The lives of the characters on The Office mostly revolve around their jobs at Dunder Mifflin. However, if they had chosen to go in a different direction and not end up at such a weird workplace, their lives would have been very different.
If they hadn’t worked at Dunder Mifflin, these are the careers best suited to some of the main characters on the show based on things like their personalities, interests, and even other side jobs that they have.
Kevin Malone: Cashier
Fans were left wondering through most of the series how Kevin Malone even had a job as an ant in the first place. He was a terrible employee, so it didn’t really make sense.
Once Dwight became manager in the final season, he fired Kevin because he clearly wasn’t qualified. Based on how incapable Kevin seems to be, it doesn’t seem like he would do well at any kind of office job, so maybe this numbers based job would be better for him.
Toby Flenderson: Travel blogger
Toby Flenderson was originally in seminary to become a priest, but he dropped out because he met his ex-wife. So, while the most simple answer for him would be some other sort of job in social work since that’s what his degree was in, he didn’t really like any of that kind of stuff.
He would have been happier if he could have broken out of his boring lifestyle and really pursued his dream to travel.
Andy Bernard: Nothing
As we see throughout the series, Andy Bernard isn’t very capable of doing much. He lasts at Dunder Mifflin because it’s an over-the-top place where nearly anything goes. However, he’s not even good at his sales job really.
He somehow becomes manager, but he’s terrible at that. Then, when he quits the company to pursue his dreams as a singer, he falls flat. So, it seems like he wouldn’t ever really have any sort of long-lasting career and would have to rely on his parents for money.
Kelly Kapoor: Gossip columnist
Kelly might seem like she’s just vapid and silly, but she’s actually pretty smart. It’s not as if she loves her job working as a customer service representative, and the things she loves most revolve around celebrity news and gossip.
She can also be quite funny and also mean about her insight about people, and she wouldn’t have many ethical concerns about tabloids. So, she would likely be good at a job as a gossip columnist.
Anglea Martin: Government employee
Angela Martin has an ing degree, and while she might be an unlikeable person overall, she’s not bad at her job. If she wasn’t at Dunder Mifflin, it’s hard to imagine her having a different career entirely as she’s kind of boring and uptight.
She would be well-suited to a very slow-paced government office job either as an ant or working somewhere like the DMV where she wouldn’t mind annoying people by making them wait.
Oscar Martinez: CFO
Oscar is one of the smarter people at the Scranton branch, and while that might just be because he is being compared to people like Kevin and Meredith, he’s still pretty smart. Given his ing degree, he could easily have pushed himself harder to pursue an MBA.
From there, he either could have gotten a better ing job with a firm or become a CFO for a smaller company. He did have good ideas about how to help Dunder Mifflin, after all.
Michael Scott: Call center/failing comedian
For some wild reason that doesn’t make any sense, Michael is a good salesman. However, given his inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, most other companies would probably fire him.
Instead, he’d wind up at some sort of call center like the place he worked part-time. He would probably also pursue a career in comedy or internment only to find that he didn’t do well. While after he left for Colorado, he gets a job as Director of Paper Distribution in the Department of Natural Resources, it’s hard to believe this would have happened.
Dwight Schrute: Full-time farmer
Dwight’s other career is super obvious, but it still has to be included because it’s such a big part of his life and skillset. Dwight already does do a lot of farming, but he doesn’t commit to it full time.
While farming can be a difficult job in some cases, Dwight already had the land, tools, and a farm at his disposal to be successful. Or, he could have really succeeded at Staples.
Pam Beesly: Art Teacher
We see Pam try to go to art school and fail, but she was smart enough to get a degree. We also know that she really loved her high school art classes, and she has the ability to work with people.
So, if she had gone in a different direction, she could have become an art teacher in a school since pursuing creating art full-time didn't seem to be in the cards for her. She would have still had the chance to create art while having a more stable career.
Jim Halpert: Entrepreneur
This is another rather sensical choice because we see Jim do this eventually on the show. He starts Athlead, and the business really takes off.
However, if he hadn’t ended up at Dunder Mifflin, he might have found the motivation to try something like this sooner. Sometimes, once you have a job and stability, it can be difficult to change directions, but he might have been inspired earlier on.