Dream Job

Writers, Doctors, and eSports Players: The Evolution of the Childhood Dream Career

Our early years are fueled by hope and innocence, and we spend them dreaming about the future selves we hope to become. While taking your band to the Coachella stage or scoring the game-winning touchdown in the Super Bowl may still be the stuff of our fantasies, have the most sought-after childhood dream occupations evolved over time?
Has technology changed the notion of the ideal job for the younger generation? We first asked 2,000 adult Americans about their childhood goals and aspirations in order to determine how many of them succeeded in reaching adulthood.

Generations Hope to Work in Public Service

"What would you say was your dream job when you were a teenager?" was the question posed to the respondents. The outcome covered a wide range of topics, including honorable caregiver vocations, public-facing roles, and creative, artistic roles:

 

These are the five childhood careers that Americans fantasize about the most in the modern workplace. Jobs involving public service fared especially well, indicating a strong feeling of social obligation during our adolescence. The story is nearly the same when divided into five age groups.
A few noteworthy variations demonstrate how, over the past 50 years, our conception of the ideal employment has changed in certain respects.

What's most notable is the rise of the "eSports player." Making a third of those between the ages of 18 and 24, more members of the newest working generation would prefer to work as professional video game players than as scientists, engineers, or attorneys. They're not alone either, as the eighth most popular fantasy profession for individuals aged 25 to 34 is to play eSports.
Every generation is driven by a desire to serve in public service. A teacher and a doctor/nurse qualified for the top four in each of the five age groups.

Other occupations that are equally compassionate or socially conscious, including law and veterinary medicine, also rank highly, appearing in the top 10 across four of the five age groups.
500 parents with children under the age of sixteen participated in our survey. We so inquired as to what their child's ideal career would be:

First Officer/Nurse; 

Second Officer/Police
Fourth Educator; 

Fifth Firefighter; 

Sixth TV Personality/Celebrity;

 Seventh Artist;

 Eighth Professional Sports Star;

 and Ninth Actor
Tenth Scientist, eSports Participant

Once more, positions requiring some kind of public service fared well, accounting for all five of the top positions. Some media- or digital-related jobs are becoming more popular, though.
Once more, an eSports player cracks the top 10, demonstrating the growing acceptance of a job that didn't exist when earlier generations were kids. In sixth place, TV personality/celebrity is performing even better. We further stated that a YouTube star may be included in this, making them the kind of role models that many younger generations today aspire to be.

A new class of fame has emerged as a result of social media and digital technology. Kids look up to idols who share their interests when they go for amusement on YouTube and play video games like Fortnite. The jobs of these idols are increasingly rising to the top of the most sought-after roles for the younger generations, as they strive to emulate them.
During childhood, there were notable distinctions between the goals of men and women.

 We discovered that women were far more likely to choose careers in caregiving and public service, with the top three professions being teaching, nursing, and veterinary medicine. The gender distribution of these industries and the data are related. In the United States, women predominate in teaching positions, and the proportion of female graduates in the veterinary field is higher than that of male graduates.
The same is true for some of the ideal jobs held by men in the greatest positions. One of the industries with the highest concentration of males is science and engineering, and video games have traditionally been associated with men.
These figures highlight the distinctions between men and women as well as the ways in which our upbringing shapes our adult aspirations.

However, most of us never succeed.

We also inquired of the responders if they had succeeded in landing their dream career and fulfilling a childhood ambition. Ten percent of people are currently working in their childhood dream job, which makes up just under a quarter (24%) of the population. Of those who thought they succeeded, over two thirds (64%) also indicated their current position fulfilled the aspirations they had for it when they were younger.
Of the 76% who never succeeded, more than a third (39%) say they wish they had followed through on their goals. When asked what they believed to be the main reason they would never fulfill their childhood ambitions, 34% of respondents responded that it was because they "lacked the necessary skill set or knowledge."

Other noteworthy variables are "I prioritized raising a family" (10%) and "financial constraints," which were chosen by 16% of respondents. With 14% of women choosing it and only 3% of men, the latter was far more popular.

Are We Content with Our Jobs?

How satisfied people are with their current career path—whether or not it is their ideal job—was the last topic the study touched on.
With a discernible trend of discontent towards younger generations, one-third of the respondents stated they were not happy with their careers as of right now.
A whopping 39% of those between the ages of 18 and 44 say they are now unsatisfied with their jobs, which is 10% more than those between the ages of 45 and 65 (29%). When we asked them if they wished they had grown up in a different generation than their own and, consequently, had access to different chances and job options, the same pattern emerged.

Thirty percent of those aged 18 to 44 expressed a desire to have grown up in a previous generation. Merely 18% of individuals aged 45 to 65 expressed a desire to have benefited from the employment prospects available to younger generations.
With 68% of them being satisfied with their inherited generation, the oldest respondents—those between the ages of 55 and 65—were the happiest. This represents an increase of 11 percentage points over the 18–24 age group (57%) and 15 over the 25–34 age group (53%).
The fact that the most coveted jobs in America are those that essentially take care of people, and that this trend appears to be continuing from generation to generation, speaks good about American society.

But now more Americans than ever hold college degrees. More people will have possibilities as a result, but the competition for specialized jobs will only get stronger. Our conception of the ideal employment may need to change in order to maximize our career opportunities as a result of the technology revolution and rising automation.