Career Change: How many Career Changes have you made in your life?
 

How many of you have made career changes in your life? What ages and companies?

So far for me i've made 4 career moves. I've heard that most people will make 6 to 7 career moves in a life time.

I graduated from College in 1984 then I joined the workforce.

1984 age 23 - Teacher/BasketballCoach :cool:
1986 age 25 - Restaurant Manager Luby's Cafeteria :eek:
2003 age 42 - Restaurant Manger Schlotzky's Deli :)
2005 age 44 - Marketing Associate Sysco Foods-Austin. :sun_smile

Graduated College in May 2004

Summer 2004-Fall 2004 age 21: Security Team Supervisor @ The Tweeter Center Chicago, owned by Clear Channel

Fall 2004-present age 22: Account Manager @ General Electric Commercial Finance

Winter 2005-present age 22: Security Manager @ The Tweeter Center Chicago.


No real career changes. I love my current jobs and can see myself working for these companies for a LONG time.

Call it a job if you paid SSI. In order (I think) from about 1965. Various schools stuck in at odd places.

Cabinetmaker's helper
Boiler technician (USN)
Surveyor's helper
Engineer's Aid (USNR)
Surveyor
Asst party mgr
Chicken catcher
Rendering plant operator
Rendering plant repairman
Houseparent for handicapped kids
Botanist (tropical)
Botanist (temperate)
Wetland delineation consultant
Botanist at a private arboretum
Biology instructor at junior college
Biologist (gov)
Geographer (gov)

Graduated May 2004.

2004- till the day I retire: Pilot. No career changes planned, just hopefully an eventual working up through the ladder.

I am fortunate to have a job where the highlight of my day is going to work.

1987 - 1999 Firefighter
1999 - 2000 Motorist Assistance Manager
2000 - 2001 Safety officer in deep rock tunnel
2001 - Today Highway department safety person
Today - ? With my own computer company; hope it fly's :rolleyes:

It's strange that I saw this thread today, on the day that I am giving my two week notice here on the highway.

I'm a chef and part time musician. Right now I'm a SAHD. I'll only have one real career. Many jobs, only one career.

Maybe when the kid gets to preschool I'll do something.

Cool. I was talking with the pilots who fly the private jets for the company where my wife works. They're all ex airforce, both these guys are (were?) Colonels. They've both been working for the company 25+ years and they have their golfbags packed in the plane! They need to keep up their flight hours so sometimes they take the plane down to Florida for a round of golf and fly back. How cool is that!?!? :D

Career or job change? I'm seeing people posting both.

I've had the same type of job as I started 25 years ago...software developer. That was a change from my first career, which was UNEMPLOYED software developer! :D

Now if you include my summer and college ventures, that's a different (and more colorful) story... :rolleyes:

Professional student
Professional psychedelic drug tester
Gigolo
Male prostitute
Bomb-sniffing dog

Life has offered many things, so I have taken a few...

89-99 Professional Opera Singer
99-01 VP Customer Service Wall Street Banking firm (not much farming then)
01-present VP Senior Underwriter - Liability Insurance Company

All the while I have owned and operated a farm. I teach voice privately to a few talented young singers.

I have a lot of fun doing all of this, and sleep well.

DS
87 300D
01 Dakota
Northern Iowa

'54 - '55 worked for startup printed circuit manufacturer
'55 - '65 U S Air Force (mostly as crew chief on SAC bombers)
'65 - '67 worked for fire fighting air tanker company
'67 - '82 worked for industrial supply house and explosives distributor (eventually was VP and Gen Mgr of both divisions)
'82 - '02 ran my own explosives and vibration consulting business
'02 - sold business, retired and stay busy working on cars, playing golf, etc.

Interesting mix of careers in this thread.

Which made me think.

I know some people look for variety and others have it forced upon them, but here's my take on the secret to a successful life: Everyone has been given only one thing they're good at, above all else.

Call it a talent, a skill... it always shines above everthing else they attempt.

