How did you know what to do?

[Bitsandbobsboutique]

How did you find out what you wanted to do career wise in your life.

[hobbitgirlie1880]

I have always loved making things and just found I liked making jewellery more than all the other things
Plus it was a good escape after a bad day when I was doing my practical training at college. (nursing)

[SashaGarrett]

Possibly not the best person to answer this as I spent 4 years at uni getting a masters in chemistry followed by 12 years doing drug development in pharma but for the last 2 years I’ve been making and selling my jewellery. When I was younger I wanted to be initially a demolition expert, then a pathologist, then a forensic scientist which is how I ended up doing chemistry and it was whilst at uni that I discovered drug development as a career. If you had asked me at the beginning when I had graduated if I would ever change career I would have said no, I loved doing chemistry, but both I have changed and the industry changed so it was time for me to get out. I now very much enjoy being a jeweller. I think you need to be true to yourself and just because you are good at something doesn’t mean you have to make it your career - you need to enjoy it as well and when that stops its time for a change.
Sorry not much of an answer.
Sasha

[DeborahJonesJewellery]

I moved to London when I was 16 and knowing no one ,signed up for evening classes to fill the time after school , one of those was a jewellery making class. I took to it straight away. Later I was filling out my university application to do archaeology ,when I spotted I could do design and jewellery making as a four year course- I couldn’t believe something so enjoyable was available and jumped at it. I can’t imagine what I would be doing now if it hadn’t been for the evening class, I doubt I could enjoy anything more .

[dikeeblebeadsandjewellery]

I never did really! I did teacher training after my degree and taught primary for a few years until I gave up when I had the kids. I have never wanted to go back to it, it’s such a full on career, and I stayed at home while my three kids were growing up. I have made jewellery and cards for a hobby for a long time and now work part time in a school doing jobs for teachers. It means I still get to do all the creative stuff and run my little business but I get out and about as well. I’m not very career minded really and love variety, and doing the creative stuff is the best

[curiousseagull]

I still don’t know what I want to do when I’m older. (I’m 27) haha
I’m currently deputy head of house & HLTA at a local senior school. I’ve been working in schools since I was 19 but it was never on purpose. It just sort of happened. I’ve always worked with children with special educational needs, and I think a lot of that was because my younger brother has Aspergers so I just sort of grew up understanding how to work with autistic children. I have a lot of patience so I think that’s why I find it quite enjoyable working with children/teenagers with other needs. Mind you- it’s always been in a mainstream setting so it’s educational needs rather than physical ones.
But- art is something I’ve done for as long as I can remember. It’s my escape. I guess in a dream world it would be my main job, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.

At the moment I’m planning on retraining. Well - building upon what I currently do really. I’m looking into doing an MSc in psychology to hopefully go on to educational psychology. So fingers crossed!!

[teabreaks]

I Always wanted to be an art teacher but got told to get a sensible job and anyway in those days (60’s) you needed maths O level to get into Art school and there was NO chance of that.!
So I worked in an office but all through my life, I have made and sold things.
I remember my mum saying…don’t complain about having no money,…make something and sell it.
I sold my first knitted fairisle mittens when I was 7 and got hooked on selling, so although I had a “sensible” job when I left school, all my spare time was spent knitting, crocheting, painting or making anything I could.
At 10 I was making and selling plastercast models of dogs…
When the kids were born I designed knitwear and made suits for Harrods and other classy boutiques in London and then started doing craft fairs. 5 years ago my hands got crippled with arthritis which strangely doesn’t hurt at all but I cannot grip yarn to give it tension, so I started to paint and now I just paint and make origami 3d models. I have made and sold since 1972, with the odd session of teaching arts and crafts at adult education centres…I cannot sit doing nothing…always have something on the go…

[hobbitgirlie1880]

I hope the retraining goes well.
I’m thinking of sort of retaining. I would to return to nursing but due to my health I wouldn’t be able to return to ward duties so I’m thinking of becoming a vampire., I can’t spell phlebotomist. I’m hoping that is right.
I always loved nursing so would love to start again in one way or another.

[curiousseagull]

Thank you!
And yep- retraining as a vampire sounds good!

[hobbitgirlie1880]

Thankyou. Just need my surgery to hurry up and I can apply for training.

[OrchardFelts]

I started my working life as a medical research physicist - didn’t really plan it but had a physics degree and just applied for any job that was advertised and that was one I was offered! I did really enjoy it but left to get married and have the children and by the time I was ready to return to work science had moved on and I had fallen behind so I retrained as a chiropodist which seemed like a good idea as I could be self employed and set my own hours around the children. It has worked really well and while maybe not my first choice of career I do enjoy it (most days!). I didn’t even know I had an arty/crafty bone in my body until about 4 years ago when I found I had more and more free time with the girls not needing me as much. Not sure why I started making things but it just happened and then I discovered felting and am addicted! Would love to make felting my primary career but its never going to happen so I just have to carry on with the feet and enjoy it as a sideline.

Good luck with the re training Susannah @curiousseagull and Dawn @hobbitgirlie1880. I think re training is much easier and more enjoyable than studying the first time round as you are usually doing it because you want to.

