Regrets, I've had a few...

[MarillionFan]

I always wanted to be a lumberjack.

[Jeff Maginty]

..

[nomadd]

What I'm getting at is what I studied but ended up in IT which I love anyway.

I have a degree in astronomy but never worked as an astronomer, a childhood dream fulfilled and still a bit of a hobby. If I could turn the clock back I'd probably have studied geology (my folks were very disappointed when I didn't do medicine), which I also have an interest in. Would it have made a difference to the career I ended up doing? Probably not but who knows?

If you could have the choice again would you be doing what you do now or would you have followed a different path?

Started life very, very poor. Single parent family too. Left school with no qualifications. Life was looking very grim.

Then I found the emergent world of the micro-computer (ZX80.)

And now, 27 years of IT later - the last 25 of which have been as a contractor - I have zero regrets.

Still, if I was starting over again today, I wouldn't recommend I.T. to any young person: far too easy to offshore, and too many Bobs onshore.

EDIT: My only dream job when I was a kid was to be a Stuntman.

[NickFitz]

When I was about eleven I found a book in the town library called Printing as a Hobby. It explained how to set type, and operate a manual press, and also other stuff to do with design and what have you. I was fascinated.

At about the same time I took the 11-plus and got a scholarship to a school that had its own press; but that wasn't available to me until I entered the Upper School at 13 and could join the Printing Club. I borrowed that book from the library many times, and knew all the terminology and apparatus, but I had no way of putting any of what I had learned to use.

Within a day of entering the Upper School I'd joined the Printing Club, and had quite impressed the senior boys who passed down their knowledge to new members with how much I knew before I even started. I should point out that the press wasn't just about the Printing Club: as the School Press it actually produced almost all printed materials used by the school, and had an Original Heidelberg 13×18 platen press:

although newbies were restricted to the Adana 8-5 manual presses:

very similar to the kind of press described in the book as a good machine to start out with.

At the same time - I think on the same day - I joined the Babbage Society. This was the fancy name for the computer society, and was based in the Computer Room, home to the PDP8/e. At that time the computer existed mainly for educational purposes, and only served the broader purposes of the school once or twice a year (for example, it was used to log the results of the annual house championship cross-country run in something fairly close to real time) whereas the press was of daily utility: one could earn free allowances of paper, ink, and such by giving up one's own time to (for example) set and print the programmes for a forthcoming school concert. (One Saturday afternoon I printed a number of tickets with duplicate numbers for a Sixth Form Disco, which I gave only to those I trusted; my one venture into counterfeiting.)

I split my free time between the press and the computer room throughout my time at school from the age of 13. (We got a couple of 6800-based microcomputers to replace the PDP8/e when I was in the Sixth Form.)

It was only many years later that I finally made the connection: both my hobbies were Information Technology.

To this day, I'm the only person I know who has gone from setting type in a composing stick to programming a computer - or vice versa - in the space of five minutes (the time it took to get from the press to the computer room). By doing that, my knowledge and experience spans Information Technology from the time of Johannes Gutenberg to the present day: 550 years worth, and counting.

So I'm probably doing the right thing by working with Information Technology

[mudskipper]

I've on the whole enjoyed my IT career, but it's not what I saw myself doing. I wanted to be a doctor - always had a fascination with medical stuff and would devour the family medical encyclopaedia from the age of about 7. Went off the rails a bit mid teens, had a truly crap science teacher and didn't bother with school much. Got meself knocked up at 16 which rather put paid to years of further full time study. In my twenties I looked into doing physiotherapy - I'd been doing some voluntary work with disabled kids and thought that might be the way to go. But I was already earning well in IT, and the physio payscales were a bit of a shock! So have stayed in IT, but not sure it will see me through another 20-25 years.

[NotAllThere]

The only thing I'd change would be in my early 20s - to not eat and drink so much, and exercise more. And probably go contracting earlier.

[LatteLiberal]

I'll pull the trigger for you, prick.

Lighten up, it was a joke. However reading the replies I think I was right after all...

[socialworker]

Marine Biologist.

[doodab]

I'd have worked a bit harder at Uni, and probably taken less drugs.

I'd have bought a house as soon as I could have after I got my first contract.

I'd have kept a lot of stuff I sold or threw away over the years. Actually, it seems like I have

There are two occasions where I've developed something that could have, with a bit of work, become a viable plan B.

No regrets about my chosen career path, I've enjoyed programming since I was a nipper, although I would prefer to be working on stuff I personally found interesting.

[evilagent]

I'm with the OP here, Astronomy if I could do it all again.
Only got into IT for the money, and cos I is technically minded, and I enjoy the puzzle-solving aspect of it.
Looking back, I didnt really put the effort into education, dropped out of college, etc.
Being of indian background, I am a massive disappointment to my parents for not being a doctor!
I reached a point in my contracting career where it was all variations of what I had done before, so felt it was all samey.
Thought about retraining into a new specific skill, but realised I knew enough about other technical skills I would try my hand at recruiting.
Love it, hate it, but good fun.

But, in a new life, astronomy. Or a writer.