What Other Careers

Whitney

Ejection Handle Pulled
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May 9, 2022
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BC Canada/Baja Mexico
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Whitney
What is it that you do for work, or did do if not working now, and if you could go back in time and change things, what other careers would you have been interested in?


As for me, I own a farm/ranch, a few head of cattle ( 20-30 year ) some chickens, 4 horses, 3 dogs, and a few thousand acres in mostly hay.

Other choices include pilot up north in the Yukon, not airliners, I like small planes low and slow, maybe even buying my own. A professional dancer was a consideration 25 years ago, love dancing. Even considered my own gold mine once upon a time.
 
I would be an international arms dealer.
 
I shoulda’ listened to my mom and been a piano player in a whorehouse.

I honestly have no idea what I would have done if I hadn’t gotten into aviation…most of the other serious options at the time would have involved management sooner or later, and I’ve almost always known that wouldn’t work.

but there was a long period in my life where if I hadn’t had airplanes to pay for, I’d have become a hermit. Now it’s family preventing that. ;)
 
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What is it that you do for work, or did do if not working now, and if you could go back in time and change things, what other careers would you have been interested in?


As for me, I own a farm/ranch, a few head of cattle ( 20-30 year ) some chickens, 4 horses, 3 dogs, and a few thousand acres in mostly hay.

Other choices include pilot up north in the Yukon, not airliners, I like small planes low and slow, maybe even buying my own. A professional dancer was a consideration 25 years ago, love dancing. Even considered my own gold mine once upon a time.

I’m now 51 years old. I just got my commercial license. One of these days I’m going to decide what I want to be when I grow up! I might go get a flying job in Alaska next year, why not? Nothing says you can’t change careers mid life!
 
Technology Risk Management (previously IT audit). It’s been a good and exciting albeit turbulent career. I probably should have dipped deeper into security for more $$. but I still want to be a pro pilot.. maybe. If I really could do it over, I’d go USAF/Navy aviation.

I'm an accountant. I'd rather be a pilot or ATC.
Aren’t you an auditor?
 
Technology Risk Management (previously IT audit). It’s been a good and exciting albeit turbulent career. I probably should have dipped deeper into security for more $$. but I still want to be a pro pilot.. maybe. If I really could do it over, I’d go USAF/Navy aviation.


Aren’t you an auditor?
No no no no no. I just currently work in audit. :D I'm an FP&A guy. This audit stint will be short lived.
 
I woulda been a double naught spy, an international playboy or a brain surgeon....

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I'm a professional lottery player. Just not a good one so I'm a fabricator until the lottery thing works out.

I actually enjoy what I do. I've also got a couple rental properties and probably should have invested a little more heavily during the recession on a couple commercial properties. But for now they do enough to subsidize my expensive hobbies.
 
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international
Is there much business demand for arms? Do international ones make a difference? Most people are born with two and those that are not seem to find the resources locally. I'm curious how successful this business would be.
 
What is it that you do for work, or did do if not working now, and if you could go back in time and change things, what other careers would you have been interested in?


As for me, I own a farm/ranch, a few head of cattle ( 20-30 year ) some chickens, 4 horses, 3 dogs, and a few thousand acres in mostly hay.

Other choices include pilot up north in the Yukon, not airliners, I like small planes low and slow, maybe even buying my own. A professional dancer was a consideration 25 years ago, love dancing. Even considered my own gold mine once upon a time.
Lemme know if you've got a pheasant or quail population management problem. Got the pointer to go bird hunting after elk season. Bought the plane because driving to south Dakota or Kansas from north Eastern Illinois sucks.

I'd like to make an addendum to my previous answer. Along with commercial real estate, a hunting outfitter. And if the lottery thing works out there's a 25 million dollar new mexico ranch I've had my eyes on. Complete with its own saloon.
 
Lemme know if you've got a pheasant or quail population management problem. Got the pointer to go bird hunting after elk season. Bought the plane because driving to south Dakota or Kansas from north Eastern Illinois sucks.

I'd like to make an addendum to my previous answer. Along with commercial real estate, a hunting outfitter. And if the lottery thing works out there's a 25 million dollar new mexico ranch I've had my eyes on. Complete with its own saloon.

No pheasant at all, and limited numbers of grouse here.
 
I’m now 51 years old. I just got my commercial license. One of these days I’m going to decide what I want to be when I grow up! I might go get a flying job in Alaska next year, why not? Nothing says you can’t change careers mid life!

That sounds like a great idea.

