What was your dream job as a kid?
When you were little, what did you want to grow up to be? You know, before reality kicked you in the ass or before you realized just how shitty the job you wanted really was? I'm thinking about this now because I just saw a video of a bunch of guys doing what I would've sold my soul to the devil when I was younger to be able to do.
http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/super-hornet-squadron-heads-to-sea-mak…
Growing up in New Jersey, I remember my dad taking me to an air show at MacGuire Air Force Base, and I wanted to be a fighter pilot ever since. But then I needed glasses by the time I was in 3rd grade (you need 20/20 vision and they don't take candidates who have had their vision corrected to 20/20), so I had to put that dream to bed. Also, most fighter pilots are short and stocky because their bodies can handle the g-forces. I'm tall and skinny, so I'm pretty sure if I was yankin' and bankin' like these guys, I would black out pretty fast.
So what about you guys? Firefighters? Cops? Teachers?
Accountant.
Thank Christ I avoided that.
You seriously wanted to be an accountant? Wow! Never heard that actually. In fact we used to joke around in the audit room that no one ever woke up and wanted to be an accountant when they grew up.
To become famous and the CEO of a major company....dreams really do come true.
Firefighter. Realized I had better talents elsewhere that can still help out the community at large.
I had a video camera and wanted to be a director. I wanted all of my movies would be ridiculously stupid immature comedies. Then I gave up that dream and wanted to be a professional poker player. I guess trader is close enough.
That is one bad ass video.
I wanted to be a Ghost Buster.
I wanted to be a pilot ever since I went to an air show too, but I got glasses when I was in 1st grade and I knew I couldn't do it. I recently found out you can fly helicopters for the Army without being prior enlisted though...
What i meant was that you can join as a warrent officer to fly helicopters without either already being in the army, or having to go through rotc. So you can finish college and then go on to do that, and the eyesight standards are a lot more lenient than for flying jets.
Screw IB I want to be a pilot
I thought being a pilot would be cool until I realized the extent of the unyielding monotony of flying a commercial airliner that pretty much flies itself. It would be unbearably boring. And after about 500 hours of air time I would have to think that the novelty of flying would start to wear off.
Agree with this - I wanted to be a pilot for a while, and excitedly bought Flight Simulator and a joystick, then realised I found it really boring. Also wanted to be a vet for a while, then realised I don't really like dealing with animals that much
//www.youtube.com/embed/gYtz5sw98Bc
I wanted to be a Navy SEAL.
Now all I want to do is kick the market's ass until I can't do it anymore and then write a book from my beach house in Belize. Owning a Napa vineyard would be pretty cool too.
I second that! Same wavelength, trained and everything growing up for the SEALs program/BUDs. Translating that energy to the finance/equity/business world...
why belize? hear it's nice, just curious as to why you picked that country
It's not too touristy It's in the central time zone - most of my family friends are EST and it'd be easy to keep up with the markets It is ridiculously cheap - When I was looking at places not too long ago I'm pretty sure that I was told the property taxes on a ~$900k beach house were like
Something creative in the entertainment industry - director, producer etc.
Professional baseball player, then a D1 college football coach, now goal is to eventually own my own HF, and eventually become a majority owner of an NBA team. Recently just saw two big HF guys bought the Bucks
Just wondering what sport you actually like? Or did it evolve from baseball to football to basketball over time?
I loved all three sports and played all three my whole life. My favorite sport to play now is basketball, I play pick-up at least a couple times a week. Played 1 yr of D2 college football and my favorite growing up as a kid was baseball, I loved pitching and played shortstop as well.
And as far a being a majority owner, NBA is cheaper than other two and would be easier to build a strong team. Also, NBA games are my favorite to watch in person of the 3.
As a kid I always dreamed to become a business man with a black suit and suitcase Very vague indeed...
Has that dream changed to navy suit after reading WSO?
Hell yeah
Well done sir, well done.
Car designer for Ferrari. I can't draw for shit though and am not that creative.
