How did you get into your career?

If you currently do not work, do you plan to go back to work at some point and what career had you been in?


I originally wanted to be a guidance counselor. I have my Masters in School Counseling. Its next to impossible to get a guidance position on Long Island and in certain schools in Queens. There are a lot more graduates than there are jobs available. After about 2 1/2 years of trying, I gave up. I have worked in libraries since college as a page, circulation clerk and page supervisor. At my job as a page supervisor, I had a very nice supervisor who told me I would make a great librarian. I always loved to read and wanted to pursue this. Her and another librarian told me that I could take the core classes at Stony Brook (I was living in Suffolk Co. at the time). I did just that. I am currently a children's librarian trainee in Queens (I live in Queens now) and will graduate from school next year.

Re: How did you get into your career?

bump. any answers?

Re: How did you get into your career?

I'll play!

I decided at 14 years old what I wanted to be! I read about it in the newspaper, about how it was a male dominated industry. That peaked my interest!

I had no one in this business, usually it is a family type of thing and I did not know anyone who did it either.

Anyhow, after 3 years of school & a 1 year internship and now 8 years licensed I love what I do!!!

Re: How did you get into your career?

Well, I went to school for performance and planned to make my living playing the flute in an orchestra and teaching lessons and writing articles on music history for various journals, but while I was in grad school, September 11th happened, and I realized that I was wasting my time in grad school arguing about what Beethoven was wearing when he wrote his 9th Symphony and I thought that there had to be something more out there because this was insanely stupid.
So, I moved with JT to Boston and planned to support him while he finished his degree. I still wanted to perform and teach privately, but I didn't want to go back to grad school yet. I spent the year up there teaching music history in a high school for emotionally disturbed students. During a bad snowstorm, I was walking in the un-plowed parking lot, slipped and fell on my left shoulder. I sprained my neck and did ireperable damage to my nerves in my left arm. So my dreams of a career in performance ended right there So.........as much as I hated the school I worked in, I realized how much I loved teaching music and how much knowledge I had to share with other people. So, I ended up staying in the teaching field. I still perform and play my flute, but because of injuries, I'll never be able to make it my sole profession. I can only play for a couple of hours before I am in pain.

Sorry so long!

Re: How did you get into your career?

Thanks both for sharing your stories. Rachel, I'm sorry to hear about your arm.

Re: How did you get into your career?

Posted by Booklady1017

Thanks both for sharing your stories. Rachel, I'm sorry to hear about your arm.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I have always been into languages and everything about them. I have always been interested in the history of languages and where each langauge developed from. I studied middle high German and how it is connected to English. I am not exactly where I want to be (ESL teacher), but for now I am enjoying it. I love teaching and listening to how certain langauge groups develop while they learn English. I would like to go more into the linguistics field, but I am not sure what exact area.

Re: How did you get into your career?

ITA Rachel that things happen for a reason (same with my job). I'm so happy that I am librarian. I think its a better fit fo me than guidance counselor.

I love languages too. I tried to teach myself Spanish but I found that I can only retain languages if I use them and I don't use my languages (French, Spanish and Hebrew) that much.

Re: How did you get into your career?

bump for more replies please.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I did two years of pre-pharmacy classes at Stony Brook (technically the pre-reqs entail three years, but I was gung ho and loaded up the first two yrs).. got accepted into a great PharmD program down in Miami......

Fast forward through the summer and a week before I was supposed to leave I had this awful nagging feeling not to go.... approached my Dad..(who I thought would flip out) and he agreed, didnt love the idea of me in Miami alone. He then informed me I needed to get re-enrolled somewhere else ASAP....

Since time was short, I went to Nassau to enroll and could only get into night classes... at that point my dad suggested getting a temp job..... So, I went to the temp agency and they assigned me to a company in an HR Department filing I-9's alphabetically (yuck)... but, they wound up hiring me as an Admin and I LOVED it..... fast forward... I finished my degree in PR.....currently 1/2 way thru my MBA, worked myself up to the Director level ... and LOVE IT!!!!!

..... All happened for a reason!

Re: How did you get into your career?

well I was on sabbatical...basically I was going through a lot...stress, anxiety, insomnia and was really getting to me. So I went for a massage (actually told the therapist what was going on) that night I slept like a baby! The next day I started to look into massage therapy. Turned out the school was 7 minutes from my house and was having an open house the next day...eight years later and I still love what I do...thats all she wrote!

Re: How did you get into your career?

No stories of serendipity for me.

I majored in Psychology. I applied to grad school for PhD in Counseling Psychology. I got in. Went to school for 8 years!!! I'll graduate in May but have been working as a Psychologist for 2 years already while finishing up my dissertation. I LOVE it. It's the perfect career for me.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I graduated with a bachelors in Business Management and at the time I was working as a teller at a bank. Right after graduation my fathers long time friend offered me a position as a consultant in his group (in a large company) under the pretense that as soon as I find something I really want to do, I am free to leave. I had absolutely no clue what I would be doing until I walked in on my first day. I kept asking my father, all he said was "Don't worry, you will be fine." Gee dad, thanks! LoL So I started and it was going well. Out of 35 employees all were consultants except for 5. After about 2 months I was hearing rumors that my boss wanted to keep me there as a full time employee. Within 6 months from starting as a consultant I became a FTE and had the title of manager and then AVP. (This was the hardest thing I ever faced career-wise. There was a lot of resentment towards me by other consultants. It wasn't easy managing a team that ripped me apart in and out of work. Nice right?)
Well then we soon found out that they wanted to off-shore my department. I spent a total of 13 days in Budapest, Hungary, training a new team. I was able to manage them from my NY office for a few months until I found my current job in the same company. I am a compliance officer in a technical support team.
Here's my problem: I'm not happy. This is not what I want to be doing (It wasn't what I had in mind when I graduated). The money is a big factor and I am just not happy with this particular aspect of technology. I am pursuing a Masters in Info Systems at my company that is taught by a highly competitive college. So by this time next year I will be finishing my degree and hopefully looking to really jump start my career.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I have always knew that I wanted to be a nurse. I wanted to work with people and I have that personality where I want to help people. I went into psych because it sounded interesting and it wound up being my calling, I love being a psych nurse.

