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What do you want to do or be when you grow up?

TheCatWoman

I've never had an ambition, or a goal/s in life, at 63 I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up. I don't know if it's because I was never encouraged to do anything when I was a child, although I was often discouraged. If like most little girls I said I wantd to be a nurse, I was told that I wouldn't really want to that as it would involve carrying used bed pans around. A wish to be a hairdresser was met with disgust.

We had no careers advice at school, or at least not until we'd made our exam choices and it was to late to change anything. Some of the teachers said there was no point in educating us as we'd only go off and get married and have babies.

After leaving school, I was asked what I wanted to do and could never answer, I simply didn't know, I remember being told to search through a filing cabinet of folders about possible careers and found nothing, I was just overwhelmed. I think it also didn't help that a "career" was a fairly new thing, for people of my class, we's always had "jobs", which was a very different thing.

How did you find the thing you wanted to do, or do you still not know?

Do you do the job you trained for? 

Parents

  • I never really wanted to "be" anything, and now I'm my mid 60s I never want to "grow up".

    I knew as a child that I'd need to get a job when I left school of course. I didn't do that well at school and university was something only posh kids went to, not working class girls like me.

    I didn't want to work in an office because I thought it'd be boring and a bit like.school. I considered becoming a vet (couldn't get the science qualifications) joining the police (I was too short) and training to be a teacher (maths grades not good enough)

    So it ended up that I had the choice of applying for shop or office jobs, and I secured a job as a junior clerk. No computers at that time, so lots of filing and photocopying - Oh joy!

    Then I was asked to help with some accounting work and found it a bit more interesting, so I changed jobs to be a junior accounts clerk. Over the years I worked in various accounting roles and gained an AAT qualification which is equivalent to 2 A levels in accounting.

    In my early 30s I worked as a special needs teaching assistant for 5 years and gained a learning support qualification. But it was part time, the pay was abysmal, and it could be quite exhausting. So after my partner was made redundant I returned to accounting in a full time role. 

    At the age of 50 I was feeling a bit bored and decided to train as a teacher of English as a second language. Usually you need a degree, but after testing and an interview I was admitted to the course without one. The training was very challenging but it was rewarding to pass. I had wanted to teach English in Spain, but I couldn't get a job there because there is high demand for such jobs and so they can specify that applicants must have a degree (although it can be in any subject) and speak fluent Spanish (my Spanish is rather basic)

    So it was back to accounting work in England until I retired last year. Now I'm doing what I always secretly wanted to do - reading, playing games, not being told what to do or having to socialise with people I wouldn't usually want to be around.  That's success for me.

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  • I never really wanted to "be" anything, and now I'm my mid 60s I never want to "grow up".

    I knew as a child that I'd need to get a job when I left school of course. I didn't do that well at school and university was something only posh kids went to, not working class girls like me.

    I didn't want to work in an office because I thought it'd be boring and a bit like.school. I considered becoming a vet (couldn't get the science qualifications) joining the police (I was too short) and training to be a teacher (maths grades not good enough)

    So it ended up that I had the choice of applying for shop or office jobs, and I secured a job as a junior clerk. No computers at that time, so lots of filing and photocopying - Oh joy!

    Then I was asked to help with some accounting work and found it a bit more interesting, so I changed jobs to be a junior accounts clerk. Over the years I worked in various accounting roles and gained an AAT qualification which is equivalent to 2 A levels in accounting.

    In my early 30s I worked as a special needs teaching assistant for 5 years and gained a learning support qualification. But it was part time, the pay was abysmal, and it could be quite exhausting. So after my partner was made redundant I returned to accounting in a full time role. 

    At the age of 50 I was feeling a bit bored and decided to train as a teacher of English as a second language. Usually you need a degree, but after testing and an interview I was admitted to the course without one. The training was very challenging but it was rewarding to pass. I had wanted to teach English in Spain, but I couldn't get a job there because there is high demand for such jobs and so they can specify that applicants must have a degree (although it can be in any subject) and speak fluent Spanish (my Spanish is rather basic)

    So it was back to accounting work in England until I retired last year. Now I'm doing what I always secretly wanted to do - reading, playing games, not being told what to do or having to socialise with people I wouldn't usually want to be around.  That's success for me.

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