Do you work in an industry you studied for in high school or college?

[cico7]

I sucked at math and well most of my high-school classes.
I sell insurance and have been successful in selling retirement
plans to businesses and helping people invest 401k money.

I was the go-to person on figuring out errors in finance plans.

Who knew! I certainly didnt study this in school nor did I go
to college for it. So I am way out of what I expected to do.

How about you?

[Matt]

In 6th grade my guidance counselor asked me "what do you want to be when you grow up?".

I said, "I want to be an engineer!!"
She responded, "oh that's great! You want to drive a choo choo train?".......
Ugh.......

End of story, I'm doing what I planned to do since a VERY young age.... and its not driving a choo choo train! Lol

[pjmjr508]

MY father was in computers while I was growing up so was exposed at a young age.
My degree is in Network Management & now work in a NOC.

[LWM]

I had no plans in High School other than to get out of the small town I grew up in (that I accomplished). College was theology, so I did for many years but not currently so I voted not even close.

[Carn75]

When I was young all the men in my family were in construction. My Grandfather even owed a small company,so Thats what I thought I wanted to do. I started working on job sites the summer before my 13th birthday,and continued to do so for the next 4 yrs. I also went to a vocational highschool for masonary because at the time that sparked my interest the most,and I loved watching my uncle take a pile of bricks and at the end of the day end up with an amazing fireplace or bbq pit. After highschool I became a mason for about 2yrs,but by then I had been in 3 car accidents and my back & shoulder were getting more and more torn up from the heavy lifting. After I decided there was no way I could lay block for the next 35+yrs I decided to take a law enforcement test. Got hired by the prison system and 12 yrs later still doing it.

[Holaday07 4.7]

Went to college to become a cop, and ended up in sales.

[BonesWK]

Yep - Studied Management Information Systems in college, currently an application administrator in my company's quality department.

No hand outs for me

[superacerc]

Started College in an electrical engineering program. Ended up with a french minor and liberal arts degree. Now I'm a marine inspector in the cost guard enforcing federal and international laws aboard anything that floats from 1100 ft crude oil tankers to fishing vessels. The cost guard also moonlights me when needed as a french interpreter since I'm bilingual. Never would have guessed that a few years back.

[NeilSmith]

took two years of auto body repair/ refinishing at tech school during high school, junior and senior year. graduated in 1989 and been painting full time since 1990. so yeah i guess i am.

[Doc in AZ]

i was one of the nerds that started college classes my freshman year of high school. i could have graduated high school in the 11th grade. by the time i was 17 i was close to a degree specializing in international business and marketing and already had 7 semesters of japanese language and cultural training. but as most child prodigy types i was bored to tears with school because it was all easy, repetitive and i was not being challenged. so i dropped out.

i had been working at the refinery my dad operated for a few years with the maintenance guys and realized that the problem solving and design was more my calling than a suit and tie. to the benefit of this thread, it was in '87 that my auto shop teacher taught us to weld. i talked my dad into buying me a little buzz box and started building bicycles and stuff and coming up with crazy ideas... never thought it would be a way to make a living back then.

but it has proven to be a worthy skill set & coupled with engineering it can be very lucrative.