Few workers reach their dream job

Fewer than a fifth of British workers are in the job they wanted while growing up, according to a survey.

Just 15% of people achieve their childhood ambitions of getting the job they always dreamed of, leaving 85% frustrated, according to the poll.

More than one in 10 men, 14%, said they had wanted to become a footballer as a boy, with airline pilot (11%) and soldier (7%) the next most popular careers.

Twenty per cent of women questioned chose nurse as their dream job, closely followed by teacher.

Politician was the least desirable career for both sexes - with only 1% choosing it as their dream job when they were a child.

The survey of 1,044 UK adults was carried out in May by Opinion Matters, for JCB Toughphones.

According to the poll, people from the North East are the least likely to realise their career dreams, with 93% of those questioned ending up in a different job from the one they had wanted as a child.

People from the South East are most likely to achieve their chosen career, with almost a fifth (19%) saying they had achieved their childhood ambitions.

Jason Kemp, of JCB Toughphones, said: "It's a shame most of us don't live out our career ambitions, but not everyone can be a professional footballer.

"At a time when teenagers across the nation are thinking about their futures, the new research shows that many of us take a career trajectory we weren't always expecting."