At what age did you know what you wanted to do for a living?

18 and Currently doing mechanical engineering, as above I hope it gets me something I like + that is well paid :)
 
At Primary school I discovered I had a knack for IT/computing. Now 20 Years old I in a fairly decent job with the ambition to move up the company. I make a comfortable living out of it the people I work with are great and its 10mins from home. From the moment I left high school I studied IT in college and still do part time + cisco CCNA.

I enjoy the path ive taken and wouldnt want to do anything else.
 
Graduated in Astrophysics ... fell into Enterprise IT as I didn't know what I wanted to do and I'd been around computers since I was little (my father was in the industry) and found it pretty easy ...

Still don't know what I really want to do (at 35) ...
 
I kind of accidentally ended up in engineering 9 years ago, and that's where i still am. I'm hoping to work my way up to a decent position in a decent company ultimately, hopefully before I'm 35.
 
I joined my current employer at 21 and found the company I knew I wanted to work for.

I transferred to my current role 4 years ago and knew that was it for me, found my career (28 now)
 
Initial polls suggest that I'm not the only one, hurrah!

When I was younger (13) I was interested in programming and played around with VB a bit but it never went anywhere, I've also done some small 3D work for Ads for those crappy DVDs for a fiver that Woolies used to sell. I don’t think it needed to be done in 3D but I could do what they wanted and they couldn’t so there you go lol.

At school I just did enough to not get into trouble coming out with 7 B's, 3 C's and an E (French). Looking back i know i never really tried, i never put ANY effort into anything. I then carried on at 6th form with A Level Physics, Maths and IT. Maths I dropped out because I was learning stuff I should have known at GCSE and so couldn't wrap my head around it all at once (plus I wanted to play football with my mates who were free when I had maths ><). Eventually I came out with an E in IT and Physics despite actually trying in the final year of Physics I still couldn’t do enough to get a decent grade.

6 days after my final A Level exam I started work at a TV Broadcaster as a Transmission Controller. Essentially I keep the station on air. We are primarily a Live Business News channel (not Bloomberg) so when there's lots going on its great fun. With the new automation system being windows based (old one was dos) its all been tested and patched properly so you don't have to fight it all day to keep everything on an even keel. Because of that, the job is now mostly boring as sin which is a great shame as I used to love it essentially when it all went wrong ><.

As I said, I cant complain about the money, its always nice to have more but salaried is enough to live on happily and in the last 2 FY I've earnt about an extra 25-30% on top of that thanks to the overtime opportunities available (did quite a lot of 300hr months).

I just sit here, bored off my bits, and can’t help think that I could be doing something better or more interesting. I just don’t know what!

I know that with the mortgage I can't go off to Uni to study anything (if I knew what I wanted) and with the shifts I do commiting to a night school type thing is out which would leave distance learning. But on the basis that I hated school and was never really any good at writing stuff up, I've no idea if that would work either.

Glad its not just me though :D
 
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When i was 16 i ws tossing up a few things, ie, Mechanic, IT or the Military.
After looking into all of them a bit more the seed was planted and by the age of 17 I was really looking deeply into the Army.

January last year once my fitness was up to scratch again i applied and now im in the application process.
Hopefully ill be in by September :)
 
I'll have to get back to you when I know what I want to do for a living. I wouldn't suggest holding your breath for it though, I may well never know what I want to do for a living. I'm happy enough with what I'm doing now but to say it has always been a dream of mine would not be true and I might well change jobs again in the future.
 
Never really had that eureka moment when I knew what I was going to do. After school I did an IT GNVQ, just because I wasn't sure what to do, then went to uni and did a multimedia course for the same reason. After a brief dalliance starting a web design business with a friend, eventually ended up working for one of our clients in a very general IT role, helping with support of the network as well as assisting with their in-house software.

After 5 years, I left England to go travelling around Australia for a year as realised I'd got stuck in a rut, just ambling along in a job I wasn't really enjoying, going nowhere. Worked with great people, including my best mate, but the actual job was making me unhappy. I'd also just ended a 4-year relationship, which looking back I probably mistakenly saw as part of the problem.

Best thing I ever did. Helped me grow up and had the time of my life at the same time. Whilst away I thought about my future a fair bit, and looked at various things. I decided to come back to the UK and do a TEFL course so I could go and teach abroad, which would enable me to travel more. But when I got back, I started to look into full teacher training, really so I would have a proper career to follow as and when I decided to settle somewhere.

So I'm due to start a PGCE in September, training to be an ICT teacher. Will give me a career path to follow, will allow me to go back to Australia which I would like to do long term, and will give me the chance to still travel and work at the same time. Plus, there is a shortage of ICT teachers so even though I won't really be able to work for the year the course takes, they give you a healthy bursary to cover costs. And best of all, I believe I will finally be in a job that I can excel in. I enjoy helping people, and doing a job that is different each day really appeals.

I'm not naive enough to think it will all be perfect, but I've come to realise that it's not necessarily all about the things I used to value so highly. I used to think by 25 I needed to have a wicked, well-paid job, a nice place to live, nice car, looking to settle down, have a family etc etc. But now I see things completely differently - I'd rather be happy in what I'm doing and enjoying life than be in the situation I was before. I'll be working for a long time yet so may as well enjoy it!

I'm 28.
 
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was 23 when i decided i wanted to be a truck driver, nwo 24 and doing just that.

just wish it was more full time than agency.
 
Sixteen decided I wanted to be an accountant. Now am nineteen and studying economics and business finance. Will probably end up in the police force or RAF or something though.
 
I'm 25 this year and I don't know... i'm in a well paid job but I know in my heart that I don't want to do this forever (or even into my 30's to be honest).
 
I've been working professionally for 10 years and in my 30th year, I still don't know what I want to do for a living! I just tend to make my own luck and fall on my feet most of the time.

I am in awe of people who know what they want to do and strive to get to that goal. :)
 
Since aged around 10 I wanted to be a pilot, and aged 26 I finally made it happen. It was a fairly long and at times stressful road!
 
When I was 15 my nan was really sick, and had been for quite a few years. Going to hospitals with her and explaining her different conditions to her through my limited knowledge (biology gcse!) was what made me realise that the only job for me was to be a Doctor! Almost there... :D
 
i'm also 28 , i went to college to train to computer support/field tech but since i was 16 been doing the same old job (retail) when i finished college in 2004 did sod all and went full time and wasted the last 6 years of my life. Still have no idea what to do now as quallies are usless. Atm can't do much as im about to have a knee operation i've been off since Dec (24th) 09.
 
Wanted to make computer games after the first time I saw qbasic when I was around 6 or 7. In the process of finishing a masters course in game development this year and hopefully come september/october I'll be able to get a position in a studio somewhere :)
 
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