarrassed about telling people what i do. Id gone from a high flying mortgage sales suit wearer to a shit shifter. But it soon became apparent people were often a little envious of my new found career and the freedom it offered me.

Fast forward to 17 years later and my little business thrives. Its still just me, no staff, which is 100% how i want it.

I earn enough money to give me the life i want. I dont work long hours , though i can if i wish, and most importantly im there for my 2 younger kids.
For example, today i drop then at school, i pick up the younger lad and take him straight to footy practice. Then its my daughters maths tutor and i take her there, pick son up, pick daughter up, home for tea, then take daughter footy practice
Yes its hectic but the time i spend with them is brilliant.

So … i wish all those year ago when i was chasing the big dollar, at the expense of family life and my mental health, well i wish id just set up being a shit shifter back then.

To add.
You cannot beat being self employed
 
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Left school in '76 and did an apprenticeship in aviation hydraulic engineering. Left after 6 yrs as I wasn't in with the drinking culture so suffered bullying.
Spent over 30 yrs in the sports turf industry starting at the bottom and became a golf course manager. Loved that for about 20 years. From 2000 onwards it went down hill and as with many of my colleagues I was made redundant. The best thing that ever happened to me. Golf would have killed me with the unrealistic standard and reduction in budget. The constant moaning from the golfers who in all honesty were not great players Mostly 20+ handicap so shit golfers !
Started working at the local council as just a minion, more than happy doing that. Now they have prompted me now to run the dept. It's the best job I've ever had, I'm respected, well paid, plenty of holidays, flexible time. Mostly office based, being 64 its good for my back :)
 
supercity88 said:
I enjoy my job and I'm in a period at the moment, with young children, where I'm happy to sit in the position I'm in and have a good work-life balance so I can spend as much time with them as possible.

However, sport has always been my passion and I do wish I'd have tried to get into it in some capacity. Ideally as a journalist, although seeing the standard of what is out there these days it's clear that it's all clickbait rather than good honest work and I'd have struggled with that.
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PE and English were the only two things i enjoyed and was good at at school.
My school wasnt great, it had been a grammer school two years before i arrived and a lot of the teachers struggled going from high achieving grammer school kids to us unruly comprehensive thicko’s so they generally just gave up on us.
But my english teacher pushed me to be a journalist.
But me being me took no notice and went into sales (see above post).

I still like to write and often wonder what couldve been but as you say, these days journalism is a cess pit and little money in it so it wouldnt have ended well
 
Architecture has kept me employed all my working life..albeit with the boom/bust culture of the Construction industry, I have worked abroad , and am now an Associate of a UK top 20 practice. Retirement beckons. Architecture is now a mindless developer led grind...nowhere near as much fun as it used to be. all over again, I would have gone into Law.
 
Fortunately I had a job where I could work from home the last 25 years of it so there was no alarm clock and there are not many jobs out there I could have swapped mine for and maintained this luxury. So no.
 
Interesting question, because I'm at that point in my career where i could progress further to a higher position in the company in which i would be paid a lot more, I question if i should go for it but most of me just doesn't want too - I earn ok, i have such a good work/life balance and i know if i went for this role it would really affect that, you have to be more dedicated, way more on calls and meetings etc.
Maybe I'll look back and regret not making the move.
 
I'm what you'd call an IT Geek - right from 18 straight out of school - started in a factory building the things and then at 24 moved into Enterprise IT (big boy stuff, companies and govt departments) - originally the move was driven by wanting to work closer to home as the first of our kids was born (and I turned down a decent pay-rise after a couple of years with another company because I didn't fancy the commute to Warrington) but since then over the last 35 years I've been around the world on the back of it and experienced working in more industries you could ever believe (including a Premier League Club)- and I've mostly been based at home for the last 10 years - even now it never gets boring. So probably I wouldn't have done anything differently.
 
Hmm good question. Ive done OK for myself working in Engineering consultancy as I'm at a fairly senior level in a large multinational.

Do I enjoy it ? Erm well I enjoy the wages and some elements, particularly if its something thats a new, novel or a major high profile project, the only issue is I rarely get involved in the technical aspects these days outside of the feasibility stage.

