If you could change your profession, what would it be?

Colorado Cowboy

Super Moderator
Jun 8, 2011
8,234
4,587
83
Dolores, Colorado
When I graduated from HS, wanted to go to Humboldt State U in California and major in wildlife mgmt. I had a football scholarship offer at another school and Humboldt didn't offer any scholarships, so I didn't go to Hunboldt. After I graduated, I went to work in aerospace on the Apollo program. I spent the next 40 years in that industry as a Production Engineer, with 25 of them as a member of senior management. Worked on the Apollo, Saturn II, B-1a Bomber, Space Shuttle, F-18 Fighter, B-2 Stealth Bomber and a number of classified programs in my career. I was paid extremely well and have a great retirement. The best is that absolutely loved every minute of it, was never bored and wouldn't change a thing.

So much for Wildlife Mgmt!!!! LOL
 

JimP

Administrator
Mar 28, 2016
7,232
8,543
71
Gypsum, Co
My plans were to become a electrical engineer but plans change real quick due to situations.

Instead I became a electrician working mostly in the oilfields of Utah and southern Wyoming. Then I got tired of hunting jobs and went to work for a phone company. Started out as a installer and worked my way through several jobs. The best was a cable maintenance job on the eastern and south western sides of Utah. There I worked on just about everything from old crank phones to microwave installations.

Then they told me that I didn't have a job there anymore so I packed up and headed for Colorado where I worked on even more varied jobs including fiberoptic cables.

There are times that I still wonder where I would of been if I would of became a engineer, but I like working outside and with my hands along with my mind and the troubleshooting that I did the last 20 or so years were about as good as it got.
 

AKaviator

Veteran member
Jul 26, 2012
1,819
1,084
I was fortunate and probably wouldn't change much about my career.

I was able, as a fish and wildlife trooper, to experience a lot of Alaska. The first half of my career was running patrol boats throughout S.W. Alaska and Kodiak. The second half I was patrolling much of interior Alaska by aircraft. It's not a great job if you want to hunt, since hunting seasons are busy times, but I sure got to know where a lot of wildlife lived, including some really big rams and bulls! I got to fly some great airplanes and ran boats from skiffs to 156'.

After retiring from fish and wildlife I was a pilot for a couple different hunting guides, did aerial wildlife survey work and worked as a air transporter for 40 Mile Air Service. All great jobs.

Retired now.
 

RICMIC

Veteran member
Feb 21, 2012
2,008
1,783
Two Harbors, Minnesota
I had planned to be a career Marine, but ended that after 6 years. Then I was enrolled for electrician school in the fall, working as a smokechaser for the USFS during the spring. On a June afternoon I was reading the local paper and saw an ad for testing for a police officer position, to be given in a couple hours. Well, I took the test, was hired, worked for 25 years in my hometown, attended the FBI Academy, worked for the US Marshalls for 5 years. No regrets, but the way things are going today, I would probably run away from a police officer position as the "Purge" becomes a reality. The best positive from a law enforcement career was an early retirement that allowed me to work 7 summers as a canoe guide, and find time for 20 hunting trips out west.
 

go_deep

Veteran member
Nov 30, 2014
2,650
1,983
Wyoming
Got no regrets on my profession, it's actually given me more and taken me farther than I could have ever imagined.
But if I inherited a couple million to buy a cash crop operation and have zero debt, i'd do that in a heart beat.
 

Fink

Veteran member
Apr 7, 2011
1,961
204
West Side, MoMo
ginocoligest
I’m guessing you’d probably change your tune after your first day...

not sure if I’d change much of my career so far. My wife had lots of opportunities to do traveling work, and I’ve always had the ability to work remote. I do wish we would have taken the opportunity to do work travel before we got tied down with kids and properties here. She would have about tripled her salary, and I might be retired by now.... oh well
 

nv-hunter

Veteran member
Feb 28, 2011
1,591
1,323
Reno
I wish I would have started earlier as I would have my time in and just be waiting on the age portion to retire.
 

go_deep

Veteran member
Nov 30, 2014
2,650
1,983
Wyoming
My buddies wife is a nurse at a Gyn's office, you do not want anything to do with what's going on there.