I wanted to be a pilot since I was a child. I got an introductory ride in a Cessna on my 14th birthday. Started taking flying lessons in earnest around 16, earned a private pilot’s license my freshman year of college. Decided I wanted to go into it as a job, started working on my instrument rating, and for my junior year of college I transferred to ERAU in Daytona Beach. Lasted just over a semester there. Ended up earning a light sport flight instructor certificate and I taught classes at a small school, eventually earning an LSRM certificate and working as the company mechanic as well. I’m a walking flight school, just add airplane.

Wasn’t earning enough money to pay all my own bills, and though I was logging 20-30 hours a week of flight time little of it was applicable to further ratings, and then the owners of the school started doing some sketchy shit and I decided to dip out. In the summer of 2012 I landed after a lesson with a student, and I haven’t flown an airplane since.

I kinda built myself a job as the project manager of a little job shop/prototyping firm, then that business didn’t survive COVID. I’m a woodworker now.

Yep many decades ago because capatilism society dictates I must be hyper productive and do stupid shit in order to do it while I have disabilities that limit me. Wanted to make a business or side gig I guess repairing computers but doing that requires me to have loads of money in the first place. Kinda just gave up on all my dreams after attempting college and failing because it’s not designed for my disabilities.

Illustration. It isn’t a thing where I’m at, and settled for graphic design (which is still barely a thing here). After graduation I applied for scholarships abroad, and got accepted on a full ride in a private university in Hamburg for illustration.

Weeks before I was supposed to leave I got cold feet and looked up all the info I could about the university. Turns out it’s a scam, the degree’s worth fuck all, and the university seemed to have this MO of recruiting aspiring legal migrants from third world countries (like myself) into its curriculum, voiding their scholarship, offering shit education, and charging exorbitant rates until they leave or graduate.

I was despondent for months since this seemed to be my big break after a pretty tough few months. Then AI image generation took off.

I’m okay at illustrating characters, but it’s immediately obvious I’ve learnt by myself and have done very little diligent study on the topic. My inexperience, how prevalent AI images are, and the uphill battle that gaining clients is, are keeping me away from trying again.

Yup! I had an amazing job lined up working for a major company at their EMEA headquarters in the UK. I had got through a half-dozen rounds of interviews and was offered the position. I had just moved into a place near their campus and was heading through the process of joining (there was a longwinded - but fully paid - enrolment process I was working through) with an amazing job full of travel, interesting challenges and, crucially, a £100k/year salary waiting at the end. But this was shortly after Brexit and the flailing UK government was jumping from self-imposed crisis to completely-unavoidable crisis, insulting and infuriating other countries by constantly changing the terms of neotiation, publicly announcing then denying new impossible promises by the day, and the company in questions had just had enough: how the fuck could they keep their EMEA HQ in a country that couldn’t even promise that foreigners would be able to visit - let alone work - there in six months, and they announced the campus was closing. All the existing jobs moved to the EU, existing staff offered redundancy or relocation, and the onboarding process was cancelled. Thanks to Brexit I wasn’t allowed to live or work in the EU so I was jobless. I ended up doing shitting IT support jobs for £20k then £18k for years until I finally landed the job I’m in now which I love, but it’s definately not where I could - or, at the risk of sounding arrogant should - have been.

Game developer. Quickly realized the working conditions in the industry were not for me. Maybe one day I’ll go indie and try to release my own game.

Multiple times in my career the thing I had trained for basically stopped being a thing, or became such an easy thing it wasn’t going to be much of a job.

Being at the wrong point, either too early or too late, in various tech waves almost felt like my super power.

Wasn’t until I turned thirty that I picked the right tech at the right time, and for 20 years have had a great career in an industry that is just as valuable today as when I started.

Programming turned out to be a major component in what I do, and while I’ve seen AI spit out some reasonable code in the more popular languages, I can’t see it replacing what I’m doing before I’m too old to care.

Growing up I wanted to be a mechanic. After I went to tech school and got into the field I learned how much of it was pushing shit on people even when it can wait or they can’t afford it. I got bitched at by my boss for trying to help someone prioritize what they actually needed vs “recommended services” on more than one occasion. I tried switching shops a few times but it was always the same thing so I completely lost my passion for it. I just work on my own car now.

Music production. It would have taken years after finishing recording school to even begin to break even, let alone make minimum wage, let alone make a living wage. All the entry-level gigs were one-time unpaid things.

I haven’t fully given up on music production forever because I’m too fucking stubborn, but I’m not making it my full-time job.

Radio production.

Got a degree, moved to London, applied for loads of jobs, and… nothing.

Trouble is, I needed to be paid, and at the entry level it’s all unpaid internships and volunteering at community stations. Unless you know someone who can get you through the door, of course.

Stuck with making a podcast in my spare time for a few years, but ultimately lost the spark.

These days I work in health and safety management and stream a radio show every Monday night that about 15 people tune into live, and 30-odd people listen to on Mixcloud. It makes me no money, but I enjoy it.

Unfortunately I’d need to be an American citizen to be president of the United States.

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I wanted to be a mechanical engineer growing up, I was always playing with Lego and building little mechanisms. Then I had a physics teacher who got into the subject of physics vs engineering. He told the class about his brother who was an engineer for some electric motor company, and how his team would spend 18 months fiddling with the parameters of a motor, and they’d throw a party if they increased efficiency by 0.5%. I couldn’t disagree with his assessment that that sounded boring and soul-draining.

It sounds like the perfect job for a certain kind of person, and I am not that kind of person.

Yeah. In middle school I was gonna be an NBA player 😂

All careers suck as they are designed to make you enter the rats race. Owning a business included…

Myself I started 3 or 4 times a careers and the only time I enjoyed my work it was due to the people around me.

Do whatever and try to find its positives…

I work IT and I would say: Don’t worry too much about AI. Lot of hype from boomers but is mostly bullshit.

I wanted to be a doctor really bad but in canada its basically a lottery system. My fiance had a 97 average, did well on her tests and basically lived her whole life in prep for med school and never got in, I have friends doing their PHDs on their fifth attempt, so seeing this I never even bothered. I did get into med lab which has been really fun, I now have 10 years in research/histopathology and have had an incredibly rewarding career in a field that I love, you just pivot and move on.

Honestly I wish I’d gone into finance/trading and done something I hate to make a shitload of money and just enjoy my free time but I’ve only got one life and I’ve already min/maxed my skill points so I’m in it for the long haul. Overall I’m happy with all my choices.