Hi Iain,
an easy question difficult to answer.
I studied until last October at the local university to become a Publizist and Kommunikationswissenschaftler. That would translate to studying communication in most countries, you learn how to deal with different types of media and information. Last October I finished and now have a university degree called Magister Artium, which is a Masters-title. I did some kind of "Labour of Love" with writing a final study about the public relations of selected german theme parks.
Throughout most of the time of my studies I worked as a call center agent for Citibank. Since the year 2000 I work for a local telecommunications company
tekomedia.de . The company was founded together with several other employees from ex-employer Citibank. Thus I consider it in part as "my firm" even though technically spoken I am just an employee with Tekomedia. I like the people with whom I work together.
We are dealing with Call Center solutions and currently have some local energy suplliers and disposal enterprises as clients.
We also engage in training people in communication and voice skills.
Most part of the job is done "on the phone" which becomes boring routine after a while, thus I wouldn't consider this a lifetime job.
New to me is the experience of being a trainer so this part comes close to my "once ago" wish of becoming a teacher.
My dream job?
When I was a kid at school (4th grade) we had to paint a picture of what we would like to be in the future and I remember - as a kid almost ten years old - that I wanted to become a rollercoaster-owner. Well, something that didn't quite come true, but might have poured the foundations of my todays hobby. Thus, I guess in part I would love to be a showman travelling with some kind of attraction from place to place in some kind of romantic thought.
With the age of 20 I wanted to become a teacher. I think there is still a lot of energy pushing me into this direction.
With the age of 25 I started a life as radio reporter and had a small career as disc-jockey, thus I would love to be a radio-reporter on a beautiful island (like Gran Canaria) talking to people, playing my favourite songs and relaxing in the evening sunshine.
With the age of 30 I became more and more fasinated by the thought of becoming a collector or someone who is taking care of of a collection.
So maybe I'll end up doing something like that one day?
My brother always wanted to become a bus- and streetcar driver (a little bit like you). He now is an emergency car driver and teacher for medical first aid skills. Kind of realised.