What area of history did you specialize in for your postgraduate work?

Electrical. Although, our lab specializes in the interface between electrical engineering, computational neuroscience, the mathematical modeling of neural networks and the computational computing of AI models.

I would recommend engineering to anyone. Electrical, chemical, civil, systems, etc...all interesting fields and you will have a job with decent salary on only a bachelors degree in an instant.

I started a PhD on "Maritime Scientific Expeditions in the early 19th Century", the case studies being FitzRoy/Darwin (GB), Freycinet (FR), Kotzebue (RU) and the Galathea expedition (DK). Made my tectonic career shift before I finished the thesis, which is rather shameful to admit, but it did me and my life a LOT of good. I had basically become very disenchanted with Academia where I was studying, the European university Institute in Florence, Italy.

Sometimes it is very difficult to dare change course in life, but at least my suggestion is that you should do it if you feel really compelled. Don't settle for an existence if you can get a life!

Helping coach youngsters in motorsport, having a hand in other behind the scenes things, all on a voluntary basis, though i class it as my profession.

I made it happen just from following on after my own racing career took a nose dive due to money rapidly becoming an issue, but i thought to myself, well if i can't continue then why the heck can't i help make someone elses career happen. After that i set about contacting anyone i knew with experience for help and direction, it took many many days weeks and months to get it all together, but now i'm usually about should anyone require the help they need, i've done group coaching sessions with about 20-30 youngsters at a time some as young as 5.

Seeing the kids enjoy learning and seeing their enthusiasm is something of an added bonus, but when their parents then ask if i can do some 1-1 coaching with them, because they think i've done a good job it only makes it all the more worthwhile, i figure if i have a hand in even just 1 of these kids having a successful racing career then i have acheived what i aimed to do, and thats what drives me on.

My advice, if you want to make it happen, set your mind to it, contact people with experience in the specific area, their knowledge can and will help loads, make a plan, keep everything in order. You can acheive what you want to acheive if you put your mind to it and focus on it, eventually you will get to where you want to be, and should for any reason you dont you can at least be satisfied you tried everything in your power to get there.

I fell into my job after I graduated college almost by accident. I was moving away from home, in with the girlfriend (future wife), and needed a job. Windows 95 had just come out and IT was a booming area. I spent all my free time with my home PCs anyway, so why not? Been doing it ever since, the last 10 supporting the USAF.
Quite frankly at this point I find it hard to imagine doing something that's NOT computer-related. But I don't mean "doing a job in X using a computer", because I see people doing tons of different jobs around here, all using PCs that I have to support, and I can't picture myself doing any of their jobs.

Of course, while the actual job is what I like, sometimes the PARTICULARS of the job I have I do not i.e. a manager, a coworker, a new policy, moving offices, etc.


The Jedi Master

I don't love what I do but it pays the bills and I work with some good people. I don't revolve my life around work though so I don't have to love it, just tolerate it.

I wanted to be a cop since I was about 8.

Of course, after being a cop for 10 years I was thoroughly burned out, but I got over it. But it's all I've ever wanted to do.

I'm trained as a lawyer and I did that for 6 years.

My last job was absolutely horrible. Maybe 15% of it actually required legal skills but the remaining 85% was file management and preparing statistical reports on file management. It did NOT suit my temperament, though I had the skill to do it I was bored out of my skull.
As my first son was an infant I stuck through it even though I hated it, gained about 25 lbs, and woke up every week day dreading the up-coming 10 hours.
My boss, who had created my position to off-load work she had done and didn't want (i.e., all the boring, repetitive crap). She was constantly looking over my work and making me draft, and re-draft, and re-draft documents often reversing changes she herself had made me implement. Our relationship headed downhill after about a year. Six-months later they offered me a severance package I was only too happy to take at that point.

I was unemployed for 8-months and entered into a funk. But then I found my current job, as a Workers' Comp adjudicator... and this job is FANTASTIC!

So long as I show up for the hearings and produce decent decisions in a reasonable timefrime I'm free to work as I please, when I please. It's a job where I feel like I'm making a difference in peoples' lives and in which I have to determine interesting questions of law. I have a ton of flexibility, plenty of time for my growing family, and make quite a decent salary (better than before).

In retrospect, while I wish I'd been smarter in my career management (I should have looked for different employment opportunities when I knew, a year in, that I hated my job) I see my previous crappy job as an important lesson in learning what I wanted in a job. I also know that I appreciate my current job all the more since I have a point of comparison.

At the end of the day, how I figured it out was the hard way: it's not enough to make good money- you have to learn what kind of person you are and find a job that will fit your characteristics.
In my case I learned, amongst other things, that I'm not nearly as much of a team player as I thought I was and that I'm more interested in the "big picture" of issues rather than being "detail oriented".

I also spent a year teaching ESL in Japan and LOVED that job... I could have seen myself doing that as a career too. For various reasons life went a different way, but I'm sure I would have been very happy if I'd continued doing that.

ROFLMAO! Ah, well, no worries, I've since repented of being such a mean sh*tter and have become quite pacifist in my outlook. People feel I'm a nice guy these days, and I'd say that's true.

