If you could have your time over again.....

[#1]

...... what job would you have done?

I'd have trained as a plumber. It's hardly changed, it's always been paid well, little if any retraining, and I would never have wanted for work.

I actually started out as a television repair man way back in the days of valve driven black and white sets, but even then the writing was on the wall and plain for all to see. From valves came transistors and chips you could change, to those you could not see and those you could not even handle such was the fear of static damage to those microprocessors - what we used to call 'the walking wounded'. The end result was most repairs were simply a case of changing panels and fault finding down to component level became just a memory - but I still remember those resistor colour codes all thanks to a rather rude and not very PC memomic!

Now I'd be hard pushed to know how to take the back off a flat screen one and as for repairing them, do they actually do that anymore?

[#2]

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@Minivanman wrote:

...... what job would you have done?

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Pathologist

[#3]

A helicopter pilot flying Air Sea Rescue but there's not much call for it in Sheffield.

I did Plumbing for a few years and my knees have never forgiven me.

[#4]

Well yes, and I get the humour @Mook  but even the role pathology must have changed surely?

During my time and one of the biggest things I do not miss was the constant retraining I had to do as technology changed. I've been on more courses because of that than you can shake a stick at.

Nightmare...... bit like being a pathologist!

[#5]

I wasn't trying to be funny I am being serious. I guess the role would change as advances were made but that's part of the attraction. OK not for everyone I know, but if as you ask I could have my time back (knowing what I know now of course) then Pathology would be my choice.

[#6]

Forensic Pathology @Anonymous ?

[#7]

Sorry, @Strat yes, Forensic Pathology.

[#8]

I would have loved to be a doctor, but was not clever enough, can`t complain though how it planned out, served out apprentice contract electrician, also including plumbing,then BT/Openreach  engineer 20 odd years,secondary mod education and still remember went to see the careers officer and said i wanted to be a electrician, and at the time British Gas needed more apprentices and he said whats the difference from fitting a gas fire to a electric fire?.

[#9]

My first job interview was for a job hardening large circular saw teeth.

After the interview and a tour of the factory (Spear & Jackson) the guy said he was marking my card as 'unsuitable' as I deserve something better.

I ended up in a Refractories laboratory at a steel works as a trainee technician for a little over 3 years.

[#10]

Wish i had stayed in RAF , after 1980

i do miss messing with the Air sea Rescue team at Kinloss

[#11]

An airline pilot (eyesight not good enough) or a porn star (nothing good enough!).

[#12]

Like @rongtw sometimes I wish I had stayed in the Navy !.. but... generally speaking, apart from a couple of really hard years.. I don`t think I would have changed much... perhaps I should have learned more when I was in my dad`s shed, as he was a cabinet maker, and, although I gained some woodworking skills, (I was only between 8 and 11 then),.. they are more DIY than quality... although I do recognise quality work..Having those skills of my father, could have changed my life after leaving the Navy in `72...

[#13]

I too wouldn't change much quite happy with my past but I guess if I wanted to do something different it would be a marine biologist.

[#14]

Realistically none of us would change I guess as so much would alter, and perhaps not for the better.

As it is I cannot imagine being in a better place than I am now what with children and now grandchildren. Managed to retire early, house (and three weddings) paid for, along with a pension that keeps us in better shape a worry free.

Nice to wonder though eh? 

[#15]

I wanted to go into electronics but not the servicing side - I wanted to be in R&D designing and building stuff. Trouble is that in this country thats pretty much dead so that was the end of that and I wasn't really interested in computers at the time despite the two being closely linked. Then I got into computers and wished I'd studied that instead.. not that it would have made any difference educationally as i had such a disrupted youth and education i was pretty beyond rescue. Anyhow if I had my chance again it would have to be a robotics engineer / designer then i'd get a bit of everything in there.

Other things I would have liked / would want to consider again: helicopter test pilot or forces pilot or avionics / aeronautical engineer.

Ultimately I'd have preferred to have been someone elses kid and actually have a chance in life.