What did you want to do as a kid, when you grew up, what would you chose in hindsight ?

[Pete B]

Posted by Andy48 on 30/03/2015 15:15:36:

You have a professional background in such tests then?

I know I did one much later in life which proved to be remarkably accurate and informative.

Mystics and fortune tellers occasionally get it right, too, I'm told......

Pete

[Chuck Plains]

I always wanted to drive a car.

When I was young I was into cars. Got my first Scalextric when I was about 12 (1966). I dreamed about driving a car, I can recall dreaming that I was driving, but had no idea of anything apart from the steering. Partly to blame was a friend of my parents, who let my sister and me take turns steering his Gogomobile around the block in Aden, (Yemen)

What can I say. This is me in 1961.

[David Hardaker]

Ron

I routinely operated 11kV switchgear and South Wales gear never gave me any problems that I can recall. (apart from sometimes finding there was no oil-switch closing handle in the substation, because someone had borrowed it to use elsewhere)

Good reliable gear !

I can think of some that wasn't....

[Area 51]

I guess for most of us of a "certain age" the careers office or lessons were not too inspirational; a lot of that can be down to the individual who is providing the guidance and their own enthusiasm.... only a few people we meet in life inspire us

I would like to think these play a part in helping people nowadays... Test here

After hearing an afternoon discussion on R4 one day, I looked them up.. frightening how accurate it was/is! After that you can go on and read more on the subject.. I feel it surely must help a few out today who are choosing their path in life..

ISTP by the way

Edited By Area 51 on 30/03/2015 19:52:24

[ron evans]

David

Good to hear the gear was reliable. As a youngster I worked on oil switches which used what was known as a Yorkshire mech, the closing handle also moved in a gate to select ON or EARTH, must have been for YEB, and a bit of a challenge for a sprog at the time.

Off topic I know, but are you the D.H.who designed the Quicksilver slope aerobat. If so thanks for the tip about using E374 wing sect., made a big difference to the slope aerobatic models I went on to build.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Well I was honest and it said I was an entertainer....I should be so lucky lucky lucky lucky

John

Or did it mean I was a clown

Edited By john stones 1 on 30/03/2015 20:07:52

[Reno Racer]

Always wanted to be a pilot since I can remember and joined my local ATC at the earliest opportunity. School, college, then university set me on an engineering path. Looking back there are distinct decision points in time, when I could have gone in a number of directions.

At university, I applied to join the University Air Squadron, but was too late in that year, so joined the Army's University Officer Training Corps instead. On graduation, I applied and passed the selection boards for all three services. The RAF board suggested a start date at Cranwell almost 9 months after I graduated, the Navy was similar, the Army's response arrived three days after finishing the selection board and had a start date at Sandhurst in two months time. As a poor ex student filling in on temp jobs, it's easy to see why I chose the Army, as an Engineering Officer.

17 years later, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the Army and maintained by Chartered Engineer status. About 8 years ago, my love for aviation was rekindled and model flying started where previous gliding and PPL left off. Now a senior old fart officer (Lt Col), I'm looking towards a new second carrer in aviation. Turning full circle, I am in the throws of setting up my own aviation company operating Cold War fighter jets and offering fighter jet experience flights. A friend has a twin seat vampire and Europe's only flying T-33. These will be joined by a Jet Provost in time.

Would I do it all again?.... Yes, but maybe move towards my new business a lot sooner!

[David Hardaker]

Hello Ron

I remember the details you mention re the oil-switch selector. It worked very well.

Our Chief Engineers department used to make sure we bought safe switchgear that was well on top of its job.. Latterly the accountants ruled the buying and we had some very Mickey-Mouse hv gear. Trouble was, the people who inflicted it on us weren't the poor so-and-so's who had to operate it !

Re the Kwiksilver, yes, I admit to "designing" that model. About 1973 ! They can still be found on our local slopes . Kwiksilver was a good all-rounder and tough enough to withstand enemy action ! I still have the original plan.....

David

[David Davis]

Having done the questionnaire it said that I should have been an entertainer! Told you!

[ron evans]

David

Your tale of accountants ruling the roost has a familiar ring to it. When my firm started using non skilled labour, there was a good training scheme in place, emphasising the importance of protecting insulation and topped off with a video of a switch failure and plasma arc bang. Unfortunately the question was soon asked " do we need this training program " and the money man said NO. He didn't have to operate the equipment either !!

