The three alternative things you considered doing.

[Guest Nekhyludov]

In chronological order:

1. Virologist

2. Priest

3. Operations consultant

The third one is still an option if I ever find the courage to strike out on my own. 

 

[Spanishcedar]

1) Heavy Equipment Mechanic

2) Blacksmith - Specializing in Knifemaking

3) Farming

Currently Pursuing #3 as a full-time venture.

#2 may come in my "latter years" as a hobby.

#1 I'll have plenty of opportunity to work with equipment when I get to #3, but I will never likely get to the big stuff that I used to really dream of... cranes, Dozers & the like!

[MPfit]

1. Surgeon (Didn't want to go to school for 8+ years after my bachelors)

2. Pharmacist (even thought another 4 years was too much)

3. Physicians Assistant (would do it today if my profession dissolved)

Settled on a small field called perfusion. Bachelors degree with good pay, and occasionally good hours albeit when it rains it pours.

[planetary]

1. Philosophy, probably in academia

2. Writer of some variety

3. Lawyer of some kind

Ended up in tech, instead.  Along with finance, one of the great gravity wells for educated people in the contemporary western world.

[Duxnutz]

1. Journalism

2. Aviation

3. Small-time Brewery/Distillery head distiller or assistant.

#1 really has suffered a decline in available full time work, #2 isn't the career I signed up for, probably 20 yrs too late. #3 looks like fun but in practise a lot of hard work and heaps of competition now. 

Might just hang onto the sugar momma.

[PapaDisco]

On 5/31/2017 at 11:51 AM, El Presidente said:

". . .  and so I did commerce with her."  

 

 

Did you mean that the way it sounded?  

At 18 I was aiming for astronaut, MD or physicist.

I ended up in ballet and banking!   And it's all been great fun.

I think one of the things the U.S. does well (without it being a deliberate goal) is encourage people in career switching, even later in life.  The brilliant European school system has one significant flaw in that it puts young people in career tracks too early.  I speculate that this is because of a legacy of "class" thinking, but also because of that turn-of-the-century (as in 1900) notion that a person's innate talents can be determined quite early; both of these notions are serious burdens on creative humans.

Bring back the liberal arts tradition I say.  Encourage your kids to experience subjects, art and athletics very broadly and let's eschew the specialization demanded to create wunderkinds.  To quote Robert Heinlein:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.  Specialization is for insects."