I’m currently in the third year of a four year degree. I’ve taken a year out, and spent it working for a major corporation. I enjoyed some of the work, but hated the inflexibility, and the hugeness of the company. Looking back, the work I enjoyed most was research, number-crunching, puzzle-solving, for people. (Yes, the people were significant – I did lots of puzzle-solving for computers too, when stuff was broken, on purpose. Again with the not-liking-big-corporation-ness.) I also enjoyed documenting stuff, although it was very much task-oriented documentation, rather than code-oriented.
I’ve also worked in technical support, both in the public and private sectors. There’s so much, and yet so very little that I can say about that one – yes, it’s hellish, but yes, it’s fun. Again, I like people. And, for the most part, I like dealing with people. Especially when I can help people find solutions to their problems.
Finally, I have some experience in text editing – starting with my THIMUN experiences, where I was the only native-English-speaking editor on an English-language publication (and the native-English-speaking advisor was an American, who wanted to keep the publication in British English – what fun!) – going through my time as a committee president in the MEP (a job that’s really all about drafting and re-drafting, combined with a little bit of chairing and a lot of timekeeping), and past the crazy days that were my SAIMUN stint as Head of Press. I’m now a documentation committer for the Apache httpd project, and recently, I had to entirely redraft a paper submitted to an English-language medical journal by non-English-speakers – the content was good, but the language was frankly, barely comprehensible. I like text editing. A lot. Possibly more than is healthy.
So, I’m trying to find the perfect career. Obviously, if I could, I’d just regenerate as the next iteration of Susie Dent. But failing that, there are a few things I’m considering just now. Librarian, technical writer, possibly even back to technical support. I like organising things too, so conference organiser or executive PA is probably in there somewhere too.
Does anyone have any suggestions, horror stories, or better ideas? Or want to give me a week or two’s work experience, late this summer? Aww, go on, go on, go on 
IF you really like documenting processes and fixing “people” puzzles – have you considered a job in Quality Assurance? I’m not sure how it works in the EU, but in the US, you’ve got to have a mountain of paperwork that “proves” that a process is repeatable, etc – especially when dealing with the US government. It’s interesting work, and the process writing and people “solving” seems to fit with what you wrote above. Might be something to look into.