Things You'd Do Differently If You Were 16 Again?

[MUFC 437]

Obviously you can't over plan and this thread maybe geared towards older members. In my case, I managed to go through the education system all the way to university. I'd have paid more attention though to my education if given a other opportunity. 

Regarding employment, I'd maybe have pushed to get up the hierarchy more. Rather than just being happy to be in a job.  

[Stan 10,273]

Probably pay attention to education a tad more as well but that's not to say I don't love where I am/what I do now.

I'd have tried to gauge an idea of what I wanted to do in life - even at times throughout uni I wasn't too sure what kind of job I wanted. 

Maybe would have taken football more seriously and kept on playing for longer or to a better standard and not just a Sunday League team. Same with cricket but it usually had to be one or the other given most games were on weekends. 

 

Despite anything I could have done differently I'm still happy with where I am now  

[Pyfish 1,266]

I don't think I'd change anything at 16 but I would change the way I looked at University and the opportunities that I missed career wise. I would have taken more of those opportunities to shadow different people in radio and I might have got a bit further in my career if I'd have done that. Saying that, I'm working in radio now just not in the area I'd want to do.

[Bluewolf 4,289]

Nothing to be honest... I had a quality time in my teens and wouldn't change anything... 

[Lucas 2,226]

Only thing I'd have done differently was change Uni and go somewhere away from my home town.

I had too many distractions at home and I feel I didn't live the true experience whilst I had all my friends, family and luxuries around me.

Other than that, I've lived my life pretty happy and content.

[Danny 1,161]

I purposely slept through my GCSE Geography exam, so based off of that you probably wouldn't be too surprised to learn that I left school with 1 GCSE which I had to resit a year in Sixth Form to get  I'd definitely focus on my education a lot more and at least do well enough in school to have the option to go to Uni at a younger age. Exams and qualifications aren't the be all and end all of life but they can make life a lot easier if it means you have a wider variety of options available to pursue something you'd like to do in life

[Cicero 3,751]

Introduce black coffee to my morning and noon routine. 

[nudge 8,301]

Tough question, because changing something means that I'd also miss out on certain valuable experiences related to that, right? If that wasn't the case, then I would choose not to stay at uni for as long as I did and wouldn't seek additional degrees, but rather focus on becoming self employed and moving away earlier. 

[CaaC (John) 2,578]

Concentrate on my boxing or Australian Rules football when I was that age and try and be successful.

[Stan 10,273]

21 minutes ago, Danny said:

I purposely slept through my GCSE Geography exam, so based off of that you probably wouldn't be too surprised to learn that I left school with 1 GCSE which I had to resit a year in Sixth Form to get

Didn't need to know about the geography thing to work that out mate

[Danny 1,161]

7 minutes ago, Stan said:

Didn't need to know about the geography thing to work that out mate

wot u meen m8

[Mel81x 2,177]

Nothing really. At 16 I was already living away from home and 15-17 were very good years for me.

[McAzeem 1,440]

Give a better intro thread on joining an online football forum

[Viva la FCB 1,023]

I did alot of dumb shit but as nudge says the memories and experiences are worth doing those things probably. The one thing I would not have done is work my first real part time job at training wage; at the time we had a wage for first time labourers (dont remember if it was just our province or country wide) which was 6.25$ an hour until you accumulated something like 100-120 hours. Which when your in high school at the same time and playing two sports took something like 6 months or longer to hit 

[Stan 10,273]

26 minutes ago, Azeem said:

Give a better intro thread on joining an online football forum

I'm intrigued as to what it was

[CaaC (John) 2,578]

Really I hated high school in Aussie land when I was 14 and one day my mother dragged me into the bathroom and told me to get ready for school, well, I climbed out of the bathroom window, got a neighbours dog and disappeared for a day, spent time just walking around the beaches and the bush areas out there until the neighbour spotted me with his dog, grabbed me and bought me home, my parents gave up after that about the high school bit and I started work when I was 15.

I did regret that later on in years when trying to get a decent job with no school certificates whatever you called them then when I joined the army I made up for all that, studied on my English and ended up as a clerk in our regimental office, never looked back after that and left the army with an exemplary discharge report', if I look back then I wished I had stayed on at school then go to University......and end up being an astronaut...beam me up Scotty. 

