How did you end up in your career?

As with many, I meandered before arriving at where I am. From a very young age, I wanted to be a "Scientist", whatever that meant, but as many I am sure experienced, I didn't apply myself in school, so college right after high school was not on the table. I worked various types of jobs, ski patrol then ski instructor for a few winters, worked in the high arctic for a couple of summers, worked in an iron ore mine in northern Quebec, a copper mine in the Gaspe, fiberglass shop building laser sail boats; then moved west and worked in a pulp mill for a couple of years. I became a single father and had to grow up and be stable, so went back to school. Still wanted to be a scientist, but wanted to be "out doors" so tried to get on with Charlie Krebs (well known ecologist who was studying snowshoe hare population cycles in the Yukon) for Grad School, but he wasn't taking students so went into animal sciences and reproductive endocrinology.

Finished that up, and lo and behold, went for a Post Doc at University of Kansas (yup, that's how I became the Canuck from Kansas) where I started doing research in ovarian cancer. From there, I went onto a faculty position at a well-known med school and cancer center in DC. Eventually left that since chasing grant money became such a drag. I went back to Kansas where I took a position as a Medical Writer with a rather large company that runs clinical trials. I write the clinical trial protocols and then the final clinical trial reports (thankfully, I don't have to chase money), mostly in the cancer arena (60%?), but also for many other conditions. The work is interesting, but I spend my day at a computer screen, so it is not a "Dream Job"; however, it has allowed me to work from home and have somewhat flexible hours, which gives me a freedom I greatly enjoy; it is what allowed us to move to Bend for 10 years and now the Poconos to be near the boys in NYC. Two and a half more years, then retirement, will admit, I can't wait.

Cheers
 
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Well, ok, I'll try and map this out.

Grew up in the central Penna
farming country. Half my classmates in elementary school were probably related to me, were, Mennonite or just one step away from it. Can't recall any of the local Amish in school with me. It was the kind of place where everyone was related or knew each other and each others business.

Started working at 15 in for the local cemetery association as a grounds keeper, and, yeah, dug a few graves, too.

School wise ? What a goat rope. Found out I was pretty smart and school bored me the way it was structured. Guidance counselor was determined to keep the working stiffs' kids from moving up and moving on.

I originally wanted to be a marine biologist, got told my grades weren't good enough, but proved him wrong by turning around and getting accepted for pre med at Penn State. While also doing a 2 week home high school and 2 week vocational school rotation.

2 semesters of freshman pre med, and I drove home one weekend and told dad I'd had enough of the college crap. (This was the mid 70's, things were...chaotic)
Did some part time labor jobs for a few months and then talked it over with the parents and joined the army as a mechanic.

16 years later, I parted ways with the army. Bittersweet, but I needed to move on. Got tired of seeing good hard working people get abused and worked to death while the butt kissers got promotions and schooling they didn't deserve.

Anyway, post desert storm I ended up supporting the army in post war Kuwait and followed that with 12 more years of supporting various NGO's and US military branches across the world as a mechanic, mostly specialized in hydraulic and electrical systems as well as full unit overhauls.

Got a call while working the tank line at RRAD, Red River Army Depot, and was asked if I still wanted to work for a certain contractor. Well, yeah, I'd love to. So, I packed everything up, quit that low paying tank line job and met the corporate recruiter the following day. 1 month later I signed in with a defense contractor at Fort Lewis and retired 24 years later.

There's more but why be long winded.
 
