What did you want to be?

[sqbr]

I have an idea for a poll (inspired by this one and it's comments), but first need some data. So: what career(s) did you seriously consider in your youth? Lets say school-age, 5-17, since before that you're too young to know much, and after that you've plausibly started actually training for it. Any extra interesting information you feel like adding is welcome :)

Myself? In order: Writer, teacher(from early childhood till I did work experience as a teacher in year 11 :)), actor/comedian, astronomer/theoretical physicist (which lasted until my first astronomy lecture in second year :/)

Plus lots of vague ponderings that didn't last long.

And of course I got to combine a lot of these working at Scitech, which was fun for a while but reaffirmed that I do not, in fact, want to be a teacher or actor. Doing My Phd, and my webcomic, have somewhat satisfied the writing bug too.

Comments

[callistra.livejournal.com]

- Writer
- English Teacher

That was it. I wrote novels when I was 15 onwards, but stopped once I hit uni. The teaching thing was so I'd have a job, and I liked school.

I got my BA English and Comparative Literature, discovered I can't stand teachers, and ended up in IT. Now I've started writing novels again, which has had a bit of baggage to sort out because I stopped for ten years (emotional baggage, nothing else.)

:-)

[alias_sqbr]

Heh, yeah, work experience was enough to put me off teaching, it's not as fun as it looks :) I was never good enough at writing essays to do humanities past highschool, though I still have a real soft spot for them.

I got a HUGE mental block about writing after highschool, unexpectedly the constant rewriting of my Phd helped break that. (Also realising that I'm better at comics than prose)

[flyingmopsy.livejournal.com]

Vet

[alias_sqbr]

Knew your own mind better than most kids, then :)

[violetsquirrel.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a vet until about age 11-12, then I decided I wanted to be a lawyer. By the end of highschool I wasn't sure I wanted to be a lawyer exactly, but definitely something in that kind of field.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

We start similarly...

From very early in my life until I started high school I wanted to be an author, which is funny because I didn't read very much when I was younger. I wrote a lot of crazy shit, though - stories that would start with a family trip to the zoo and end (almost accidentally) with us fighting giant spiders from outer space or something. Go figure. I think I eventually realised that my imagination VASTLY outweighted my writing ability, so that idea eventually faded.

Then throughout a large portion of highschool I wanted to be a teacher. At first I wanted to be a primary school teacher, then later I changed my mind and decided I wanted to teach high school mathematics. A small part of me still does.

In later high school, I decided I wanted to do "something with computers", in as naive a way as that term suggests.

[tommmo.livejournal.com]

Actually, when I think about it some more, I think the desire to teach high school maths might not have hit me until I was studying maths at Uni. I think I mostly wanted to teach primary school when I was that young.

[nephron.livejournal.com]

The order is approximately right:

Baker.
Pianist.
Music teacher.
Researcher (genetics).
Midwife.

[alias_sqbr]

Baker

And then you found out how early you'd have to get up? :)

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

I wanted to be a scientist (unspecified), then an architect or graphic designer, then a journalist, then a game designer, then a mathematician (well, sort of). At various times I thought it'd be really cool to be a critic (not of anything in particular - just some sort of critic!). Notably I never ever wanted to be either a doctor or a lawyer.

Then I became a software engineer. I wouldn't mind being a writer but I've never put any eggs in that basket.

[alias_sqbr]

I think "game designer" is the geek version of "writer", the creative endevour that sounds a a lot more fun and glamorous than it really is, and that a lot more people aspire to than achieve :)

I definitely never wanted to be a doctor (didn't have the marks anyway). I remember looking into becoming a solicitor for a school assignment on careers but I think that was just to make sure I didn't want to do it, since as a fairly but not amazingly high achiever law was one of those things everyone told me I should apply for (along with engineer, which was only slightly more appealing)

[elaran.livejournal.com]

Doctor was pretty much it from the start. It was encouraged and I went along with it though I was thinking more along the lines of research for a fair while.

The only other two I considered were being an astronaut [along with being an astrophysicist with it - but this was more of a dream because I didn't ever think I was smart enough or dedicated enough for it in terms of maths] and a lawyer.

[elaran.livejournal.com]

Er, to be more specific, doctor was always there, so from age 5 onwards. In primary school you're meant to tell them what you want to do when you grow up and I always wrote down 'find a cure for cancer and HIV'. :P

Astronaut+astrophysicist was from about 8-14 [because I got really really interested in stars and space and then I wanted to be Sam Carter and then I started sucking at maths and didn't think it would practical].

Lawyer from 14 til I actually wrote down my preferences for uni when I put Med as my 1st preference because if Med isn't the first preference, you're not even considered.

[lilysea.livejournal.com]

Ones that I remember (not in order)

teacher
librarian
marine biologist
teacher-librarian
writer
academic/university lecturer
environmental scientist

[alias_sqbr]

Did you end up doing much science at school, or had you switched paths by that point?

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

Meteorologist
Vet
Scientist
Gentleman Science-Adventurer.

Sorry - that last one is more recent than your parameters. :)

[alias_sqbr]

You should go on adventures with anxiolotic :)

[velithya]

I was going to be a doctor because mum and dad were doctors.

Then my brother went into medical school and I realised that I didn't want to be a doctor, and I liked computers and had to pick _something_, so I thought, well, okay, I'll go and do software engineering.

And then I got a part-time job at a medical practice and changed degrees halfway through, and am now a medical secretary/accountant and going to be an author.

[col-ki.livejournal.com]

Surely you mean you are an author, who happens to do do some work as a medical secretary/accountant?

[auntpol.livejournal.com]

Hrm...