If they try something away from their calling, they crash--or are less effective than they could be.

My son has always been exceptionally talented at taking broken things apart and putting them back so they work. I've never seen anyone with such an ability at such an early age. At 6 he was fixing toasters.

So he become a mechanic, worked his way up to second in the country at his apprenticeship, then became skilled at fixing many high-end cars, Jag, Daimler, etc.

Now at 39 he has just become a top manager with Toyota where's he's been working for a decade or so. And I fear he will lose his natural advantage. His true calling will be buried, and he'll just be another suit in a faceless organisation. It happens to a lot of people who wonder where their life has gone.

A true calling can be recognised because:
- everything you do comes easily where others find it hard or onerous.
- you work in the 'flow' and time becomes irrelevant.
- in 5 minutes you accomplish what others need a manual and 5 hours to do.

I've tried many things, but have only had super-success at one thing - writing. It is a skill that pops up time and again. So in the last few years I have followed it relentlessly with great success.

And the biggest success in my own life in recent years has been to recognise this 'true calling' I have. My career path from now on is going to be pretty, pretty boring.

Ken Silver
--------------
~1993 SL500, glistening triple black, xenons, AMG facelift to 2002 style.
~1999 SLK 230 Kompressor, silver/black leather, CD, immaculate
~1999 Lexus LX470, sand/ivory leather.
~1999 Suzuki Grand Vitara. black & silver.
~ex 350SL, 230E, 280E, MX5, Jaguar Daimler and a lot of other makes not nearly as nice.

...and some people are good at a lot of things, but not each skill makes for a good fit as a career!

I was equally adept at art, music, and the math sciences, but I chose the path that is probably the most mundane of all...math sciences. Started out in mechanical engineering and later branched into software development.

I do my job with passion, but it wouldn't be a fascinating topic in my daughter's classroom on "Career Day".

I'm sure the art and music scene would have given me a more colorful lifestyle, but I had summer jobs that exposed me to individuals trying to chart a course in that direction, and it was a sobering wake-up call!

What I do pays the bills, and allows me to by the things and spend the time doing the art and music as a hobby! Much more satisfying! ;)

Not much by way of a "career" a good part of my working life:
started flipping burgers in my senior year of high school('74)
then a ranch hand one summer a couple years later. (still look back on that with fond memories :cool: )
Kinda in and out of college over the next several years. Marriage & kids kinda killed that for me.
After marriage, worked as an electronics tech at a small industrial control company, till it went belly up in about '82.
Spent a year at a wrecking yard(that's where I really solidified my love of Benz's)
Plant engineer at a candy and snack food company for a couple years.
Then in '86, I finally settled on what I do now, a machinist. Been a decent career for a guy with no college education. No real decent money, but it's kept me steadily employed for 18 years, and has payed the mortgage & raised 3 kids(on a single income, BTW ;) )
I'm kinda peaked out in my trade as far as what I can do, and what I can make. So I'm letting my mind wander as to what's next. I actually would like to teach a machine shop course at a college, or something like that. I've conducted a few classes at my work for the newbies, and really enjoyed it alot. We'll see. Gotta do something. I'm getting pretty burnt out. :(

Well you may be right Ken. I started out a working in my dads garage at around 13, loved it, i got to do a variety of things, then moved on to college where at that point i wasn't sure what i wanted to do. I realized that i loved coaching and teaching. I graduated and did just that, with real enjoyment. However, I got married realzied that teaching/coaching wasn't going to get us anywhere financially so I turned to my cousin who was working for Luby's Cafeterias. GM's were making a $150K a year back in 1987. Who wouldn't change careers. I quickly found out this wasn't all it was supposed to be, but I hung it out so that I could provide food and clothes for my new family, which 2 children were born as well. It was tough to quit and I thought about it lots of times. Well I guess I woke up after 16 years and a divorce and now here I am, starting a new career, which i'm really enjoying at this point. Being in the restaurant industry has set me up for sucess at Sysco. Although I did really like working with kids.