[Cuban8]

Posted by Andy48 on 30/03/2015 15:15:36:

You have a professional background in such tests then?

I know I did one much later in life which proved to be remarkably accurate and informative.

Funnily enough, I remember taking one of these psychobabble tests years ago at a job interview and was also impressed by how the interviewer appeared to be able to sum up my character fairly well. Later, I mentioned this to a very practically minded friend who said that all that day's horoscopes in the paper will probably apply to me as well - I took his point!

Apologies to those that do put a lot of faith in this stuff.

[David Davis]

When I worked as a careers adviser with adult clients there was a computer aided guidance programme called "Adult Directions" which posed a series of questions beginning with the phrase, "How would you like a job which includes... ?" You then had a choice of five answers ranging from "Like Very Much" to "Dislike Very Much" and at the end of the process, a list of jobs was printed which should suit the client based on those answers. I didn't use it most of the time but it did help in some cases where the client had difficulty in identifying a way forward.

It was deemed to be too expensive by Senior Management, many of whom were not qualified careers advisers and millions were spent on a new replacement programme which was worse. If you were working in a Jobcentre for example, it would not talk to the Jobcentre's printers.

I'm glad I'm long out of it.

[Dave Bran]

Posted by Broken Prop on 29/03/2015 22:12:32:

I'm still waiting for Simon Cowell to discover me........

How do you know he didn't?

[Broken Prop]

Ah, do you think he was the bloke who ran away last week when I burst into song?

[Steve T]

Strange post, a lot of the responses do not say what they wanted to be, and what they would have chose in hindsight! I thought Facebook was for general mindless waffle ! I wanted to be an Engineer, became one. In hindsight I was better musician and comedy entertainer. Still doing the music and acting daft but a bit late now for anything more than a bit of fun. Having said that the engineering paid for early retirement and all the music gear so 'hey ho'.

[Erfolg]

Unlike many of the writers on this thread, I had no clear idea. Certainly no plans.

I did look longingly at aircraft that passed high in the sky, imagining being a pilot. But i knew in my heart it was not to be. I was not clever enough, the only pilot i knew was a friend of my farther, who went on night trips to Germany, he was now a school teacher.

My farther worked as an engineer, having helped in gathering data from France, Germany and Belgium in support of the design of standard classes of steam engines or British railways. I was not particularly attracted to this as the pay was very poor, and it was obvious unless you came from the right background or a member of a secret society, you would have no career.

My mother worked as an accountant, where her pay was poor, her degree mattered for nothing being a foreigner. Again i was not attracted to the job, as it entailed, lots of books, chasing up people for payments, then the yearly trauma of tax returns and audits.

So all in all, I had no ambition. My parents decided. My farther saw Accounting as a non job in an engineering nation, my mother thought otherwise. Educationally I was a very low achiever. Art being my one talent, although I did manage 100% in both History and Geography. In reality I had achieved nothing.

I ended up chasing virtually non existent apprenticeships and finally got one.

Although having no ambition, not any idea what engineering really was, and pretty much under educated, my luck had changed. The large engineering company I worked for, force fed all apprentices with basic engineering trade knowledge, also academic studies were highy valued, success expected, each apprentice had access to a works school where basic deficiencies in education were worked on.

Ironically, now i did know what i would like to do, I wanted to be a Economist.

The company supported me to obtain "A" level maths, a GCE English Language. More significantly I was permitted day release up to degree level. In essence I never stopped studying and taking exams almost up to retirement, probably 3 years short.

My world was destroyed, by Arnold Weinstock, who systematically asset striped both AEL and EE, with the support of the Labour party and glowing testament from the stock market, praising shareholder value.

As a Chartered Engineer, I would never recommend anybody to become an engineer, as the UK pay is low compared to European relative levels, status is low. I find it ironic that in the UK my safety qualifications have greater legal standing, whereas my CEng has legal status in the rest of Europe and most of the world, and my Safety Certs mean nothing.

Yet on a positive note it is a very interesting area to work, needing fundamental knowledge of many sciences, which are applied to why things are as they are, or perhaps have not gone well.

