As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

197 answers answered between 1930 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A

Originally asked

The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Claim your address

On the record

Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 2 Arts and letters 165 Politics and public life 14 Business and finance 4 Technology 1 Sport 10

Read by age Any age Before thirty 3 In their thirties 33 In their forties 36 In their fifties 50 In their sixties 43 Seventy and beyond 25

Mario Molina Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995

For me, it was just a thrill. I just remember thinking at that time, this is the sort of thing I would like to do, if I could. I did not come from a family of scientists. My father was a lawyer, my older brother was a lawyer.

Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Sun Valley, Idaho, 29 June 1996 source ↗

Shinya Yamanaka Stem cell biologist; Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, 2012

I was born in Osaka, Japan. It was 45 years ago. My father has a small factory in Osaka, and we lived next to his factory

Recorded Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, 2008 source ↗

1 answer from members

Ali Abbasi builder

I always wanted to be a pilot

As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

On the record

1 answer from members

More on identity & self