Doctor
Marine biologist (Everyone thought this would be cool as a kid!)
Pharmacist (God knows why. I think I liked the idea of the orderliness of a pharmacy?)
Doctor again
Scientist (of some sort. I didn't really know).

I still don't really know what I want to do, Dr. Sophie!! I think I want to do research in science (in biochem, because biochem is fun!), but who knows what will happen. The world is full of possibilities.

[alias_sqbr]

Hey, I'm still not sure what I want to do, and I've done a couple of things :)

[anxiolytic.livejournal.com]

Australian Cricketer
Geologist
Surgeon
Crazy scientist

[alias_sqbr]

You should do all of those at once, that would be pretty crazy :)

[col-ki.livejournal.com]

5-10: Policeman. I even had a "uniform", consisting of blue clothes.
11-13: (Catholic) Priest. Then I became all bitter and twisted about religion, as teenagers are wont to do.
14-16: Radiologist sounded cool. Then I realised that I didn't have the grades and wasn't that great a "people person".
17+: Engineer.

I like the phrase "people people"

[david adam <zanchey> (from livejournal.com)]

There's something sweet about thinking that radiologists are people people.

[hulzie.livejournal.com]

Astronaut, leader of the glorious new world order, opera singer, engineer, paleontologist.

[alias_sqbr]

See, I would think not many people would go for both opera singer and astronaut, and yet there's two of you.

[thanners.livejournal.com]

Writer from age 5, Programmer from about age 9.

Still want to do the former.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

Significant absence of clue until about 16 when I wanted to become a constitutional lawyer. That didn't change until after your upper age limit.

One of my sisters OTOH was apparently born wanting to be a nurse and did become one as soon as was humanly possible.

[stephbg.livejournal.com]

What am I talking about? Bad memory. I seriously considered geologist and meteorologist (crushed by parental disapproval of remote occupations); biologist (crushed by bitter biology teacher who hated being a biology teacher); vet (crushed by James Herriott books' vivid descriptions of calvings in muddy conditions).

Depite being a horse tragic, contemplated but never seriously considered working with them because even at age 8 I knew it would be impractical. Pony books conceal many dark secrets.

[(Anonymous)]

5 - an opera singer
11- astronaught
13 - fencer
(these are all the professions I've aspired to be)
20s - teacher, Physio therapist

19 - Nanny and babysitter
21 - receptionist
27 - Personal Trainer, writer

[purrdence.livejournal.com]

I've wanted to be a teacher since I met Mrs Edmund in year 1.

[penchaft.livejournal.com]

- Lab researcher (in some sort of biology or genetics field) was the big one, for quite a number of years - until I started actually doing work in a lab in first year and good god, not the job for me. (Also by this point I was a lot less antisocial.)

- Uni lecturer. But then I realised that I'd need to do lots of post-grad stuff and research and write essays - and. Uh. No.

- (I have no idea now.)

I had all the usual "wouldn't it be cool if I could..." fantasy occupations (writer, astronaut, archaeologist* etc.), but I never, afaicr, had the idea that I could/would actually do that for a living.

* This dream was busted soon after we got Foxtel and I started seeing shows which could all be summarised as "I've spent ten years digging and I've just found A SINGLE BONE, OMG!"

[alias_sqbr]

Haha, yeah that's why I didn't become a paleontologist etc :)

Uni lecturing also involves marking. And herding first years *shudder*

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

early: intrepid explorer, braving the Amazon et etc

high school: marine biologist, then medical researcher. 'The Double Helix' by James Watson was definitely a factor here, only I wanted to be more like Rosalind Franklin (serious, hard-working) and less like Crick and Watson (partying hard and stealing Franklin's work in order to get the break-through). My how things change...

The main reason I ended up a doctor was because someone pointed out that getting to medical researcher via medicine instead of science meant a better career path. Luckily I discovered I hate being in laboratories, and quite like people, and problem solving, and shift work...

[http://users.livejournal.com/doctor_k_/]

Oooh, I forgot archaeologist. And my more recent goal of lady of leisure.

[stephiepenguin.livejournal.com]

5-16: doctor
16+: i want to save the world

[alias_sqbr]

Was it "I want to save the world, right, not doing medicine" or "I'm not sure I do want to be a doctor. Hmm....hey! I should save the world!"? Because afaict the two are not mutually exclusive, unless you have a particular path in mind :)

[emma-in-oz.livejournal.com]

Librarian. Which I still think would be a good career.

[alias_sqbr]

OT: <3 Garack :) (I saw acronymically)

[david adam &lt;zanchey&gt; (from livejournal.com)]

I am thoroughly enjoying this thread, and kinda amused that two of the three people who at this stage are heading towards or have achieved medical doctorness never really thought about it from a young age.

[alias_sqbr]

So what did you want to be then?

[out-fox.livejournal.com]

under 10 - zookeeper, then the slightly less controlling sounding conservationist. 10+ - artists in kid's mediums -book illustration, puppetry, film special effects.

A few months of art college put me off the latter right away, then I studied enviro science and did about 6 years with conservation NGO's.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, my parents were at art college when I was a kid, knocked the shine right off that career :)

[vegetus.livejournal.com]

Vet, Zoo vet, environmental science person, environmental/animal activist, traveller, writer, poet, zoologist, world famous 5-star gormet chef (how I was going to do this and avoid meat, I still haven't worked out).

When I was about 10 I organised my own animal welfare group that fundraised and gave money to different animal charities. The McLibel two were my heroes in high school.

Not alot has really changed in my life really now that I think about it... except I haven't written any poetry in a *loooong* time.

[vegetus.livejournal.com]

Oh and philosopher too!