There is one more irony, engineers have a very real need to be able to manage financial accounts, it is the difference to a successful project or business and walking the streets. Eventually my mothered was earning far more more than my farther.

Now what would I have liked to be with hindsight, a pilot or medical doctor. Non of which would have been within my grasp when I was young, however hard I might have tried, with my background.

At the end of the day, it does seem I have been lucky, things could more easily have turned out far worse

Edited By Erfolg on 01/04/2015 16:40:51

[Ian Jones]

I wanted to be pilot, didn't do it. In hindsight wish I had.

[Reno Racer]

Erfolg,

Valid and particularly resonant with me, your view on the value of Engineers in the UK, probably in retrospect a good reason I joined the forces, I certainly seem to be better paid than my civilian CEng counterparts, even though I feel I do less CEng (ing).

I wonder if a set of kahooners by the Engineering Council in ensuring the title of CEng is protected by law, would stop everyone calling themselves an Engineer, even if they just repair washing machines, I have nothing against any engineering trades, but I doubt that John smith domestic engineer, actually does engineering at the level his title suggests. know an old whine and flys in the face of the modern trend of everyone either being a manager or calling themselves some inflated title - never worked out what a nail technican does! I might ask the IMechE if they can apply for Eng Tech status!

I think that's the key in Europe and the U.S., Engineer is a protected title and you must be a PEng, CEng or Eur Ing to be properly use the title. We might then get back to proper meaningful titles, such as mechanic, fitter, engineer, technician etc, that actually mean something and describe what you actually do. With a protected title and status and engineers status is raised professionally and perhaps, pay will follow.

Formally off my soap box now!

[Dave Hopkin]

Posted by Reno Racer on 01/04/2015 16:55:16:

Erfolg,

Valid and particularly resonant with me, your view on the value of Engineers in the UK, probably in retrospect a good reason I joined the forces, I certainly seem to be better paid than my civilian CEng counterparts, even though I feel I do less CEng (ing).

I wonder if a set of kahooners by the Engineering Council in ensuring the title of CEng is protected by law, would stop everyone calling themselves an Engineer, even if they just repair washing machines, I have nothing against any engineering trades, but I doubt that John smith domestic engineer, actually does engineering at the level his title suggests. know an old whine and flys in the face of the modern trend of everyone either being a manager or calling themselves some inflated title - never worked out what a nail technican does! I might ask the IMechE if they can apply for Eng Tech status!

I think that's the key in Europe and the U.S., Engineer is a protected title and you must be a PEng, CEng or Eur Ing to be properly use the title. We might then get back to proper meaningful titles, such as mechanic, fitter, engineer, technician etc, that actually mean something and describe what you actually do. With a protected title and status and engineers status is raised professionally and perhaps, pay will follow.

Formally off my soap box now!

Not until the powers that be and business stop fixating on the next quarters share price and taking a much longer term view of investments and development I am afraid

[Reno Racer]

Sadly Dave, your right I think the death nails were banging into the engineering coffin so longer ago it's a dead horse now. The only thing I can change in this regard is my blood pressure! get back in the workshop to work on my planes.

[Gordon Brown]

From when I was about 8 it was assumed by all my family that I would be a doctor due to my total fascination with biology and science in general. As my dad was a joiner on building sites this was obviously a precious dream to him and I suppose I just got swept along by default. My parents entered me for exams to attend a local public school and I spent my teenage years there, ending up with three good A levels and a place at medical school - all without really thinking about what medicine actually involved.

Cutting long story short, found I absolutely hated medical school but couldn't find it in me to leave. Father had died just before I left for London and his dying wish was that I become a doctor, pressure that was difficult to resist. I was so fed up with medical school I did little work and consequently crashed and burned in the exams at the end of two years, leaving me with no career path.

As I needed to find some way of keeping body and should together I ended up working in a variety of, how shall we put it, "interesting" jobs including managing a cemetery and driving a hearse. Eventually found myself a students place in Environmental Health and worked as an EHO for well over 20 years, rising higher and higher in the management tree. Suddenly realised that I hated being a manager and dropped back to basic grade EHO, the only place available being in pollution control, which I was not really interested in.