I quit school at age 16, much to my mothers horror, packed a few things, took a bus north to the Yukon, from southern BC, and then hitch hiked the last 2 days, to the small air charter company my father used, and hired him to fly me to the gold mine my father ran. I spent summer holidays there the previous 6 summers, but this time it was a move for me, on my own, yes my parents were seperated. We worked gold mining until winter set in, and everything froze up. Then we went to my Father's winter house in Mexico, and worked there some. When I turned 18, after the summer gold mining season ended, I bought a Piper Warrior, and began taking lessons, also got my class 1 drivers license, and drove truck in the winters. Bought my own fixer upper, small house, and took real estate courses as well. Between it all i was busy 7 days a week, gold mining, driving trucks, flying, and a part time realtor. At the ripe old age of 20, had a commercial multi ifr with float endorsement, and mostly stopped working for my father at his gold mine. I sold real estate part time year round, flipped the occasional home, flew small charter planes in the summer, and drove truck all winter. Life was good, albeit somewhat to busy, and i planned to stay north, and keep doing that all, until when I was 26, my sister and her husband drown in a boating accident. They left me their ranch, and two year old daughter to raise, so I moved south, to central BC, where I have been these last 18 years, except for some winters in Mexico. I still own 4 houses in the Yukon, all rented out Long term. I inherited my fathers gold mine when he passed away from a heart attack, which I sold. I expanded the farm buying more land. The niece I raised as my own daughter, she is 20 now, drives truck, and helps me run the farm. While only married 21 months, briefly married an amazing man, who died too young from a brain aneurism. Hence why I didn't become a life long commercial pilot. Sorry for the long winded story.
 
I'm a geologist, which means I've gotten paid to go camping, hiking, and even rafting all over the world. I am semi-retired, meaning I don't teach any more and I don't draw a paycheck. But I'm still a geologist. In fact, I'm camped (well, "camped") right now in southern Utah doing geology. I say "camped" because at my advanced age, getting in and out of tents is more pain than it's worth, so I now have an RV. My colleagues still sleep in tents, but they love my RV for getting out of weather and charging their phones and computers, and they wouldn't laugh at me because they know I've paid a lifetime of dues sleeping on hard, uneven ground (something I started doing as a child long before I became a geologist). I will be a geologist for as long as I can be, which fortunately, thanks to a new knee, looks to be quite a few more years yet.

One of my favorite things to do is fly around and look at geology. Geology is actually directly responsible for my learning to fly, but that's another story. Another of my favorite things is to fly fellow geologists around to look at geology.
 
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That sounds like a great idea.

I quit school at age 16, much to my mothers horror, packed a few things, took a bus north to the Yukon, from southern BC, and then hitch hiked the last 2 days, to the small air charter company my father used, and hired him to fly me to the gold mine my father ran. I spent summer holidays there the previous 6 summers, but this time it was a move for me, on my own, yes my parents were seperated. We worked gold mining until winter set in, and everything froze up. Then we went to my Father's winter house in Mexico, and worked there some. When I turned 18, after the summer gold mining season ended, I bought a Piper Warrior, and began taking lessons, also got my class 1 drivers license, and drove truck in the winters. Bought my own fixer upper, small house, and took real estate courses as well. Between it all i was busy 7 days a week, gold mining, driving trucks, flying, and a part time realtor. At the ripe old age of 20, had a commercial multi ifr with float endorsement, and mostly stopped working for my father at his gold mine. I sold real estate part time year round, flipped the occasional home, flew small charter planes in the summer, and drove truck all winter. Life was good, albeit somewhat to busy, and i planned to stay north, and keep doing that all, until when I was 26, my sister and her husband drown in a boating accident. They left me their ranch, and two year old daughter to raise, so I moved south, to central BC, where I have been these last 18 years, except for some winters in Mexico. I still own 4 houses in the Yukon, all rented out Long term. I inherited my fathers gold mine when he passed away from a heart attack, which I sold. I expanded the farm buying more land. The niece I raised as my own daughter, she is 20 now, drives truck, and helps me run the farm. While only married 21 months, briefly married an amazing man, who died too young from a brain aneurism. Hence why I didn't become a life long commercial pilot. Sorry for the long winded story.

That is quite a story, Whitney! Wow! You are one tough woman! I know, you sort of do what you have to, but still.....
 
What is it that you do for work, or did do if not working now, and if you could go back in time and change things, what other careers would you have been interested in?
None. If I couldn't hack aero engineering I was pretty well screwed. Things worked out OK, and I thoroughly enjoyed my career. :D

Nauga,
single-minded
 
I'm a retired NFO (Navy for Non-Flying Officer, or No Future Outside). I still dabble in the state government after swearing off government service entirely. :sigh:

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have let the pictures of the tunnels at UND scare me off, or I wouldn't change a thing. It's been a great adventure so far.
 
Retired from an interesting series of careers.... 20 years as a road Deputy/investigator, several as a computer network admin/IT, rounded out by a stint doing criminal computer forensics and "on-line investigations" for LE.

