• Question: did you know what you wanted to do when you were at school?

    Asked by daisytapp on 15 Jan 2020. This question was also asked by elliehodgkinz, md17, Lols.
    • Photo: Fiona Macfarlane

      Fiona Macfarlane answered on 15 Jan 2020:

      I didn’t think I wanted to be a mathematician. I wanted to be a fashion designer (even though I couldn’t draw), then I wanted to open a pottery studio, then in high school I thought I wanted to be a biology or chemistry teacher.

    • Photo: Samantha Durbin

      Samantha Durbin answered on 16 Jan 2020:

      When I was in primary school I think I wanted to be an author, not that I wrote any stories except in my head, and at secondary school I wanted to be a mathematican who did research and lectured in universities. I didn’t realise what I do was actually a career until about the third year of university.

    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 16 Jan 2020:

      I did from the age of 15 onwards! I knew i wanted to be a scientist – ideally a physicist doing astrophysics or quantum physics…

      I studied maths at university because i thought it would be helpful for physics (it was)… and i did end up doing a Masters degree in quantum physics (and then was told that all the bits i liked had been solved so I didn’t take it any further) and then a PhD in Space Physics and worked for a few years as a physicist… but then I wanted to do something a bit more related to the real world and so switched to my current job.

      However – lots of my friends (all now in their 40s) have changed careers several times in the last 20 years… and i still think i’ve got a career change in me!

Comments