A-levels, got a scholarship to do a combined apprenticeship and degree at what used to be called the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Did those, managed to get a placement in that time in a flight test department, and also got some flying in the University Air Squadron.
That all led to me concluding that the jobs I really wanted to do were those that went to people who understood both flying and engineering.
So, I started both trying to get those jobs, and trying to gain both flying and engineering qualifications. I also learned the importance of joining the right professional societies, and contributing to them - or sometimes to projects that were just important to me but didn't pay, this has all helped me a lot.
A couple of decades after I started, I have acquired a fair number of each, and a lot of experience in both. And I keep finding new areas that I want to know more about, so I do. There are enough people prepared to pay for the time of somebody with my combination of skills, that I live well.
I have tended to concentrate on the more analytical end of engineering, rather than the practical "hands on" end. This isn't so much choice, as doing the stuff I'm good at - I'm okay with tools, good in a cockpit, but bloody good with analytical and research engineering.
G