well i dont drive a rocket car which shoots fireworks as i drive, or wear a cape, so id have to say no.

Yes and no. On the one hand doing a PhD is something I didn't expect to do until I was a bit more secure financially and had got at least a few years graft in. However getting a lot of funding from my university has enabled me to do something that for most in my family seemed an impossibility. On the other hand though I'm not enjoying having to supplement my income with shit part time jobs for minimum wage. I've worked in bars/taken temp jobs in offices since I was 18 and have barely seen my wages go up. At 24 I really thought I'd be getting on with earning tbh, I often feel like I work hard but don't see any real benefits from it. I suppose my glass is half full right now I'm doing something I really want to do but I'd just love to have a bit more coin about so I could buy a bit more shmutter/go to the match a little more/not have to scrimp on going out with the bird etc

No. I currently work in customer services at a social housing provider. I hated school and left after GCSE's not knowing what I wanted to do. Wish I done my A-levels and had more time to think options through. If I ever do have kids, I'll be making sure they stay on longer in school, 16 is far too early to leave.

I should have just completed my last Ryder Cup with the win at Medinah.

All I do is teach fat ingrates the impossible in 90 degree plus conditions getting skin cancer and west nile virus from mosquitos to earn a crust.I've no pension or holiday pay/medical insurance.you turn up I teach you thats it...

I'd have been better off as a binman or maybe a windowcleaner.(No knock on binmen or windowcleaners by the way I'm deadly serious)

Problem is I've done this (apart from the playing years which was just a nightmare scrap every week for a cheque) all my life never earning quite enough to pay to put myself through any other training route.

FUCKINGBASTARDGAME.

I'm £999,990 away from the money I predicted I'd have at the age of 26.

Other than that, life is fantastic!

I'm one hundred times happier now than I was this time last year but it's early days so I'll see what happens. I'm a firm believer in "life is what you make it" so at the end of the day it's up to you to do the best you can do.

No fucking way. 9-5.30 working in a small online distribution team at a broadcast house (that is about to make a lot of redundancies). Blatantly should have done art and English at A level, but fell by the wayside and ended up coasting through my further education (not that I thin that was the only chance).

OP- one thing I would say to her is that school subjects are not the be all and end all, look at options to do some GCSEs off-site, like film studies etc at your local college.

Being only 21 and not having a clue what I wanted to do when I left school I say i landed quite nicely. Had 1 interview with a building services company on the Tuesday and by the Thursday I had been offered a job as an electrical apprentice.Having just completed it I now find the difficult part is knowing what to do now?!

Also how the fuck are you meant to have an enjoyable social life and afford to buy a flat/house?!?!

Yes i would say so, first in immediate family to go to university. Never once slacked in the way of my education, hopefully making my family proud. Looking back i maybe should of considered my options more, i never once looked at a path outside of higher education !! But it will hopefully pay off in the end.....

Very thought provoking question Mark, nice exactly what this forum should be like imo,
Jees if I look back by rights I shouldnt even be here, Talk about dark places in the mind and situations I have been in then I thank god how i am still standing, without the details I left school quite bright, lost the plot early on, wrote my life off, spent 8 years ducking and diving as a crack and heroin addict in and out of prison, the things I did and saw will scar me forever, I was always been told Im too good for that life, I never listened, grew up in an urban jungle, but thats where i learned to repsect and be respected, Wouldnt change a thing, thankfully I survived the madness after many died along the way and I found solace, Rehab late 20's met my partner and we flew from there. I didnt expect to be anywhere in life as I take each day as it comes and am thankful for each opportunity as it comes,
I have forged my own path and if honest and not being big headed but I feel I have a destiny to fulfill and definately feels like I am on the right path now. I earned my rank @ work through sheer hard graft now helping those that were exactly in my situation as a teenager, which gives me a great feeling, luckily my job is so varied, each day is different and never know what Im walking into, I have achieved so much that I know anything is possible if you put in the graft. I have exceeded my expectations becoming a physical iintervention principal instructor, BILD accredited which is rare in the industry. 14 companies in the UK This last year has been hard with my health, the past came back to haunt me and I nearly lost my leg, after then mentally I recovered and viewed things differently. Life is for living nothing else, work is not important, I am. that might sound selfish but this carries me through and allows me to achieve whatever I set out to do. Honestly lads I dont have as much longetivity left in my life through what my body has been through, those that dont know me, but thats the price I pay, major surgery is immiment and I have accepted that, Basically I was long gone, destroyed, a walking souless fiend but now I feel proud and have the confidence to be able to change my life, and if I can do it then anybody can, you can actually read about my exploits should it ever make it to press courtest of Bill (William) who put together the Northern Monkeys book.
Great question, fucking great stuff... Really made me reflect on life. thank you

