From early ambition to real careers: how aspirations change over time

A recent national survey by the Careers & Enterprise Company, which gathered responses from more than 233,000 young people, reveals the UK’s most popular job aspirations today and how they changed from year 7 through to year 11. Alongside this, we carried out a small straw poll at Pinnacle, asking colleagues to reflect on the jobs they dreamed of at 11 (year 7) and where they are now.

Together, the results paint a fascinating picture of how early ambition, reality, and opportunity intertwine.

“I wanted to be a vet,” says our Marketing Programme Manager, Chloe Bennett. “But then I saw someone perform surgery on a dog in a TV show, and it put me off. I knew I didn’t want to cut living things open, but I wanted to be helpful, so I chose teaching.”

What today’s young people want to be
The Careers & Enterprise Company’s survey reveals that young people’s career aspirations are strongly shaped by visibility and familiarity. Roles such as doctors, teachers, sports professionals and creatives continue to dominate the top 10 job choices, reflecting what young people see around them in everyday life, the media and school.

What’s striking is not just the popularity of these roles, but how narrow the range of aspirations often is, especially when compared to the wide variety of career options that exist across modern industries like design, construction, property and consultancy.

Ellie Hughes, Pinnacle’s Digital Lead, explains that her own options felt limited at the age of 11. “I wasn’t aware of the breadth of opportunities that existed,’ she says. ‘I wanted to do something creative and thought of becoming a chef, but as I moved through school, I realised that other paths were available. I enjoyed Design & Technology and studied Digital Media Arts at university.”

What our people dreamed of
Our internal survey revealed something refreshingly human: very few of us followed a straight line from childhood dream to adult job title, and that’s a good thing.

Claire Patey, our Head of Marketing, was inspired by Baywatch to become a lifeguard. “Sitting in my living room in grey, cold Belfast, I couldn’t imagine anything more glamorous than bounding down the white sands of a Californian beach,” she says.

Next, she set her sights on PR because she believed it was about buzz and bright lights, but a job at Camp America helped her see that she loved working with kids. At Pinnacle, she brought her passion for improving children’s lives to their learning spaces.

Among the roles our team dreamed of at the age of 11 (year 7) were:
- Architect
- Vet
- Journalist / Broadcaster
- Professional runner
- Football kit designer
- Police officer
- Carpenter
- Lifeguard
- Illustrator

Fast forward to today, and those same people are now thriving as interior designers, marketing leaders, business development professionals, design consultants and project specialists at Pinnacle.

While the job titles changed, the core interests didn’t disappear. Creativity, problem-solving, working with people, storytelling and design thinking all show up again – just in different forms.

Ellie explains: “Throughout every stage of my career, one constant remained: I have always asked, ‘Why do we do it like this?’ That curiosity is what led me into Business Improvement. Children endlessly ask ‘why?’ until they’re encouraged to stop. I never really did. I’ve learned how to turn that curiosity into something practical – helping organisations understand themselves better and find more effective ways of working.”

What changed? Exposure, experience and opportunity
For many people, the shift wasn’t about giving up on a dream, but about discovering options they didn’t know existed.

At school, roles like “interior designer”, “design QA assistant” or “marketing programme manager” aren’t careers most children hear about. Yet these roles combine many of the same skills that early ambitions were rooted in – creativity, structure, communication and curiosity.

This is exactly why early, meaningful careers education matters. When young people are exposed to a broader range of careers and real-life career stories, their aspirations don’t shrink; they expand.

Our Design Consultant, Melissa Aitken, spent her childhood drawing and painting while also building obstacle courses for her hamster. She went on to gain a degree in interior architecture, followed by a postgraduate qualification in interior design.

Her experience was then broadened by a role working for the railway. “I was a welfare officer,” she explains. “I had to look out for terror threats or people in a bad mental state. I was always encouraged to do a job that I loved, and it makes sense that I’m now doing a design job that has a huge impact on young people – how they learn and the choices they make.”

Why this matters
Our straw poll mirrors the national picture: ambition is there, but awareness is often limited. By sharing real career journeys – including the twists, detours, and unexpected opportunities - young people can see there is no single ‘right’ path and that success rarely looks the way we imagine it at 11 or 16.

Because it’s impossible to know what you’ll end up doing in year 7 or 11, learning spaces must be flexible and varied enough to encourage children to explore options creatively. Then, careers aren’t just something young people dream of; they’re a result of discovery and experience.