How did you pick your career?

I didn't pick it...it picked me!

I picked the jobs with the best pay, just happens they've all been in the same field.

I fell into it. Answered an ad in the paper for an office manager for a court reporting agency. I was hooked. 22 years later and I still love the profession!

I wasn't good at math or science or school in general. But I could draw. So I went to art school for animation. Then got a job in animation. And here I am.

I'm a PE teacher and have always loved sport.....oh and long holidays!

I majored in Architecture...waiting for that after college breakthrough. lol

I always loved to dance and make up dances. I don't know why, it was just natural to me (there were other dancers and skaters in my family, so maybe genetic). Then when I was 11 a friend was going to dance class so I went with her. Then when I turned 14 I was old enough to work and could pay for my own dance classes. I took as many as I could. Then I started traveling a bit to take more workshops in different styles that interested me. I was injured in some car accidents, etc. So, I thought I wouldn't be able to dance as a career. But, I still chose a school with a great dance department that I loved because I wanted to continue dancing (while studying science and psychology). Then they asked me to major in dance and that was what I really wanted. It just made sense. I just loved it so much. Once I started dancing I had found my calling and it just kept calling to me always. I couldn't escape it and I didn't want to. It hasn't always been easy (I've had ups and downs), but it's my life and my identity in many ways. Sometimes I wish I had a career that was not so body oriented, and I think about other options. But, I just keep sticking with dance. I'm happy when I dance. Not so happy when I don't. I still struggle with confidence issues. Dance is a creative field and I always have to be creative and create new dances and have new ideas and perform and put myself out there...and I am actually a shy person (but I'm not shy when I am performing). I never know what the future will be and performance may not always be an option. But for now, I'm still dancing.

I was working in an office for manufacturing engineers. My daughter 18 months was acting weird when going to daycare. I had a weird feeling so my hubby and I made a surprise visit during lunch. My daughter was in a room by herself eating lunch in the corner buckled in a high chair. The daycare lady said she wouldn't eat her lunch. We pulled her out and started looking for daycare. We didn't have any luck finding scene we trusted. My husband had cancer at the time and we were 20 years old. We both had to work no choice for medical bills. I opened my own daycare to stay home with her plus make money . I didn't plan on staying but I have been going for 10 years. I love what I do. I don't like the stress of long hours and the wear on my house. However I enjoy all the small things every day! Plus their biggest problems during the day is picking between Legos and cars. Yep no "real" life issues to deal with from them! Watching little ones learning to walk, crawl, and talk for the first time makes you remember the important things every day!

Are you ready for a very long story? Okay. Here it goes.

A few years ago, my best friend and I decided to take a road trip from Florida to Chicago. Our two favourite bands were playing a show together and it was kind of a big deal and we were just crazy enough to decide to go. While we were there, a touring production RENT was playing at a theatre there. My friend knew that I loved the movie and she bought tickets for us.

I had never seen live theatre before, and when we went, I was kind of blown away by it. And extremely captivated by what they were doing. At the time, I was a journalism major, only one year into college, and I wasn't loving it. I chose journalism because I am pretty decent at writing, and I figured that journalism was something that I could do. I didn't know if I wanted to do it or not, I just thought that yeah, I could do it. Anyways, after I saw RENT, I became obsessed. I downloaded the original cast recording, listened to it all the time, watched countless videos and bootlegs of different casts, memorized the entire thing, and saw the tour that I first saw in Chicago again -- twice when it went through Tampa, twice in Orlando, three times in Miami -- several times in the front row thanks to rush tickets (wait in line all day, get front row seats for $20). I even made the crazy decision to go to Sacramento for the final three shows of the tour. I ended up seeing that tour eleven times in three different states, five different cities.

Along the way, I started listening to other musicals and became just as obsessed. I wanted to be a part of that so badly.

I was a pretty bad student at the time. I skipped class a lot, smoked way too much pot, had no interest in what I was doing, and my bad grades led to me being 'academically dismissed'. I could have reapplied to the same school, but I decided to switch schools. I got my grades up, and then joined the theatre department. I stage managed a play, I stage managed another play, I was cast in a play, I got an internship in the costume shop of a professional theatre, I got a job in the costume shop at school, I stage managed a musical... I found something that I could do and also wanted to do.