Same here. I later realized my motor skills don't deserve the title of being "skills"
Firefighter (5+), fighter pilot (10+), NHL player (12+), Professional golfer (26+)
I wanted to be a contributing blogger to WSO.
you officially apply? if not email me [email protected]
I'm emailing you soon.
mlb pitcher
Pokemon Master, I pretended my dog was a Growlithe and taught him a few commands. I actually managed to teach him growl, tackle and bite. I would go in my backyard and imagine all the animals as pidgeys or weedles and send my dog to chase after them. Man I miss my dog.
Fighter pilot or John McClane.
My first dream was to become an astronaut. We had to do a play for our kindergarten graduation, and I played the part of an astronaut going up to see the moon. When I got older I wanted to be an architect and design bridges and airports.
At some point I decided I could get laid more often if I had tons of money and wore a suit every day. Be careful what you wish for.
Lawyer. I guess I could still do that but I read nothing but horrible things about life as an associate.
I wanted to be an automotive engineer. I started undergrad as a double bio/mechanical engineering major, then too much fun happened.
in grade school, went on a field trip (forget exactly where). a couple friends and i wandered off and ended up in an office setting where we saw a couple guys playing a first person shooter on their computer. I walked up to one and asked what his job was. He said he was an actuary, that it was a well-paying field, and all he did was play computer games. A dream was born. well, at least until about 10th grade.
I wanted to own a chain of paycheck advance places similar to the "money store" and charge 5% "interest" per month on advances, secured by what little remaining equity people had in their homes
No really though, I wanted to play for the Bulls and be a modern Toni Kukoc
+1 for the Toni Kukoc reference... He and Steve Kerr held it down for white boys in the NBA in the 90s... Gotta love a 6'11 Croatian who can shoot 3s
Guys... If the return from the market over a long enough period is higher than the rate you can borrow at, isn't that an arbitrage opportunity?
I think you need to be a full on Officer to fly in the Navy, Marines and Air Force.
The Army is the only branch that lets people who don't have college degrees fly Apaches/Kiowas/Blackhawks. If you have some amount of college credits, you can apply to Warrant Officer Candidate School and go on to fly choppers.
But yeah, I dreamt of becoming a fighter pilot as well.
When I was considering OCS for the military years back, the Marines told me that they were the only branch that would guarantee an officer a spot in flight school prior to OCS if you qualified and wanted it. Basically you could get a guarantee that you would have a flight school spot prior to enlisting by taking the tests, being examined, etc. Could've just been a recruiting tactic, but I don't know. You might not be flying fighter jets, but you would have a chance to fly something.
Pokemon Master. The one dream that was achieved within a month.
Astronaut, but health is not that great and I am not an American or Russian, so it's impossible.
Exactly the same here. 2nd was fighter pilot. Sigh. I'm still hoping to learn flying one day.
Thanks to Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic. If we make lots of money on the Street, we can fly to space. One of my goals actually.
my dream was to work at Bear Stearns, like my father, his father, and his father's father's father
Submarine captain - cause I thought they have good compensation and nuke buyback option...
That was such a sick video.
Casino Owner Porn Star (still is)
My wife's best friend from college married a guy who became a captain in the Air Force and flies F-15s to train new fly officers. This stuff is seriously not overrated. He has the best job in the world. They live in Oregon where he'll continue to train for 10 or 15 years and retire from the military, then fly commercial if he wants to. He's lived in London, Korea, Germany, and a few spots in the US while in the AF, and he loves it. I picked him up from the airport once when we all met up for a wedding and asked him about flying commercial when he's used to F15s... He laughed and said that sometimes it's nice to be flown, but the speed (or the lack thereof) of the commercial airliners made him anxious. You should hear the stories though... it's crazy. He's definitely the dad that the kids want to hear about on career day at school.
Damn kids have no respect for my DCFs! You think there's pressure in an F-15? Wait until you have a 10am deadline for a pitchbook after an all nighter. Embarrassing. Whether that font is size 10 or 11 could make/break a $1B+ client..
