Missed career choices

I would have loved to have done something creative such as art or sewing but lacked the confidence - also we were told (probably correctly) that unless we were very special indeed it would be impossible to make a living out of it.

Went to a Grammar school in the 50s. Was made to leave school after GCEs. Had career advice. Said to work in maths/Science. Became an Assistant scientific officer in MOD.. Aerodynamics.. A lot of maths which I loved. Quite unusual for time. Most girls were secretaries hairdressers or worked in shops. Don’t regret it. Anyone else become an ASO?

When young I wanted to be a teacher but gave up as I didn’t want to go to college! (What a nitwit I was). Now I realise I have a bit of a knack for languages so could have been a translator or some such if I’d had the right teaching. Ah well, my main roles have been admin and working with children. My current role includes the two so it could be worse.

Cant say i ever had any thoughts on what i wanted to be ( career wise) apart from a short lived desire to be an archeologist when i was about 10. Was married at 16 and three kids by 21 so a career wasn’t an option really

My interests have shifted as I've got older- archaeologist might be appropriate (I didn't even know there was such a thing at 18). I've started to dance and wish I'd done it when I was younger, so a dancer.
Not a career aspired to but I was once asked in London if I'd ever thought of modelling. I only knew about fashion models and replied I was too short. It's only as I've got older it has occurred to me that it maybe wasn't that sort of modelling he was suggesting! ( I do have big boobs). So perhaps that was a career path I was well out of.

Told my Mom I wanted to join the Navy, the Wrens. She was horrified, said no way that they were all lesbians !!
Told school career advisor I wanted to become a beautician, she said it would be older ladies that would use beauticians and they wouldn’t appreciate being treated by a young woman !!
My advice to my son was, you can be anything you want to be.
He chose his subjects at school to play to his strengths and enable him to be in the right place to pursue his chosen career as an engineer.
I think schools should use this policy more, how many students find they didn’t chose their subjects carefully enough and that they don’t have the qualifications in the courses they want to follow.

My career advice and training was useless although due to unforseen circumstances. Left uni in a recession, couldn't get a job in my chosen field at all and considered "overqualified" for other work.

Looking back I would have loved studying law or early medieval history. Instead I studied hotel management...a somewhat different path!

I went to a grammar school where we were being groomed for university. When I said my choice was nursing, the head mistress acted as though I had said I was going on the streets!

I went into nursing for the genuine desire to help people.
I was always told I was a good nurse, but there were times I hated it. I didn’t change career as it was my only skill.

I would have liked to do some sort of medical research, but in the sixties it never occurred to me. It was to late to go to university by the time I realised. Only the ‘favoured’ ones were sponsored to do a degree through work.

Careers advise was useless at school.

I went to a grammar school and when I said I wanted to be a nanny I was laughed at and told there was no such thing - this was 1970. Careers teacher gave me a leaflet on Nursery Nursing and I was dismissed, as I didn't want to become a teacher, as was suggested. I did the training, became a nanny in this country and in Canada. Retrained when I got back and became a secretary. Retrained after I got divorced and became a teacher with a strong interest in IT. Retired and set up my own website - I still love IT. My various careers have been incredibly enjoyable and I'm very contented now. I even have time for hobbies which I love.

I attended a convent grammar school. We were asked ‘ and what will you teach?’ I qualified as a nursery nurse, then a teacher, then a trainer and eventually a managed education. So the nuns obviously knew something all those years ago !

I left a Catholic grammar school in the 1960s. Career choices were expected to be either nursing / teaching or or else a convent. Preferably both! I wanted to be a nursery nurse and did get info off careers person but my parents wouldn’t let me as the college was the other side of the city and the pay wouldn’t have been very good. Also interested in work with children with learning difficulties but parents again said no. I finished up working in a public library. I sort of got there in the end though as in my forties I got a job in a special needs department at a local school.

I would like to have done something like tiling, building but was born too early for this progress to happen ?

In my day it was either secretarial or nursing. I chose secretarial and ended up teaching secretarial studies. After early retirement I did a degree in medieval history as a mature student. I really enjoyed it but never used it.

But - I do still find my secretarial skills useful.

I'm not sure I ever had much choice on my career really. I went to a grammar school and had ideas of being a nurse, then changed to occupational therapist. However, as my mum had been widowed when I was 8, and even struggled to buy my school uniform, it was quite obvious that half way through my A levels, I just had to get a job.
I ended working in a drawing office where I was not allowed to train as an architect as I was female and would have babies!
Eventually, I went to college on day release when my kids were teenagers and got building qualifications.
Bit of a slippery pole, but ended up designing and project managing school buildings, working closely with special needs professionals on accessibility for the pupils. Arrived at something worthwhile in the end.
Last few years I stepped away and worked at hospital in their buildings team. Now that was an eye opener!

With a failing spine and only being able to cope with doing a full day at school, my careers advice was: "I think we should exclude jobs in the outdoors!" That was it.
I've had a varied career, accountant, teacher, Information Systems and Network Manager and Restaurant owner amongst my jobs. I have enjoyed all of them to various degrees but have never really found my niche. My best job has been being a mother which is quite funny because at 16, I didn't want children, I wanted dogs!
I think I would have been better suited to something creative or something with a very varied nature.

