February Question of the Month - Join the conversation and receive a badge

mbarthkelly

When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a swim teacher because I had a few swim teachers that I couldn't learn from, and then with this one, everything clicked. I'm now a Learning and Development Specialist.

Corina Borsuk

I wanted to be a teacher or a writer. Even though I passed the CBEST, I never became a teacher. But I do a lot of writing in my current position as a classified (non-teaching) employee with my local school district. I also have had several articles published, one of which was in the San Diego Comic Con Souvenir Book. A No-Prize to anyone who can find the article. (And extra points if you know what a No-Prize is.)

AntonioC

I've changed my mind about my job a couple of times. First I wanted to be a scientist, then a generic engineer and eventually a mechanical engineer designing roller coaster. Now I'm a M&A program manager

Jeff Reisman

I was going to be a doctor, just like the best role model a guy ever had: my father. But that didn't quite work out.

When I was 17 I became a lifeguard, and on my very first day watching over a very cold lake I had my first rescue, and it was a doozy. 3 kids capsized a canoe and though wearing lifejackets they panicked. I dove in alongside another lifeguard to swim out to them, but the other lifeguard was shocked by the cold water, so the first thing I had to do was save her and bring her back to the dock. I then swam out to the 3 fairly hefty 9 year old girls, who immediately tried to climb on top of me in their panic! I got the calmest of them to grab hold of the water-filled canoe, and dragged the other two by the jackets and pulled them to shore, barking orders at the other counselors, before returning to bring the last one in.

I remember thinking to myself afterwards: "How did I do all that?" I did everything right, yet I didn't remember making any decisions or weighing any options... I just acted. My subconscious knew exactly what to do, and it did all the driving. And that's when I realized what I should be: An Emergency Medicine & Trauma physician.

I arrived at UF for college, and on my father's advice, picked up a volunteer shift at Shands Hospital on campus. My job was to sit with patients as they came out of various procedures still a little out of it from the anesthesia, inform their waiting loved ones that they were out, and afterwards clean the gurneys so they could be used again.

I hated every second of it. I felt every bit of the pain, fear, confusion, and loneliness of each sick or injured patient, along with the sadness, anxiety, and worry of their families. Just walking the halls and glancing into rooms as I passed was killing me. I knew that there was no way I could become a doctor....

Fast forward about 7 years. I'm working at an insurance company in a position they created for me - Claims Data Analyst. One night I'm at a concert and bump into a buddy of mine from high school & college. He tells me he works in I.T. and then says "You know, you should look into getting some training and getting into I.T. I think you'd be really good at it." So I started thinking about how I'd get some training...

I had recently saved my company several million dollars as a result of my data work, so I asked them for $15,000 so I could go to night school and get I.T. training, and then to find me a position in I.T. when I was done. They went for it, and by the fall of 2000 I was officially an I.T. guy!

Alison Clancy

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/419127#Comment_419127

Wow Jeff, you are such a great writer! Thank you for sharing this, careers are topsy turvy things aren't they? I completely empathize, I feel all the feelings so working in a place like a hospital would short circuit me. I think you found your perfect place as an IT guy!

Mary Beth B.

When I was a kid I wanted to be an actor, which is a bit ironic for me because I was cripplingly shy!!!!! I remember in the 3rd grade I was in a school play and took a non-speaking role. Don't know why I wanted to be an actor. Maybe I just thought it would be cool to be famous. Who knows what was going on in that brain of mine. Instead, I ended up in Procurement. I didn't want to be in Procurement, it just kind of fell into my lap. I got my BSBA in eBusiness which at the time sort of tied into what I was doing. Here I am a zillion years later, still in Procurement. Thankfully it is more a Policy, Process and Systems role.

Meg Y

What do you want to be/do when you grow up? Always dreaded that question because honestly I never really knew how to answer when a kid. There wasn't one thing or another that really stood out or was a cool job that some adult I knew did.

One thing was to be an Olympic swimmer. I loved swim meets and beating the boys (late 70's /early 80's). Quickly outgrew the local YMCA and moved onto amateur athletics (select nowadays). Believe it or not, I hated swimming lessons when young and not really sure how being on swim team came about.

Otherwise I was a total book nerd. You know the kind, spends summers at the local library participating in the reading challenge. Even remember walking to the book mobile before the local library.

How does this play out in my career today? Well, it took me a long to figure out where I fit the job world. Turns out I really don't like working with lots of people (INTJ). Give a good problem to figure out and poof my happy place.

ejr1216

What a fun question!!! As a child I didn't want to do the typical doctor, lawyer, movie star; I wanted to be a politician. That being said, I did find my way into local government but a very small roll in a suburb of Chicago. My full-time job is data analysis.

joey.w.razzano

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a flight attendant. Then I wanted to be a businesswoman with no kids and making lots of money. Now I've got 3 kids, one with special needs, am the performance system administrator for the department of human services and consider it a complement that I got called a nerdy-nerd last week!

Chelsey

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an animator. I got my undergrad in Art but soon found I needed business to back that up which got me into computers. Getting my MBA and MSIT in May and now working in IT.

JamesB

As a child, I was very much into robotics/automation and wanted to innovate in the field of medical prosthetics. When I was young, there were very rudimentary designs such as opening and closing a gripping type apparatus. I wanted to design fully autonomous limbs that could connect to existing nerves endings to receive and send electric pulses to move and feel the same as one moves/feels with their limbs as naturally as possible. A big dream for the time, but . Today I am in technology as a Project Manager.

Bassam Khalil

As a child, I dreamt of becoming a Cardiac Surgeon, attracted by the prospect of saving lives through complex heart surgeries. However, my career path led me to become a Project Management Officer (PMO) in the construction industry. While different from my original dream, this role has proven equally fulfilling, involving project oversight to ensure timely, budget-friendly, and quality completion. Both careers, though seemingly disparate, share themes of precision, planning, and making a significant impact—be it on individual lives or entire communities. This transition underscores that while our dreams may shift, our underlying values and passions can manifest in varied, yet meaningful, ways.

ksmith1

I wanted to be the President...now, I'm a Marketing Manager that loves Smartsheet.

JCron

When I was a kid I wanted to help others navigate their world as a counselor. Today I help people learn how to navigate and succeed in their new work role as their trainer. I may have taken many pit stops along the way, but they all were geared at helping others.

Alison Clancy

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/419517#Comment_419517

This is very relatable 🤣