Why do you do the job that you do?

Loved aircraft and airshows as a kid. Joined the RAF as an aircraft mechanical technician from school.
Left in 2005 to be an engineering and aerospace teacher and apprenticeships assessor.
3 years ago I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to go back into military aviation as a civvi.
 
So, I am 51 and am a Director of Revenue Operations for a software company. What does that mean - still not entirely sure after 20 odd years of working in that area.

I grew up on a family farm and it was always assumed (as with most farm boys) that I would follow my dad into the family business. I never really wanted to as a kid as I saw all of my mates planning for Uni and what I perceived to be glamorous careers. I somehow ended up doing a degree in International Business whcih allowed me to spend 2 years in France - 1 year at Uni in Bordeaux and 1 year working for a logistics company in Paris. After graduating, I only had one thing in mind - that I would never work in delivery and logistics again. The realities were however that the only grad scheme I could get accepted onto was DHL's - so I took a place just to get me going. I worked all over the world in the next 10 years and had a marvellous time. My last project was introducing a CRM tool. After accepting redundancy I took a role at Cisco, rolling out Salesforce - I didn't realise at the time that this would set the path on which my career was then built.

I spent 7 years doing that before having a significant period of burn out and depression. I used to sit and think about the farm and in my mind all I could see was my favourite part of the farm on a sunny day. So I returned to work with my dad for 4 years, but as Brexit appeared, the uncertainty that that brought for farms of our size, led me to return to working with Salesforce and I gradually got a number of promotions before sitting in my current role. Time will tell how much longer I carry on for. One thing I have learn over the years is that you can only plan so much - businesses often have different ideas about where you are heading and the uncertainty that always exists can often result in changes of direction. Is this where I dreamt of ending up? Absolutely not but it has been an interesting path so far
 
Always fascinated with computers and wanted to work with them. My dad was a hobbyist programmer but never took the leap into it professionally. My focus was more on the hardware side and I went straight into a MA from school doing just that.

By chance, I got some exposure to programming in that job and loved it. When redundancy hit I took the leap. Got an entry level position with very little experience and went from strength to strength. Have worked for everything from a 4 person agency to global companies such as IBM, and love it (mostly). I'm not musical or artistic, this is my way of being creative.

There's a few people along the way who were key to me "making" it in this industry - one boss turned it from a job to a passion, if I won the lottery I'd still do this in my spare time.

Pays well, good work/life balance too. Really wouldn't change it.
 
sparkins said:
So, I am 51 and am a Director of Revenue Operations for a software company. What does that mean - still not entirely sure after 20 odd years of working in that area.

I grew up on a family farm and it was always assumed (as with most farm boys) that I would follow my dad into the family business. I never really wanted to as a kid as I saw all of my mates planning for Uni and what I perceived to be glamorous careers. I somehow ended up doing a degree in International Business whcih allowed me to spend 2 years in France - 1 year at Uni in Bordeaux and 1 year working for a logistics company in Paris. After graduating, I only had one thing in mind - that I would never work in delivery and logistics again. The realities were however that the only grad scheme I could get accepted onto was DHL's - so I took a place just to get me going. I worked all over the world in the next 10 years and had a marvellous time. My last project was introducing a CRM tool. After accepting redundancy I took a role at Cisco, rolling out Salesforce - I didn't realise at the time that this would set the path on which my career was then built.

I spent 7 years doing that before having a significant period of burn out and depression. I used to sit and think about the farm and in my mind all I could see was my favourite part of the farm on a sunny day. So I returned to work with my dad for 4 years, but as Brexit appeared, the uncertainty that that brought for farms of our size, led me to return to working with Salesforce and I gradually got a number of promotions before sitting in my current role. Time will tell how much longer I carry on for. One thing I have learn over the years is that you can only plan so much - businesses often have different ideas about where you are heading and the uncertainty that always exists can often result in changes of direction. Is this where I dreamt of ending up? Absolutely not but it has been an interesting path so far
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John Lennon said something along the lines of, life is what happens when you were planning to do something else…
 
Hap said:
Don’t waste time doing something you hate. You won’t get this time back - ever.

It really is later than you think.

In ten years time a version of you will be looking back at you, today, in the same way you might be looking back now, at what you did ten years ago.
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Too late to move on now for me. Looked about but nothing that suits my needs and salary.
 
I had an accident that led to months off work and years of rehab. That got me interested in H&S and I studied to degree level and found a job.

I come from an engineering and construction background, so my job is allied to H&S in those disciplines.
 
