Masterchef contestant Jess Hall now dines with chefs and talks about cuisine for a living, a career well beyond the imagination of her 18-year-old self.
Fourteen years ago she nervously entered the HSC exam room with hopes and dreams of becoming an actress.
She did not get the HSC results she wanted.
"I even lied to my mum [about my results] so she wasn't disappointed," Ms Hall said.
"I was afraid I couldn't end up with a decent income job and achieve my career goal."
Ms Hall became a travel agent in the UK to support herself while pursuing her dream of being a screen personality.
"While I missed out on the experience of university, I gained a lot of life experience that many of my peers didn't get in my eight years of travel," she said.
After 10 years in the travel industry, Ms Hall decided to have a crack at reality TV and qualified for the final stages of the cooking show.
"I literally found a job that ticks all my boxes, and this is the right path that I am meant to be on.
"Back then, I never could have believed I would be so happy and content with my profession like I am now."
Your dream job may not even exist while you are in high school
Ms Hall, now an account manager at an artisan food distribution company, said no one in her high school knew her present-day profession existed.
"We were only ever told about lawyers, doctors and architects, and there are so many other jobs out there that you wouldn't know exist until you fall into them," she said.
"A lot of kids are pressured these days to think that university is the be-all and end-all, but no one knows what they want to be when they are 16 or 17 years old.
Dr Peter French, an executive at several biotechnology firms over the past 25 years, dreamed of being a zoologist as an HSC student.
"When I watched Harry Butler on TV all I wanted to do was to go out, wear shorts in the bush, and pick up rocks and look up owls' vomit," Dr French said.
"If someone had told me I would end up ringing the bell at the Nasdaq stock exchange I would have told them they were crazy.
"The jobs that I have had lately just didn't exist when I was doing the HSC because there was no such thing as biotechnology in Australia then.
'I undersold myself a lot and didn't think I was capable'
PhD researcher Jeremy Day from Wollongong became a butcher after year 10 instead of embracing the HSC.
"I wanted to do higher study but I thought I wasn't intelligent enough to go to university," Mr Day said.
"I undersold myself a lot and didn't think I was capable.
Mr Day said two of his high school friends committed suicide during their HSC preparation period.
"Just seeing my friends lose their minds over the HSC really put me off," he said.
"For me to achieve what I am achieving now, I feel that it was such a senseless waste."
Four years later, Mr Day hung up his knives and spent time helping marine biologist Benjamin Davis.
"Working with Ben gave me the confidence in my abilities that I lacked in high school because of the trust he had in me," he said.
The former butcher said his past working experience became handy in marine biology research.
"I never thought I would ever hold a butcher's knife again, and then I ended up in a lab where most of what I do is essentially cutting things open.
"It is exactly what I was doing before except with a little bit more finesse."
Mr Day said his mentor inspired him to enrol into a marine biology degree at James Cook University through the Mature-Age Access Program.
"There's no special power they have been imbued with that I was somehow lacking."