I intended to stay in pc for a little while before moving on to pastures new but the section manager insisted that I go on a one year day release course in acoustics and noise control. Sod me, that sounds boring - I couldn't have been more wrong. The course tutor, who is now a very close friend, was probably the most inspiring teacher I have ever met and within minutes had hooked me completely. I passed the exams with distinction, was awarded a prize for examination results and became the department specialist in acoustics.

Eventually I realised that there was more fun to had and money to be made in the private sector and I set up my own company to do acoustics consultancy. Never have I made a better decision, been working for myself for 19 years now, last year was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Acoustics, which is success beyond my wildest dreams.

In idle moments I wonder how things would have turned out if acoustics as a profession had existed when I was at school but its no use speculating on the consequences of past mistakes and decisions. I'm now in a place I could never have imagined after medical school, happily married for over 20 years, two lovely children, living in a Victorian school in the Suffolk countryside, doing what I love and with no real intention of ever completely giving it up. I count my blessings every day.

[Wingman]

As a kid I always wanted to be a Royal Navy Officer but a condition of entry was 3 'Highers' but I hated my (expensive) school so I left at 16 with 'O levels' and went to Merchant Navy College and trained to be a Radio Officer. That was a great life for a guy in his twenties but I tired of it and I morphed into a Marine Electronics Technician and then into an North Sea Oil Industry Telecomms Technician and that's what I've been ever since - 44 years of continuous employment - so with hindsight I seemed to have got it right.

Off topic apologies but with hindsight I got something else completely right - I have never ever trusted any bank and all my life have worked to minimise the grip they had, of necessity, on my finances/life and nowadays I just use them to pay my bills

[Erfolg]

I am the parent of two girls, as you might expect, I know that my two girls are exceptionally bright, wonderful personalities and so on.

Again as all parents I always worried what they would do in life. Both girls obtaining 3 "A" levels at grade A, in the sciences, although one then went on to get a B in English Literature.

You can imagine my horror, when the eldest said she wanted to become a Engineer. To the extent that I started to push her towards Chemical Engineering. I did suggest that perhaps medicine or something along those lines. But Engineering it was. Stating that medicine was a 5 year course and then further study, taking you into your late 30s.

It was not many weeks into the course, it became obvious that she was not happy. The assessment was that the studies were rock hard, particularly the maths, the topics so boring that you come out almost brain dead. In short she left some 3 months in.

She had decided to to take up medicine. In my heart, I had doubts, how would she deal with cutting up dead bodies? How would she deal with the fact that many patients die? Would, could she get into a medical school?

Much to my surprise, non of the issues that bothered me, proved to be an issue. Her degree took 6 years as she obtained another degree a first in pharmacology.

She is now a Consultant and surprisingly she is not enamoured with the UK health service, as the hours are far to long, the work load impossible. Although obviously a personal issue, she will trot out morbidity values for various stages of illness, that are kept to herself, other than when talking at a personal level, which i know rests poorly with her.

Which goes to show to me, that very few no enough about life when young to make many rational decisions for life, due to the lack of experience. As you go through life your perspective changes. As a parent, however you try and help, your view is based on your prejudices in a changing world.

Who in the 60s would have predicted, that boiler making would cease to exist as an industry, that coal mining would become less relevant, that the foundry industries would all but disappear. Hindsight provides the clearest picture, although that is often contested.

Advising as a parent in choices for the future is fraught with difficulties, it is very much chance that the choices your children make for their futures are done with any real understanding.

Edited By Erfolg on 02/04/2015 11:24:55

[Cuban8]

Posted by Erfolg on 02/04/2015 11:24:02:

Who in the 60s would have predicted, that boiler making would cease to exist as an industry, that coal mining would become less relevant, that the foundry industries would all but disappear. Hindsight provides the clearest picture, although that is often contested.

Edited By Erfolg on 02/04/2015 11:24:55

Who in their right mind would have predicted that China, at that time a country of farmers and Red Guards resplendent in their 'pyjamas' and waving 'little red books' would reinvent itself so powerfully. I fear that the pendulum will swing in the opposite direction and we'll be the ones who find ourselves increasingly scratching a living, if not on the land, but in jobs paying subsistence level wages with the accompanying discontent that will follow.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Take a look around you C8 plenty are there already and have zero hour contracts

John