The phrase "ended up"

[sandrapinkoski]

This is a question regarding the phrase "ended up." I've often seen this phrase used in sentences like:

"How did you end up in sales?"

Is there a better way to phrase this kind of sentence without using the phrase "ended up"?

[Casiopea]

What about?

EX: What brings/brought you to (the) sales (department)? one's career

There's also the other meaning,

EX: How did you do in sales today? the day's total

[sandrapinkoski]

Thank you, that might work.

What the writer meant to ask was what were the steps that took the person to the role of sales, and/or from the previous jobs the person held it seemed an unlikely role to end up in. (How's that for an ungrammatical sentence?)

"End up" seems to indicate an unlikely place, arrived at in perhaps an unusual way, but there's no other way to prase this smoothly that I've been able to find.