• Question: @What was your dream job when you was younger like what do you want to be when you grew up?

    Asked by GeorgeP on 19 Nov 2025.
    • Photo: Melissa Upjohn

      Melissa Upjohn answered on 19 Nov 2025:

      I originally thought I wanted to work in Finance, although I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of job specifically – I did A Levels in Maths, French and German and my first degree was Banking & International Finance. I then spent ten years working in investment banking/management consulting/corporate finance – where my aptitude for maths was super useful in understanding things like derivatives and how to use them for financial risk management. But eventually I realised that this wasn’t making me happy, so I went back to school to study Biology and Chemistry A Levels and applied to do a veterinary medicine degree. The languages are still helpful (I recently did a project based in Senegal, for which it was super useful to speak/read/understand French) and I use maths for understanding statistics which is important for analysing certain types of research data. So I came the ‘squiggly’ route to doing the job I do now, I didn’t know this kind of job existed when I was at school!

    • Photo: Sinead Eley

      Sinead Eley answered on 19 Nov 2025:

      I always wanted to be an illustrator when I was younger. I absolutely loved art and anything creative. Although I’ve ended up going into research, I still take any opportunity possible to do something creative – whether that be making an aesthetic PowerPoint or creating diagrams and visuals for my research, so I’ve been lucky and able to incorporate two goals in one!

    • Photo: CIARA HURLEY

      CIARA HURLEY answered on 21 Nov 2025:

      I wanted to be a scientist of some sort but never really decided fully, even when I had to choose a uni course. I always kept my options open in school – in Y9 I chose triple science and maths, at A-Level I chose science & maths, then at Uni I chose Physics which specialised in medical applications, which used a lot of maths, biology and chemistry too. I then used this to do a completely different Master’s degree in Instrumentation & Control Engineering and now work on electrical & control systems. So really if you don’t know, just keep those options open and choose later! It is never too late to change your mind.

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