Tell me your "career change" sucess stories

I was going to college to be a mechanical engineer and i had been dreaming about becoming a truck driver for a long time, but my parents insisted i go to college and become "successful". In Silicon Valley where i grew up that meant getting an office job that paid big bucks and wasting it all trying to survive in the insane cost of living that burdens the area (6 figures is middle class at best). After my parents had noticed I had been horribly depressed for many years they told me to just do what made me happy whatever it was. I dropped all my classes,quit my job and paid for trucking school in cash. The rest is history. 22 yrs old now and I've been doing it for about a year and a half.

The pay is mediocre,the conditions deplorable and the ######## we deal with incomprehensible, but you can't beat the view. I wouldn't have it any other way for the time being at least.

 

Great thread!! THese stories are awesome,and inspiring.
Mine is kinda lackluster..Landscape maintenance owner,
bankruptcy,indoor factory work,always wanted to truck,
paid for schooling,and been fighting the good fight since.
Its challenging,upsetting,rewarding,and hope to own my
own truck one day.Its the only way for me.I spent too much
time making my own decisions in the past.
I'm older now,and hope to make a living as an o/o and not
make the mistakes I did when younger.

 

Well dude. You have to know that it's illegal to discriminate based on sex, gender, or age, plus you've got that veteran status going for you. Maybe a stripper at the U.S. Postal Service!

 

Thanks for your service Mr. Ed much appreciated.

 

You going to be a stripper ?
Just how bad is your eyesight?

 

I think the more appropriate question would be "How bad are the CUSTOMER'S eye sight for you to become a stripper? "

 

I already have a contract with several area nursing homes. I hope the ladies have good eyesight. That Braille stuff scares me !

 

I retired from the USAF in 93 and almost went to OTR then, but family demands and SWMBO's desire for a stead family income moved me into IT. This was before Microsoft being king! I've hacked around in system admin and support for 21 years, post-USAF! However, CinCHouse has decreed I can "retire" again after Christmas. I've got an older son that's doing OTR after be sequestered out of a contracting job in DC so he and I will TEAM drive after I complete school in January. I'm not afraid of change, but the painful transitions fro job to job are a reality. I have never minded "starting at the bottom" in my several changes, but at 62 I'm doing this for me and not "gotta have a job". I grew up as the son of a small town general contractor and he was the son of a south Georgia sharecropper and Marine in WWII. I know how to work hard and smart and am looking forward to some new and different challenges.