I’ve been thinking about this lately. I wanted to be a doctor, but my family broke apart in my teens, which affected my mental health and, subsequently, my studies. I worked in construction and as a driver on the side for a bit before replacing the former with work as a personal trainer. Now I work as a bodyguard for a rich kid, which is de facto more of a surveillance, driving, and companionship role than a security one, since his dad has hardcore professionals for times when security is really needed. I didn’t expect my life to turn out this way, to be honest.
I wanted to be a race car driver. Literally had no other ambitions, that’s all I wanted, and I grew up being told I could be anything I wanted to be. Well we grew up homeless and I didn’t realise it was something only wealthy families could afford to support.
Turns out I couldn’t be anything I wanted to be.
I work in I.T. now. It’s fine, pays the bils. I built myself a pretty decent sim racing rig so although it’s not the same thing, it somewhat scratches the itch.
As a kid I dead-pan told my mom that I’d like to be a "white-collar office worker. Because I wanted somewhat of a predictable routine without too much unexpected things happening
Considering that this is already my second postdoc (somewhat of a scientist training… intern… thing) “job” (no employment contract btw) within 2 years of my graduation, during which I have moved twice including once across a continent, and once getting work-related anxiety so bad I got sick for a month… I think young me’s plan is preferable at this point
I know this will sound strange, but as a kid I saw the movie Brainstorm and I wanted to be a Tech guy working in a really cool tech building.
Between my childhold and becoming a tech guy working in really cool tech buildigs I tried my hand at bunch of different jobs.
The only thing my current tech job in a cool tech building is lacking from Brainstorm is being located in The Outer Banks.
I wanted to design bridges and/or so something with history. So I went to school, took one year of civil engineering and realized that the last on earth I wanted to do was design bridges.
Switched to chemistry, got a PhD, realized the second-to-last thing I wanted to do was academia, followed closely by lab work.
Unfortunately I finished right in the middle of the housing crash, so I did QA for a factory for a bit (which combined a little policy stuff with a lot of labwork). Then went back to civil engineering, aiming for something chemistry ike asphalt or concrete.
That didn’t really work out, but I did end up being vastly overqualified for my job there. Rolled into safety and compliance by virtue of being the least unqualified person there. They paid for another college level degree during office hours, and then fired me after restructuring (thanks for the free degree guys!) so now I’m self-employed in safety and compliance, I do audits and help people and the environment stay safe and clean.
I do historical reenactment as a hobby, because history is cool!
As a kid, I wanted to be a scientist of some sort. As an adult, I work in retail and live at home with my parents. I hate my life.
As a kid I specifically wanted to be a mad scientist. I’m halfway there because, man, I’m fucking pissed.
Proof:
Yeah, me too. Due to an incompatible ADHD-riddled mind and an absolute incapability to study or handle longer projects, I now work in tech service. Not a fan, but as it’s in the medical field I feel I do some good so I’m not bitter. Maybe a little bit 😅
I wanted to be a snowman. It did not work out. Now I am a lame ass CTO.
Do you want to be a snowman? Come on let’s go insane…
As a kid, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. I’m a lawyer now and there are parts of it I like, but I’m burned out. 60+ hour weeks, not much vacation, and having to work when I’m sick. The deadlines don’t care. I feel like it’s time for something completely different. Maybe translation work, but I really don’t know.
As a kid i was obsessed with space, i remember sitting hours infront of the computer just watching space flights, i watched every apollo launch, mercury launch, every space shuttle launch (except the ones that blew up), so so much on hubble. I had books lining my shelves explaining the universe, about black holes and stars and how we would conquer them. I loved space. and still do, i wanted to do any job even remotely close to it. NASA was my dream workplace, neil armstrong was my hero.
Now i do programming and play ksp. Close enough.
Wanted to be a marine biologist as a kid. Then found out that people actually made video games. Now I make video games for a living. It’s alright
I don’t think the biology of a marine is much different than a civillian anyway, so
As a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I don’t like people and loved the idea to just have the entire space for myself lol.
I ended up being into Finance and Accounting sector though. I like Finance stuff.
I wanted to be a concept artist for videogames! I got excited at the concept,but had a terrible teacher in computer animation cass that made me feel shitty about my art. Even though it killed my dream, I kept making art and have been a tattoo artist for the past 5 years, as well as a freelance illustrator for 10 I’m really glad I didn’t give up on drawing, it took a different form but it’s so lovely to have gotten to walk the artists path.
I had three potential career paths I wanted when I was a kid: Masseuse, Meteorologist, or IT
After reading about each career, I decided being a Masseuse would destroy my body and give me carpel tunnel and Meteorologist is too restrictive of a career due to the few number of openings.
I settled on IT and I’m a Network Engineer. I hate it. Pays OK, though.
Turns out a lot of things you enjoy that you have to then do as a job for 18 years, rather than a hobby, makes you grow to no longer enjoy it.
My wife appreciates my personal massage skills, though.
Audio engineer as a kid, as an adult, audio engineer along with video editor, everything production and broadcast engineering work.
I never dreamed of labor, but i always wanted to be a racecar driver.
Now i work for a Fortune 500 as a technician.
I kinda hate it.I do, however, own a “racecar” (depending how far you can stretch the definition).
I wanted to be neuroscientist. Instead, I am job hunting in a shitty job market and planning a startup when AI is gobbling up all the funding. At least, my mental health has gotten better.
