No regrets
"The follies which a man regrets most, in his life, are those which he didn't commit when he had the opportunity." -- Helen Rowland
Paul Browne of Technology in plain English posed the question "What [would] you do if you weren’t doing your current job?".
Needless to say its something I've (along with oh about 350 co-workers) have been looking at. The Sports and Social group had a bit of a blowout of the budget on Friday.... and this question came up.
A few of the developers were chatting as the night wore on and the questions were asked.
One sort of regretted that she didn't go down the marketing route. Another wished that she had worked in fashion. I asked "why not try it now?"
When I was young (leaving cert from a long time ago) I wanted to be an actuary. I could have gone and done the study and exams directly, but I decided to go down the 4 year degree route which drops you off in year 3 of actuary-hood. I hated it (still have the books, useful for nights when I can't sleep and working out long term financial calculations)... Very quickly I changed course.
When I was a little kid I wanted to be a scientist. My job title was "Computer Scientist" (we had a range we could choose from (no kidding!) e.g. software engineer, computer programmer, software designer... sometimes a software person wears a lot of hats). So technically I achieved my childhood dream.
More recently I wanted to write. Be a writer. I started off a fiction blog... this is as far as I got. One post. but I tried.
My point of this is, if you have a dream job, give it a shot. Even if it's just a small step in that direction. Because if you don't you will always have this "what if" thought at the back of your head.
Will
tags :
regret, opportunity, first partners, Paul Browne, Technology in plain English, what would you do, actuary, scientist, software engineer, writer, fiction blog, cork
fitssimmons, what if, Carney Girls
Paul Browne of Technology in plain English posed the question "What [would] you do if you weren’t doing your current job?".
Needless to say its something I've (along with oh about 350 co-workers) have been looking at. The Sports and Social group had a bit of a blowout of the budget on Friday.... and this question came up.
A few of the developers were chatting as the night wore on and the questions were asked.
One sort of regretted that she didn't go down the marketing route. Another wished that she had worked in fashion. I asked "why not try it now?"
When I was young (leaving cert from a long time ago) I wanted to be an actuary. I could have gone and done the study and exams directly, but I decided to go down the 4 year degree route which drops you off in year 3 of actuary-hood. I hated it (still have the books, useful for nights when I can't sleep and working out long term financial calculations)... Very quickly I changed course.
When I was a little kid I wanted to be a scientist. My job title was "Computer Scientist" (we had a range we could choose from (no kidding!) e.g. software engineer, computer programmer, software designer... sometimes a software person wears a lot of hats). So technically I achieved my childhood dream.
More recently I wanted to write. Be a writer. I started off a fiction blog... this is as far as I got. One post. but I tried.
My point of this is, if you have a dream job, give it a shot. Even if it's just a small step in that direction. Because if you don't you will always have this "what if" thought at the back of your head.
Will
tags :
regret, opportunity, first partners, Paul Browne, Technology in plain English, what would you do, actuary, scientist, software engineer, writer, fiction blog, cork
fitssimmons, what if, Carney Girls
Labels: actuary, Carney Girls, Cork, fiction blog, first partners, fitssimmons, opportunity, Paul Browne, regret, scientist, software engineer, Technology in plain English, what if, What would you do, writer
2 Comments:
Will,
Two pieces of advice
1) Go for it
2) Go for it in small steps. E.g. given your background, make a baby step to technical writing, then expand into non-fiction areas.
I'd always have a 'Plan B'. Given my earnings from writing / blogging (Total $96.73 over 6 months from Adwords), it's just as well that I still work as a consultant in the same area.
Paul
I have taken your advice and written the dirty bird article
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