As a kid, I hated that question, I didn't dream of working as a kid, early misfortune in life taught me some interesting lessons.

I think I grew up with a vague idea of wanting to be free of money, as I associated with misery growing up and as a result, never had an answer to the question outside of "I just want to help people".

an “astronaut paleontologist” who digs up fossils on other worlds

I wanted to be a professional illustrator. Nowadays I barely illustrate as a hobby. Although I still enjoy it I don't really have the skills for it.

I'm a lawyer and a programmer though. For many years I hated being a lawyer, but I would say that I've finally reached a point in my life and career where I'm happy with it.

Inventor!

and now, I kinda am.

Very early on was silly stuff -- a dentist, a gangsta rapper. Glad those didn't ever pan out.

In college I decided I wanted to be a comedy writer for TV. Dream job was to work for Conan. I ended up getting an MFA in creative writing and nobody could explain the process to becoming a comedy writer for TV, but I was naturally talented as a serious/literary writer and colleges could explain that career trajectory well enough, but then I needed to feed my wife and kid so I became a journalist. I worked my ass off as a journalist, rose through the ranks to locally prominent positions, and then I got burned out in my early 40s and quit. Now my wife makes money and I do projects around the house, meditate, and write essays that are infrequently published, don't make much money and aren't at all funny.

Turns out life is funny.

An astronaut, until I discovered I hated rollercoasters.

And then an aerospace engineer, until I failed pre-calculus twice.

And then I had a random computer programming course in high school, and ECPI visited our high school. So I settled on computer programming.

I've been in the field of computer programming for about 20 years now. I like coding and it pays good too.

I never had that kind of goal focus as a kid.

I'm now in my late 30s, am unemployed with an engineering degree and still have no clue what to do as a job...

A voice actor. I do call center work. It’s sad but I get people asking if I’m an actor every now and then which is nice.

Honestly, pretty much what I do now just probably a more glamorized or idealistic version of it. My favorite toys growing up were wooden building blocks and Duplo and from a very young age I (incorrectly) mapped what I enjoyed about those things to the profession of architecture and that's what I always told people that's what I wanted to do.

Luckily I was able to figure out that what I really enjoyed and wanted to do was engineering. As long as I'm designing things and solving problems I'm pretty happy. It doesn't really matter what the context is.

Took a dumb “assessment” in grade school and it said I should be a pilot.

Later I didn’t know tearing apart computers and getting apps to work could be a job and studied engineering. Halfway through that I found systems administration.

I'll start: A psychologist

My dream as a child was to become a full time artist. My family did not think it was a good idea so my academic life went somewhere else as did my career. Thirty years later I am a working artist with my own atelier.

An inventor. I was so sure I could make flying cars just by strapping a few downward-pointing jet engines to a regular car. The only thing I ever actually invented was a pen (by breaking and taping together parts from multiple other pens).

A hobo, going from place to place subsisting.

Used to be "oh, I want to do something with computers and programming".

By now that's solidified into either some sort of sysadmin, or something in the field of designing microprocessors.

I'm also considering instead training to become an ATC after I'm done with my CS degree.

I went through a few things but my favorite in retrospect was demolition derby driver

When I was a young lad I wanted to be an astronomer or computer scientist or something. As an adult, I just want to be happy.

Veterinarian, marine biologist, or actor depending on what age you asked me. Now, I am none of those things.

Astronaut. Or a trucker. A mad scientist, after my first science class.

I haven't become any of the above (yet)

Astronaut. Later in highschool the assessments said I should be a Helicopter Pilot.

Astrophysicist

I just wanted to be happy, only I didn’t understand what “happiness” felt like. It sounded like a utopia to me.

a software engineer, although not an unemployed one

I've always wanted to be a free creative person, inventing or just making things in different fields and I am such a person now, though not as free as I'd like to be...

I wanted to be a pilot.

I got my licenses and worked as a flight instructor for awhile. Haven't flown in years, probably never going to again.

More or less in order: firefighter, aeronautical engineer, mechanical engineer, civil engineer, computer programmer, medical researcher.

An engineer.

I became an electrical engineer 🫣

I wanted to be a jedi knight.

I am a software engineer.

Great to hear you have overcome the negativity; just sorry you didn't have the support each child deserves.

Astronaut because I didn't realize there were astronomers and I was very hyperfocused on space. I also wanted to be an animator and an artist. I currently am unemployed so my younger self would be very disappointed in my lack of employment. I was shooting too high but never practiced my aim.

Me

Am in my late 30's and I don't know nor did I ever know. As a result I consider that a crummy ice-breaker.

scratch that. I once wanted to be an electrical engineer but I didn't know that's what it was called so I said I wanted to be "an electrician" which I have zero interest in. -You would not believe the number of times people have recommended "electrician" to me as a career choice. Also, I don't have the aptitude to complete the advanced math and advanced science courses that are required to get an EE degree. That's not for lack of repeated tries, either. Some things just aren't meant to be.

I never really dreamed of being anything when I grew up but now that I'm older I would say I wish I stuck with skateboarding and baseball. I was really good at baseball as a kid. I actually got picked up to play at the LLWS on ESPN when I was 13. About a month after, I broke my wrist skateboarding and gained weight which took me out of baseball for good. It took decades but since then, I've lost over 100lbs and I'm back to a healthier lifestyle. Skateboarding just holds some of my best memories from childhood, especially going to the old Vans skatepark at Potomac Mills (does anyone remember the video you could unlock of Tony Hawk doing a 900 on THPS1? That was filmed on the 16' halfpipe at Vans in Potomac Mills) I remember at one point they had a wall of tvs with xbox, playstation, and gamecube consoles too for the adults and younger siblings. I gotta stop or nobody will have time to read my nostalgia-bomb novel over here.

Comic book artist