[curiousseagull]

It sounds like you have a good mix of things though! I think it’s important to have a good balance. Even if it wasn’t what you initially planned it sounds like it’s working for you!!
I know I’ll definitely get more out of retraining now. I started my degree when I was 17 and completed it while I was working full time which practically killed me! Haha I ended up just ploughing through near the end because I just wanted to get it over with. Then I said I would never go to university again! So yeah, just need a bit of life perspective to get things in order I reckon.

[TobisiasLilThing]

What I knew for sure was that I’m not mathematician/economist etc and I don’t want sit near the desk and move papers from one pile to another… So I didn’t back to office work after maternity I had already some small money from my card making and from time to time from jewellery pieces, so after deep thinking I decided: Why not try to change this for business? So I’m trying my best since last year

[twinkleandgloomart]

I’ve always been interested in making Art, but it was on my final year of the Foundation Degree that I decided to make a go of it. I saw so many people taking Art with no ambition to do anything with it, they took the courses because they thought it would be easy, it motivated me not to be that kind of person. What was the point in spending 4 years studying Art in college and not giving it a go.
Art is one of those courses that people of as a waste of time, it won’t get you a ‘real job’, but where would be be without Art? Without music, film and illustration. Realistically, when I want to settle down or move in with my boyfriend, I’ll have to change plans a little, but in the meantime, I’m giving my dream a go.

[millyandpip]

My career path started when I was really little when I learnt how to sew using cross stitch sewing kits. I then progressed to making clothes for my dolls and then clothes for me. I did a textiles O’level, then a Fashion & Design A’level. From there I did an Art BTEC Foundation and then went on to study Fashion Design at Uni. I was lucky enough to get a job straight out of Uni as a childrenswear designer, which I did for 16 years. Over those 16 years I worked for 2 clothing suppliers, where I designed girlswear for 2 of the biggest names on the high street. I then went to work in head office as an in house childrenswear designer for a very big named retailer, after 10 years in that company, I left and set up my own business. I think I knew what I wanted to do as a career from the age of about 5 :0)

[EileensCraftStudio]

By changing it more than once. I get bored easily. So have many strings to my bow. Whatever I do I prefer to work for myself.

I was a bit of an over achiever once I left school studying a full time course at one college and a part time evening course at another.

Even when I was studing for my degree full time I also took on a evening course in yet another completely different area of study.

[Bitsandbobsboutique]

My daughter loves making jewellery she does all of ours.Its time consuming and fun I know. Best Gabrielle.

[DeesDesigns]

Crafting started as a hobby then became a way of making a bit of money. My ‘career’ was childcare from leaving college until about 6 years ago (still is technically as I have a 13yo still at home) I don’t know what made me want to work in this area (it certainly wasn’t the money!) but I knew at about 13 or 14 that’s what I wanted to do. I was lucky enough to work as a nanny for a couple of families and at a playgroup for a while my last job before my daughter was born was in a private nursery for 5 years where I saw some of the children grow from babies to school age. Even when my kids were little I worked as a childminder from home for 9 years until my daughter started her exams (revising in a house full of noisy kids wasn’t going to be easy and Hubby got a good promotion around that time so we could afford for me to finish) Even now you could say I’m working with children as I’m a lollypop lady at our village school as this fits in nicely around my crafting and our family life (and provides a reliable wage every month something I can’t guarantee with cardmaking!)

[GlassJunkie]

The older you get the more you realise that you just keep moving on from one thing to another. Where you end up might be a million miles away from your original passion. As a youngster I wanted to be a Radiographer but worked in a bank, and estate agency and in the IT department of a busy hospital. I have done some form of craft from the age of about 3, my mother was a dressmaker and my aunts encouraged me to do things like knitting, crotchet, embroidery, tatting etc. After my kids left home and I needed a hobby I started making greetings cards then moved on to paper quilling. I saw some fabulous mosaics in the entrance at Blackpool Tower and decided to give that a try. Now I make things in fused glass and pottery, this is where I feel most at ease. Try everything available until you discover your own hidden talent.

[wildrosedesigns]

I never knew and never had a career. I went to Grammar School but wasn’t allowed to stay on to the sixth form - My Mum said she couldn’t afford for me to stay on especially as I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Who does at 16? 2 weeks after I left school I still didn’t have a job much to my Mum’s disgust so she phoned and arranged an interview for me as a wages clerk. It was low paid and pretty much a dead end job and even the interviewer thought I was over qualified for it, but I took it just to get my Mum off my back. There I languished until I left to have my first baby. I couldn’t afford evening classes even if I’d had the confidence to go. Since then I’ve done bits of this and that but must admit to the odd twinge of resentment wondering what I could have done. I think lack of confidence held me back for much of my life, I have so much more now but I think at 62 it’s a bit late for re-training.

Sewing is something that I’ve always done and 20 years ago I had a lot of success with my curtain making business, It was hard work for the money but I had lots of customers all through word of mouth recommendations. I’ve not been anywhere near as successful this time around - there’s so much more competition out there now but I’m giving it my all and I do enjoy it.

Things rarely go to plan, and your life and career often end up going in a completely different direction. It’s probably best to be adaptable and make the most of whatever opportunities come your way. Had I gone to university I may never have met my husband and gone on to have 2 lovely children and 4 grandchildren.

Apologies for this long rambling post…