My last year in HS the leader of the 5th army band asked me to join after seeing me perform with my trumpet at a battle of the marching bands thing. Didn't want to be in the army....oops!

When I graduated HS in '66 I took the Navy entrance exam. They wanted me to come in and do some new thing...digital computing. Didn't want to work in an office...double oops!

Jim

Addendum...possibly of interest. When I retired from LE the first time, I moved from the rural County I grew up in to DSM. Literally doubled my salary from the final LE salary to the first IT (Novell/Linux command line) gig salary.
 
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My day job is putting toothpaste back in the tube. My side gig is as a super model.
 
That sounds like a great idea.

I quit school at age 16, much to my mothers horror, packed a few things, took a bus north to the Yukon, from southern BC, and then hitch hiked the last 2 days, to the small air charter company my father used, and hired him to fly me to the gold mine my father ran. I spent summer holidays there the previous 6 summers, but this time it was a move for me, on my own, yes my parents were seperated. We worked gold mining until winter set in, and everything froze up. Then we went to my Father's winter house in Mexico, and worked there some. When I turned 18, after the summer gold mining season ended, I bought a Piper Warrior, and began taking lessons, also got my class 1 drivers license, and drove truck in the winters. Bought my own fixer upper, small house, and took real estate courses as well. Between it all i was busy 7 days a week, gold mining, driving trucks, flying, and a part time realtor. At the ripe old age of 20, had a commercial multi ifr with float endorsement, and mostly stopped working for my father at his gold mine. I sold real estate part time year round, flipped the occasional home, flew small charter planes in the summer, and drove truck all winter. Life was good, albeit somewhat to busy, and i planned to stay north, and keep doing that all, until when I was 26, my sister and her husband drown in a boating accident. They left me their ranch, and two year old daughter to raise, so I moved south, to central BC, where I have been these last 18 years, except for some winters in Mexico. I still own 4 houses in the Yukon, all rented out Long term. I inherited my fathers gold mine when he passed away from a heart attack, which I sold. I expanded the farm buying more land. The niece I raised as my own daughter, she is 20 now, drives truck, and helps me run the farm. While only married 21 months, briefly married an amazing man, who died too young from a brain aneurism. Hence why I didn't become a life long commercial pilot. Sorry for the long winded story.

You sound like a real-life episode of about three different Discovery channel 'reality' shows mashed together. ha!

I currently work in Supply Chain/Logistics management systems (specifically warehouse automation recently). If I had it to do over again I probably would have gone into agricultural technology to use my skills for something more interesting. I mean - robots are 'interesting', but I'll take the smell of diesel and hydraulic fluid at 3am trying to get the field work done any day! I grew up on a farm in Alabama, worked on a farm while I was in college in Iowa, worked for an aerial applicator (crop duster) in the summers in Iowa, and even worked 3 years for a retail ag chem/fert sales operator during my hiatus from school. For some friggin reason (oh wait, now I remember... $$$), I went away from Ag when I (finally) graduated from college. Once Ag gets in your blood, it's hard to shake it. I find myself following farmers on YT just so I can see what's going on new in the space.

My wife and I keep threatening to sell off here and move out west somewhere to start a 'homestead' so we can raise our boys in an environment where they actually learn how to 'do' things.
 
You sound like a real-life episode of about three different Discovery channel 'reality' shows mashed together. ha!

I currently work in Supply Chain/Logistics management systems (specifically warehouse automation recently). If I had it to do over again I probably would have gone into agricultural technology to use my skills for something more interesting. I mean - robots are 'interesting', but I'll take the smell of diesel and hydraulic fluid at 3am trying to get the field work done any day! I grew up on a farm in Alabama, worked on a farm while I was in college in Iowa, worked for an aerial applicator (crop duster) in the summers in Iowa, and even worked 3 years for a retail ag chem/fert sales operator during my hiatus from school. For some friggin reason (oh wait, now I remember... $$$), I went away from Ag when I (finally) graduated from college. Once Ag gets in your blood, it's hard to shake it. I find myself following farmers on YT just so I can see what's going on new in the space.

My wife and I keep threatening to sell off here and move out west somewhere to start a 'homestead' so we can raise our boys in an environment where they actually learn how to 'do' things.


I understand this now.
Didn't grow up around farming at all, but when I was thrown into it at 26, I strived hard to learn. 18 years later, its a huge part of my life, and enjoyable most days. This area gets long cold winters, and a lot of snow. The past 4 winters I have spent 6 months in Baja Mexico, and for the past 10 years before that spent 5 to 8 weeks a winter in Mexico.
Someday when I retire, would like to spend summers beside a lake in BC, and about 7 months annually in Mexico.
 
Is there much business demand for arms? Do international ones make a difference? Most people are born with two and those that are not seem to find the resources locally. I'm curious how successful this business would be.

