Career Not Taken

Krang: Ooh, you have a way with words, Shredder.
Shredder: Well, actually, I always wanted to be a writer. Being a ruthless conqueror was my second choice.

— Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), "Take Me to Your Leader"

Alice always wanted to be a professional cement mixer. She could take up the profession any time she wanted, but in the meantime being Mayor of Everytown, America will have to do. They've got to keep the lights on somehow.

The Career Not Taken is often used as a tool to reveal a character's Hidden Depths through a hobby or alternative career choice they could have taken but didn't. They'll have their current job instead of their other dream job because either their current career is too important to just up and leave (like a superhero or Frontier Doctor), the other job is flagrantly impossible (like becoming the King of Space or a Tech Bro who's as smart as they think they are), they have physical or mental hangups that keep them from trying (like a learning disorder or a Career-Ending Injury), are held down by societal factors (poverty or a criminal record) or because their parents didn't think it would pay well and kept them from pursuing it. Or maybe their recruiter lied to them and they fell for it.

Expect for the other dream job to be artistic in nature, like a painter or a sculptor or a writer, since Most Writers Are Writers. Half the time, such alternative dream jobs will be mocking in nature, like a cartoon character having dreams of becoming a professional animator and getting mocked for it. The other half will end with Pursue the Dream Job, learning that life is too short to waste their lives at their current job.

Compare Follow Your Heart, Living Out a Childhood Dream, and Wrong Line of Work. Contrast I Coulda Been a Contender!. Sister Tropes include Only in It for the Money and Signed Up for the Dental. See also A Degree in Useless and Expert in Underwater Basket Weaving.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Oshi no Ko: Mem-Cho, like several other cast members, wanted to be an Idol Singer as a teenager and managed to get pretty far into an audition process. Unfortunately, at that point, her Struggling Single Mother ended up in the hospital from exhaustion, so Mem dropped out of high school and started working, managing to put her brothers through college. By the time she came up for air, she was 23, making her "over the hill" by idol standards, and ended up becoming a popular livestreamer instead. During the fourth Story Arc, she gets a second chance at an idol career when Ruby ropes her into helping her revive B Komachi.
• Many characters in Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead had a career path they wanted to take, but were unable to do to restrictions imposed on them by society in one form or another: Akira wanted to be a superhero when he was a kid, but wound up doing blackwork at an exploitative company; Kencho wanted to be a stand-up comedian, but worked in real estate job because it paid better; Shizuka wanted to be a doctor, but became an accountant for her domineering father; Akira's father Tenruo wanted to be an astronaut, but wasn't academically inclined enough to do it and stayed as a farmer in his home village, and so on. Since society has basically collapsed thanks to the Zombie Apocalypse, many of these characters decide to live out their dreams with this fresh start.

Comedy

• Suzy Eddie Izzard sometimes jokes about the fact that she thought about joining the army before becoming a stand-up comedian, but she prefers the make-up she wears in her current job: "The army's only got that 'night-time' look, which is a bit slap-dash for me."

Comic Books

• Acts of Vengeance: When Doctor Doom learns that Typhoid Mary targeted the Power Pack and almost killed their father, he's beside himself with fury at the thought that she'd almost robbed a group of young, impressionable children of their father. He himself muses that had his own father lived, Doom might've followed in his footsteps and become a medical doctor whose skills would've been used for good as opposed to the dictator and would-be world conqueror he is now. Typhoid Mary expresses amusement at this uncharacteristic melancholy, mocking Doom for being a softy at heart (but wisely leaving before Doom shakes himself out of his fugue and atomises her for her insolence).
• Runaways: In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), one issue sees Nico forced to have a business lunch with the spirit that inhabits her Staff of One in order to renegotiate the terms of their agreement. Nico expresses a desire to be done with the whole business, as she had wanted to be a fashion designer, but has been stuck doing magic because the Staff is bound to her family and the only way to break the agreement is to release the spirit, who has made it very clear that he'll just go back to doing evil if he's released.

Comic Strips

• Zits has Jeremy and his father attend a concert by Jeremy's favorite musicians Gingivitis. While Jeremy looks for a way to get backstage for an autograph, Walt meets the band's two frontmen loading their equipment into a truck. Walt learns from them that Gingivitis would rather study dentistry, but dental school is expensive, so they tour as a rock band to scare enough funds together to cover tuition.

Fan Works

• A Game of Cat and Cat: An omake shows what Agent Cowboy gave up by signing up with the agency right out of high school, a promising and stable future, instead of his current risky government job.
• "The Road Not Taken" is an Alternate Universe Fic of Bait and Switch (STO) where Kanril Eleya stayed in the Bajoran Militia rather than transferring to Starfleet in From Bajor to the Black and re-trained as a security officer (one of the possibilities From Bajor suggested when the Militia Space Arm was shut down), becoming chief of security on Deep Space 9 by the story's present instead of captain of the USS Bajor.