I blame my older brother really. He and his friends picked on me so much that I had to become a vicious little thug to keep them on their guard.

It was actually quite funny in those days to see half a dozen teenagers fleeing in panicked terror from a seven year old as I chased them down the street with a razor-sharp sickle, swinging it so hard that it would whistle through the air. I taught them a lot about reality and respecting others. Plus several of them discovered that they had a real talent for track and field events thanks to me and went on to participate in athletics that they otherwise might have passed up. I was good for them, no question about it. I expanded their horizons.

Cheers!

Rick...

I'm not exactly sure how I figured it out, I think it just happened.

As a young boy my dad signed me up for a model building club from a magazine. Every month they'd send a new model...cars, planes, ships, tanks, spacecraft. I really enjoyed building the airplanes, and had a love of airplanes since I was raised as a USAF "brat" for a few years before dad got out.

After graduation I still didn't have a real clue about what to do. I'd talked to all of the military recruiters and taken the ASVAB my junior year of HS, but my girlfriend at the time was against me joining the military so I figured I'd be stuck in a low paying factory job and stay in the same little town for the rest of my life. Then something happened and one night I broke up with that girlfriend who I'd been seeing for a year, and the very next day I went to the USAF recruiter and said "sign me up!".

Initial intention was to go into Security Forces but they didn't have any openings for the time I wanted to go (NOW!) so they asked me to choose a different career field. Tactical Aircraft Maintenance Specialist...working on jet fighters...sounds pretty cool since I dig jets. That was 1986, and I'm still working on USAF jets (A-10Cs) full time in the National Guard.

Like some others here, there are times when the politics and management get on my nerves at my job, but while I'm troubleshooting, repairing, inspecting, servicing, launching my jet for a safe and mission capable flight, I'd probably do it for free. I get an awesome satisfaction every time my jet goes wheels up knowing I've done my best and knowing it's a sound aircraft.

It's not like I don't need the money because I do, but it's funny sometimes when guys at work ask if we get paid this week and I say "I don't know". My check goes right into my checking account that my wife handles, so the way I look at it I'm doing my job for fun and my wife gives me an allowance and we can buy stuff.

I've loved cars since the day i was born.

I really enjoy arts, drawing\sculpting.

Im a PC nerd.

Mix them all together and im a 3d vehicle artist by profession .

What sort of programming do you want to do? With all the apps being created and sold online for phones and even XBox Live, if you're interested in doing games, it might be something you could mess with on the side and perhaps lead to something better. You had mentioned C Sharp which is the language used for the XNA programming environment for which your supposed to be able to write stuff for Windows PCs, XBox 360 and Windows Mobile, though I could be out of date on that.

If you want to do website sort of things then maybe mess around with that in your spare time and since the tourism industry is so big I'd focus your efforts towards that. If you make something you think they'd like send them a link or whatever to the appropriate division and hopefully they'd like it and something would come from that.

Unfortunately in both cases I'd expect you'd need access to art assets but you might be able to find people or access to free/affordable assets through the web.

My apologies if these options are unrealistic for your situation. Since you have internet access though I'm hoping there are opportunities available that will overcome the restrictions of your location.

Elf

I'm also one of those "did I get paid this week?" people. In my case, though, it's more of a financial freedom thing. I make ok money, but my wife makes more even before her bonuses, so it's been years since we lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I get paid every other week, so either I get paid this Friday or the next. I don't even know how much it will be, frankly.

That's why to me getting a raise is less important than an increase in vacation time. I mean, it's getting paid NOT to work! Why wouldn't you want more of that? I'd rather get more of that than another 3% increase in pay any year.

In fact, I'll go so far as to say if I got an extra week of vacation every year instead of a raise, I'd be happy. After 10 years you have 3 months of vacation, paid! If you need more money you could always do something on the side during those breaks if you want. Ah, to dream...



The Jedi Master

Thanks for the responses Freycinet and whistlingdeath

Well I was a military Brat from the start, of course everything in my life, involved the military in some way or other. So as soon as I was old enough, I left home nd joined up the air force as a driver. I spent 12 years dong some wonderful jobs, from driving fire engines, ambulances doing VIP close protection driving, all the way up to driving heavy haulage loads. However I specialised in doing tactical aircraft refuelling. Nothing like refuelling a chinook as it hovers just above your head.

Sadly after 12 yrs, I was made redundant in the defence cuts, which thrust me into civi street. Somewhere I had never been before in my life, frightening wasnt the word. Luckily for me, my wife knew me better than I knew myself, so while I was panicking with no idea what to do, not much call for a tactical aircraft refueller in civi street. She was searching the Internet, where she found the job I'm doing now.

I'm now a traffic officer patrolling the m/ways over here, and I have to say I love every min. I never know what each day will bring, I'm pretty much my own boss while on patrol, and the lads ans lasses who work with me are great. At least 50% of us are ex military, which means I'm still in a military mess room environment with the banter and social life.

I still have no idea how I managed to fall into this job, but I'm not complaining.

I still hate being a civi and I freely admit to feeling like a Hugh part of me is missing. However if I have to be a civvi, I can't think of a better job to be in.