Project 366 / 321 - Jobs, careers and dreams

How did you end up in the career you are in? Was it a choice? Or was it something you just fell in to?

I often ponder this thought since I only know a handful of people who ended up doing what they set out to do. The rest of us just fell in to a job which led to another job which determined your role.

My wife, for example. One of her first jobs was as an office junior helping out in the accounts department. That naturally led to a job in accounts, which led to another higher paid role in someone else's accounts department and so on. As time progressed she found that people would only employ her in an accounts role as that's the only experience she had.

My history is a bit different. I had literally 100 different jobs before settling in my current industry. And when I say 100 I mean at least 100. My mother one tried to write all my jobs down but literally ran out of paper. Some jobs lasted for a year whilst others lasted just a morning. I wasn't into working and didn't value money so I didn't care.

But one day I got a phone call from an employment agency offering me a role in a freight forwarding company and I've been in that industry ever since. It was only because I ended up to be very good at it that I stuck with it, plus it was the only job I'd had where I never clock watched. Previously to that I'd start work at 9am, work for what felt like 3 hours straight only to look up at the clock to see that it was 9.20am. In my freight forwarding role I'd start at 9am, work for what felt like 20 minutes only to look up at the clock and see that it was lunchtime.

That was nearly 25 years ago and nothing has changed since.

But I'm intrigued by other people and how they got into what they're doing. I mean the drain cleaning guys - I very much doubt they started out to do that. I'm guessing that they had a problem with their drains at home but somehow managed to fix the problem. Then their neighbour had a problem and asked them to help and before long a business had taken off.

But I could be wrong, perhaps they just always liked the smell.

I'm guessing most are like me, they take a job, any job, just to earn some money, then they buy or rent a house and perhaps start a family and then the career cascades from there. The day to day responsibility of debt and sustainability has a lot to answer for people not doing what fulfils them but what pays the bills. People stop taking job risks, they stagnate, stifle their earning potential and stop moving up. It's like responsibility kills dreams.

I was thinking this morning what my perfect day would be and then try to reverse engineer my life. But what I love and what makes money, especially short term, are two different things.