Reply to: Regrets, I've had a few...

[Doggy Styles]

I did electronic engineering, and worked in it for several years. But you develop and move on, don't you.

I get a bit nostalgic for chip and pcb design, probes and scopes, soldering, CAE, the component store, the Texas catalogues of my youth, the lovely Dawn, CAD/CAM, prototype circuits on Vero board, shift work... I blame that bloody lizard by the way, for repeatedly reminding me of it.

But I don't regret leaving it behind because I like what I do now, and I think I'm earning more money than I would have.

[TestMangler]

In 1993, I did some ecommerce web stuff which essentially meant finding a company to clear credit cards on the net. This was done via a company in the States as it was virtually (if not totally) impossible to get a Uk bank to do it then. Anyway, I put a couple of clients on this solution and was approached by the american company that they would set me up as a top level merchant and all the clients I got could have their payments cleared via My Co, and they offered a very small % on their side to make it work. I started doing this and took in a few clients with sign up fees, monthly fees and per transation fees. To sort this properly, I had to be able to differentiate between incoming client payments to know who was due what, which I did by using their email address in the secure message string.

Didn't see it at the time, but I (along with a business partner) had invented the concept of FU*KING PAYPAL !!

We ran into a legal difficulty with the American side and to get round this, we had to register a company in the States (Delaware I believe was the most 'lax' state for doing this). Anyway, we looked at what we would have to do and decided, ***** it, it was too much hassle and closed the operation down !!



Imagine how many times since then, I've wanted to kick the tulip ou of myself

[doodab]

Can gyroscopic precession tell me when to buy that lottery ticket?

Oh that reminds me. £110 million this evening. Better get a ticket.

[ctdctd]

So what's the lookout for Aquarius then?

All you need to know is here:-

P.S. I've always been an engineer - electronics or IT.

Think I'll try the arts in my next life.

[Cliphead]

Can gyroscopic precession tell me when to buy that lottery ticket?

It's about as useful for that as anything else

[mudskipper]

You talking gyroscopic precession or the astrology bollocks?

Can gyroscopic precession tell me when to buy that lottery ticket?

[Cliphead]

So what's the lookout for Aquarius then?

You talking gyroscopic precession or the astrology bollocks?

[mudskipper]

I have a degree in astronomy

I'm with the OP here, Astronomy if I could do it all again.

So what's the lookout for Aquarius then?

[BlasterBates]

From an early age I always wanted to be a chiropodist, but I couldn´t get my foot in the door.

[EternalOptimist]

When I was little we were poor, but it didn't stop me having ambition. I used take my torch under the blankets to read stories about famous explorers and adventurers like Shackleton, Hilary and Scott, which was a bit daft really, seeing as how it was still daytime. But we all make mistakes of youth.

It was when I read about Scott and his gang walking to the South Pole then getting frostbite before dying a freezing lonely desolate death that I made my big decision. I would work in the Pizza parlour!
At least it would be warm in there.

It wasn't long before my native wit and natural intelligence began to show and I quickly realised they were losing money by not logging orders and booking tables properly. Every time an order was ready a loud bell rang and the people at the tables would shudder , many would leave. So I revamped the table booking and the Kitchen, and the boss was very impressed.
That is how I won my No Bell Pizza and Booker prize.

My biggest regret is that I didnt become a boozy vb/sql server developer instead

[Paddy]

[istvan]

Good question, I enjoyed reading all of your comments. As far as me, I knew I want to be an electrical engineer as early as 4 years of age. I got a flash light for gift and was fascinated so much, I still remember crawling under beds to find places where light was needed.

I was about nine when I built my first crystal radio, about 14 when I built my first 50W tube push-pull amplifier. By 17, I became a licensed amateur radio operator; built a transmitter and fisted out morse-code like I am about to save the Titanic. By then, my social skills reached its peak. If they praised me, I blushed and explained why whatever I did was not perfect and in fact was quite shabby. My self-confidence was definitely pointing me to IT, although that acronym did not exist back then yet. I run away around 22. Not to the neighboring town, but to a different continent. Alcapone had long time been dead in the city, when I arrived.