Cullenbohannon said:
I work in a similar field. Came into the role nearly 20 years ago with an idealist attitude about how I could positively help people make changes to their life and be part of a bigger society. I still believe in giving people a second chance, challenging attitudes and giving people a hand up to achieve their goals. However, I am totally disillusioned with the service and structure where saving money and dumbing down the quality of staff seem to be the direction of travel. So with any luck I will escape soon and find something which doesn't demand so much emotionally and psychologically.
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That’s so incredibly sad. You have or had good intentions but had them gradually torn away from you by Tory Britain.
Serving your local community, a true servant and patriot in my opinion.
You wanting out though, is what makes me so sad because you leaving, like other good people for lesser quality people weakens society as those in need get less support and mess up their lives impacting others (us) in their wake…crime, benefit claims etc etc
😞
This is why i hate the Tories so much. They are either inherently evil because they lack empathy or just so lacking in emotional awareness that they have zero clue as to their contribution to the breakdown of society and community for ultra capitalism.
 
like many from my generation, home computing as a hobby led into an IT career - mainframe operations, programming, various support roles, some ridiculous & quite bizarre jobs all over the south of england. mini mid-life crisis, divorce, lots of booze & food.... had a great spell as a postman (on bikes then), first job I'd ever had where you don't carry forward problems from one day to the next - was quite a feeling. got mentally & physically fit very quickly, great therapy. then went self employed as a local pc computer repair man, been doing it about 15 years. met a borobird. have a VERY low earnings, low cost lifestyle now, which I much prefer. no real pension provisions, but will cross that bridge if/when I need to.
 
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Found a copy of The Guardian graduate jobs section in The Camels Hump when home from university, saw a job in there applied for it and got it. Ever since I've just gone with the tide and managed to make a decent living.

However it's a strange one as I absolutely hate it, and am in the fortunate position that I could afford to change career and take the financial hit of starting again / retraining, however I have no idea what I want to do.

I've got a life coach and trying to work through it, but just can't find something I want to do and that I think I would be good at, and so until then I'm stuck here.
 
Was always good/interested in tech drawing at school so dropped out of college to get a Trainee job as an Architectural Technician.

Went to college, uni, got qualified, chartered.....and fast forward 34 years.....meh.

Would love a change tbh but I'm good at what I do and it's all I've known. Also pretty well paid and not in a position to take a salary drop, or retrain. So here I am, could be a lot worse.

Just got to keep plodding on until retiring when I'm about 76.......
 
I was good at maths so kept choosing the maths type options at school, college and university. Never really had any guidance on what I could do with a degree other than more maths type things and didn't have much of an imagination myself I guess so I went into accountancy. Have a few different jobs as I've progressed some of which were interesting and some were horrendously boring, the more junior stuff especially. Got qualified and the jobs got more interesting and the pay got better. I quite like it though, not sure if there's anything else I'd prefer, maybe some sort of coding type role. I do more than most accountants and I find it interesting but never got beyond SQL and reporting tools.
 
I got into commodities when I was 16 to pass the time unti I was old enough to do my chosen profession which I couldn't start until I was 18 but fell in love with it instantly and have done it ever since. It has taken me all over the world and is truly fascinating.

My role is completely different now though and has been for the past 12 years. Instead of being at the sharp end of the business I am now someone who turns around a failing business back to profitability and with a sound foundation for the future. It is incredibly stressful when starting a new project but so rewarding to turn it around, like renovating a derelict property by hand.
 
The_Lizards_Jumpers said:
Found a copy of The Guardian graduate jobs section in The Camels Hump when home from university, saw a job in there applied for it and got it. Ever since I've just gone with the tide and managed to make a decent living.

However it's a strange one as I absolutely hate it, and am in the fortunate position that I could afford to change career and take the financial hit of starting again / retraining, however I have no idea what I want to do.

I've got a life coach and trying to work through it, but just can't find something I want to do and that I think I would be good at, and so until then I'm stuck here.
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Take the advice that Hap gave to Wylie and don't linger too long doing something you hate.
 
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Retired at 40 hated it went back to work 2 years later now a office manager for a plumbing company only work 20hrs a week but suits me and the owner.
lucky money not a issue and now 50 this year and thinking i might call it a day end of year and spend more time to myself.
 
AytonMews said:
Got to be honest, that’s not something I ever expected to read on here 😅
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I must admit I was a little bit sceptical about it, but thought it was worth a try. It's been an interesting experiment but not one that I'm convinced it worth the £125 an hour he charges.

Think I've got a couple of sessions left that I've paid in advance for, but I'm pretty sure I wont be signing up for another lot.

I'm sure it's great for some people, or people in different situations, but not for me, however it was worth a try.
 
I followed my dad into road haulage, spent my first 17 years as a diesel fitter, working alongside him for the first 6. Fairly obvious choice as I was always interested in transport. Managed to swerve redundancy and ended up training up as transport supervisor, which ended up with me looking after 5 depots from Aberdeen to Crewe. Got fed up of all the driving/long hours and took a leap of faith to work for an insurance company as a fleet consultant (poacher turned gamekeeper) and stayed there until I retired at the ended of March. The last job was great, working from home with a nice company car and made a bit of a niche for myself due to my ‘on the ground’ experience and transport/dangerous goods qualifications.
 
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