What did you all want to be when you grew up ?

[ohcanada]

SpaceX has rocket engineer positions open. I'd like to help them in theory, but most of the careers look over my head. Especially w/o at least a few years of additional education.

[BlackRat]

Age 4-6: A lion (I answered to Simba)
Age 9?-14: A knight
Age 9-16: Veterinarian
Age 10?-now: self sufficient farmer/gardener
Age 12-15ish: Writer
Age 12-13: Musician (Trumpet)
Age 13-16: Something to do with horses
Age 16-18: Nomadic goat herder
Age 17/18(last year high school):Engineer in the army, carpenter, electrician, physiotherapist.

On my way to being a physiotherapist and no longer very interested... I want to play in the dirt and grow things.

[ohcanada]

I'd recommend Air Force over Army. The ASVAB scores required to get in the Army are lower, and it really tends to show in bootcamp, making it even less fun for nerdy introverted types.

[pka222]

5 - butcher ( it looked like fun and the shop was a great place for sandwiches)
7- Baseball player
10- Wilderness something or other
16- Environmentalist -
18- Landscaper (check - ran a small biz for 4 years in college)
22 - Forester (check) (3years in the woods)
28 - Adventurer (Moved to a small tropical island)
30- International Adventurer (got a gig that takes me to at least 4 new countries a year - this year on the company dime I've hiked in Korea, Climbed in Thailand, Pub crawled Belgium and hiked Mt Blanc)
33- FI Adventurer - half way there between 3 and 5 years to go - done by 42..
Current goal- FI adventure guide and someone my kids can look up to

[GandK]

I'd recommend Air Force over Army.

+1 from this AF vet. Not only is it (generally speaking) the "brain over brawn" branch, but the culture is very different. Much more laid back than the other branches.

From about 9, I wanted to be a novelist. Like Spartan, I was informed early on by my mother (a CPA) that "One can't make a decent living as a writer. Choose something else, dear." I spent the rest of middle/high school trying to convince myself that I wanted to be a U.N. translator instead.

My eventual career: software development.

[Matty]

10 - Electrical Engineer
11-13 - Video Game Designer/Tester
14-16 - Too pre-occupied with WOW and girls to think about future
17 - Army
18 - Park Ranger
19-20 - Homesteader/Hippy/Buddhist Monk/Musician
21 - Work for myself installing and managing vegetable gardens for people
22 - "Let's give the rat race a go to see what it's like..."
23 - "Okay it's shit. Anything but the rat race!"
24 - Adventurer/Homesteader/Lawn-mower/Bike-rider/Army Reservist

[JamesR]

7 - Wilderness Survivalist/Guide
9 - Chemist
12 - Ninja
13 - Ruler of the world
18 - Tycoon
22 - Optimizer

[henrik]

When I was a kid, taxis looked like this. I thought that was extremely cool, so obviously I wanted to become a taxi driver. That was around age 5 or so. Other than that, I can't recall any specific dreams of being anything. It seems I've always been more motivated by opportunities to learn something new and not having a specific career related identity(?)

[slimicy]

8 - Baseball Player
12 - Football Player
20 - Poker Player
31 - ???

Apparently I need to find a new type of Play to monetize.

[Chad]

6 - Farmer
9 - Scientist
12 - Special Forces (then I found out I was good at football)
18 - Football player (somewhat based in reality)
23 - Wall Street (but no Ivy League means this is almost impossible)
28 - Football coach (actually did this and will do it again at some point)

Writer - No specific age on this, as it has always been a thought. Currently much more than a thought, but still have the cubicle drone job...for now.

[almostthere]

13 - Member of the local country club
16 - Volvo 240 Station Wagon owner
17 - English Teacher (Dead Poets Society)
18 - Entrepreneur/business owner
24 - Investor
28 - Foreign Service Officer
32 - Financially independent