+1
Careful. Don't assume that it's all flying around at Mach 3 dogfighting the bad guys. My understanding is that the majority of your time is spent on less glamorous stuff -- checks, maintenance, drills, tests, etc. This is true for more or less every military job (see the thread on this board from the former Navy SEAL -- apparently a lot of his job was preparing powerpoints).
I have a few buddies in the military and it was a bit of a mixed bag. They did some cool stuff, but they also did stuff like wander around middle of nowhere places in Germany and Afghanistan for the better part of a year with no real point / mission. Also had a buddy head to the Naval Academy thinking he was going to be a SEAL. Once it became clear that probably wasn't going to happen (they only take a handful of SEALs from the academy and he decided he couldn't deal with freezing cold water all the time), he ended up on a Nuclear submarine where he was living in a cramped tube and putting in 100 hour weeks doing constant system checks.
Obviously it's not all fun and games. Plus, it is much more dangerous than people realize. He was part of a two man training team in which he and one other captain trained officers. He was either in the air, or in the tower on training days. One day about 5 years ago he got to work and his orders changed (as they sometimes do) and he went from being in the air to being in the tower. Just so happened that the trainer and trainee in the air crashed and died that day. Talk about difficult to deal with and stressful. I'm sure that like any other job in any regard there is tons of busy work, admin stuff, and b/s to deal with. However, a fighter pilot gets to have some much cooler days than the best possible day in my field...
My dream job as a kid was to be dictator of some tiny Caribbean island nation that no one had ever heard of and was too small to appear on a map. I probably would have settled for the South Pacific though. Think of it as a backdrop for an Expendables movie.
you can always just step into the ukraine and take over a portion....seems to be all the rage
@design is spot on. I find it amusing when people talk about how the should have been a fighter pilot after watching a youtube video. Do yourself a favor and strap into an aerobatic aircraft and experience 6+ GS. The feeling of pitching the nose down into a steep dive before yanking the yoke back towards you is hard to describe. It kinda feels like someone is trying to pull your face over your knees. Grey outs, and red outs, are not too fun either. I for one love the experience of flying but I know for a fact that my body could not tolerate those kinda GS even with a G suit. I am tall too so maybe that has something to do with it.
Wanted to be an F1 driver...and then when my parents informed me that they wouldn't be supporting this in any way shape or form (I'll never forgive them) I wanted to be an engineer in the auto industry for a while.
I know this feel bro. Dreamed of being an F1 driver but unless you've got millionaire parents or are so good that you can be sponsored at an early age, it's near impossible to make it.
Yeah man, I've always wanted to be a competitive auto racer at any level, but my parents couldn't afford to get me started in karting and if you can't do that, you can pretty much kiss any professional aspirations goodbye unless you get very rich very quickly, and are willing to finance your own ride and take the time to become a good driver.
Always ticked me off because I did do occasional kart track days with my buddies when I was younger and I kicked ass...not to brag. Cars have always been one of my passions, so it developed into me being a good driver. Last time I was in a kart was like 4 years ago...honestly there's few things more fun in the whole world.
The liquor store down the street is owned by a firefighter and his wife. I was talking to him and he says he works 3 days a week and makes $65K. That plus a little side business like he's got (could easily have several) is a pretty legit setup..
Plus you could stock your home bar at cost.
Formula1 driver or MotoGP rider.
//www.youtube.com/embed/Ru6KRkxTc4Y
I too wanted to be a pilot growing up. Sadly, I get vertigo so fighter pilot was out of the question and flying commercial seems incredibly boring.
Historian and/or archaeologist.
CIA agent...
Fighter pilot/astronaut/CIA. Just like everyone else in this thread.
Being a Robert Ballard or Steve Fossett type character. Finding lost ships in the Arctic or the South Pacific, or going on record setting flights.
But I've always been pragmatic. Plan B was to become a programmer. Plan B+ was to become a quant. Plan A- is to retire and teach Hang Gliding?
