Ship's captain sounds great: I once rang one by mistake with the details of a costume delivery - I'd dialed the wrong number - he was captain of a cruise ship which was just leaving Portsmouth harbour, and we had a good old chat about our jobs, it sounded thrilling, what fun it would be to sail the world taking people on holiday, like The Love Boat!

What a question eh?

Hmm... I suppose I never had a clear idea about what I wanted, although I was sure for one thing: I wanted to save the world. To be honest I still want to... And I hope I am not dreaming... I am sure we can bring positive changed to other people's lives, especially to children from poor countries.

Now I am thinking back,

perhaps I wanted to become a doctor... or I was passionately curious...
I remember that I used to cut my doll's head in order to check if there was a brain inside and if they could understand me..
Or I used to catch birds and prentend to be their doctor.. till poor birds couldnt handle my treatments any more...

Then I went to school. My mother says that since I learnt to read that was. I used to spend hours and hours on my desk studying or on the sofa reading novels...

Well, at the age of 18th I had to decide what my future would be... So just by accident, I decided to become a Speech therapist.
Worked for a year, missed the student life and that was!
Got a place in London for a masters and from there the only thing I know how to do well is studying!

Now I am trying to figure out how my PhD will support me to save the world, or at least some of the children who needs help.

When I was really little, I was determined I'd be either a singer, a pirate or a clown. I decided clown and pirate were not really possible so decided I'd be a singer, until my brother found my songs and took the mick for ages. That dream faded... after that it went something like this:

vet
mad scientist - *followed chemistry for a bit*
volcanologist - *this lasted very long... up to A-levels, but couldn't stand human geography so dropped that and chemistry*
*Took up sociology and psychology A-Levels*
Clinical psychologist or detective - went to uni to do criminology and psychology

Finished uni still kind of wanting to be a clinical psychologist, but got involved in education during undergrad which I carried on, and then applied for my PhD in Education, which has led me to where I am now, wanting to be an academic researcher in the same subject.

I'd still love to go back and go down the volcanology route, or do something with animals though.

Well, I always wanted to be a doctor.
When I was at school and it was time to decide what I was going to study, my father who is a doctor told me "I love you so much and I don't want you to be a doctor" because of the difficulty of the subject and the many years of studying. My teachers, were telling me that I should be an engineer, because I was good at maths and chemistry. I always liked labs, so I decided that I wanted to be an archeologist and then specialise in restoration in order to be in a lab!!!!!
I ended up being a teacher, because I didn't have the necessary results in my exams in order to be an archeologist....
The funny thing is that when I was younger I was saying that I never, never want to be a teacher, especially in early primary education, and I never wanted to study in a particular uni because I didn't like the city.... I did both!!!
Later on, I chose a master because I liked the title (it ended up being really good), I did another master because I wanted to know what was it about (again I liked the title) and now I am doing my PhD in an area that is completely different from all the above (I knew what I wanted to study, but I had never realised it was in this area) 

:p:p

Wow, Seems like there were a lot of ex-wannabe doctors and clinical psychologists here.

As a psychology undergraduate that always puzzled me (childhood aspiration was to be a "hard" scientist, which I nearly became until a few months ago). This became straight out confusion when I actually got to know clinical psycholgists by working with them, befriending one and eventually dating (and then being dumped by) another. My abiding memories were that they are always SO stressed and came back with horrendous stories of what happens to unfortunate people.

I said this to my friend, who replied that the reason he made the switch from academia to clinical psychology was because I was always so stressed and came back with horrendous stories of university life. Funny really.

Regardless, looking back now, I dont think the job I thought of as a little 'un actually exists -a bloke that just does "science" all day. They never tell you in HG Wells, Phillip K Dick or Asimov about politics, grant funding and tenure not invent time machines or test androids. Shame really.

I once wanted to be a builder....I got stuck when they asked me in nursery school and we had to draw a picture of it.
Went through a long spate of wanting to be a graphic designer. Did Graphic design at school, took Art A-level instead. Did classics a lot and got a couple of qualifications :D and then ended up falling the final hurdle towards doctorate in that area because I hadn't enough classical languages ...which shows you that I should have dropped art and done Latin instead :P
Played at being a bioarcheologist for a while, and got spooked when left in the dark lab with the skeletons all by myself one winter...
Trained as a librarian and then got back into art and design via computers... building things in Second Life :P

I wanted to be a psychiatrist from when I was about 11 until 17. Then I wanted to be a particle physicist!

