What job did you aspire to when you were a kid?

[-Sentinel-]

And what's your job now, or the job you're training/studying for?

I wanted to be a palaeontologist. Yeah, I knew full well it wasn't as exciting as Jurassic Park (my favorite movie at the time), but even digging up old bones seemed interesting enough for a 10-year-old dinosaur nerd. I also dreamed at various times of other science jobs, such as marine biologist. Unfortunately, I soon learned that training to be a scientist (in any field) involves a lot of math classes, and I really... really... hate math.

Later I wanted to be a novelist. It remains an aspiration of mine, but I know it's tough to make a living in this line of work, so I write as a hobby.

My current profession: English-to-French translator.

[Peelee]

Fighter pilot. Turns out, my right eye has 20/17 vision, but my left eye is almost legally blind. I'm also colorblind, and used to have double vision. Well, I still do, but I have absolute control over it, so I almost never see double unless I'm bored. Worst X-Men power ever, I tells ya.

Work at the family CPAP store, studying to get into NASA.

[gooddragon1]

Fighter pilot. Turns out, my right eye has 20/17 vision, but my eye is almost legally blind. I'm also colorblind, and used to have double vision. Well, I still do, but I have absolute control over it, so I almost never see double unless I'm bored. Worst X-Men power ever, I tells ya.

Work at the family CPAP store, studying to get into NASA.

Same deal for wanting to be a fighter pilot, but nearsighted. Studying to be an accountant.

[tomandtish]

I work for Family and Protective Services in Texas.

My dream job as a child was to be the person in the Godzilla suit. Actually, it is STILL my dream job.

[cobaltstarfire]

The things I wanted to be include

Fighter Pilot
Marine Biologist
Paleontologist
Chemist
Computer Science Engineer
Graphic Design/Illustration/Animation


Pretty much everyone convinced me I wasn't college material though, I was going to join the air force to do Comp Sci, but my dad wouldn't allow me unless I did so as an officer. My other choice was to let him put me through college. But having been discouraged from collaging, and arting, I went in to learn Visual Art Studies (art education).

I really regret it, cause now I think it'd have been way more fun to have ended up an Aquatic Biologist, or a Paleobiologist for sure, and I'm relatively confident that I could have gotten a degree in one of those things had I tried.

What am I now? I'm a Print/Copy associate at Office Max. I probably do use some of what I learned on my VART degree there in terms of multi-tasking and time management, but most of the specialized stuff I do there is self taught from playing with photoshop at home for the past 10+ years. (infact I only even got the job because I mentioned I was an artist on my resume...I don't think the store manager looked at anything else other than the mission statement on the top!)

[Peelee]

Pretty much everyone convinced me I wasn't college material though, I was going to join the air force to do Comp Sci, but my dad wouldn't allow me unless I did so as an officer.

The funny thing is, to the best of my knowledge, with a degree you join as an officer immediately.

[2D8HP]

As a preteen?

Astronaut/Astronomer

As a teenager (with the dawning realization that "living your dreams" is only for a lucky few)?

Librarian (I like books)

Job I've actually done for nearly 17 years?

Plumber

[Eldariel]

Among other things, a pilot, an astronaut, an architect and the president (of Finland, who back then still had some power).

[SaintRidley]

As a kid, I aspired to a few different jobs. I was fascinated by garbage and recycling and thought it would be great to drive around in a garbage truck and run my own recycling company. I also wanted to be a paleontologist. Or a pro wrestler.

Nowadays I'm working on my dissertation (PhD in English Lit, medieval) and my thesis (MFA translation, languages: Spanish, Old English, Icelandic). We'll see what the job market holds for me.

[Peelee]

Among other things, a pilot, an astronaut, an architect and the president (of Finland, who back then still had some power).

Hey man, I'll still take President of Finland. What are the job requirements?

[Eldariel]

Hey man, I'll still take President of Finland. What are the job requirements?