[Bluewolf 4,289]

4 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

and I started work when I was 15.

I left when I was 14 and started working.... haven't bloody stopped since.. 

[CaaC (John) 2,578]

3 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

I left when I was 14 and started working.... haven't bloody stopped since.. 

The job was in a pub kitchen delivering food to pissheads in the bar downstairs, no wonder I still like the old booze nowadays.   

[nudge 8,301]

2 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

I left when I was 14 and started working.... haven't bloody stopped since.. 

I started working at around the same age, worked my way through school and uni before transitioning into the workforce full time  I think I had a year off work at some point though. Can't even remember anymore  

[Bluewolf 4,289]

2 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

The job was in a pub kitchen delivering food to pissheads in the bar downstairs, no wonder I still like the old booze nowadays.   

I was building garden sheds and fencing panels.... Started as a part time Saturday job that went full time for a couple of years, Every now and then we would go out on the road and put a shed up at some posh house because they were too lazy to do it themselves... Still, did enjoy it, I worked with some proper old grizzled blokes who I couldn't understand half the time.. Just received instructions via grunts and head motions mostly... These were proper old school, well before my time kind of blokes.. 

[nudge 8,301]

5 minutes ago, CaaC (John) said:

The job was in a pub kitchen delivering food to pissheads in the bar downstairs, no wonder I still like the old booze nowadays.   

How many pints have you sneakily chugged while working there?  

[Bluewolf 4,289]

4 minutes ago, nudge said:

I started working at around the same age, worked my way through school and uni before transitioning into the workforce full time  I think I had a year off work at some point though. Can't even remember anymore  

I think I can pretty much remember all my jobs through the years... Had to be a bit flexible in what you did if you wanted to keep working when I was young.. No rules back then, no paperwork, no health & safety, no procedures, basically if you wanted the job turn up on time, work hard, do as you are told or "fuck off" was the theme..  Some jobs were better than others but can't say I ever hated any of them.. 

[Bluewolf 4,289]

6 minutes ago, nudge said:

How many pints have you sneakily chugged while working there?  

Judging by his choice in wines I suppose they could never work out why the vinegar stocks were so low all the time while he was out the back dangling over the washing line sleeping it off... 

[Stan 10,273]

1 minute ago, Bluewolf said:

Judging by his choice in wines I suppose they could never work out why the vinegar stocks were so low all the time while he was out the back dangling over the washing line sleeping it off... 

Did @CaaC (John) ever tell you the time he was stopped by police for drink-driving?

They stopped him, gave him the breathalyser to take that breath test. Then this happened...

 

[Bluewolf 4,289]

14 minutes ago, nudge said:

How many pints have you sneakily chugged while working there?  

Perk of the job... 

[nudge 8,301]

Just now, Bluewolf said:

I think I can pretty much remember all my jobs through the years... Had to be a bit flexible in what you did if you wanted to keep working when I was young.. No rules back then, no paperwork, no health & safety, no procedures, basically if you wanted the job turn up on time, work hard, do as you are told or "fuck off" was the theme..  Some jobs were better than others but can't say I ever hated any of them.. 

Same here, really. Also got a lot of jobs through word of mouth - friends of friends, recommendations of previous employers, etc. Started with odd jobs, then moved into factory work. One of my favourites was a small furniture factory (most likely illegal too  ), worked there while at school, mostly adding aged texture to wood and helping to assemble the furniture afterwards. Interesting work to be fair, just felt a bit out of place in the hall with about a dozen grown up men every day, twice as old and thrice as big as me...  Another one I loved was working in a car garage, my main responsibility was tinting car windows. Great times. 

[Mpache 536]

Not burn bridges with the people in my high school. It was around that time I did.

[Bluewolf 4,289]

8 minutes ago, nudge said:

Same here, really. Also got a lot of jobs through word of mouth - friends of friends, recommendations of previous employers, etc. Started with odd jobs, then moved into factory work. One of my favourites was a small furniture factory (most likely illegal too  ), worked there while at school, mostly adding aged texture to wood and helping to assemble the furniture afterwards. Interesting work to be fair, just felt a bit out of place in the hall with about a dozen grown up men every day, twice as old and thrice as big as me...  Another one I loved was working in a car garage, my main responsibility was tinting car windows. Great times. 

