I wanted to be an astronaut too!!! But in the 70’s that wasn’t happening for a girl. I did get to work with rockets (General Dynamics) and with NASA for lots of years so it wasn’t all bad.
Now I just teach and hope my students and kids get to do “what they want to do… with whoever they want to do it with…”
Oops sorry got taken back to the day. Carry on…
I wanted to be a superhero with a secret identity as a script writer.
I am now an ex-ska musician, ex-lawyer, current librarian.
I was a child of the 40’s. I can’t recall a specific desire to become any certain thing, but I did want to be like the adults that I admired. First was my father, a very independant man, a carpenter/cabinet maker, who was in the Navy in WWII (albeit for a bit over a year). Second was my uncle who was a policeman. I went into the Navy (Seabees) at 17 and while I wasn’t a woodworker, I was in construction. I did 23 years, some as a criminal investigator, so that relates to my admiration of my uncle. My mother must have had an influence also. She was a generous, kind and caring person, I think I’m the same.
She also instilled in me the importance of being a gentleman, I’d like to think I’ve never forgotten that.
I wanted to be a lot of things, but the one that really stuck with me was that I wanted to be an airline pilot. The fighter-jets and the bombers were really cool and all (I was totally in love with the F-14 Tomcat for a long time), but I would’ve been more than happy flying 747s.
Of course, getting your multi-engine commercial pilot’s license is an expensive proposition, and getting to the airlines’ hiring minimums even more so (often, over a thousand hours), so at the time most pilots were former Air Force or Navy/Marines (the Army flies helicopters mostly). I gave up around the time my vision slipped past 20/70 (the Air Force requirement, the least stringent).
I still love to fly, and I spend most of the time staring out the window. They very recently started allowing LASIK-corrected candidates into pilot training school, so I could feasibly apply now. That said, I work for a video game company! I help make the MMO magic happen! How many kids would love to say that?
I wanted to be an astronaut or an inventor when I grew up.
I’m currently a college student majoring in aerospace engineering so I guess I’m not too far off track.
When I was a wee lad, I wanted to become an archaeologist, traveling around the world digging for lost artefacts.
Instead I’m a marine biologist; somewhere in high school I discovered scuba diving, and from there on I never surfaced 
I didn’t have any dreams. I just wanted to be safe/not scared. When I playacted, it was writing information on little cards and organizing them.
I’m a bookkeeper/accounting type in a relatively stable/non-scary position. I guess that’s pretty close.
I wanted to be the garbage man. To me, there was no greater thing than to hang by that handhold on the side of the truck while it went house to house. And getting to grab big bags and toss them into the truck, and then use that big ram to compact everything? Heaven.
Now, I see that kids get to school and back safe and sound.
Make your own comparison.
I wanted to be a lot of different things - a lawyer, a journalist, a truck driver (THAT one used to drive my mom nuts), a chef - it changed pretty often.
I’m an administrative assistant.
Great. Now I’m sad.
I wanted to be a writer (novelist).
I’m a magazine editor – so I do work with words, but it’s non-fiction, and the stuff I do with the words is something other than pull them out of the air.
Suits me infinitely better than being a novelist would have.
I never had any idea what I wanted to be when I was a kid. I liked art and I liked building shit with Lego’s and Lincoln Logs and whatnot so I went into Architecture and Civil Engineering. Turns out I hated it and now I work for a consulting firm which is kind of an amalgamation of every job I thought looked interesting and/or paid well - computer forensics, accounting, corporante finance, investment banking, PR, etc. We even have a group that investigates construction litigation.
Basically, I have a theory that the best way to ruin a hobby or destroy a childhood dream is to actually do it for a living.
All through grade school and high school I wanted to be a fighter pilot. When I was 19 learned I was color blind and couldn’t fly for the military.
Now I’m a claims adjuster.
When I was very young I was crazy for Dinosaurs and always said I was going to be a paleontologist. Then I found out that most of them weren’t wealthy. After that, I had not plans other than to be wealthy.
I’m not. But I’m rather comfortable.
Apparently me. I have evidence, even, per my original response to this thread.
Technical Writer - the next best thing to being a Rock Star. I think I’ll add that to my business cards.
I wanted to be an astronaut, and/or a fighter pilot for most of my youth. I called the recruiter when I was in high school to see what courses would benefit me most for selection I found out that I needed uncorrected 20-20 vision.
Now I am an application developer.
I never wanted to be a ballerina or an astronaut or a doctor or any of those jobs that are easy for kids to conceptualize. I knew I wanted to do something that would use my verbal/argumentative skills, something that challenged systems that I found unjust, and something that allowed me to approach problems in a systematic and meaningful way.
I had no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up until long after I finished grad school. So it was quite serendipitous for me to end up as an analyst and communications person in the world of environmental public policy, and very happy to be so. But it is unlikely that “pundit” is going to end up on any kid’s “what I want to be when I grow up” list any time soon.
I wanted to be an artist/illustrator. I went to an art school that specialized in turning artistic creative types into people that could actually turn it into a career… that is, you’re probably not going to be a dedicated artist/illustrator, but you could probably make a career out of something like graphic design, web design, multimedia, etc, which was similar.
I got a job as an animator, which was close. I quit to pursue my dream of being a full-time illustrator. I failed.
Now I’m working as a web designer, which is kind of creative and kind of artistic, but not really the same thing. I still dream about the day I can quit and draw all day for a living.
I wanted to be an artist or a cartoonist, then a journalist.
I went to journalism school and even got my degree, then went right to Web design.
It suits me just fine. I get to use art, words AND logic, which was that nagging little thing I have always enjoyed but never aspired to use.
I wanted to travel a lot without my parents (this being a key point), see many different places, learn how different people did things and do good work (nowadays I’d define this as “do work I can feel proud of”). This is when I was about 4.
I had that job for about 2 years, November 2001- December 2004. The one I have now… my contract is up in December and I can’t wait to be out of there. It totally misses the part about “do good work” and most of the part about learning (asking our clients how did they do things before the new system, or how do they do them now… is actually forbidden!).
I did want to be a computer programmer, once I found out what computers were. Dad forbade it, though, and given how Spain’s educational system works, getting a science degree without parental aid and in a reasonable amount of time is about impossible. Where do I work now? IT consultant, of course. I tell programmers what to do. And being born in 1968, I grew up quite a lot during the '70s 