Be 18. Get scholarship. Study literature. Drop out. Run away. Join a protest movement. Be homeless at MIT for a while. Find job. Get hurt at said job. Get workers injury insurance payment after 2 years of recocery. Go back to school for math. Be good at math. Found tech related non profit. Spend 6 months in Kurdistan, setting up wifi. Finish math school. Fuck it, get masters because good at math. Get hired by foreign company oversees to work on self driving cars. Doesn’t work. Won’t work. Quit. Go to Greece, teach refugee kids how to us MS office. Watch neo Nazis burn down refugee school and computer lab. Suddenly it’s March of 2020 (COVID) and nothing to do because Nazis and no more computer lab. Oh fuck. Find PhD program in “trustworthy ai” to figure out why car not work. Prove car never work. Get PhD. Get paid to critique AI and play on super computers while working from home and having zero day to day oversight. Get paid to travel the world. Get paid to shit on Google, Facebook , Openai, and Tesla.

I went from homeless to visiting my 40th country in 10 years, while having a PhD.

No regrets.

IT in general.

Don’t pigeonhole yourself to a technology. Move with the times to stay relevant.
Alternatively, be extremely good at something hard.

• Hischool dropout
• Repeatedly try this school thing again without much success. Learnt some electronics, though.
• Spent a few years picking up temp jobs while I tended to my hobbies. Linux and electronics, mostly. Some programming.
• Broke as fuck, desperate for a stable paycheck
• Started applying to anything that seemed vaguely interesting
• “WTF is offshore seismic survey technician?”
• Get a phone call out of the blue with an interview offer. Well, I sure wasn’t gonna get the job, but they offered to fly me in for the interview in The Big City, and I had some friends there that I hadn’t met in years
• Immovable event shows up, and I was looking forward to attending that.
• Fired off an email to the company asking if it was possible to reschedule. I wasn’t gonna get the job anyway, so I didn’t feel like I had much to lose.
• To my surprise they rescheduled. Updated flight details arrived shortly after.
• Eventually flew down, went through with the interview. Didn’t perform particularly well or poorly. Nothing noteworthy, really.
• Before leaving I asked what their estimate was for reaching a conclusion.
• Had a beer with the friends down there for the first time in a year
• Flew home. Waited.
• Conclusion date arrived. Clock passed 16:00, when most businesses closed.
• “Meh, fuckit. Can’t say I’m surprised”
• 21:30 or so I received an e-mail from the company with a job offer, already signed. Monthly pay far above what I imagined I’d ever be able to pull.
• Remember those hobbies? Yeah, turned out that they liked my linux and electronics hobbies, combined with me already being used to heavy machinery due to growing up on a farm.
• Kicked in the door to my flatmate. “I need you to lend me 100$” (equivalent in my currency)
• “Why?”
• "We’re going out to celebrate that I won’t have to borrow money from you anymore.

I left the industry in 2012 to get a “normal” job, but came back in 2019 after realizing that I hated normal jobs, and that normal jobs are for normal people. After a few promotions and being poached by a competitor I am no longer offshore, but I support the operation from wherever I am. There’s still some travel to the far corners of the world for mobilizing for a new survey and that sort of stuff, but I’m mostly in my home office these days. Pays quite handsomely, though.

As for recommendations, I’ve been extremely lucky. Most of my coworkers have a masters degree, either in something technical or in geophysics. I guess one of those is a better choice.

But after having taken part in some of the interviews, I’ve learned that there aren’t really that many hard requirements when it comes to skills or diplomas. It’s better to find the right kind of personality who knows something useful. The rest can be taught.

Got IT training during my time in the military that ended up opening the door to a network engineer position with a defense contractor after I got out.

I was a pretty poor engineer, but I was good at explaining technical details to non-technical people. The bosses liked this because they wanted constant updates on what was happening, the other engineers liked this because they didn’t want the bosses to bother them, and I liked it because going to sit in briefings got me out of doing real work, so I ended up in management.

