Have you ever had to give up on a dream career?
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Original question by @[email protected]
Kind of. I used to have a career in a very exciting and complex field, but corporate America turned it into a job. On the whole, I'm ok with it as my personal priorities shifted toward family.
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Original question by @[email protected]
I wouldn't say it was my dream career, but I recently quit my job with the federal government that I've had for 10+ years because I refuse to be on the wrong side of history. I'm currently unemployed and not sure where I'll go from here, but it's better than working for TACO Don.
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Original question by @[email protected]
I used to think I was going to be an astronaut, but then I needed glasses and so that was out. Then I wanted to make robots but I went to a robotics company for a high school project and they explained engineers don't build anything and the technicians don't design anything. That's no fun.
So now I'm in business software. I do enjoy coding a lot and it could be a dream job but honestly, I work with and for a lot... bad companies, bad designers, and bad managers. And again if I want to do their jobs, I don't get to do the technical stuff I want to do. I'm pursuing other team lead positions but I've done that before and it's just a bit better.
I just want to build good software and no one else really gives a shit to improve their trade. I shouldn't be telling UX specialists their design sucks for users. I shouldn't be telling service engineers how to design APIs. I shouldn't be telling corporate architects their default package layout is bad and non-standard making it difficult for engineers to navigate until they get familiar.
I wouldn't mind training all this stuff, but that would cut my pay in half, and I need all that money for quality of life outside of work.
Pretty sure I'm just going to be cranky until I retire even though I enjoy what I do.
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Original question by @[email protected]
I worked at probably the best luthiery in North America. Got let go because I couldn't keep up. I have tremors which makes fine dextrous work very difficult. At the time I was also going through a brutal break-up too.
Really bad time for me. Also working at this place was like playing a couple good games of beer league hockey and immediately getting drafted into an NHL team. I feel like if I took another shot at it, it would go much better second time around. But it just wasn't meant to be at the time. No matter what, it was always going to be a massive uphill climb, but I was super dedicated to doing it and doing it well. It's unfortunate it came to such an abrupt end, but I understand why it had to happen.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Burned out being a sysadmin, took a lower position, ended up with less responsibility and more pay.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Yup. A massive portion entry and mid level positions in the scientific field that I did my undergrad in were offshored in my graduation year. This led to competing with PhD and MSc candidates, sometimes with 10+ years of experience, for basic lab tech positions... in a recession. Glad to have developed other skills.
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I worked at probably the best luthiery in North America. Got let go because I couldn't keep up. I have tremors which makes fine dextrous work very difficult. At the time I was also going through a brutal break-up too.
Really bad time for me. Also working at this place was like playing a couple good games of beer league hockey and immediately getting drafted into an NHL team. I feel like if I took another shot at it, it would go much better second time around. But it just wasn't meant to be at the time. No matter what, it was always going to be a massive uphill climb, but I was super dedicated to doing it and doing it well. It's unfortunate it came to such an abrupt end, but I understand why it had to happen.
wrote on last edited by [email protected]Have you continued luthiery yourself?
Also, I also have tremors when doing fine detail work. Depending on the cause (and your health), it may be possible for your Dr. to prescribe something to help. Mine suggested that β-blockers could help if it gets too intense.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Wanted to be in the US Air Force. Had no intention of being there for the short term, wanted to stay for a very long career. Screwed up my knees during basic. Was told my dream of serving was gone.
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I used to think I was going to be an astronaut, but then I needed glasses and so that was out. Then I wanted to make robots but I went to a robotics company for a high school project and they explained engineers don't build anything and the technicians don't design anything. That's no fun.
So now I'm in business software. I do enjoy coding a lot and it could be a dream job but honestly, I work with and for a lot... bad companies, bad designers, and bad managers. And again if I want to do their jobs, I don't get to do the technical stuff I want to do. I'm pursuing other team lead positions but I've done that before and it's just a bit better.
I just want to build good software and no one else really gives a shit to improve their trade. I shouldn't be telling UX specialists their design sucks for users. I shouldn't be telling service engineers how to design APIs. I shouldn't be telling corporate architects their default package layout is bad and non-standard making it difficult for engineers to navigate until they get familiar.
I wouldn't mind training all this stuff, but that would cut my pay in half, and I need all that money for quality of life outside of work.
Pretty sure I'm just going to be cranky until I retire even though I enjoy what I do.
Then I wanted to make robots but I went to a robotics company for a high school project and they explained engineers don’t build anything and the technicians don’t design anything.
