Im kind of jealous. I really liked geology in college and took a bunch of extra classes in it. When the Barnett Shale took off I started hanging out with a bunch of guys from the oil patch and started catering on wells. I thought that stuff was interesting, really amazing. I was making too much money doing what I was doing and the timing just wasn't right to make a career change. If I would have been a little younger and a little broke I think I would have really enjoyed that kind of stuff.

I was a groundskeeper in high school and wanted to work and eventually run a state park....until I found out what they paid. My dreams were crushed too.

I was coaching high school football and one of my ex students came to homecoming and said he was a frac hand and cleared $90k his first year. I called BS, so he showed up at film study Saturday w a check stub. At the time I was working for $38,500 a year! I finished the school year with the intention of hiring on that summer to pay off some bills and report back for 2 a day workouts. I got a few checks and never looked back…..
Cleared over $100k my first year w no experience but I worked my azz off. Moved up the ranks from there. The oilfield has been good to me. I’ve had quite a few years over $300k as a consultant. The work is challenging mentally, thinking downhole and reading the well, performing the frac to client specs, and managing a location w 35-40 people working on it from 8-9 different 3rd party companies.

In a round about way I guess I did. I knew I wanted to be in sales of some sort. I have been in the alcohol beverage industry now for almost 23 yrs. I have held many positions from field rep to VP of sales. I am happy where I’m at in my career for now. I work from home and catch every kids game and spend a great deal of time with my wife as she works from home also. Can’t complain

No, I planned on being an accountant our psychiatrist. Had a full ride scholarship to Angelo State, but turned it down to protect my mom from my father. Had several jobs over the years, basically all involved sales and management. I'm great at both, but hated them both, despite making a great living. Now I get to help people and I make a great living doing that. But, no, I never saw myself doing this type of work...although a lot of my clients do take the part of my title that is Therapist and tell me things I don't wanna know.

no....worked my way through college/law school in printing business,made journeyman and stayed in printing business for couple years,got tired of it and went to work for A.C.Nielsen market research company....traveled 11 1/2 years for them in the Miss. Ark Lousiana area...got tired of them and they got tired of me so we parted ways...mall in greenville,Ms needed a mall manager so I applied and got job,,,this led to bigger malls in Columbus,Ga. Macon,Ga. and finally Albany,Ga. where i managed couple malls and 12-16 shopping centers in 3 state area until I retired in 2005...

Started in the electrical, electronics field in HS and have worked in several specialized areas since. My favorite was process control. Own 2 businesses now doing IT consulting and cloud services for state\local gov and judicial.

Left HS, went 2 years pre-med and washed out (made some really bad life decisions during that time of life). Work HVAC for 14 years. At about the 10 year mark of the HVAC gig I decided it sucked as there was upheaval in my life at the time personally. Went to school nights for 3 years, applied to and got into the Nursing program at Lamar Univ., graduated in 1992 and then worked Critical Care until COVID kinda forced me out ... retired July of 2020. Loved being a nurse in all ways except the administrative and documentation side of it.

No, graduated high school and started college planning on finishing with an accounting degree. Worked in operations at FedEx since they had tuition reimbursement. Long story short spent 7ish years in operations (left and came back twice), been in sales for 17. Never finished my degree. Keep telling myself I'll do it one day.

Nope... In high school I was gonna be the next Dick Butkus... Left college with business degree... Worked for American Airlines for 10 years... Got sick of dealing with the general public and had a friend of my wife offer me a managers job at a local coal fired power plant... After a failtality at one of our other plants my boss made me the Regional Safety Manager... Almost like going back to school to get the credentials needed... Did that for 21 years, then our company was bought by a competitor. When my old boss found out I was going to be let go he offered me another managers job. That last for another 5 years, the utility announced that they were shutting down the plant in December 2022... With nowhere to go I was offered a severance package and retired 2 years ago...

I still think I could've been the next Dick Butkus... But others thought otherwise... Dan

Was walking to the men’s room in high school, and the principal stopped me to ask about my college plans, which were rather vague. He said I had the math and chemistry skills to be a Chemical Engineer. So I did that. I job hopped a couple of times along the career, all for the better, and I had a great career, though stressful at times. It seems I chose a good time to pee.

I wanted to be in business for myself, really interested in the oil biz, ended up a poor concrete finisher. No ragrats

Parents always said I need to do Engineering and/or Computer Science. Started off there but never really liked it because of the hands on aspect. Wound up in Industrial Technology after a few years in the Navy and really reinforced my desire for being more hands on aspect.


Worked for NASA and in Aerospace, and then the Tech Boom kind of set the path for moving into IT, Telecommunications, etc. Just retired a month ago at 60 so it has been a good run.

Nope.

I truly had the talent to go pro and everybody assumed that I would but somehow I wound up in the military vs the porn industry

In the 8th grade, we had some sort of a career planning project. Told the teacher I was going to be a cop, but I was sort of an "outlaw" and she laughed. Every teacher, coach or principle I have come across through out the years have always told me how proud and surprised they are. Not too many of them left anymore....