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

[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.

[The_War_Wagon]

Hi Skrool - not at all. College - somewhat... Graduate school - absolutely. Working on my Ph.D. for "career transition" in about another decade or so.

[Adondo]

I bailed out of skool after the 8th grade. (Speaking of misspellings, did you see that MSNBC news article on the NYC "shcool X-ing" road markings?)

I did my entire high school via a correspondence course (American Schools) while framing houses. At around 17, I went to work for an electrical contractor, and was wiring houses solo after six months or so, then got into commercial electrical.

By 19, I was working at the same company I'm still with now, building cop cars. I was doing tower work in my 20's and early 30's. That has progressed into maintaining radio systems and taking care of dispatch centers these days.

I have taken a few college trade courses, such as refrigeration, locksmithing, etc.

[peteyturbo]

I went to school for electronics engineering, and never got a job related to the industry lol....I am currently a test technology engineer, and I do dyno testing (engine and chassis) for outside customers, as well as internal r&d for our own emissions reduction systemns in a lab that is epa certified. Sometimes I also do calibration work for engines that do not pass epa standards for the usa. I have also built a few test cells here. Other then that I do performance dyno tuning as a second job which keeps me pretty busy..