My entire career has basically been an accident. I majored in history thinking I’d be a teacher because it was my favorite subject and I was 18 and didn’t know what else I could do with my life. Three years in, I realized I didn’t want to be a teacher and most history-adjacent jobs didn’t pay a living wage, so I dropped out. A bit later, I started a temp job working for the state because I needed a job and had call center experience, did a good job and managed to get hired full time. Almost 20 years later, I’m doing work I never expected to be doing but it turns out that I like paperwork and I’m pretty good at navigating bureaucracy and explaining it to laymen. Can’t imagine working in the private sector at this point. I eventually finished my degree (in human services this time) but tbh it was mostly just so I’d have one for my resume.

The biggest lesson from all of it for me has been that kids really don’t need to go to college right out of high school, or at all in some cases, and I’m glad the tide is turning on that to some extent. I’ve enjoyed pretty much everything I’ve done in my career and I’ve benefited enormously by not having a “dream job” in mind. Education is great, don’t get me wrong, but so is flexibility and a willingness to learn new things outside of school.

I spent twelve years in a support job I hated, but I learned every new thing I possibly could, and being able to create things that did the jobs of two-to-three people got me the job I have now, which I love.

So my advice is to say yes any time new technology is introduced and learn how to use it. Any time you feel like something takes to long, go online and research ways to simplify it and find fixes.

That work can and does pay off. People will see it.

Also, if a job is making your life hard, be more willing to change than I was. I’m glad things turned out well for me, but being in a job that stressed me so much could have created real health problems over time.

First job out of college was as a statistician. I couldn’t lie that much.

Then I worked as a microbiologist. It stunk.

Then I worked as a plant breeder, it was fun but the pay sucked without a Ph.D.

Took a job as and international marketing and product manager (paid the same as the PhD). Traveled all over the world. It was brutal but fun. Jetlag and stress started destroy my health.

Took a job as a consultant to farmers. It wasn’t bad until a new CEO decided to change things and lose a ton of money.

Currently working for a smaller company that basically doesn’t care what I do as long as it’s profitable. Contracting research, selling seeds & beneficial insects, etc to farmers. Set my own schedule and do my own thing. I let the CEO know what I am up too once a year or so. Spent most of the last month playing PlayStation after doing way too much this spring. Gotta pace myself after all.

Volunteered in a life science research lab in high-school due to a mix of high school requirement and parental connections.

Went to college, had some personal shit that meant I didn’t really do internships or the like. Liked mol bio but had been aiming for vet school since I was like 5. Tried for vet school and got very denied (meh grades and probably subpar rec letters relatively speaking not to mention a lack of spots for out of state residents).

Got a job in bone research (~25k/y) and moved back to the south. Dad convinced me to try for med school but I realized patient interaction was not for me. Then decided on PhD(30k/y). Got in and moved up north. Finally finished (fairly recently actually), met and married wife during the PhD but had to stick in the area for her so started a postdoc. So now I get 54k/y until the university catches up to the NIH saying 60K (after the recommending committee said at least 70k to stop losing everyone to industry and let people be able to live…).

After wife is able to move, not sure what’s next. I’m going to try for professorship or I’ll have to go to industry.

This one starts back in high school:

Have plans to enter West Point, build a military career, retire from the military at 50 and do civilian work for fun to pass the time. Get shot in the eye with a bb gun at 14, which ends all military aspirations. Pick the second choice college because they accepted me first with a scholarship. Go to college for physics, but listen to the guidance counselor about the 7 week intro web programming course. Drop out of physics and change major to computer science at the last possible second in the first semester of the first year. Continue to take various history courses throughout college that don’t count to a history degree. Graduate and move back in with mom for the summer. Apply to relevant jobs for over a year without success, pick up some work in grocery stores in the meantime. Quit the hometown grocery store at the end of the summer after publicly confronting the store owner about threatening to illegally deduct from my paycheck. Move in with college roommate and friend in the big city while still applying for relevant work and working at Aldi. Work with a communist store manager and have political discussions with him during the George Floyd protests and COVID. Get hired into QA for a big video game company. Walk out with the others when a major sexual harassment lawsuit is filed against the company. Walk out again when the CEO is discovered to be complicit and enabling the harassers. Walk out and go on strike when workers get laid off. Start organizing a union. Win my union.

