What did you do before nursing?

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I've met more than a few people that have made or are pursuing nursing as a second career. What did you do before? What are the ups and downs in comparison?

I'm not a nurse yet, but since I'm the OP, I'll go first. After being a fast food worker, a pizza cook, and a warehouse worker for Best Buy, I was an intel analyst in the Army, serving everywhere from infantry battalions all the way up to division headquarters. Later, I was a targeting analyst for an established defense firm, and later still for a an upstart company that took the contract from my original bosses. 10 years down the road and seven countries later, I'm knocking out the rest of my pre-reqs before I begin nursing school in January.

Specializes in Palliative Care.

I started nursing school at 40, so I've had a variety of jobs before nursing. I've been a veterinary assistant, counselor in a halfway house with mentally ill adults, worked in a group home with abused and neglected teens, PDX operator in a hospital, skills trainer with developmentally delayed adults, worked for Macy's a couple of times, worked as a webmaster, in marketing, as a freelance graphics designer, and at one point had a home business making infant slings. It's been a crazy ride! I hated all of the desk jobs and kept coming back to working with people in need, even though those jobs were the hardest. I love helping people and truly love that aspect of being a nurse.

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Specializes in Pschiatry.

1 year of RN school to go. I have worked in retail, telemarketing, CNA in several different places, security for concerts (I REALLY LOVED this job, just not enough hours), waitress, whatever I could do to help support the family. I now work part-time in retail until I finish my dream of becoming an RN>

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While in high school - worked in a video store (loved it). Went to college to get a job in entertainment. Worked ten years in Hollywood running errands in a producer's mailroom and eventually got promoted to development assistant where I was paid to read tv and movie scripts and books (loved that job, too).

After I started getting laid off every 6 to 12 months I had to find something stable and went to EMT school. Worked 3 years working on an ambulance in So. Central Los Angeles and needed to get something with a future (that paid o.k.). Started thinking about paramedic school but my firefighter friends said - there's more choices and scope in nursing (and more girls in nursing school). Finally passed the RN at age 35. Also, since then have been with my girlfriend who I met in nursing school (so that worked out, too).

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Specializes in ICU, CORRECTIONS, BUT MOSTLY ER....

Earned my RN at age of 38, before that i was a mailman, bookeeper, chashier, and stay at home mom...all of which prepared me for my career in some fashion or another.

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Specializes in ED.

I have been the following: icecream scooper, dishwasher, cna, ARMY tracked vehicle repairman (fixed tank engines), auto parts delivery person, alarm sales person (very short lived), underground utilities locator, and now a nurse.

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I am 46 and about to start the ADN program. I am retired from the U.S. Navy (20 yrs).

I start next week, so excited. I already have plans to go on for BSN and hopefully graduate school for nursing. Now I'm going back to read all the comments.

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I was a general contractor and custom cabinet maker before going to nursing school later in life. I spent 10 years on an Ortho floor first as an aide while attending nursing school (worked night and went to school days). I then spent 3 years on a psych floor, an now work in Hospice inpatient unit. I absolutely love it, and see myself retiring somewhere within the Hospice setting. I'm hoping someday that my beautiful and very talented nurse wife joins me as a Hospice nurse :-)

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Specializes in Geriatrics.

Nursing is my second career. Before this I was retail management. I did that for 20 years.

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I was a server, bartender and had many different roles in mortgage finance before I became a nurse. It feels like I should have been doing this all along, but there's a reason for everything, and everyone has a different path :)

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I was a short order cook for 5 years and now an LPN for 37 years.

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Just prior to nursing school, I was trained by a small town dentist to assist him at chairside. That experience led me away from dentistry.

While in nursing school, I worked as a rectory cook for 4 priests during weekday evenings and a casino entertainer and cocktail waitress on weekends...no lie. When I graduated nursing school in 1985 and got my very first job, I took a pay CUT. Turns out there is more money in casino cocktail waitressing. LOL. I have chosen NOT to share that sad fact with my 3 college daughters ( 2 of whom are nursing majors).

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I was in the Marine Corps for 21 years and retired at 39. Then I became a sheriffs deputy in Lake Tahoe then in my home state of Oregon. Didn't like the job so I quit. Decided to put myself through nursing school to help my fellow veterans. Now I work as an LPN at a VA hospital and am very happy here. Working on my "LPN2RN" school to get my RN done.

Thank you for your service!

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