I want to dance. Failing that as a career, I never really knew what else to do with myself either, and am just sort of drifting. I don’t identify myself with my job, but sometimes I think it would be nice to do something…but what? I am not going to be anything special in any field; those are few and far between, so I just need something to pay the bills. Blah.
3 months away from the end of my second undergraduate degree, which I started at age 26. I have a pretty good idea of what I want, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get there. It depends on job opportunities, my own as-yet-to-be-seen skill and luck. There are some aspects of it that I still doubt, but I know I’m happier on this path than what I was doing before (what does that say about my previous career, that I was willing to go back to school in order to avoid it?!)
I’m 70 and I still don’t know what I want to be if and when I grow up. I’d like to be an outlaw biker but I don’t have what it takes. I absolutely loved all the years I spent in the frequency control industry but that wasn’t because I wanted to be in that industry; I lucked into it and did well in it but I would never have chosen it. So I’m still looking even though I now spend most of my time right here on the dope.
I’m 24 and doing what I decided I wanted to do at 14, but I’m also open to discovering what I want to be when I grow up more.
I should have used all the skilled trades I’ve mastered. Instead, I am a corporate exec and I hate it.
When I was young I wanted to be a paleontologist, an archeologist, a chemist, a computer guy, an astronomer, an astronomical physicist, a theoretical mathematician, a cartoonist, a comic book writer, a writer, a video game maker, a historian and a chef.
Early on I realized if I picked one of those that would mean excluding all the other things I was interested in and it sort of paralyzed me being able to choose.
So right after high school and going to community college I was working as a pizza delivery guy. One day I delivered to an old buddies house and we chit-chatted for a bit and he mentioned he went to this computer tech school and had then got a job making pretty good money for a 20 year old. I thought, "What the hell I’ll go to that school and get a job so I can move out on my own and then I’ll decide what I want to do with my life.
Well 11 years later I am still at the job I got after tech school and I make good money but I find computers boring and unfulfilling. I still don’t know what I want to do with my life but at least I have a job and can pay the bills.
In the next year or so when I win the lottery I figure I’ll travel for awhile and then figure out what I want to do.
Let’s see…Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in 1981, the year I turned 10. My path through college was somewhat convoluted but I never really had any other aspirations other than archaeologist and it has been my full-time career for coming up on 13 years.
When I was 6, I wanted to be a teacher so I could write on the blackboard! I knew when I was 9 or 10 I wanted to be an historian, in medieval or ancient history. When I was in high school and the ‘what do you want to be?’ question came up to kill time in class, I said, ‘I want to be an historian and do research in archives and travel to check out cool history things.’ Oh and also I wanted to be able to listen to my rock and roll records. Nonsense, said all the grown-ups. You need to take your future seriously. And stop hanging out with your history professor because he’s a bad influence.
So these days I’m a professor of history and I teach ancient history and the history of rock; I’m working on three articles and a book review in rotation, have a conference on music I have to present at in a couple weeks, and in a couple weeks will be back in the UK rampaging and running around through Neolithic sites in Wiltshire, and also retrieving my swords, because nothing says ‘Happy Easter’ like 24" steel attached to the pommel of a stage quality Roman gladius. Also, I get to write on the blackboard, not only in my class, but when I take over for my old history professor. He’s a really bad influence, and the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.
It’s fun.
I figured out in third grade that I wanted to be a writer and a teacher. I am a writer and a teacher. However, I would love to do something completely different for a while. I wish I knew what it was.
I wanted to be a writer/editor by about age 13. I got my first interview for the 8th grade school paper with this guy who was restoring an old theater in town.
I am 41 and am still an editor. It’s pretty much all I’ve done since college, barring a couple stopgap put-food-on-the-table gigs.
I knew what I wanted to be when I was 14. I wanted to be a professional SF writer. I reached that goal when I was 32 (i.e., SFWA membership).
But that hasn’t been enough to be a full career. I got into computing in my late 30s, which is what I do now.
Both of my parents were artists. Though I always had a lot of artistic talent, I never wanted to be specifically an artist. The closest I came was studying architecture, plus a lot of other things, and even occasionally took extension courses in various kinds of art work. But it wasn’t until I was 45, and just finishing my final project for a Color Theory course. I went to a gallery, and the paintings were so amateurish and outrageously priced. I remember thinking “I could do that in my sleep.” And then I thought “The only difference between this guy’s art and mine is that he has taken steps to show his work in a gallery, and I haven’t. Plus mine is a whole lot better.” It wasn’t long before I was in my first show, and officially an artist.
I always wanted to be a lawyer. Since I was 4, at least. Then when I got to university, I decided that I wanted to be a film composer. Seven years later, I’m closer to being a lawyer than I am John Williams; JD in the fall.
First career attempt (out of high school): Ambulance driver
Second career: Truck driver
Third career: Offshore oil rig stuff (crane operator, mainly)
Fourth career: Starving college student
Fifth career: Programmer (avionics)
The first two had comfortable chairs.
The third one paid good money.
The fourth one was indoors, out of the weather.
On the fifth one, I finally got all the above. For the OP’s question, I was 27 when I started #5.
I always wanted to teach. All my games as a child came down to teaching. What I wanted to teach took a little longer: I loved Mesoamerican archeology and for many years thought I’d be an archeologist, but even then my inner idea of what I would be doing involved teaching, not fieldwork. I interned for a couple semesters with a group of archeologists in high school, and had this blinding realization that the part I liked–teaching–was only available at the very top of the profession, but if I taught high school I could get there ten years sooner, make as much or more money, and have a vastly more secure life (something that is really important to me).
English seemed the obvious next choice, as I liked to talk about writing. I sort of fell into teaching economics as well, and I’ve found that to be the perfect compliment: six sections of grading English essays is a bit much, but 3-4 sections of English essays is very manageable when your other prep involves looking at pictures to see if they were drawn right.
Early on, I always said I wanted to be a doctor. I didn’t actually, but it make my parents happy. Then, around age 10 I got a chemistry set and for years wanted to be a chemist. Until I worked in a lab and decided that lab work was not my gig.
I had always done well in math up to calculus, but thought it a dead bore and certainly never considered a career as a mathematician. Then, through a fortunate incident (long story) I discovered modern algebra when I was in 3rd year college and never looked back.
I’ve been telling people I wanted to be a scientist since I was about 3. Oh, I went through the usual phases of “firefighter” and “construction worker” (mostly because they wear cool hats), but it was always “I want to be a firefighter or a scientist”. By maybe about 6, I had that narrowed down to “physicist”, and at 9 years old I read A Wrinkle in Time and further refined it to “relativity”.
I always find it amusing when promotional material for a college brags about how easy it is to change majors, and how long you can go as an “undecided”.
If you have any papers or shareable materials regarding the history of rock, please PM me. I kinda like stuff like that 
I chose “after age 40” because I left a career in professional services (executive at a management consulting firm) and have ended up in a career that I love. But I have always been someone who wanted to lead something - I have known that since I was a kid; the fact that I have matured enough as a person and achieved enough to actually be in a position to be a leader is what finally happened after age 40…
I realized much later than the average teeny bopper in a leotard that I wanted to be a dancer (early 30s). It’s not my current career yet, but I’m training to become a professional dancer and choreographer. After years behind desks in a variety “jobs,” it is immensely satisfying to finally be pursuing my career.
I was interested in natural history from at least the age of 5, and probably earlier. I used to haunt the Bronx Zoo and the American Museum of Natural History, and keep all kinds of insects and other small animals in jars. I was about 12 when I got interested in birds specifically.