Well, I guess you could invent a time machine and make it so you were born here...? Sadly you still have to be born in Finland to. Well, or you could always affect a change in that law, I suppose. I don't know which is easier, to be honest.

[gooddragon1]

Well, I guess you could invent a time machine and make it so you were born here...? Sadly you still have to be born in Finland to. Well, or you could always affect a change in that law, I suppose. I don't know which is easier, to be honest.

So you're Finnished with that idea then?

[veti]

Well, I guess you could invent a time machine and make it so you were born here...? Sadly you still have to be born in Finland to. Well, or you could always affect a change in that law, I suppose. I don't know which is easier, to be honest.

Easy fix: campaign to get your home town/state/house declared sovereign Finnish territory. Then you were, retroactively at least, born in Finland.

How hard can that be?

[Winter_Wolf]

Well, what I wanted when I was a kid was to be a cartoonist (comic book artist). Then that became "fine arts/graphic design" because that was a more widely applicable thing to tell people even if in reality I spent 99% of my time drawing cartoons and comics.

Now I'm a pyromaniac mass murderer self employed. Lots of driving, buying products, packaging and shipping, and more driving.

[Ifni]

The first ambition I remember was wanting to be a ballerina, back when I was four or five and had no idea what that involved By the time I was seven or eight I wanted to be a barrister, which evolved into wanting to be Prime Minister of my country - then at around 10-11 I started regularly reading newspapers and my political ambitions abruptly vanished. At 12 or so I did a test where you entered information about your aptitudes / personality / what you liked doing, and got a list of suggested careers - I ended up with "Physicist" first (by a very wide margin), and then "Marine biologist", both of which sounded pretty good to me.

I'm now a physicist, so score one for dodgy career-aptitude tests

(I'm actually a professor at the same university that I dreamed of attending back when I was 12-13. I didn't mention this to the university when they were trying to hire me, but they did have a bit of an edge over the other places I was considering as a result )

[Comrade]

I wanted to be a palaeontologist. Yeah, I knew full well it wasn't as exciting as Jurassic Park (my favorite movie at the time), but even digging up old bones seemed interesting enough for a 10-year-old dinosaur nerd. I also dreamed at various times of other science jobs, such as marine biologist. Unfortunately, I soon learned that training to be a scientist (in any field) involves a lot of math classes, and I really... really... hate math.

My current profession: English-to-French translator.

That's surprisingly similar to my own trajectory-- which is to say, wanted to be a palaeontologist as a kid, voraciously devoured just about every book about dinosaurs and prehistoric animals, dreamt of discovering incredible new species and shaking humanity's understanding of life to its very foundations, etc. Later I became enamoured with quantum physics and I decided I wanted to go into the field, a dream which was somewhat hampered by a fairly mediocre intellect and a complete lack of aptitude for mathematics, so there went that aspiration.

At this point I've more or less settled on teaching English as a second language in Denmark, which isn't exactly a lifelong dream but is something I can actually do (and I'll always have writing and music on the side). Right now I'm just slaving away in retail drudgery and working up some money to study in Denmark and eventually get a TEFL certification, so... It's a start, at least.

[-Sentinel-]

As a teenager (with the dawning realization that "living your dreams" is only for a lucky few)?

Ouch. Harsh but true.

Lots and lots of people tell you to aim for your dream job. They say that if you really want it, you'll succeed. But it's like saying you can become a multimillionnaire through hard work and ambition: it may be true at an individual level, but there can be only one king of the mountain. Look at how many minimum wage workers have college degrees in music or art.

At 12 or so I did a test where you entered information about your aptitudes / personality / what you liked doing, and got a list of suggested careers - I ended up with "Physicist" first (by a very wide margin), and then "Marine biologist", both of which sounded pretty good to me.

I'm now a physicist, so score one for dodgy career-aptitude tests

(I'm actually a professor at the same university that I dreamed of attending back when I was 12-13. I didn't mention this to the university when they were trying to hire me, but they did have a bit of an edge over the other places I was considering as a result )

Whoa, congrats!!!!