I feel like I should have pursued my first choice college more, because it was a big 10 public college while the second choice was a private liberal arts college (take a guess which one was cheaper). By far the most rewarding thing in my career has been my part in winning the fight to organize my union. I didn’t realize it then, but now it seems clear that my interests and actions throughout my life have led me to a career as an activist.

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I would recommend leaving on a good note. Over half of my jobs were recommended to me by people I worked with in the past.

Tried to GED in 10th grade. Weasled through the rest of high school making deals with teachers to just take final exams. 3 years of linguistics studies in college with no clue where that was headed. Boyfriend, pregnant, married, and random jobs as we moved to different states for his job. Burned my arm and had to go to physical therapy. Stoned on painkillers and amazed by how cool the gym was, i applied to therapy school. Now i work with school kids with physical disabilities. I’m in my car driving from school to school most days and my summers are free. I love that i have an office but don’t have to go there, i get to go outside and see the sun every day, each day is different, i get to work with/on some cool equipment, and working with kids is better than working with adults. I hate my special ed leadership team because they’re selfish, disrespectful assholes who care more about moving up than taking care of our school kids. If i had to do it over, i would change nothing. I would have been to immature to do this job and appreciate it as a younger person.

Airline pilot.

Sucked at school. Lousy student. Poor grades. But loved planes.

Sucked all the way through high school, even though I took an aviation intro course available at the school. Still loved planes, but liked mechanical stuff too.

Directionless at community college. Couldn’t find anything to hold my interest. Wasted a year.

Worked some odd jobs, picked up a steady, boring job that paid shit. Knew this wasn’t going to work long-term. Knew I liked working with my hands, so went to a vo-tech and aced it. Loved mechanical stuff, made the best GPA I’ve ever had. Honor roll, etc., got certifications for mechanical stuff, etc.

Decided to take a shot at flight school as a Hail Mary, and got accepted at a good college program (degrees were required at the time to get an airline job, not anymore today). Got all my ratings including instructor ratings and an aviation degree. The aviation degree was stupid because as soon as I got my first job the degree was useless, you’ve got nothing to fall back on like if you’d have gotten a business degree or an IT focused degree.

Took a few years of being an instructor pilot to get enough experience to land an ok regional pilot gig, and almost 20 years total to get a “real” airline job thanks to 9-11 and other economic downturns.

Basically poverty wages for my first 18 years of aviation career. Food stamp poverty level for over a decade.

Lessons learned: just because you’re a shitty student doesn’t mean you can’t find success. It won’t be a straight line for lots of us.

Grades do matter. If I hadn’t done well in the vo-tech program I wouldn’t have been accepted in the good school.

Spread out your options. Get a major in digital art? Get a solid minor in business admin. You can be a manager anywhere, and having the business degree will help you not get screwed by people trying to underbid your work or leech off you for your “exposure.”

If you have shot at success (whatever that is to you), sometimes it takes a really long time. I thought about leaving the job field many times. It sucked many different ways. Out of all the 29 people I started my “class” with at my first small regional job there were only 5 of us left after 15 years. People quit, left the field, had families, tried other aviation jobs. Some succeeded. Some didn’t.

Today’s aviation is different that it was when I started. I think things are slowing down, but the low pay I started with ($1k/mo as an instructor, $12/hr as a turboprop pilot (note - you got paid by the flight hour, 60-80 hours a month)) has been reversed and people get paid more as a new hire than I did after flying 15 years. The industry you work for today will change a lot over time, FBFW.

