M5

When they bother turning up!

I had an assessment by an agency a good few years back, and they concluded that I was in a ob that ideally suited me (Quality Engineer) !
Kind of good to know in one way, just a shame that there's not more money in it.
Far from being at companies that were taken over and money given to staff, many of my former employers went bang, largely due to bad management.

I suppose that in many ways, I've made the best of what was on offer (2 of my past jobs were from nationally advertised positions in the Daily Telegraph - used to be a Thursday jobs supplement), it's just frustrating that I've not been able to make more of my life. However as one recruiter said some years back, you may be very frustrated that you cannot find something better, but I have on my books people with more experience and ability that you sitting at home unemployed as they cannot find anyone able to offer them a position.

A lot is down to chance/luck, I suppose, and although things have not been as good as they could have been (the jobs I really liked never lasted due to issues with the companies suffering downturns in fortune, and my uni placement year is still probably the best working year of my life), I suppose that things could also have been far worse..... not too much consolation when you suffer from depression, I know, but we are all different and react in different ways to situations.

Actually it's funny how often you hear of careers officers dismissing or belittling people's job ambitions which then only serves to spur them on even more and make them more determined to prove them wrong. It's almost as if it's deliberate policy/test. Maybe these cockwombles are cleverer than we think!

I was flicking back through this thread and made the mistake of clicking on the link.....that's lost me some time!    It's brought up some interesting future options, particularly if/when my mileage drops or we flip the budgets around.

I went to a fee paying day school. I don't think we ever had any careers guidance at school. A level choices were either what you needed if you knew what you wanted to be (e.g doctor, dentist, vet, join the forces etc) or were good at subject wise, or if that was more than 3 subjects, parental "persuasion" plus that fact that the timetable set up only allowed certain A levels to be grouped together did the job. Target was to get as many people as possible into university. Careers seemed almost secondary to that aim. 

That's how I ended up doing a chemistry degree - parental persuasion. After three years of that, an accountancy career seemed positively exciting. 

I love the careers advice stories. I was told by my physics master that one day I would find out that life was not one big joke, and after five kids and a divorce he's probably not wrong - but then again he's inside for fiddling with little girls (a refreshing change) so his advice is probably best taken with a pinch of salt. Like PG my school was more concerned with the grades you'd need to get to Uni as opposed to what you were suited to. I got a place in Electronic Engineering at UCL in 1986. I started a degree in Quantity Surveying in 1989 having not gone to UCL because the day visit showed me how shit that was going to be compared to what probably remains the best 2 years of my life (the 6th form - you have to remember that my dad was posted overseas; my mother lived in the USA and my 5-year-older sister was a Gitanes smoking free spirit that used to hand me cash to "go out and live while you're young")

At my school you were to be an engineer, a doctor or you'd failed as far as I could see (a few went to be stock market shouty bastards which is clearly failure). I've had a varied career which is currently in a role which sounds impressive, is high(ish) profile, pays me well and is utterly shite. I'm now probably at the stage in life whereby I can change career and not be scared of not earning loads of money so maybe that's a consideration. Again, no one told you when you were 16 that you could change careers (even when you're 50). Some of the roles I've had couldn't be described in career terms by the people that have employed me, let alone by a school master in the '80s that was educated in the '50s!

I clearly remember one lesson we had about careers and the question was put out there; "What do you want to be when you leave school?" A tall , ginger-haired lad with glasses put his hand up and said firmly; "Gynecologist". We all fell about laughing but to be fair he did go on to fulfill his dream and become a successful gyno. I don't think he even came from a medical family. Maybe he just had thin wrists.

I don't remember our school even having a careers teacher!

Pleased to hear it’s back in track.

If I’d been around tomorrow, you could have had a luxury airport transfer!

Thank you, but I’m in Swindon tomorrow unfortunately.

Hopefully they’ve finished the BMW showroom refurbishment now, the last time I was there (service) I was squashed into the back on the Mini showroom was housing all the services and sales team plus a small customer waiting area.

I'm due to be in Higham Ferrers next Wednesday.....

Eton for thickies? I used to live in Eton and there were some exceedingly dense students going there back then!

Certainly my school, which values winning rugby 7s tournaments almost as highly as academic league tables, used to dole out scholarships to kids who were, for example, extremely good at rugby but perhaps not that academically gifted.

Probably they do similar down the road at Eton.

But Stowe definitely has a reputation for being where the upper classes send their Tim Nice but Dims.