[FinnLassie]

Welp, my first plan as a pre-schooler was FIRE(man) BOSS. I think I meant ... well um. Fire department boss. Whatever it is in English Then at 8 years of age I reaaaally wanted to be a fashion designer only to have that dream bashed by my teacher who was very good at bullying me and a couple of other kids. Then it started to lean towards teaching etc, working with people in general. I did do two years of BEd Primary Education back in Scotland but realised it was utter bs and left to pursue happier days back in Finland.

Right now my dream "job" is to be a stay-at-home mother, but until that day comes I'm planning towards working in organisation management stuff. My degree programme is heavily related to it and when I graduate in 1,5 years... let's hope I get a job in that field.

[DataNinja]

Welp, my first plan as a pre-schooler was FIRE(man) BOSS. I think I meant ... well um. Fire department boss. Whatever it is in English.

Fire Chief, perhaps?

[FinnLassie]

Fire Chief, perhaps?

I read that as Fire Chef. LOL.

[Darth Tom]

I wanted to work for GCHQ. Did appropriate degrees and everything. Then found I wasn't eligible, ended up in marketing and now trying to get into accountancy having found I really dislike that after 6 years and a nervous breakdown

[cobaltstarfire]

The funny thing is, to the best of my knowledge, with a degree you join as an officer immediately.

Yes, but I didn't have a degree at the time. I had a choice, join as an officer, or just go to college. (and I'm not teaching you how to drive the car which is a standard transmission until you make a decision). It was probably a mix of my dad not wanting me to be career enlisted like him, and my ASVAB scores being rather high across the board, even math (they must have a low bar for me to do better than the 50-65% in math or whatever it was). So I was good officer material, goodness knows recruiters wouldn't stop knocking on my door when I was still living with my mom in highschool.

The way it worked for my cousin at least, was he went in to become an officer, so they put him through some college (he got a degree in English, which is only about 65 credit hours!) Then they gave him his commission (there was some other military specific training and stuff involved too of course, but you'd have to talk to someone who's done it). There are probably several different ways it can be done depending on the branch on the branch and what you'll be doing once you get your commission. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt the armed forced will just throw a commission at anyone because they have a degree.



The thing that makes me kind of angry with myself, is that VART was actually pretty challenging and had way more hours than many degrees (148ish). I'm angry with my high school too, which only really encouraged the very top of the class to go to college, and acted like anyone else shouldn't even bother, like the school councilor wouldn't even allow me to take the SAT. Yet, I was an honors student and graduated with the "harder" class plan, just there were probably at least a hundred people who were better honors students than me. I know now that I probably would have been find shooting for a science (and it would have been easier than trying to get a true art degree).


There is some other "jobs" I wanted to do that technically wasn't "when I was a kid" in that I was interested but was never pointed towards the right programs for whatever reason. And that's anything aggy, or building. Had I had the opportunity to take agg or a shop class in Highschool, I'd have know about 6 years sooner that I love welding. And well, I've always been strongly interested in plants and animals, and would love to know more about agriculture on a medium/large scale.

[Peelee]

Yes, but I didn't have a degree at the time. I had a choice, join as an officer, or just go to college. (and I'm not teaching you how to drive the car which is a standard transmission until you make a decision). It was probably a mix of my dad not wanting me to be career enlisted like him, and my ASVAB scores being rather high across the board, even math (they must have a low bar for me to do better than the 50-65% in math or whatever it was). So I was good officer material, goodness knows recruiters wouldn't stop knocking on my door when I was still living with my mom in highschool.

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I doubt the armed forced will just throw a commission at anyone because they have a degree.

Sorry, I meant "the funny thing is, they talk you out of college, then when you want to go into the military, they push to you college. Unless you get officer, which can be done directly with a college degree."

Also, yeah, they don't just throw commissions at degrees, but doesn't it automatically allow you to go into OCS and try to become one? Also, I think different degrees get different ranks. Don't doctors go in as auto Majors?

