Your job...would you do it all over again?

[Mithrandir]

If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same profession you are in?

Would you want the same job you currently have?

I love my job as a Public library director and would 100% choose this career if i had to choose a career all over again.

[Lucky]

If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same profession you are in?

Would you want the same job you currently have?

I love my job as a Public library director and would 100% choose this career if i had to choose a career all over again.

I wouldn't change anything in my life that would mean I wouldn't have my wife and kids, but...it that wasn't a consideration, no I wouldn't take the same career path.

I love my job now as a judge, but not the 25 years of legal practice which preceded it. (Of course, I couldn't have become a judge without the legal career.)

Some of the things that come to mind...teaching, coaching, working for a newspaper...if realism isn't required, baseball player, musician, inventor, chef, novelist.

[Moonlight J]

I miss teaching terribly and I'm currently utterly dissatisfied with my current job despite my very fair compensation. The more I get into sportswriting the more I wish I would have taken a more traditional journalistic track.

[Lucky]

I miss teaching terribly and I'm currently utterly dissatisfied with my current job despite my very fair compensation. The more I get into sportswriting the more I wish I would have taken a more traditional journalistic track.

The reason I put "working for a newspaper"...after my first year of law school, I managed to get a summer job as an intern for a newspaper in the NE corner of the state, 300 miles from the U of A. It was a great summer, and I learned about every part of newspaper operations, from being a reporter, a photographer, layout, printing, subscription, delivery...you name it. When I got ready to go back to law school, they asked me if I would be a stringer for them and cover Razorback sports, since they were dissatisfied with the wire services. For two years, I had full press credentials for every football game, basketball game, press conference, or other sports media event at the U of A. I covered the games, shot the games, and even had a weekly column. It was the most fun job I ever had.

The morning after graduation, I was awakened by a call from my managing editor, offering me a full-time job. I've always wondered what would have happened had I said yes, but after three long years of law school I thought I should probably give law a try.

I would love to trade places with you for a few months. I don't think I could do your job, but it would be a lot of fun trying.

[revo]

I was a journalism student and managing editor of the college paper, but decided at the time to abandon it because it was all about unpaid internships, working at tiny papers in tiny locales, etc. What a putz I was.

If I could do it all over again I would definitely go into journalism, without a doubt. My fellow college newspaper buddies have gone on to be editors at the NY Times, ESPN Magazine, Sports Illustrated and Marvel Comics, among others.

[amcg]

f**k no

My "career", such as it has been, has been disastrous.

Branching out into some new things to keep me sane.

[GwynnInTheHall]

I'd do the same thing, only do it better.

[TranaGreg]

I'd definitely have gone down a different path - I would have gone into medicine, probably neurology.

[Judge Jude]

I actually had posted something, but given the economy and other things, felt like "yeah, all I ever dreamed of and then some" seemed kind of obnoxious.

I will say that there is some "grass is always greener" - I've also given up a lot, in many ways, to do just what I wanted. Many many people who didn't stick with journalism wound up making a lot more money and having a lot more perks - things I think they have gotten so used to that it would be tougher to "make that trade" than they think. Plus the field in sports is so crowded that even really talented people can wind up getting nowhere. You have to be both good AND lucky.

I would definitely do it over again, but a lot of really good, less lucky people would probably have a very different story to tell.

[Fresno Bob]

I'm working my dream job, making more money than I ever have, at a stable company, so no, I don't think I'd do it much differently....

[Judge Jude]

see, that's just the kind of the post I wanted to avoid!


I kid.

[revo]

I actually had posted something, but given the economy and other things, felt like "yeah, all I ever dreamed of and then some" seemed kind of obnoxious.

I will say that there is some "grass is always greener" - I've also given up a lot, in many ways, to do just what I wanted. Many many people who didn't stick with journalism wound up making a lot more money and having a lot more perks - things I think they have gotten so used to that it would be tougher to "make that trade" than they think. Plus the field in sports is so crowded that even really talented people can wind up getting nowhere. You have to be both good AND lucky.

I would definitely do it over again, but a lot of really good, less lucky people would probably have a very different story to tell.

I hear ya, JJ. And I agree with you. But I wish I would've done differently back then.

Frankly, I wish either my parents or my college were better advisors. I still blame myself for anything, but I have to admit I had no one really influencing my decisions. I wish I had gone to grad school right after college, but no one had advised me how important that may have been then. My parents were ecstatic to simply have a college grad (neither had much college experience), and my school really didn't push the advisor angle (at least not that I was aware of, and I was VERY active in extra-curricular activities.)

So for better or worse, had I either gone for an MBA immediately or gone into what my major/minor was (history/journalism), I probably would have been far happier with my career to date, damn anything else.

[Don Quixote]

I have a lot "if only"s, but mostly missed opportunities. My biggest regret is that I feared going into debt for my education, and decided not to go to grad school right after I got my degree. Many people tried to guide me into law as a career, but I preferred to keep my self-respect (plus I couldn't stand the folks with whom I went to college who were going into law).

I could have pursued a degree in journalism, but deep down I knew three things that worked against that--one, I was a better editor of the words of others than I was a writer; two, my politics were too centrist for most newspapers and magazines; and three, that I was remarkably non-telegenic.

So I wound up in my major, accounting, and discovered that to a lesser degree, self-respect goes out the window at times, and it doesn't pay nearly as well as law can. And when I worked for a newspaper (ironically enough), I was fed a steady diet of sh** and had to abandon my self-esteem completely.

It's been a living. I like some of the work and some of the people, but if my current job ended after this tax season, I'd take a year off, get a passport, pack a big backpack, and wander around Europe. Eventually, I'd have to come back and get another job, but it would be nice to leave it all behind for a while. Over thirty years in the same field can do that to a person.

[Fresno Bob]

see, that's just the kind of the post I wanted to avoid!


I kid.

no arguement here, I'm good and lucky, and I'll be the first to say it, my wife is my backbone and chief strategist and is the primary reason I've been able to thrive in a fairly ruthless corporation

[Fresno Bob]

I have a lot "if only"s, but mostly missed opportunities.....It's been a living. I like some of the work and some of the people, but if my current job ended after this tax season, I'd take a year off, get a passport, pack a big backpack, and wander around Europe. Eventually, I'd have to come back and get another job, but it would be nice to leave it all behind for a while. Over thirty years in the same field can do that to a person.

then do it, you can.....