I honestly don't think I had a dream profession as a kid. I kinda just went with the flow, ate cereal, and watched Scooby Doo.
Also many towns in the northeast have volunteer firefighter departments. Princeton, for instance has a company made up entirely of undergraduate and graduate students. If you are an undergrad here or at Rider but live in town, PM me and I can tell you who to contact about that. (I don't participate- I would have had I known when I first got here- but I now know the grad student who leads it)
There's also a volunteer ambulance and rescue squad. They do everything from EMT work to rescuing people who take a dip in Lake Carnegie in the winter.
More locally for many NYC folks, I believe Hoboken has a volunteer ambulance corps as well.
Basically wanted to be Tony Hawk.
Some combination of either a dinosaur breeder, or a scuba diver who takes the golf balls out of the water hazards.
An accountant. Serious.
Now? An entrepreneur in the energy sector (It'll happen).
A poet. I actually got my poems published but learned that most poets have depressions...
How do I get in on the racket that is being a low-profile, closet indexing PM?
I grew up wanting to be a Marine, so I shipped out right after I graduated high school and spent four years doing that! I realized it wasn't the life for me, so I got out and twirled my thumbs for while. Hard to figure out what you want to do in life when your initial dream job wasn't exactly dreamy but nevertheless rewarding.
MOS? What years were you in? Where'd you deploy? Don't mean to bombard your shit with questions.
5811 (MP) Served from 2000-2004. I was part of the initial invasion of Iraq and spent 9 months there. Were you in the service?
Lots of things seemed interesting/cool but I never really had a specific dream
Always wanted to be a writer. Actually came into college as an English/Comparative Lit. double major but that ended quickly...
Wanted to be a cop. Little bit late to join the police academy, but I guess I could sign up with the FBI...
NBA basketball player
After growing up, I thought to myself why not own the damn thing so now it is NBA team owner
I wanted to be an astronaut. Made the wrong career choice (trading) and now I am bankrupt.
Outside of the obvious sexy choices (President, Pokemon Master, International Soccer Phenom, Renowned Singer-Songwriter, etc), I always wanted to be a paleontologist, until I realized there is no money or future in dinosaurs.
Inventor. I owned Leggos and k'nex.
Secret spy daydreaming to be a pilot. DANGERRRR ZONEEEEE
Dinosaur
honestly, i wanted to work in pizza delivery
Fighter pilot. Hands down. Met a few Navy jet pilots and Army helicopter pilots along the way. Seemed pretty happy with their stuff.
I always wanted to live in a van with seven dogs for some reason. Then I got greedy and wanted to have two vans and hook them up end-to-end. Downward spiral from there...
Also went through a weird mortician phase.
Spider-Man
I know that feel bro
Crazy how many people on here wanted to become a pilot. That was my dream since I was probably 4 and I got a picture book on how a 747 is made. Then I realized how shitty being a commercial pilot was so I decided I would just find a job that paid enough so that I could fly on my own time. I still semi regret not joining the airforce.
First baseman.
Coulda done flight contract in Marines, but I'm kind of flaky and figured I'd screw something up, so I became a grunt instead.
MLB shortstop. Got close, but yet so far at the same time.
I wanted to be Ron Jeremy
Weapon tester for the USAF. There's still time...
In some sort of chronological order: pro hockey player, fighter jet pilot, pro baseball player, screenwriter, lawyer.
I forgot to put on a belt today. My day is fucked.
Director. Screenwriter. Something creative.
Race car driver. Not in the NASCAR sense though. After seeing movies like 'Smokey and the Bandit' and 'The Gumball Rally' I thought that driving fast cross country was the coolest thing ever.
Still do. Driving in a bullrun rally or gumball rally is definitely high on my bucket list.
My freshman year of high school I knew what I wanted; it was very much like finding the holy grail, the true calling for my life: I wanted to become an investment banker. I wanted to go through the certified path of becoming a zillionaire, BX/GS (TMT) M&A-> HSW B-School- KKR/Carlyle/BX partner in 4 years!!!