I was very lucky, and unusual, in that my mother actually had a profession - she was a Chartered Engineer and had gone to university after the war. So no barriers were perceived and my sister and I both went into professions ourselves. Looking back, I wish my early computer education had come a few years later; I was deeply put off by punching my own cards and having to wait days for a thin sheaf of printout which said "error on line 3". But I got issued a pc at work in 1983 and discovered how much I enjoyed programming - but by that time I had a career and a mortgage and thought it would be too difficult to retrain . Wish I had, though.

As a teenager I read an article in the girls magazine Jackie about working in the production studios of Top of the Pops so I wrote to the BBC asking for a job on Top of the Pops. After a 35 year career working on film documentaries all over the world I must admit I've had a great working life. But be careful what you wish for, filming in exotic locations is not always compatible with family life. 5am start times does not allow for school drop off and pick ups. Now in retirement I am enjoying my grandchildren and know my best production was having my son.

My Female Maths teacher was determined that I (who several times got 100% in Maths exams) should become a maths teacher. However I really hated school and the last thing I wanted to be was a teacher. When I saw the careers guidance chap, he totally dismissed this idea anyway, saying that it would require 3 years at Uni + 1 year of Teacher training. He also scoffed at my other ideas - architect (because you needed a higher in Technical Drawing and girls did not get that subject at school) - Ship's navigator (because women were not welcome on ships) - Map maker (because I would have to travel to Edinburgh for work) In fact their was a famous map makers not 10 miles away from home.

I was so dispirited by this and his suggestions - primary teacher, civil service, office work - that when I saw an advert for a Bank Apprentice, I applied, sat the entrance exam, got the job and left school. I loved the job in the Bank, back in the day when we really made an effort to put the customers first, but when it was time for me to start day release for Banking Exams, I was told that I was not an apprentice, but merely a Clerkess, Instead I should go to night school to do shorthand and typing - a subject not taught at High School, we did Latin instead.

Should have left then, but did as I was told. I was then transferred to a smaller, 3 staff branch and awarded 3 salary increments, 1 for dealing with foreign currency, 1 for being a senior (actually only) Clerkess, and 1 as a trainer, as we were a designated training Branch. In fact when I married aged 19 I was earning the same as my DH a time served joiner.

I did not know that I would become a 'temporary worker' because I was a married woman, pay remained the same but I was taken out of the pension scheme and did not qualify for a staff mortgage or an annual bonus. I was expected to resign before I started to 'show' when pregnant, but as the Bank could not find a suitably trained replacement I worked until 3 weeks before Baby was due.

Meanwhile a guy who had competed with me for the original apprenticeship but failed the exam, had secured an apprenticeship with another Bank, was a Branch Manager by 30 and an Area Manager by 40. It still rankles to this day.

I went to grammar school in working class area. I always wanted to be a nurse. We were interviewed before being accepted by the school( it was a bit posh!) Told by my teacher not to say a wanted to be a nurse as I didn't need to be educated to that level to be a nurse!
Went on to spend all my working life in nursing and loved it!

I imagine I would have chosen the same path and tried to become an opera singer, but I hope I would have had the courage to move to either Austria or Germany when I found that I didn't have any options here.

Tempest Sun 20-Dec-20 12:22:55

But be careful what you wish for, filming in exotic locations is not always compatible with family life. 5am start times does not allow for school drop off and pick ups.

From a distance, a job that entails travel and foreign locations does seem exotic and appealing. But it doesn't take long before the words of the song: "Homeward Bound," resonate.

Granny23 Sun 20-Dec-20 12:28:39

Meanwhile a guy who had competed with me for the original apprenticeship but failed the exam, had secured an apprenticeship with another Bank, was a Branch Manager by 30 and an Area Manager by 40. It still rankles to this day.

Who can blame you? Looking back at the treatment of women, it not only shames me but it baffles me too. Just who kept the country running throughout two world wars? The ladies did it all, from making the armaments to driving the public transport. From flying the aircraft from factory to airfields to supporting the armed forces. Then, post war, they were all suddenly deemed incapable.

Careers advice in the 60s was rubbish for most of us, I think. I was good at acting in school, in local theatre productions and later, college plays - but my mother was always totally discouraging and dismissive of these minor achievements. I think the idea then - if you got any advice at all - was that 'you have to pick a career that will last you for the next forty years and fit in with family life' .

I made sure my own children had access to a lot more information and advice. I never became an actor - it is still a slight regret that I never tried! However, I still gained a lot of satisfaction doing other things - and both my son and my daughter could see from my own job pattern that it was possible to retrain and do something different at whatever age.

But I do think that life is now very hard indeed for young people trying to get work at all, let alone have a career. Example: the 23 year old daughter of a friend who is bilingual and techno-savvy - as well as very well qualified - and with good social skills - is still looking for permanent work a year after graduation. She has 2 part-time jobs and has had to go back home to live as she does not earn enough this way to pay rent in the private sector.

I bitterly regret not doing medicine. I’ve been so envious of my cousin who has a brilliant career and is now a professor. It wasn’t to be. My parents just wanted me earning at the earliest opportunity. They told me to forget university as they couldn’t afford it as my DF’s income was too high for me to go for free. I wish I’d stood up to them, but we didn’t back then.