If you could pick a different career path...

[designcat]

Let's play an imaginative game - because this is my coffee break and I would love to get to know some freelance colleagues here. 😋

If you had to pick a totally different career, what would it be?
And maybe let's start off with what you are doing right now (as a freelancer).

I start: I'm doing German content creation now, with recommendations for graphic design and marketing, and if I could choose a different path, I would become a virologist.

(Has nothing to do with Covid 🙃)

[pgiambalvo]

Anything but a writer or musician. I'd get a business degree, go straight into middle-management, then try to remain invisible until I retired.

[okele]

If I could do it all over again I would be Male Exotic Dancer. Or went to school and become a web designer. They seem to be related. 🤣

[2ef54d61]

Brewer/Distiller would be fun. Sadly, I'm in a state where that market is absolutely saturated 

[mwiggenhorn]

As a young woman, I always wanted to be a lawyer.  I got married instead and then divorced with 3 young kids.  Law school was never in the stars.  In my 40s, I went back to college and got my paralegal certificate and have worked as such ever since, very, very happily.  It's better than being a lawyer because I cannot malpractice!  (If I screw up, it's my supervising attorney's fault.)  I continue to work post-retirement age, 2-3 hours a day, for a much higher hourly rate than I would get in an office.  Life is good.

[mwiggenhorn]

And actually, when I was very young, I wanted to be a nun.  I doubt I would have last more than a minute.

[pgiambalvo]

Ditto.

[roberty1y]

Just as well you dropped that idea. I haven't seen one job for a nun here since I started. And if I did, it would probably include a Telegram address. 😉

[atlinguist]

I've always wanted to be a chemist or a biochemist, but because I moved countries and schools in my youth, I didn't get as much chemistry education as I probably would have needed to start the subject at university. 

[nyonomega0]

I would like to become a Scientist - Cosmologist X Genetic-engineer (an abnormal combo for sure).

[hglewis]

No matter how I say it, it sounds creepy, but here goes.

A massage therapist...

Because I'm good with my hands.

See, creepy! 😈 

[mwiggenhorn]

Not creepy at all.  I only use male massage therapists because they have big, strong hands.

[allpurposewriter]

I'd do what I'm doing, but I would have started earlier. 

I've already had two (now three) unrelated careers. I was a dairy farmer for 20 years and a psychologist/counselor for about 15.  Now, I'm a writer. Next up: Stand up comedian. The only problem there is my humor peaked 20 years ago. Just ask my kids. But please don't. They don't need any encouragement. 

[pgiambalvo]

I had no idea that cows needed therapists. But I guess the pressure of having to give milk every day can wear on you.

[allpurposewriter]

Peter,

My kids would bar you from making any jokes for a week for that one.  You'd  be on probation at least.

[pgiambalvo]

Tough room, tough room. But I do applaud them for maintaining a high bar for comedy. Reminds me of taking my kids to a movie when they were 4 and 5. A lot of the audience laughed at something, then they nudged me and asked why they were laughing. I said it was because they thought it was funny. Then my kids said but it wasn't funny. I agreed and was both proud of them and sad for them at the same time, because they had better get used to that.

[allpurposewriter]

There's probably a medical name for humor-challenged people -- aside from multimillionaires, that is.  I suffer deplorably from the opposite  -- a tendency to find humor at knife fights, funerals, natural disasters and Thanksgiving dinner at my parents' house,  Hence, of course, I'm  broke and always have been. Some laugh their way to the bank; others (moi) just laugh.

[pgiambalvo]

Has there ever been a Thanksgiving dinner with relatives that didn't include a knife fight? I know I I can't remember one.

[allpurposewriter]

Point taken.

[a_lipsey]

Biostatistician and/or theoretical statistics. Maybe physicist. I excelled in science and math in school, but grew up in a community that downplayed women's ability to be good at science. So even though I was at the top of my class, I didn't pursue a career in a STEM field, even though I now actually do work in STEM. 

I have actually been considering getting another masters in biostatistics this time. 

[alamiinsi]

I've always wanted to be a bartender!

[mwiggenhorn]

So, other careers I've actually had: dictating non-routine collection letters for an encyclopedia company, in-house advertising department for a musical instrument manufacturer, area director for 2 major national medical non-profits, residential real estate sales in two states, physician recruiter (worst job ever), retail sales of men's clothing and baby clothes.  Quite a shady background.  Never could stick with anything - or make money at it! - until I became a paralegal.

And my degree is in French Literature.  Go figure.

[mwiggenhorn]

And I totally forgot to add that I worked in movies/ TV/ commercials for 2 years as a background actor.

[salsham0065]

If I could start all over again, I would be a mechanical engineer as I am now.

But in this field, I wasn't going to the jobs I have had so far, I only was selecting research projects and was working on them.

[2e395a62]

I'm currently a content writer and HR/Career Coach, also a content marketing specialist co-building websites, etc. If I could turn back time, I'd probably pursue a musical career in blues/rock and make a hobby a profession (and surely be dead by now or at best enjoying the 345th rehab), or start writing novels earlier and become a pro writer (rehab option applies here as well). Alternatively, I could have joined the military with the goal to become a member of special ops team (and be dead by now or suffer from PTSD). Interestingly, I'm still alive after choosing an HR/Marketing career 🙂 

[1533b21b]

I'm doing programming and scripting. Well, after schools I always wanted to be a networking "guy" and I did started learning but one day I found an article where the author mentioned that you should learn how to build stuff before learning how to break them and it was pretty convincible. So, I started learning about web development instead of C++ or any low level lang. because he was referring to learn how to build machines and low level code based systems but I didn't understand the meaning at that time. After that, I was just keep learning web dev and one fine day I entered into the realm of JavaScript (espcially those frameworks) and no one can break this loop!

Now, I just got an idea to create rehab center for people who are addicted to these frameworks.

Title: JavaScript Rehab

[christopherbudde]

Forest Ranger

[financemark]

In-Flight Missle Maintenance Technician