yes I did and that's my art

I found my "calling" a long time ago but it doesn't pay the bills. Being a novelist has always been my goal and no other job or career path has ever paid all my medical bills let alone satisfy my passions. I self published my first novel a few years ago while I was unemployed but I didn't make much money and experts say it takes a lot of luck to make anything choose to a living as a novelist until you have at least 5 books published. A hooked reader needs another book to pick up when they finish reading the first or they move on. I'm trying to write a sci-fi series now but it's a slow process..

I've worked in skyscrapers, I've worked in barns, and a few things in between along the way. My resume reads like a kaleidoscope. An old hard-boiled abstract expressionist painting professor once told me to have a variety of experiences. I must have thought that sounded pretty good. It hasn't been too bad too often, or too fun too seldom. what's next?

Yep. I am working my first real job that I started in 98(was layed off for a few years in the middle) and it is everything I've ever wanted. I am making more than average for my neighborhood and enough to live comfortably, but am still making quite a bit less than median pay for my job title and experience, but I have freedom and I work in a market I find satisfaction in. It is amazing.

I think my calling went straight to voice mail.

I gave my original career choice at least 15 years. Luck was not on my side and so I moved on.

The last thing I've been doing I really like, but the landscape is changing faster than I can adapt. No clue what the next 10 years will look like for me, but ironically, I'm trying to get into Social Work now.

I feel bad answering in the positive since everyone else seemed to answer negatively. My entire life I had wanted to be a pilot in the Air Force (just like my daddy). While I did have to join the Air Force without a pilot slot waiting for me, I was very fortunate because less than a year in I was selected for pilot training. I had a nice fun career; recently retired, but still working in aviation and still working on an Air Force base (Altus AFB, OK).

my calling was to stay flexible, so i kept adapting to whatever opportunity or need or desire should arise. all this ended up becoming a curriculum vitae that would confuse even me. call me the wanderer.

That's a broad range of disciplines you got to experience.

I'm doing now what I wished when I was 15. I was introduced to computer programming and was 'blown away' by the possibilities.

But growing up a strict Catholic, I always joked that I would be a priest. Being an atheist is the polar opposite.

I want to be an actor but my calling might be writing or radiology or being an opinionated disabled bed bug who knows

Never had a "calling", or what could be classified as a "career".
I think few people actually experience what could be called a calling.
I think most of us just work to pay the bills keep a roof over our heads, and try
to make enough take a halfway decent vacation every few years.
Work is just work. Hopefully, whatever work you're doing actually helps people
in some fashion.

I’d say I’m in the right calling but it has several pathways that each are enjoyable, medical science/public health/infectious diseases/pathology— all of it is ridiculously enjoyable to me.

Yes I did finally. Turns out my calling is retirement. If I had only known!

I think I'm one of those people that were never meant to do one thing. I've had a varied work life where initially each job was good and interesting but it didn't usually take long, only a couple years before I started to get restless. Many things interest me, but nothing has continued to hold my attention. I may be a Jill-of-all-trades.

Only if shout really loud and the sound waves bounce off the walls. lol, Too many interests to settle on one.

At this point I hope it's not having one.

Being self employed was my answer to fullfillment, Iwould not change a thing

Yes!!! For most waking hours of my life as a sculptor. You can not master life without loving what you do.

I'm kind of in the same boat. I'm interested in so many things and I've been employed in many things. I've had more than 10 different careers or businesses in my life and nothing has really taken hold and just consumed me. Don't get me wrong I've loved several careers and businesses but nothing seemed to provide the level of joy and income I was looking for. I've had one of my businesses for 28 years and loved it when it was good. but ever since 2000 it was never the same. I've just started two more businesses based around my passion for writing and my passion for motorcycle trips and I'm hoping one or both of them we'll really take off. Hang in there, you'll find something eventually. It's hard when you're good at several things and your interested in multiple things because it makes it hard to choose. In some ways I admire those who are only really interested in one or two things. It makes choosing a career much simpler, but then you lose some of the variety of life.

Never did what I wanted to do, changed careers/industries many times, too old now so am retiring yet again, hopefully for the last time in 5 months.

Yes. When I was a boy of about 10, my mother took me to a radio station and their morning DJ showed me around. From that moment on, I was hooked. When I was 20, I got my first job in radio. I was a disaster, of course, but I stuck with it. Within 10 years, I was the top rated DJ in my market. It was a time when radio was still important, before Ipods, when cars only had cassette players in them. The record companies treated me very well, I was able to meet, interview, hang with, and insome cases, party with a LOT of famous rockers. It was a fanatasy life for many years. I'm now out of the business but remember that time fondly.

Retired but went from special education-teaching when social work was frozen in the state. Then burnt out from working with severely disabled kids went to business/marketing/pr for solar energy firm which led to DOE-NE Solar Energy Center-when Reagan cut funding we were all let go and I got into sales/recruiting/outside sales//sales representative till I was forced to retire 6 years ago. I was very successful and won numerous sales awards including Sales Rep of the Year for Gund in 2008. True calling? You're so young @silvereyes. I didn't have my first career job till my 30s. You'll figure it out

My calling is to be a lead singer in a rock n roll band and have lots of groupies. Instead, I am a teacher in a state that pays teachers the least. No groupies by the way.

I’m still looking for my calling if there is such a thing.

At my current age of 47 I’m beginning to think I don’t have one as such. But I am thinking that my current job as a train driver isn’t really it. So I’m going to retire on my 56th birthday and follow my own peculiar dream.

A coffee and bookshop in the Scottish highlands. On the North Coast 500 route, offering refreshments and knowledge.

It’s going to be rather tricky as the area is very Free Presbyterian. I’m happy to respect their beliefs as long as they respect my lack of beliefs. And my shop will never stock any religious tracts. Science fiction, science fact, fantasy, history, local interest and that is about it.

I was paid for over 20 years by educational institutions, variously putting in up to 50 hours a week, teaching Friday evenings and Saturday classes, sitting on numerous committees (and chairing some), creating classroom and online classes in three divisions, discussing communication in written, oral, and interpersonal form every step of the way, and not one day was work. I am now embarking on my last "calling" as friend, helpmate, and lover to an amazing person with whom I expect to spend our days in each other's arms. Here's to us, Vin!

Still looking