Wow Ja, sounds like you've lead a heck of a life. Don't want to take this off topic, but sounds like you're the sort that the government should be listening to regarding drug abuse, to come through it and make positive changes for others is remarkable. I for one would be all ears if you were to tell how you did it, but that's another thread.

does anyone know what they wnt at that age? i didnt....wasnt the sharpest tool in the box, but wasnt a thicket....was probably destined to earn my crust with my hands and back, nowt wrong with that ....even in tough times there is work for god grafters, which i class myself as!
if you asked me now at 35, what i really wanted to do? the honest answer would be... fuck knows!! but ask me if im happy and the answer would be...never been happier...got a great Mrs and now me little boy,im pretty happywith my lot!

read somewhere that happiness is not getting something you wish for , but realising what you already have ..
and what I have isn't all that bad ..
I have two teen kids , who are my world ..
been married 20 years , fuck knows how ..
started life in the wrong lane , spent 3 months in the scrubs , came out and decided to join the Army ..
was lucky to be taken in , and did 3 years in the Paras ..
left , couldn't adjust , so me and a mate tried the French Foreign Legion , and I completed my 5 years ..
then worked offshore , and have been lucky in the fact I have worked all over the world , currently in Brasil ..
I've chased the money , and we don't really struggle .. kids have what they want ..

but for me , life is all about contentment , no my bank balance - which may sound a bit condacending , but I don't mean it too ..
simply spending time , and enjoying the time I get with my family , and dogs makes my world tick ... oh , and an expensive coat ... :)

can,t compete with all these diplomas and cse.s..never thought I,d end up in the job I do .. ended up with a
.nice pad and two grandkids,couple of holidays per year ..oh and I,m a "man of the coth"...nowt religious I scrape shite off folks windows for a living!

I always wanted to be an engineer and whilst I went off the rails in my last year of school 'til I was about 20, I finally woke up to myself and sorted it out.

Whilst I might not be designing cars, which is what I dreamt about as a kid, I am a mechanical engineer and have a job where I get to create things, which is very satisfying.

Also, the money is great and I can indulge my clothing habit.

.

Really interesting thread and some very inspiring reads.
Approaching 26 on a decent wage compared to most mates of a similar age.. Working in retail management for one of the so called super brands.. Dream has always been to open my own store so where as most see retail as a failed step after uni I'm seeing it as an apprenticeship for what comes next.

Still regret daily the debt and missed opportunity from Otterwell but no one to blame but myself and still get positive comments about what we did daily from strangers so not all bad..
Have a nice house in a area which suits me and a lovely mrs so yeah happy at the moment.

Wouldnt have gone uni if I had the chance again, not worth the paper they are wrote on degrees these days unless they are professional qualifications are provide a trade such as engineering .

At 16 I left school with 9 GCSE A-C grades and had a place at art college doing graphic design - my folks had nowt and we basically had no money to fund me through it. Left there to do an apprenticeship at an engineering firm where I'd hoped to be a "draughtsman" before CAD and all that fancy shit. Ended up testing large engines (for generators) and spending the next 8 years working in R & D where I loved it... blowing stuff up, having a crack with the lads etc. Thought I'd best grow up later on so took an "office job" project managing the supply of engines into luxury yachts (Sunseekers, Princess..) at another firm .Got asked to go back to my original firm 2 years later and I've never looked back working to get higher up the ladder.
Now I commission our product on sites all over... In the last 2 years I've done Russia, Africa and nearly every country in the EAME, seen some shit and some cool stuff too. Honestly really enjoy most of it and feel quite lucky in terms of the material shit and have two of the most gorgeous kids in the whole world. Certainly if I'd had my time over it'd be uni all the way and that's the path i'll teach the girls but as long as they've got a good work ethic they'll be right !!

All I want to do is join the Royal Marines, but due to my criminal record it means I cant until I have spent my conviction. Bitter pill to take and still trying to figure out what I want to do instead. I am only 19 now so hopefully in 5 years I will be in a better position than I am now.

31 now, and teaching 7 year olds.

Last year, I was a flat away from total contentment. I was teaching 17 year olds(not sure what you call the penultimate year of high school) literature, coaching soccer, assisting with the volleyball team, and earning just enough to treat myself.
My school went on strike twice, I was moved from a secondary to a primary school, and my general demeanor toward the education of youths went to shit. For the first time in my life, I dread my job. The past five years, even the frustrating days had kernels of fulfillment - now the disdain and resentment manifests itself before my alarm goes off.

I completed college and a graduate degree before 26, and travelled a bit. I was on the way forward, but the apex of that curve was last year. At the moment, I need to find a way to refocus on realistic goals that can find me back on a positive path.