• Question: Would you say you're happy with the career choice you made? If not, what path do you now think you would have rather taken?

    Asked by vrow532eger27 on 20 Nov 2025. This question was also asked by soar532hand98.
    • Photo: Luke Humphrey

      Luke Humphrey answered on 20 Nov 2025:

      Have you seen the Star Trek TNG episode ‘Tapestries’?

      Captain Picard suffers a fatal injury to the heart, and it’s revealed that he might have survived if he didn’t have an artificial heart due to reckless decisions made in his youth.

      He’s offered the chance to go back and make a different choice, but when he does so, he finds that his life turned out very differently. Without having learned the value of life from that experience, he became someone he doesn’t recognise.

      When accepts that he’d rather live with the decisions he made originally, he wakes up in the medical bay. Later, he describes his experience:

      “There are many parts of my youth that I’m not proud of. There were… loose threads – untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I… pulled on one of those threads – it had unraveled the tapestry of my life.”

      The episode is a little annoying, because it implies that becoming a “mere” astrophysicist on the federation’s flagship is not a life well-lived, but I think the core message is good.

    • Photo: David Cussans

      David Cussans answered on 20 Nov 2025:

      Yes. I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning now and although there are many things any of us can do I am content that I have ended up in a career in scientific research. Maybe somewhere out there is a career that would have been better but I am grateful to have had the chance to do something interesting, challenging and brought in enough money to put “bread on the table”.

    • Photo: Caroline Roche

      Caroline Roche answered on 9 Dec 2025:

      Yes, I am happy with my career choice – I love working on control systems and learning how different processes work. Sometimes I do think about what other careers I could have had like working directly in process or chemical engineering rather than just helping those engineers out with their control systems. But I think I would still work in some way with control systems.

    • Photo: Caroline Ratcliffe

      Caroline Ratcliffe answered on 17 Dec 2025:

      I have literally changed my career choice majorly three times! I always say I don’t know what I would want to do when I am a grown up but I am 45 now and not sure I have finished changing careers!

      I love where I am currently as it makes me feel I am making a difference but I have also loved my previous roles, each one helped me get the next role and progress so all are valuable – I regret nothing so far.

      However, had I been born after the internet was invented instead of before it was invented, I suspect I might have wanted to be a professional gamer streaming on twitch, as then I could combine my hobby with my job!

    • Photo: Rosie Currams

      Rosie Currams answered on 17 Dec 2025:

      Whilst I’m still en-route to my career, the path I am taking so far I am very happy with! I have found something I am passionate in by picking a broad degree, and slowly narrowing down to the stuff I love – genetics, and now frogs!
      It’s scary to start picking a path, as there is always the fear that you won’t enjoy it, but I truly believe that if you study something you’re passionate about, you’ll enjoy your career!
      I love research, and I am very happy with my career choices so far 🙂

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