Sideways, backwards, and possibly via some illegal dimensions as well.
After I finished secondary school, I did a geology degree. Which I enjoyed and would have been quite happy as a geologist. Alas, a stock market crash killed the market and I spent a total of about 4.5 months working as a geologist in the next 2 years, so I went back and did a 1 year teaching conversion degree. Enjoyed that, graduated into the one and only teacher glut I ever heard about, took 6 months to get a teaching job, but actually teaching? Did not end well.
Ended so not well that I have PTSD issues from it over 20 years later.
After sufficient recovery time including an aborted attempt at a masters in education, went back to college as an undergrad (again), this time for a software engineering degree. Graduated into the fallout of the post 2000 ātech wreckā. Found programming work 6 months later, enjoyed it, then saw the company going into bankruptcy after 6 months. By this stage, I was joking about destroying entire career paths by expressing interest in them.
Moved to the US to marry, eventually got a job as a combination programmer, tester, general dogsbody in the kind of place where thereās so much happening under the counter the official side of things is somewhat obscured, and where the boss is borderline abusive. Did not end well.
Got another job as a tester, and moved from south-central US to near Philadelphia. Really enjoyed this one. Have been testing ever since, although Iām not with the same employer. Have been in the same area for around 15 years now. Discovered testing is fun and hits me as āpuzzlesā - which I love, soā¦
The really short version is Iāve shuffled from career attempt to career attempt, and testing is the only one that didnāt blow up in my face (or the only one that survived me - Iām not sure which is the more accurate statement). Iām thankful for that, because itās also the career Iāve enjoyed most.