Top 10 dream jobs S'poreans wanted as children

SINGAPORE - Most Singaporean professionals wanted to be engineers and teachers when they were growing up, a LinkedIn survey has found.

The Dream Jobs study, which surveyed a total of 393 professionals in Singapore, found that most men wanted to be engineers when they were children, while most women dreamed of becoming teachers.

Less common were aspirations of becoming an astronaut, artist, a superhero, prince or princess.

Out of the 8,000 global respondents, nearly one in three stated that they were currently working in their dream job or a field related to it.

Almost half of the professionals who indicated that they were not in their dream job said that they had changed interests as they were growing up.

More than 70 per cent of the global professionals surveyed said that the most important characteristic of a dream job is "taking pleasure in your work."

Other important factors of working in one's dream job include "helping others" and "high salary".

Career Coach & Strategist at YourOwn360, Chan Ngee Key, said that childhood aspirations can be used to motivate workers to do better in their current jobs.

"We may not be working in our dream jobs, but that doesn't mean they should be discounted as childhood fantasies," he said.

"Think about what motivated those childhood aspirations, and instead, use those passions and talents to do better in your current job," he added.

LinkedIn also revealed that its Singapore members come from a variety of unconventional professions.

For example, the website has a total of 4,700 Singapore members who are fashion stylists, 255 wine/beer specialists, 115 geologists, 112 casino dealers, and two archaeologists.

ljessica@sph.com.sg