It's so funny seeing how everyone got here...I have been reminded of other 'career choices' I went through when I was young that I had completely forgotten about. I wonder how many career changes the average person goes through before they find 'their thing'. I spent years going through the clinical psychologist or research psychologist dilemma- it sounds like there are a few others on the forum who have had the same tough decision. Personally I think that I had built it up in my mind to be something that it isn't, and then I began to realise what the reality is through speaking to clinical psychologists who have been in the job for a while. I have a few friends who work for the NHS, and that has seriously put me off the whole thing too- even having to apply for NHS ethical approval and honorary research contracts is a nightmare, I don't want to have any more to do with the NHS than I do already! Anyways, cheers for sharing guys! KB

Hum.. a spy throughout most of childhood.. fell in love with Science at age 11... then also with History at age 15... toyed with studying History & Politics... but stood loyal to Science, currently studying for a BSc in Biology... used to 'want' to be a teacher (safe option), now want more than anything to undertake a PhD Project in molecular cell biology, want to be a cancer researcher... but who knows what will happen

Also feel the urge to save Africa and help treat HIV/AIDS

(Definitely with you on the saving-the-world thing ;-) )

Together, we can.

Interesting thread. I'm either very fortunate or extremely boring but I've always known more or less what I wanted to do. I loved reading as a kid and would sometimes lock myself in my toy cupboard for hours so I could read undisturbed :$ So at various points I've wanted to be an author, a playwright, an actress, a screenwriter....When I was about 14 I stumbled across a book in the school library about Hamlet and the Oedipus Complex and that was the first time I realised you could be paid to write books about other books! In fact I was so determined that I only wanted to work with literature I pretty much flunked my other courses at college, but finished my literature one 6 months early. At university I discovered the odd specimen that is the 'academic' and decided that was it for me. God help me if it all goes wrong, although it would probably do me some good to think outsde the box for once!

The influence of Enid Blyton on me was that I wanted to be a writer and illustrate my own books - both of these are still interests and at least I get to write of a sort! Then I decided I wanted to be a teacher (mid-teens) which changed to going into business (late-teens) via a short and truly terrible plan to join the army. Within a couple of terms of university though I realized the PhD was definitely for me. My biggest regret though is having chosen Classics not English as I love literature but could really do without the language element! A decision at 16 which may change the rest of my life, since I want to teach (whether at school or university) so will likely always be principally bound to classics unless I retrain, which seems a huge undertaking after all these years of classical education!

Good to see that others have taken a long journey towards academia,

My first serious career ambition other than become a footballer was to become a computer programmer and this influenced my A level choices (Maths, Computing, Business Studies) After 2 years of bumming around I realised I had picked the wrong A levels. My main interest throughout school had been history and politics and so I decided second time around my subject choice should reflect this. I studied Sociology, History and Business Studies. I've also studied English Lit. and Psychology but that is another story! I then proceeded to study a degree in Economics, towards the end of my degree I narrowed my career options down to teacher and accountant. Teaching seemed the easiest option with regards to entry and so I opted for that

After a year of teaching I concluded it wasn't for me, for various reasons. I then decided to enter accountancy which took a while so after several stints on building sites I broke into accountancy. I found this soul destroying and after a 'quarter-life crisis' concluded that academia was the only place I belonged. I'm currently studying for a Master's degree in Social Policy and hope to do a PhD when I finish!

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It's all coming back to me now! I wanted to be Margot Fontayn, right up until I was 9 or 10 years old when I defected from my dance classes to a theatre group. And my teacher thought I would too, she adored me and used to call me the little fairy under the toad stool. I had various dance flirtations, including clog dancing, for which my folks had a pair of bright red duck toed Lancashire clogs hand made for me. One day, I will, I will, I will! I will dance Swan lake and wear a feathery fascinator glued to the sides of my face, Really though, being a professional dancer is tough on the old bones etc, so probably better that I didn't.I do still dane though, and have some dance inspired outfits.

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Talking about my journey to a PhD seems so self-indulgent...but if others are doing it, I will too.

Until I was about 14 I wanted to be a paleontologist, as I loved dinosaurs. Discovered I had no aptitude for science at all, but could write, so then wanted to be a journalist. Started off doing journalism and economics at uni, failed both in my first year. Ironically my PhD is now in Economics, altho I don't study trad economics at all. Found Women's Studies and this became my absolute passion, which I still have. Studied this for a long time, and discovered industrial relations, and this has been my life for a really long time. And now have no idea what's next, altho know it will still be in these areas. Has been a very windy route!