What do you do for work and how did you get into it?

In my early 20s, I worked for a manufacturer in Southern California. There really was no future... I found a new a job in Customer Service for a telecommunications company.

Three months after I started the new job, they transferred me to Northern California to grow the "western US call center" from 7 employees. Within 2 years, I managed 17 supervisors and they each had about a dozen Sales/Service representatives in the 24/7 call center. (There were 4 other call centers across the US.)

A few years later, I left there to work for a larger company in the same industry. Over the next 20 years, I went through various management assignments in customer service, inside and outside sales, field (technical) supervisor, Human Resources, Sales Compensation, IT... and for the last 10 years, have been on the team supporting our company's largest account.

Hard work, networking with co-workers and upper management, keeping my eyes open, paying attention to detail, be willing to learn and try new things, be polite, have a positive attitude, treat others the way I want to be treated, smile, be fair, don't complain unless I can provide at least two or three potential solutions, communicate clearly, take calculated risks, don't do anything stupid or illegal, follow through on commitments and agreements, take time to be interested in what others are doing at and away from work. Be happy and don't be quick to judge. Be dependable. Don't let a bad day get in the way of being nice - you never know what the other person has been through or is going through. If you don't already know how, learn to work well in a team. If you get into management, when you expect something to be done by people who report into you, learn to inspect without being a micro-manager and get agreement when setting requirements and deadlines. Treat people with respect but don't let them take advantage of you. Be honest. Most of these apply to your personal life, too - apply them consistently and they become easy to do.

"Do it right the first time or be prepared to do it again."

I'm getting ready to retire... my current boss (20 years younger than I am) does not want me leave. Neither do my customer contacts, coworkers or upper management - that's what they tell me, anyway...

I've been working from home for 10 years, so this pandemic thing has not changed things much. It has been a good run. I have a couple of regrets, but nothing I need to go back in time to change.

I started out with retail work (did that for about 15 years), and now I work for a ware house. 

I figured I had relatively transferable skills, so I applied for the job and I got it about a week later. 5 years later I'm still picking and packing, I'm also an essential worker so I still have to go to work. But I like my job and the company I work for treats us very well.

Accountant.

My high school offered accounting classes as electives.  I took the classes, liked them and decided at the age of 16 or 17 that I wanted to be an Accountant.  I then went to college and got Bachelor's Degree in Accounting.The rest is history.

I work in retail, I got one job in retail when I left school and that store closed down so eventually got another job in another shop then after 6 years decided I hated working there so got another job in another shop and ben there for nearly a year now. But currently not working because of the pandemic but might be re-opening sometime in June.