I was affiliated with a robotics lab for a couple years, and I'm pretty sure that's not true industry-wide. I'm mostly saying this for other folks who may be reading. Look into it first before believing what that company person said.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Not yet.
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Have you continued luthiery yourself?
Also, I also have tremors when doing fine detail work. Depending on the cause (and your health), it may be possible for your Dr. to prescribe something to help. Mine suggested that β-blockers could help if it gets too intense.
I only do baisc maintenance and setups for my friends now.
I've heard of beta blockers, but I've never looked into it. I'm kind of hesitant when it comes to dealing with any kind of side effects.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Wanted to be a movie editor or director, I'm an actuarie now. I'm happy and want to try again when I retire.
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Then I wanted to make robots but I went to a robotics company for a high school project and they explained engineers don’t build anything and the technicians don’t design anything.
I was affiliated with a robotics lab for a couple years, and I'm pretty sure that's not true industry-wide. I'm mostly saying this for other folks who may be reading. Look into it first before believing what that company person said.
This was with Roberts-Sinto 35 years ago. I'm sure a lot has changed.
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Original question by @[email protected]
wrote on last edited by [email protected]as in cant even get the foot in the door, i was very disappointed with that, so i gave it up ive been on other platforms where people also gave up because it was just to hard to get into many stem/research jobs, especially if you cant go to grad school right away, without going post-bacc or resetting your career track. and found it was designed, and gatekeeped by the industry as a whole. Also job sites made it harder.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Kinda. I wanted to go into game dev, didn't really exist as an industry in my country at the time. Had some artistic talent, had it stifled by my parents.
Ended up going into IT, those jobs have dried up in the last few years. Now I have three fields I'm good at but flairly unable to pursue.
Honestly I feel a bit beaten down over it.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Did I HAVE to? No. Did I? Yes.
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Original question by @[email protected]
I wanted to be a pilot.
By age 16 I had several hours towards my private license.
My junior year in High School I started looking universities with aviation degrees, or engineering. I had settled on Rose Hulman and one other (been 40 years so don't remember the place, but it was one of the top aviation colleges in the US at the time.) I actually was accepted at "the other place".
It all came crashing down in the last conversation I had with my enrollment counselor and he asked a question that hadn't been asked of me in the prior many conversations I had with him.
"How is your eyesight?"
You see, I'm legally blind in my right eye and in the US, pilots are required to have 20/20 corrected eyesight. In order for my right eye to be 20/20 I would basically have to have a telescope hanging off my face.
I never did get my private pilots license, which I can get even with my eyesight, but I would never pass medical for a commercial ticket.
Yes, I did look at training in other countries and yes there are a few that only require perfect color vision, which I do have. The problem was my parents absolutely forbade me to travel to another country.
So that was that.
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Original question by @[email protected]
Yes. I studied and have a degree in animation. I wanted to work in animation, specifically as a story board and background artist. However, I'm talentless. I attempted graphic design work, but my first gig was with Lisa Frank, and that didn't go well. I searched for more design work and I could only find work in customer service. After a year of portfolio work, applications, etc., I had to accept I just don't have talent and I wasted my money. My goal was to avoid my current job because all I heard growing up was how awful it was. I studied hard, graduated with honors and everything. Still a talentless dumbass who now works in insurance. I will likely stay in this career (insurance) until I die.
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Original question by @[email protected]
I was on broadcast crews for sports events. I started out doing camera then worked my way up to graphics. As cool and fun as that job was there's major caveats to it. You need multiple jobs in this field to make any money. You can't just coast at one place and expect to make bank. You have to hustle back and forth between gig after gig. This was just for college. Pros are even worse. I knew people getting gigs with my favorite pro teams and they'd say stuff like " we only got 2 dates this month" and that's with avails given upto 6 months in advance. I was told for one arena that the group there is very clicky and the only way to get into it is to wait for someone to die. I know guys who would spend a weekend in Philly just to book it up to New York for a few days then fly down to Florida for the next weekend. It's a real hustle, with potentially no down time, and crap pay. It's an amazing gig of you're fresh out of college and have the energy for it. Unfortunately life put a couple road blocks in my way and I had to give it up for my own sanity.
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I wouldn't say it was my dream career, but I recently quit my job with the federal government that I've had for 10+ years because I refuse to be on the wrong side of history. I'm currently unemployed and not sure where I'll go from here, but it's better than working for TACO Don.
it sucks that this is the fate you ended with, but, you made the correct decision 100%.