Astronaut. But then I discovered motion sickness.
As a follow-up to my original post, I think it's important to note that, as they say, careful what you wish for. When things go awry as a fighter pilot, the shit really hits the fan. The following video isn't the best quality and it's kind of hard to follow what's going on, but it's fucking terrifying. The crazy stuff starts around 3 minutes in.
//www.youtube.com/embed/2uh4yMAx2UA
To provide a bit of context, the video is footage from the heads-up display of Major Emmett 'ET' Tullia's F-16 Falcon (callsign Stroke-3) as his squadron flies a combat sortie over downtown Baghdad as part of the Package Q Strike on January 19, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm. The mission is poorly organized and the flight of 12 bomb-laden Falcons finds themselves flying without any air cover over Baghdad, at the time the most heavily defended airspace in the Middle East in terms of anti-aircraft missile batteries and flak guns.
As the pilots come under increasingly intense fire, a jettison call is heard over the radio, ordering the pilots to drop their ordnance to facilitate improved maneuvering to better dodge the anti-aircraft barrage, but Stroke-3 holds onto his and is able to release bombs over the target, an oil refinery, before he has to evade more SAM's launched his way. You can hear the rapid beeping of his avionics (radar lock) and the flat tone (missile launch) multiple times throughout the video, and also the labored breathing as he pulls numerous high-G turns to get away from the missiles. Two of his wingmen are shot down and become POW's, having to spend 45 days in Hussein Hilton before they are turned over to the Red Cross.
And for all his efforts, he's awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross. I'm pretty sure I would've fucked up pretty badly if I was in his shoes, so I guess it's good that I never went that route. These guys are just on another level and I'm glad they're up there raining hell on the enemy and protecting us.
jesus...
Plastic surgeon for big celebrities (no joke).
I wanted to be a professional poker player. I still do, and I'm thinking that I might not get into trading after all if I think that there's viability in a poker career for me by the time I graduate despite the governmental regulations impeding that prospect. You get to travel the world, work a lot less hours relative to most people working regular jobs, enjoy talking to people if you're playing live, set your own schedule, etc.
Great cruise video.
The Maces (VFA-27) are a legit squadron. Single seat, which is all that counts. None of those 'double-anchor' posers to be found. Well produced video and brought back some good memories. It was good to see the old '73' Hull number out there on the GW. Got my first ever trap on that boat back in '04. First night trap came a year later on the Nimitz.
Made me miss the flying business for a hot minute, but when you have all the back seat guys around it kind of poisons that old-school strike fighter environment.
I love my banking job too much to go back to that.
Nah, stewardesses have a useful function
Haha my dream job was to be a lawyer. I loved the idea of being paid to argue. Once I saw the amount of paperwork that is involved I was out.
I dreamed of being a rich businessman as a kid. On USA Network, I saw Wall Street for the first time at about 12 or 13 years old. Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox.
Stay-at-home Dad.
hmmmm first it was a Marine Biologist, wanted to explore the final frontier (on Earth). Then a football player, then an adult movie director. Then I just wanted to be rich didn't care how... now I just want to make more money than my wife.
steve irwin
scuba diver
If money wasn't an issue, I would have become a philosopher.
To be a professional football manager.
When I was 8, I remember wanting to wear suits every day and have a corner office in a NYC skyscraper.
Billionaire PE fund entrepreneur and PT Playgirl model.
History Professor
Food network producer, think about the company snacks.
professional hockey player since day one. Started playing when i was 4 and have been in love with the game ever since. Unfortunately I made a few bad decisions with the sport (ie. not playing travel at an early age) and it didn't pan out, but i'd love to work for a professional team as a manager or some shit later in my life when I have enough money not to give a shit.
I wanted to go into automotive design. I got accepted to two of the most well known design schools in the country when it was time for college. Unfortunately I was broke and impressionable so I caved in to my inner nerd and majored in math and finance instead.
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