I did fancy working in finance at one stage, but think I might have found it boring. Teaching might have been another option if you weren't also trying to fix societal problems alongside trying to educate the kids.
 
Wish North Manchester council didn't let all us apprentices go due to the credit crunch and recession in 2009, loved that job everyday was different and I'd have no doubt bought a house over 10 years earlier.

Instead ended up in an office job which is no good for someone with a short attention span. Probably going to reduce my hours in the near future to look after my Mrs and one of my sons.

Being a colour blind **** seriously limited some of the jobs I fancied.
 
Took an apprentice draughtsmans job at Tameside Council after a couple of "schemes" when I left school, I was 3 months unemployed between the second scheme and the apprenticeship starting, during which time I was offered a place on a prestigious course in photography (in the days before digital was even an idea). I'd have loved to do that, but my sensible head said take the apprenticeship, make a bit of money, and the photography is a good side line.

Rocked up on my first day at training school for the apprentices, to be told, sorry, we've dropped that, how do you fancy being an apprentice technician instead. Having no other option I said OK then, and spent the next 42 years as an electrical engineer in the construction industry.

Thing is, I fucking hated and was shit at physics at school.

So, 42 years, 32 of which were via my own one man band ltd co allowed me to retire on my 58th birthday, meet my wife and produce my daughter, meet some great friends who have been in my life for over 30 years and work on prestigious building jobs. However from a work perspective I've pretty much hated 95% of the time.

So financially I made the right choice, but with a few notable exceptions, it didn't make me happy.

Would I change my initial decision? I look at my daughter and think definitely not
 
Bluesince1979 said:
PE and English were the only two things i enjoyed and was good at at school.
My school wasnt great, it had been a grammer school two years before i arrived and a lot of the teachers struggled going from high achieving grammer school kids to us unruly comprehensive thicko’s so they generally just gave up on us.
But my english teacher pushed me to be a journalist.
But me being me took no notice and went into sales (see above post).

I still like to write and often wonder what couldve been but as you say, these days journalism is a cess pit and little money in it so it wouldnt have ended well
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You go to Cheadle Moseley?
I was one of the Grammar school kids, started there in 1970 when it was still Moseley Hall, left in '77
You're spot on with your assessment, teachers (masters) lost interest
 
My career has been good to me and I have enjoyed it but have probably stayed in my current position/industry too long. I quite fancy a change for my last few years of working life but realise I am not really qualified to do anything else and I'm too old to train again to do something new.
 
As I've gotten older, yes I do. However, I'm eligible to retire in a couple of years and I'll still be fairly young. I will be getting a pension that amounts to approximately fifty percent of my salary at retirement. Not many people have that "luxury" anymore.

Getting paid for simply being alive and waking up every morning has kept me doing what I do. Hopefully, I can find a good job doing something I enjoy, preferably part time, to earn a little more money for a couple more years then retire completely.
 
better dead than red said:
As I've gotten older, yes I do. However, I'm eligible to retire in a couple of years and I'll still be fairly young. I will be getting a pension that amounts to approximately fifty percent of my salary at retirement. Not many people have that "luxury" anymore.

Getting paid for simply being alive and waking up every morning has kept me doing what I do. Hopefully, I can find a good job doing something I enjoy, preferably part time, to earn a little more money for a couple more years then retire completely.
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I had a similar plan in terms of finding something I enjoy doing which I can do part time to bring in a little extra cash. I'm finding all aspects of that harder than I'd have imagined
 
flook said:
I had a similar plan in terms of finding something I enjoy doing which I can do part time to bring in a little extra cash. I'm finding all aspects of that harder than I'd have imagined
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I completely understand. I've started thinking about it about it and it is difficult. I'd enjoy part time work in a shop that sells books, a local type one like I grew up with. There are very few of those around anymore unfortunately.

I told my wife, perhaps I can get a job pouring beer part time at a small local brewery. Her answer was basically, "Fuck off. I'll not have you coming home half drunk a couple of days a week." :)
 
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