I’m still reeling from the decades of shit pay. Looking from the outside I should be pretty well off, but I’m cramming money into retirement accounts as fast as I can because this job has a mandatory retirement age, so I have to make up for all the money I didn’t have available to put into retirement and the fact that I’ll be out of a job sooner than I think. IOW, far less discretionary money. (Another lesson, save your money in a good retirement account ASAP.) I’d be a cash millionaire and then some if I’d had the money to save over the last couple decades. So we live in an older home in a cheaper area with decade+ old cars that are near or past the 6-figure milage mark. Not the more Upper-middle class life you’d expect from someone in a major airline making decent money.

Best part? I get to fly planes all over the country and now a larger part of the world. Worst part? Took a long time and being poor to get here.

Pilot.

Went to college and learned to fly at the college flight school. Going to college isn’t totally necessary but having a degree is helpful, going to a college flight school is a terrible idea, local mom and pop flight schools are faster and cheaper for equally good training. The worst mistake I made in my career was flight instructing at the college flight school after I graduated. It was in a bad weather state so I couldn’t get a lot of hours, I was supposedly paid $21/hr but the way it was structured I averaged out at around $7/hr with no benefits as a 1099.

I got hired by a small cargo op in 2019. They’d hire me about 6 months earlier than when I would have qualified for a regional airline. It seemed like a questionable move at the time, but $50k to fly a little tiny jet seemed like a fortune. In retrospect it was a really good move when all my flight instructor friends got furloughed by the regional airlines when covid started. Normally I’d say airlines are the right move, but timing is everything.

After 3 years flying cargo I was tired of having my circadian rhythm get obliterated every week and I got hired to fly for a big bizjet company. Fun job, went to lots of cool airports and flew some interesting people, new hire pay was great, top end pay was terrible and the benefits were awful.

I got hired by one of the big US airlines in the hiring rush from 2022-23. Pay is amazing, benefits are really good, the work is somewhat boring but easy, and I have a strong union. 10/10 big airlines are great, I’m not leaving unless the company goes under, which is always a possibility. Now the only problem is that Boeing can’t seem to get their shit figured out so the industry has stopped hiring again because there aren’t enough new planes even though demand is fine.

TLDR: timing is everything.

My career path has been pretty straightforward. I went to a state science and engineering university with a starting major in physics but switched to electrical engineering after two years. While there I had a few student jobs at the various campus labs, helping with research projects and doing some simple programming.

After I graduated I got a job at a small nearby observatory where several friends worked. I started by operating and maintaining the telescopes then did some software work to expand our capabilities.

Once my partner graduated, I found a job in the nearby city at a small engineering firm that mostly did subcontracted work for the big defense companies. I split my time there between electrical engineering and embedded software development.

After several years there, I realized that there was no real path forward due to living in one of the big square states so I started looking and found a job with an established Bay Area company through a friend. Since then I’ve worked at a few different companies, from tiny startups to the FAANGS. I’ve generally moved up every couple years and now manage a large team at a mid sized startup. Like most engineers, I’ll probably never be really rich, but always comfortably employed.

There are three things that really helped my career.

1. College - I know, it’s expensive and such. But even so, it is so worth it. Sure if you get a degree in underwater basket weaving at an expensive private university or it’s probably a financial waste, but STEM degrees are an excellent investment. It’s not just the paper, but the experience, contacts and friends that come from a traditional on-campus in-person university.

2. Friends - The majority of my jobs, and in particular the ones I’ve needed and enjoyed the most came from friends and colleagues. Make those connections, be a good friend, and good things will happen.

3. Hobby programming - I started writing code in elementary school in BASIC. Later in college I would experiment with small programs to scratch an itch, learning C++ and Python from books on my own. Those experiences were vital in my ability to learn how to tackle new problems and learn how to execute when I had to.

Bonus point 4) Reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen. Seriously, learn to plan and execute. Don’t be a flakey “ideas person”, get shit done.