Re: How did you get into your career?

wow Crystal that sound like some amazing experiences!
take them all with you and do what makes you happy!

Re: How did you get into your career?

I graduated college with a double major in English and History. My parents and both siblings teach so I did not want to do what everyone else did. I commuted to the city for a year working in PR and did not like it. I then moved onto college administration and spent 4 years working at a college. I loved it but a piece was missing. While working at the college, I started my Masters in History. After some reflection, I changed it to a Masters in Social Studies Ed. I completed my degree last Jan and love being a teacher! I guess you can't fight your genes but it took awhile to make the choice for myself. I have no regrets about my past careers. I learned so much, met great people, and had really valuable life experiences.

Re: How did you get into your career?

Okay, you asked for it....this is going to be long lol.

When I started college I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life - all I knew was I hated math and science and they were definitely not options.

I ended up taking a physical anthropology class to take a "fun" science requirement. I ended up falling in love and decided I wanted to try forensic anthropology. At Stony brook however, they have a good cultural anthropology program but not a physical one. My friend was in the clinical laboratory science program there and they happened to have a forensic science track so I decided to give it a go since I figured I would be struggling to find a job as a forensic anthropologist anyway.

I joined the clinical lab science program and graduated. I thought I would follow up by doing my masters in forensic science (I was looking to be a criminal scientist). But ultimately I was recommended by one of my teachers for a position in a cytogenetics lab in a hospital. I figured I'd take it since it was good $ and good benefits, plus they would pay for masters.

I ended up falling in love however, and decided to do my masters in human cytogenetics . While working and doing my masters I decided I wanted more in life and I didn't want to work in a clinical lab doing the same thing day in and day out - so I decided to go for my PhD in genetics!

So that's what I am doing now. I absolutely love science, I love research and I love what I do every single day. I have no clue what I'll be doing when I leave, most probably I'll end up teaching in a small liberal arts college. Whatever happens though, I'll just let the chips fall where they may because I have been doing that all my life and so far it's working out fantastic

Re: How did you get into your career?

Thank you all for sharing your stories.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I went to college and majored in el. ed, once I got into the schools I realized I didn't like that age group at all, so then I thought I would major in secondary ed- history but wasn't in love with the idea of being a teacher....at that point I transferred schools and lost a lot of credits.. I had the choice of just graduating with a history degree or staying longer at my new school to continue for a secondary education degree. At that point I knew I didn't want to be a teacher so I just took the history degree.... I tried several internships in publishing, but hated the big corporate feeling of the companies I was in. When it was time for me to graduate, my dad offered for me to come to work with him for awhile (he owned his own construction company) since I didn't know what I wanted to do. I started there and LOVED working in a small business. I have been here for 3 years now and am back in school getting my MBA....I hope to either stay where I am or open my own small business some day.

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Message edited 3/3/2010 5:33:21 PM.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I knew I wanted to be a teacher from a child, I just didn't know if I wanted to teach elementary school or the upper grades. I realized in college that I wanted to teach English and became certified 7-12... I taught middle school for three years...

Dh and I got married -DH got a fantastic opportunity that with a lot of thought and consideratio, we knew he couldn't pass up-it meant 100% traveling for two years, at that point, we decided that I would leave my teaching job (in a district in CT that I wasn't thrilled with anyway), travel with him...and that's what we have been doing. He has 1 more year of this position...

I plan to go back to teaching though

Re: How did you get into your career?

wanted to be an english teacher... went to college, graduated, got a job, have been teaching for 4 years!


my story is boring!!!!

Re: How did you get into your career?

my story is boring. I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, but I was always good at math and numbers. but I didnt want to be a math teacher.

my dad always told me to go into a male dominated industry (he knew I could hold my own).

I was a finance major in undergrad, and decided to work as a bank teller - when I graduated I got into commercial lending - its very interesting, lending money to all different companies - its amazing how much people can make owning their own business and finding their own niche in the marketplace...

i want to own my own business one day, I just have to figure out what

Re: How did you get into your career?

bumping b/c I think this is a great thread and I'm trying to figure out what I want to do myself.

My story - went to school majoring in Economics (always thought wanted to be a big shot on wall street), quickly realized I was more interested in the social aspect, history and policy. Thought about a PhD in history, law school, etc. Applied to law school and deferred to pursue masters in economic history - didn't like that so dropped out and had to enroll asap somewhere (parent's push) and got a masters in urban affairs. I've been in non-profit and philanthropy since, for the past 7 years. Enjoy some things about it, but don't feel its where I want to be forever. Still think about teaching and all sorts of things.

Re: How did you get into your career?

I always knew I wanted to do something with children and psychology...so I always thought I'd be a child psychologist. When I got to college a realized a BA in psych is basically the equivalent of a HS diploma in the job world, I realized I had to get a Master's or doctorate. I heard about school psychology which seemed perfect...school, children, psychology...what more could ask for. When I first applied I didn't get into the programs and instead got a master's degree in Educational Psych which was pretty useless too, except for the fact that it helped to get me into the school psych masters program when I reapplied. Spent 4 years in school (including a full time 1200 hour UNPAID internship) and graduated.
It's a pretty hard job to get, especially in LI...I ended up in a special ed preschool for almost 4 years and now I'm in the NYC board of ed (which has definite pluses and definite minuses), but here I am!