When I Grow Up I Want to Be…

Most kids - certainly I was a kid - always had a fantasy about what they wanted to be when they grew up.

For males, it used to be a fireman, a policeman, or an airline pilot. (It must have had something to do with uniforms.)

For females, it may well have been a teacher, a nurse, or a movie star.

Kids

Surveys have shown that less than 25% fulfill their childhood dream job. Of those who did not fulfill their childhood dream jobs, over 50% wish they had later in life.

Interesting statistics.

When I was around 7 or 8 years old, I always wanted to be a truck driver.

I remember collecting anything I found (and could lift) and stacking it on my bed. It was my truck!

I would load my bed up and then go to my mother and ask what she wanted to buy.

It was very official, she would get a delivery docket and would give me pretend money in return.

Mum was very patient. She had to put up with all of this and, inevitably, had to help put it all back when I got bored with this game. More often than not, that wasn't very long. I was not a patient child.

I then went through a phase of wanting to be a farmer.

I spent hours creating fake farms. I used plastic animals and Cuisenaire rods. I am guessing not many of you have ever come across Cuisenaire rods.

They were bits of colored wood that were different colors and lengths depending on their value from 1 to 10. They were once used to practice adding and subtracting. But they also made great fences for pretend paddocks on my farm!

I never got past building my paddocks and filling them with animals. I got bored, only to dismantle it all before I really got to do anything with my creations.

Just as well, I didn't become a farmer; all my animals would have starved to death.

Teens and Young Adults

Things change in the late teens. Girls want to work in male-dominated jobs. They especially want to be astronauts, builders, chefs, doctors, firefighters, and police officers.

Last year a survey in Britain showed the top ten choices for Gen Alpha (born 2010–2025). (I had to look it up!)

1. Doctor
2. Footballer
3. Vet
4. Gamer
5. Teacher
6. Pilot
7. Dancer
8. Surgeon
9. Nurse
10. Astronaut

When I went through school, all I knew was that I wanted to be a scientist. I didn't do so well in my finals and only got into Uni by the skin of my teeth on a second-round offer. At university, this was narrowed down to a marine biologist.

Only one place in Australia offered marine biology degrees, and admission required very high marks. Needless to say, I didn't make it.

My love for the ocean has continued, and I often write about the magic of the ocean.

I became a microbiologist, a long way from a truck driver or a farmer. I spent the first ten years of my working life applying my trade. Then, I moved into management in bioscience companies.

The moral of the story

If your child wants a weird job, don't panic. It probably won't happen. Most of us fall into a profession and never really know what we want until we stumble upon it.

How many of us end up in the same profession as our parents?

Research shows that 20–30% of children follow careers like their parents. The rate depends on the field and socioeconomic factors.

My father was a shopkeeper of various sorts - a tailor shop, grocery shop, jewelry shop, and handbag shop, to name a few. My mother studied pharmacy but didn't finish because she got married. Clearly, I followed more of my mother than my father, thank goodness.

Till next time,

Calvin