30% of Canadians Have Their Childhood Dream Job, LinkedIn Says

LinkedIn this week released data about the most popular childhood dream jobs. And the numbers paint a surprisingly rosy picture.

As part of its “Dream Jobs” study, LinkedIn surveyed more than 8,000 professionals to find out the most common childhood career aspirations and how many professionals currently have their dream job.

The survey found that the top childhood dream job for men in Canada is engineer (7.3%), followed by doctor (6.6%), and professional athlete (6.3%), which actually tied with both astronaut and pilot. For women, teacher dominated at 17.3%, with doctor ranking second again at 10.2%, following by writer at 9%.

The good news is that 30% of Canadians say they either currently have their childhood dream job or work in a career related to their childhood dream job. Professionals who said they don’t have their childhood dream job were most likely to cite, “As I got older, I became interested in a different career path,” as the primary reason they work in an unrelated field (43.5%).

SEE ALSO: Virtually All Canadians Want to Work from Home

“The dream jobs we aspire to as children are a window into our passions and talents,” said Nicole Williams, LinkedIn’s career expert. “Identifying and understanding those passions are key to improving our performance and enjoyment of the jobs we currently do, even if they aren’t specific to the careers we dreamed of as kids.”

More than 70% of the global professionals surveyed said that the most important characteristic of a dream job is “taking pleasure in your work.” Only 6% cited “high salary” as most important.

Fun fact: there are 25 astronauts on LinkedIn in Canada.Perform content is delivered to you by the Techvibes Job Board.