When I graduated with my EE degree and a being a proud owner of a Sinclare Z80, I was already in love with programming. I became a system tester on the ancient AT&T telephone digital switch. Some of you might ask, like recently my daughter while vibing (viber) with her iPhone, daddy what is a record player? Quite antisocial, no manners, but excellent tester (broke even the best code - probably due to the lack of common sense) I became a coder soon. I got myself a computer science degree and done the most bizarre things, UNIX device drivers, embedded and real time software, layered communications protocol talking between a 68340 with pSOS talking with 6811 assembly, memory managers, mini multi tasking kernels, etc.

By the way, I never worked as an Electrical Engineer, not even for a single day. However, I immensely loved coding. I took a course on UNIX device drivers. The instructor introduced the course: those of you having any basic social skills should not be here unless you do not mind loosing even that little skill you have, I want people who like to sit for 16 hours a day, and prefer to be alone for most of the time. I fit in very well.

About 10 years of coding damaging my eyes and my brain heavily, finally I realized maybe there is more to life then churning out hundreds if not thousands of NCSLs a day. I noticed that a girl behaved strangely around me, could not figure it out why, and after the third "meeting" someone explained to me that I am dating, whatever that is. Well, much later she told me that she saw the gold in the pile of steaming piles of horse manure.

Later, I started getting interested in business and learning from my previous experience, every time I got myself a degree I moved up on pay-scale quite a bit. So, I got myself an MBA. Moved to the wrong country, my pay dropped to half. Struggled getting jobs, and hated them after about a year. Realizing that I am really an underpaid contractor, I decided to become a contractor for good (I was contracting for 5 years in the 90's already). I got out of the wrong country and started with a PM gig HR/Payroll transformation. I still do not know why they let me get on with that contract, but now I am an "experienced" change manager, or whatever.

What would I do differently if I start all over again? Medicine? No, I blacked out and fainted when I cut my finger at 9. Well, I got 7 stitches to stop bleeding. Law? International business law maybe, but with these social skills? Perhaps a plumber, I just had one fixing my kitchen sink today and I paid an arm and a leg. By now I would manage a whole crew. I would definitely learn some skills that cannot be outsourced: fixing stuff, healthcare, investing (other people's money of course).

To be honest, I still do not know what I really want to be when I grow up. If you remember the movie with George Cloony ''Up In The Air'', today I am the guy who implements outsourcing, where "Cloony" has gone before me. I am the cleaning up crew. Perhaps I would like to be George.

What I regret is that I did not pour money into the stock market during the early nineties and got out of it by the end of the decade. Then I would not want to be George anymore.

[norrahe]

Wanted to be a forensic pathologist as a kid, but owing to crap careers guidance in school never quite got there.

I enjoyed my uni years, I suppose the only regrets I have getting are married and subsequently going through the divorce and training as a chef too late. Cheffing is summat you start young and move up the ranks, not when you're 30 when the pay as a commis chef barely covers your rent. Still I have the skills and someday it will be a plan b.

[evilagent]

I'm with the OP here, Astronomy if I could do it all again.
Only got into IT for the money, and cos I is technically minded, and I enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of it.
Looking back, I didnt really put the effort into education, dropped out of college, etc.
Being of indian background, I am a massive disappointment to my parents for not being a doctor!
I reached a point in my contracting career where it was all variations of what I had done before, so felt it was all samey.
Thought about retraining into a new specific skill, but realised I knew enough about other technical skills I would try my hand at recruiting.
Love it, hate it, but good fun.

But, in a new life, astronomy. Or a writer.

[doodab]

I'd have worked a bit harder at Uni, and probably taken less drugs.

I'd have bought a house as soon as I could have after I got my first contract.

I'd have kept a lot of stuff I sold or threw away over the years. Actually, it seems like I have

There are two occasions where I've developed something that could have, with a bit of work, become a viable plan B.

No regrets about my chosen career path, I've enjoyed programming since I was a nipper, although I would prefer to be working on stuff I personally found interesting.