So I'm another one that fell into the job. I didn't really know what I wanted to do when I left school but decided that an apprenticeship in IT with no job at the end would be a good idea. Completed that and moved to a cardboard packaging manufacturer where my brother worked as a machine assistant. I told the Operations Manager in my interview I didn't want to be there for long, it was just a stop gap to pay the bills while I found an IT job which he was fine with. A few months later I got asked if I wanted to take over from the guy dealing with BRC & FSC. I accepted this thinking it was better than being a machine assistant and 9 years later I'm now QA manager with two staff dealing with BRC, FSC, ISO9001, ISO14001, we're just starting corporate social responsibility and I'm being given more health and safety responsibility. Plus I get involved with any IT issues and projects plus many other bits and pieces so I'm very busy. I think like most of you, I sometimes I wonder if I should have taken the job on but in truth I've done pretty well out of it and I don't always dislike the job too much - occasionally I even enjoy it.
On a kind of related note, Simon mentioned a quality management degree in his first post. Does anyone have any details of any that are worthwhile doing in the UK? Nearly everything I have done is self taught so I would like at some point to ask the company about studying for a degree alongside my job to formalise my knowledge.