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

[nudge]

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]

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

[Bluewolf]

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]

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]

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.. 

[tlr]

1 hour ago, Inti Brian said:

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

Mine would be similar, never stayed in touch with anyone from high school. No idea why, got on well with them all. Best part of a decade since I left now so would be too weird to start trying now 

[MUFC]

I take it qualifications were much more crucial years ago then they are now? Like a university degree,

[Toinho]

16? I was very sensible. Didn’t drink. Didn’t go out. Was doing very well with football. I think I’d have focused more at school as I knew I could coast by and get the grades needed for uni. I’d also actually go back and talk to girls etc as I was a very, very shy kid.

[Toinho]

1 hour ago, MUFC said:

I take it qualifications were much more crucial years ago then they are now? Like a university degree,

What? Why? 

[Harry]

Two main things:

1. I would focus hard on improving my work ethic at school and then uni... I actually used to revel in the fact I would ace tests by slacking off in class, paying no attention, then take a last minute cramming approach and top the class. Major downside was I didn't cement the knowledge in my brain long term.

I'd be a much better engineer now if I'd done that.

Second thing, I'd Pursue more causal relationships with females. 

[LFCMike]

I wouldn't waste two years at sixth form just because I didn't know what I wanted to do after school. If I had the time again I'd go and get an apprenticeship or some form of employment

[IgnisExcubitor]

Would have chosen a different career. I worked for a very small time in a TV news channel. Had an option to switch to entertainment branch (post production etc stuff like that). Should have done that.

Also, would have learned guitar or piano. 

[carefreeluke]

I did a combined modern language degree which involves, of course, learning languages but also studying a country's history and politics. For whatever reason, in my late teens and early 20s, I failed to grasp fully the opportunities that course offered me in an academic sense. Looking back it might have been a lack of maturity or lessons learnt too late. Throughout my teens and until I finished university in 2015, I worked very hard academically, the effort was never in doubt, I probably worked a lot harder than a lot of people and put in more hours but my time management and organization wasn't the best. I had my moments where I was very organized but in general overall, my time could have been used better.

Where more the regret comes in is that I never made the progress I should have done with French and Spanish, when graduating the reality was my level in both languages was relatively very poor for someone who had dedicated four years of their life to studying them. It definitely wasn't a question of enjoyment but the fact that I lacked the know-how on how to learn a language, combined with several other factors. I went into university with two years of A-level French under my belt and that was enough to get me through the first year at uni and I started Spanish from scratch. Doing that from beginners was easy enough but by the end of that first year at uni, I was already behind where I should have been in terms of level. I remember the first few months of Spanish where I was progressing well and going into the classes relatively confident because I was combining the classes with studying but after a while (for whatever reason) I didn't maintain that level. It was in the second year where with both languages, the classes became truly more about me trying to survive in the class, being anxious about my level compared to the others and therefore it just not being a good experience for me. This had already started really in the first year but it really hit home in that second year as the classes got more difficult and the other students were making more progress. I didn't dislike the classes, I've always loved language learning but I was very anxious all the time because my level wasn't as good as the others and this got worse as the classes got more and more advanced. I was never really down about it at the time, not really at all actually but looking back I regret it a little because I should have made more of that experience. I didn't progress with French and Spanish the way I should have done, it wasn't a question of effort but more the fact that for a variety of reasons I didn't do what I needed to do to make that progress.

I came out of university with a 2:1 which I was over the moon about. It was down to hard work. I was generally relatively good at the politics and history side of France and Spain and these units which you did every year boosted my grade. Don't get me wrong I still did relatively OK in the language exams, poorly overall but enough, there were a significant amount of language exams every year and I passed advanced exams in both languages but that was more me being practical and knowing how to do enough to get by rather than it being a true representation of my language level. It was true though that my history and politics units were generally a lot better.  The good news is that I guess that I look back on some of those advanced Spanish exams in my final year and I think I could do parts of that now in my sleep. I'm at least close to or on my way to the level in Spanish now that I should have been at when I graduated in 2015. Overall, university was a wonderful experience for me in a lot of aspects but if I went back now with my current mindset, I would have taken a lot more advantage of the opportunity I had academically. In saying that though, it's not something that kills me inside, just something that I think about now and again but don't dwell on.

[Mel81x+]

18 hours ago, IgnisExcubitor said:

Would have chosen a different career. I worked for a very small time in a TV news channel. Had an option to switch to entertainment branch (post production etc stuff like that). Should have done that.

Also, would have learned guitar or piano. 

You still can do this. I had an elderly gentleman in a music class with me two years ago and the guy really picked things up quick. 6 months later he was rocking it and you'd never have said the same when you first met him, he was literally unable to play a single note without making it sound wrong.

[IgnisExcubitor]

On 30/05/2020 at 08:07, Mel81x said:

You still can do this. I had an elderly gentleman in a music class with me two years ago and the guy really picked things up quick. 6 months later he was rocking it and you'd never have said the same when you first met him, he was literally unable to play a single note without making it sound wrong.

Yeah, I still intend to. Most probably will do it via online classes. Or simply wait for a child, and learn with them.

[Eco]

I'd likely change a few things. 

I had the chance to go to a better Uni, but I didn't because I choose the easier, and safer route. I got a degree in something that I enjoyed doing, but not something I ever planned to make money doing. I would have gone to the Ivy League School I got accepted into, and gotten a degree in Computer Science, which would have advanced my career by a decade from where it is currently. 

Despite the marital issues the wife and I have had, I wouldn't change that as we continue to work on things and it brought me one of the greatest joys in life, and that is our daughter. 

[True Blue]

I'd probably go to a different High School, i would also pursue my uni education which i gave up because i wanted to work and earn money. From my private life i'd change nothing i had a great youth and that is the only thing i am happy with.