[cobaltstarfire]

Ahh, yeah my dad wasn't even around when I was in Highschool, it was mostly the school which convinced me that I had no chance with college.

Though if you enlist you don't necessarily get put through college either, a lot of the enlisted jobs just require trade school type stuff.

I have no idea how they decide to assign ranks to newly commissioned officers, I know that for enlisted sometimes you can skip ranks or pay grades if you were in a ROTC program of some sort, or how quickly you integrate to the lifestyle. With further progression is based on a mix of competency, availability of the rank, and time served.

There are some old marines over in the real world weapons/tactics thread that could tell you exactly how rank/pay grade work though.

[JeenLeen]

I was told that, when I was very young, I wanted to be a waiter at a restaurant, since I saw all the money they were left as tips. (I don't think I understood the concept of a salary at the time.)

Since then, dream jobs have included a bum (rather romanticized view of homeless life), working at a semi-trashy restaurant as a cook/waiter (did it for a few months at a place until it closed down due to little business; loved working there), and author.

Currently, I guess my dream job is what I'm currently doing--programming--but with more pay.
OR somehow making a profit running a cheap, trashy-looking fast food place/diner while closing down during rush hours (noon lunch, and 5:00 drive home).

[Asmodean_]

Used to want to be a teacher, then I remembered that teachers had to deal with kids, and kids are scum.

Now it's probably something in the R&D side of chemistry. When I end up doing my degree, it'll be in that. Might get a PhD, might not, we'll see.

[JobsforFun]

I remember being a kid and being in Kinder-garden and they had us dress up in the career fields we wanted to do and up to that point I had no idea what I wanted to do so I said I wanted to be "Animal Patrol" then after that I discovered Steve Irwin (RIP) and I wanted to go to Australia and work at the zoo. Then I went through the dinosaur phase and wanted to be a Paleontologist.

Now I am 18 and I have no idea what I want to do, I am thinking about becoming a MRI Tech and when going to college have a minor in film or Photography, I feel like I would be happy to just drive around and take pictures and sell them. Then decided which I like more. Just gotta test the waters. My interests consist of Computers (Technology), Electronic Music, Medicine, and Animation, and Photography...

I find it interesting how almost everyone has Paleontologist on their lists of when they were younger.

[danzibr]

The funny thing is, to the best of my knowledge, with a degree you join as an officer immediately.

Used to want to be a teacher, then I remembered that teachers had to deal with kids, and kids are scum.

Now it's probably something in the R&D side of chemistry. When I end up doing my degree, it'll be in that. Might get a PhD, might not, we'll see.

^ relevant stuff

When I was really little, apparently I wanted to be a dentist. As I was growing up, I didn't really know what I wanted to be. I was always decent at math, at the end of my 2nd year in college, decided to go Math Education. Got my degree, instead of teaching right away went to grad school, got a PhD in math. Now I teach math (at a small public high school).

I'm looking to make a career change though. In particular, Air Force officer. Intel would be sweet.

[Red Fel]

When I was quite young, I wanted to have all the degrees - doctor, lawyer, clergy, and so forth. I wanted to have a dozen letters after my name.

Then I got older and realized just how many years I'd spend in school, not earning an income, before I had them all. I also asked myself what I'd actually do with so many letters in so many varied fields. So I settled on a more reasonable aspiration: Emperor.

As for what I do now, that's easy.

I rule.

[-Sentinel-]

I find it interesting how almost everyone has Paleontologist on their lists of when they were younger.

Dinosaurs. 'Nuff said.

It's nice to see how many of us had scientific aspirations. Then again, this is a forum for fans of a D&D webcomic, so of course most of us are nerds and geeks.

I write erotica e-books for a living now. *shrugs*

Heh, cool. My local NaNoWriMo coordinator works as a nurse and makes some side money as M/M erotica writer. It seems like a good way to get a book out there, as there's always strong demand.