Obviously, it's not my career yet, but it will be. And I'm going to work on Broadway. I don't know if I will be acting or designing costumes or stage managing, but I will work in theatre and I will work on Broadway. And I kind of have RENT to thank for it all.

the joy was sucked out of my life at an early age... responsibilities meant i had to work at what paid the bills instead of what I loved...:sad:

I had an amazing 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Chavez. She made learning fun. Her classroom was well organized and the atmosphere was friendly, peaceful, calm, fair, and caring. I decided that year I wanted to be a teacher. Every year when each new teacher would ask what we wanted to be, I would stick to my guns and say TEACHER. The other kids would laugh at me. Teacher's pay isn't that great and it's hard work! Then in 4th I had another great teacher, Mrs. Cortez. In 6th Mr. Kerwin. And from then on there were other great teachers as well who reinforced the idea I wanted to be a teacher.

In college, I took a few psychology classes and loved them. So I found out that it only added 4 extra classes if I wanted to earn a degree in that field in addition to my liberal studies degree. I became a dual-major. I went to school EVERY summer except the first one in my freshman year and I graduated in just four years with two degrees.

I started to think I'd like to be a psychologist. I was so intrigued by it. But then I started teaching and I moved out on my own and started getting bills and then became pregnant with my now 10 year old son and then got married to his dad.... have since bought our first house 3 years ago and added on more debt/bills and a daughter, now 5. So.. yeah, pretty much, life just happened and I never made it back to school.

I love what I do, but I'd also love to try on the other hat for awhile. Maybe when I grow up....? HAHA.

I got knocked up (I'm a career stay-at-home mom). Before that it was going to be vet medicine- research, because I love the sciences and enjoy figuring things out. Having kids changed everything for me- I backed out of vet school in 2001 with many tears. No regrets though.

If I ever get back in the work force it will probably be fitness- related

I'm only good at the arts, music, photography, and creative things. I also happen to be pretty good at other feilds in working with my hands, like a craftsman of some sort working with wood or metal or whatever.

However, it turns out those things don't pay well, if at all.

So, I got just took a job in the corporate world that paid. I just kept doing that. I now, I'm in a position I hate, in an industry I hate, but I make too much to let it go.

Choose something that you have passion for and let that drive everything.

I studied three sciences at A- level, but without maths the only one I could pursue was Biology. I got accepted onto a Physiology degree course, but at the last minute I spotted a poster for the first IT course in the country - bear in mind that the Internet wasn't even invented until the year I graduated! I played with computers as a hobby so it seemed right up my street. Business boomed through the 90s and I was paid well, but I wasn't happy either in work or my personal life, and the work side seemed easier to change.

I started writing in my spare time, and when I came to the end of a contract, I signed up for an intensive journalism post-graduate certificate. I've been overworked and underpaid ever since, and loving every minute!

went out to university to study to be a teacher. Psychology was a minor subject, but I liked it, kept with it to my third year, when I won a place on a psychology honours programme, then decided to try for a masters programme. Qualified as a psychologist, and worked as such, but also did university lecturing alongside that. Gradually became more and more focused on the academic, so moved to the UK to do a PhD. Now a full time academic, just made UK associate professor, in a subject I never really set out to study... I love my job. Teaching and research are a dual vocation for me. I feel privileged that I get to do something I love so much, every day.

Yay, a fellow academic congratulations on becoming associate professor! I hope I get to be there one day.
I went to uni, studied German and English because I didn't get the course I applied for and I had always found the subjects very easy at school. I just wanted to enjoy being a student and I didn't want to work hard lol To justify my choice I opted for a degree to become a teacher. In my first semester I discovered linguistics and fell in love. I have been working towards an academic career ever since. Now I am studying for a PhD in the UK, after teaching at a university for three years. I feel very privileged, too. I made a lot of sacrifices for my career and don't regret it at all.