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Take a look a the following passage, please:

Jane had always wanted to be a nurse ever since she was a child but her father had told her that nursinbg wasn't a suitable profession for her to follow. Having left / leaving school, she was offered a job working as a doctor's receptionist.

I wonder whether I could used

"...hadn't been a suitable profession for her to follow."

We are talking about the time before her graduating from school (about the time "her father had told her..."). Although it is so, the moment when she needed to chose her profession was much later.

Before answering my question, please, make allowances for be because of my not native origin.

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Actually, her father was making a general statement about the suitability of the profession for his daughter, not relating an event that occurred at a point-in-time, so simple past is appropriate:

... nursing was not a suitable profession for her to follow.

There is no need to situate the content of his opinion in relation to a reference time.

Ever since she was a child he had told her {that nursing was .... }content

Expressions of the opinion occur in time (had told her) but the opinion itself is held over time.

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  • "Expressions of the opinion occur in time (had told her) but the opinion itself is held over time" - that's what I need. Great explanation which is clear to be made up.
    – Anthony Voronkov
    Oct 7, 2017 at 19:56
  • The content-clause, even in situations not involving an opinion, has its own "scope", and won't be governed by the relative timeline of the outer clause. You could even find: Her father had often told her that nursing is a demanding profession.
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Oct 8, 2017 at 11:43

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