I chased girls and drank myself silly tell I was 23 years old. Then got a job in the Maritime industry on a Tugboat going to and from Alaska. Over the last 26 years it’s had its ups and downs, but I’m still there. #Tuglife😂
 
Promised my mother I would go to college, but I was a very reluctant and marginal student. Made it half-way through my junior year when I made it through the draft lottery without a call, so off to Vermont to ski bum for a season. Back to school for a year and one half to somehow achieve a chemistry degree and back to Vermont. A spiral fractured tibia sent me back home to recuperate and, as it turned out, fall in love. We married by the end of the year and started what would become a 32-year career at Eastman Kodak Co. first as a chemist and then as an environmental regulations specialist. As Kodak continued to fail and my wife having an opportunity to follow her dream of owning a custom kitchen and bath company we moved to Orlando. My voluntary separation from Kodak allowed me a full year to figure out what I wanted to do when I grew up. Became a certified environmental management system auditor as an independent contractor. All was well, except for living in Florida, until the Great Recession killed both our businesses. Found a good fit at a nuclear power plant in Washington at 58. After 5.5 years a better offer came from a Hanford contractor from which I retired in 2017.

Like some folks I found retirement more difficult than I would have ever imagined, so when the first WA employer called for some help, I jumped at it. This part-time work lasted almost 5 years, way longer than I expected. I thought maybe I was finally ready to retire and we were now responsible for our grandson. No sooner than I was settling into a regular fishing schedule, I got a call from the Hanford contractor. Yup, I was back at work part-time until summer 2023 at 72.

What I discovered in myself is a need to feel relevant and I let my life become defined by my almost 50-year career. Probably not the right way to go, but I have been fulfilled and proud of weathering many storms. Like others have said you should find a career doing something you love, which is great if you can find it or know what it is. Sometimes you have to find that as you go and get some life experience.
 
RRSmith said:
This is a wonderful thread and I am enjoying reading about everyone's career paths. For me, I've wanted to do what I ended up doing since I was in elementary school. My parents were both teachers though Mom mostly stayed at home. Dad was a seasonal backcountry ranger in Yosemite National Park so we spent our summers terrorizing the backcountry with fishing rods. My dad emphasized work experience even it was volunteer so my first gig was as a VIP (Volunteer in Park) helping in the bear management program. That lasted about 3 weeks before I was hired as a scientific technician to be part of a survey of 102 backcountry lakes. The next three summers were spent employed in bear management (aka bear catcher) in the Park. Meanwhile, my undergrad program at San Jose State was geared to go either into fisheries or wildlife (my major was called Wildlife Zoology). I had a rather well rounded academic exposure to both sides with the highlight being a graduate seminar taught by A. Starker Leopold who at the time was a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley. He came down to SJSU once a week - it was awesome and he cultivated my interest in wetland and waterfowl management. My path would cross with Dr. Leopold several more times rather randomly before he passed away in 1983.

During that time, fish and wildlife jobs were rather hard to come by and quite competitive. I wasn't interested in an NPS career and instead wanted to work for either California FIsh and Game or USFWS. At the recommendation of many, I lowered my job entrance bar and landed my post college permanent job at a fish hatchery in the Owens Valley of California. At the time, it was important to "get your foot in the door". The job wasn't a typical hatchery job as it assisted area fisheries biologists and I got to work quite a bit with golden trout. I was out of there in two years (minimum you could stay before being eligible for transfer) and spent the remainder of my career in lands management.

Similar to Skimr's experience with ODFW, the pay wasn't great to begin with it but I was very happy with my compensation at the end of my career. I managed a network of state wildlife areas that included coastal tidal wetlands on California's North Coast and Great Basin seasonal wetlands in the Klamath Basin and everything inbetween. I managed staffs, wrote conservation easements, evaluated lands for acquisition, helped design seasonal and tidal wetlands on public lands, worked with private landowners to develop salmon friendly land management practices, did a fair amount work on waterfowl and even ended up dabbling in fisheries. The best part was our kids got to grow up in a beautiful and very rural part of California.

I am so fortunate to have loved my 35 year career and would have done it for free. Count me in the "do a job you love" category as I really never had a job I didn't enjoy except for maybe working a jackhammer for my girlfriend's dad's construction company when I was in high school. I would also echo what others have said about the value of relationships, mentoring and being mentored, networking and did I mention relationships? Ditto what Brian and others have said about starting NOW to plan for retirement. I am fortunate that my wife and I both have CalPers pensions but even that cannot be taken for granted.
Click to expand...

That’s the career my nephew at CU boulder wants!
 
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