Never really worked alongside any girls/women in my early working life it was pretty much all male dominated and mostly dirty/grafting work.. The nice girls/women always tended to work in the office so you could go flirt with them a bit on wages day... Sometimes that was the highlight of the week in some jobs... 

Tried factory work once in Hampton, a plastics firm where all you did all day for 8 hours was trim flash of these little rubber ring things for plumbing... They used to dock you 15 minutes pay per minute you were late clocking in as well... Worse thing was because it was on the Queens land they had a rule that the radio could only be on for a couple of hours a day I think it was and it was as boring as fuck... Suffice to say I didn't stick that for more than 2 months before moving on... I could just feel my life draining away

Bet they were good to you in those jobs though... made you feel welcome, looked after you etc.. Did they play pranks on you.. 

[nudge 8,301]

6 minutes ago, Bluewolf said:

Never really worked alongside any girls/women in my early working life it was pretty much all male dominated and mostly dirty/grafting work.. The nice girls/women always tended to work in the office so you could go flirt with them a bit on wages day... Sometimes that was the highlight of the week in some jobs... 

Tried factory work once in Hampton, a plastics firm where all you did all day for 8 hours was trim flash of these little rubber ring things for plumbing... They used to dock you 15 minutes pay per minute you were late clocking in as well... Worse thing was because it was on the Queens land they had a rule that the radio could only be on for a couple of hours a day I think it was and it was as boring as fuck... Suffice to say I didn't stick that for more than 2 months before moving on... I could just feel my life draining away

Bet they were good to you in those jobs though... made you feel welcome, looked after you etc.. Did they play pranks on you.. 

Yeah, there weren't many part-time office jobs for a 15 year old at the time haha, especially not if you didn't have any connections as most of those comfy jobs went to family members or friends of those in the higher ranks of a company  So manual work was the best option at the beginning, also paid quite well...

And yes, the guys were absolutely fantastic. They did indeed look after me; especially after realising that I'm there to earn a living. I think they were skeptical at the start, unsure if I can deal with the work (understandably so), but I got nothing but respect from them afterwards. Used to take me to a local pub with the whole team after work too, looked after me well and scared away any unwanted attention  Was a bit funny to be fair, a bunch of grownup men basically babysitting a teenage girl, and constantly reminding each other not to swear and not to tell too juicy stories all the time  As for pranks...not really, no, just some harmless jokes, but they did get me into trouble with my parents once after they went drinking and then decided to turn up at my house unannounced in the middle of the night 

[Bluewolf 4,289]

14 minutes ago, nudge said:

Yeah, there weren't many part-time office jobs for a 15 year old at the time haha, especially not if you didn't have any connections as most of those comfy jobs went to family members or friends of those in the higher ranks of a company  So manual work was the best option at the beginning, also paid quite well...

And yes, the guys were absolutely fantastic. They did indeed look after me; especially after realising that I'm there to earn a living. I think they were skeptical at the start, unsure if I can deal with the work (understandably so), but I got nothing but respect from them afterwards. Used to take me to a local pub with the whole team after work too, looked after me well and scared away any unwanted attention  Was a bit funny to be fair, a bunch of grownup men basically babysitting a teenage girl, and constantly reminding each other not to swear and not to tell too juicy stories all the time  As for pranks...not really, no, just some harmless jokes, but they did get me into trouble with my parents once after they went drinking and then decided to turn up at my house unannounced in the middle of the night 

Sounds like a crack.... 

I used to find that if I started a job you had to undergo the 'initiation period' first, so they could see if you were going to be ok and fit in or be a complete waste of space and not able to take a joke etc.. You used to get all the shit jobs, make the teas, sweeping up, the odd prank here and there and then suddenly you are part of the team.. I did work at one place once where it was rumoured that I was the bosses son sent in to spy on people... that was a weird time all round, they didn't quite trust me and yet didn't want to overstep the mark either just in case.. took ages before they came round and realised I was not a secret agent..