Better margins due to labor costs and more favorable regulatory environments.
 
I completed high school in rural Arkansas and I’m still a little ****ed that nobody ever told us about grants and student loans. The rich kids went to college and the poor kids went to work. I drove a tractor in soybean, rice, cotton and wheat fields starting at 13 until I was 19 and worked at a full serve gas station for a while then got a job stuffing vending machines until I decided to join the Air Force with a guaranteed job of nuclear weapons specialist. My end goal was to work in a nuclear power plant. During basic training they told me that they overbooked my nuc class and I could either wait in casual at Lackland AFB for up to seven months or choose another job. I chose jet engine mechanic. Ten years went by and they told us that we had too many jet mechanics and if we didn’t volunteer for another job, we might get voluntold to get another job. I chose X ray tech because I wanted to get into ultrasound. They used to have this big book which you could look at to see how many E-5s they needed to cross train into X ray. They needed 5. However the retrain guy said none because “his computer was more accurate than the big book.” He was looking at the wrong fiscal year. I chose ATC and retired from the Air Force in 2006 after 10 years jet mechanic and 14 as a controller. I got hired by the DoD shortly thereafter and have been a controller ever since. I plan to retire again in 2026. I learned to fly while stationed at Kadena Air Base on Okinawa and got my useless bachelors degree in Human Resource Mgt just in case I needed to fall back on something else. I’m now working towards getting my A&P so I can do something in my old age except watching Andy Griffith re-runs and waiting to die.
 
That sounds like a great idea.

I quit school at age 16, much to my mothers horror, packed a few things, took a bus north to the Yukon, from southern BC, and then hitch hiked the last 2 days, to the small air charter company my father used, and hired him to fly me to the gold mine my father ran. I spent summer holidays there the previous 6 summers, but this time it was a move for me, on my own, yes my parents were seperated. We worked gold mining until winter set in, and everything froze up. Then we went to my Father's winter house in Mexico, and worked there some. When I turned 18, after the summer gold mining season ended, I bought a Piper Warrior, and began taking lessons, also got my class 1 drivers license, and drove truck in the winters. Bought my own fixer upper, small house, and took real estate courses as well. Between it all i was busy 7 days a week, gold mining, driving trucks, flying, and a part time realtor. At the ripe old age of 20, had a commercial multi ifr with float endorsement, and mostly stopped working for my father at his gold mine. I sold real estate part time year round, flipped the occasional home, flew small charter planes in the summer, and drove truck all winter. Life was good, albeit somewhat to busy, and i planned to stay north, and keep doing that all, until when I was 26, my sister and her husband drown in a boating accident. They left me their ranch, and two year old daughter to raise, so I moved south, to central BC, where I have been these last 18 years, except for some winters in Mexico. I still own 4 houses in the Yukon, all rented out Long term. I inherited my fathers gold mine when he passed away from a heart attack, which I sold. I expanded the farm buying more land. The niece I raised as my own daughter, she is 20 now, drives truck, and helps me run the farm. While only married 21 months, briefly married an amazing man, who died too young from a brain aneurism. Hence why I didn't become a life long commercial pilot. Sorry for the long winded story.
One helluva story. Reminds me of Joe Dirt. Life's a garden, dig it. Gotta keep on keepin on. Some people are just going to be successful no matter what you throw their way. They'll adapt and just figure it out.
 
Started out in architecture. Wound up in the industry for 6 years on the structural steel side of things. Now in materials and equipment distribution. What I *should* have done is stayed focused on golf when I was younger. I was a 1-2 handicap and hung with the pros. If I would have pushed myself a bit more back then, could have probably made the tour. Now I'm lucky to swing the clubs twice a year. Now I'm just looking at the light at the end of the tunnel where I don't NEED to get up in the morning. Just get up when I want and do what I want on my own schedule.
 
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I fly for a living. My plan from perhaps middle school was to fly, but doing something in tech (likely software development) was the 'safe' plan if flying didn't pan out. Fortunately my timing worked out and putting food on the table by flying airplanes has exceeded my expectations by a large margin - not that it hasn't had it's ups and downs (har har!) - but overall I wouldn't go back and choose a different path.

If I *did* have to change something, I would have spent more of my 20s doing different types of flying and moving to wherever I needed to make it happen. Alaska, small time cargo, ACMI - that sort of thing. But I always locked myself down in various long term relationships, and had the effect of my making more conservative decisions when it came to my career. I should have stayed care free for longer, but I'm sure I'm not alone in that sentiment!
 
I'm a retired NFO (Navy for Non-Flying Officer, or No Future Outside). I still dabble in the state government after swearing off government service entirely. :sigh:

If I had to do it all over again, I would not have let the pictures of the tunnels at UND scare me off, or I wouldn't change a thing. It's been a great adventure so far.
UND ??
 
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