Films — Animation

• Antz: Z is a worker ant, but he wants to be a soldier instead because soldiers "get all the glory" and they get to "meet interesting insects" (even if they do kill them afterwards). Unfortunately, in ant society, people are given jobs the moment they're born and can't switch.
• Igor: The protagonist has always wanted to be an evil scientist, but can't because he was born with a hunch, and in the town he's from, all boys born with hunches are legally required to become servants to the scientists instead, hence his name.
• In Kung Fu Panda, Po (who himself dreams of being a Kung-Fu master) asks his adoptive father Ping whether he ever wanted to do anything else with his life besides running a noodle shop.
  Ping: Actually, when I was young and crazy, I used to dream about making tofu!
  Po: So, why didn't you?
  Ping: Because it was a stupid dream. Can you imagine me making tofu? (laughs to himself, clearly remorseful, before he suddenly slams his cleaver into a chopping board) No! We all have our place in this world!
• Megamind: During the latest tussle between the Card-Carrying Villain Megamind against the Flying Brick hero Metro Man, Metro Man has a crisis of purpose, no longer finding fulfillment in thwarting supervillains. Instead, Metro Man fakes his demise at Megamind's hands, and "finally [embraces his] true power" by becoming a folk singer.
• Monsters University establishes that Mike Wazowski, an assistant to a scarer (someone who scares children at night for a living), initially wanted to be a scarer himself, but was just too nonthreatening. In a way, he actually gets to live out his dreams when Sully takes Monsters, Inc. in a new direction (getting power from laughter instead of screams) and Mike becomes a comedian.
• Ratatouille: Remy, a rat, is a "poison checker" (someone who smells food and determines if it's poisoned), but wants to cook for humans instead. He eventually gets his dream upon befriending a human restaurant employee named Linguini.
• Robots: Rodney's father, when encouraging his son to follow his dream, mentions that he originally wanted to be a musician before his own dad had him become a dishwasher out of fear of not having a stable career and that he, while happy with his life, always said that he would follow his dream if he could do it all again.
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): Hermey is an elf who, like all elves, works at Santa's workshop. However, his dream is to be a dentist, and he practices dentistry on toy dolls instead of fulfilling his elf duties. Every elf finds his dream ridiculous (some don't even seem to know what a dentist is) and Hermey quits out of frustration. After successfully saving the town from the abominable snowman by pulling out all its teeth, Hermey begins practicing dentistry.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Abyss there is a conversation hinting at boxing, sure enough, later in the film, Catfish is shown to be a pretty competent fighter:
  Hippy: These guys are SEALS?
  Catfish: Eh. These guys ain't so tough. I fought guys plenty tougher'n them.
  Hippy: Now we get to hear how you "coulda been a contender"? [pours cereal down his back]
  Catfish: [strikes back with hat] Hey, you see this? *shows fist* they used to call this The Hammer!
• Flashdance: Alex Owens works as a welder on a construction crew, and keeps in practice dancing at Mawby's bar. She has dreams of dancing at the Pittsburgh Repertoire Company, but her self-doubt hampers her efforts to try out. Even when her boyfriend Nick wrangles an audition for her, Alex throws a tantrum, certain that she'll be ridiculed and rejected as a bumbly-stumbly tyro.
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch: Grandpa Fred is working as a cheesy Horror Host in the studio section of Clamp Building, but admits to Billy that he imagined he'd be working as a reporter when he was young instead of playing with cartoon bats. The Gremlin take-over of the building gives him an opportunity to provide first-hand coverage of the rampage.
• Muppet Treasure Island: One verse of the song "Professional Pirate" features four of Long John Silver's crewmates thinking about careers they could have taken besides piracy:
  "I could have been a surgeon, I LIKE TAKING THINGS APART!"
  "I could have been a lawyer, but I just had too much heart."
  "I could have been in politics, 'cause I've always been a big spender."
  "And me? I coulda been a contender."
• The Natural: New York Knights manager Pop Fisher is introduced lamenting that he should've taken his mother's advice and become a farmer, instead of the manager of a dead-end, consistently losing team. Before the league pennant game, hero Roy Hobbs overhears this and reminisces at length to Fisher about having grown up on a farm.
  Fisher: I didn't care nothing about the Series. Win or lose, I would have been satisfied. I'd have walked away from baseball and I'd have bought a farm.
  Roy: Nothing like a farm. Nothing like being around animals, fixing things. There's nothing like being in the field with the corn and the winter wheat. The greenest stuff you ever saw.
  Fisher: You know, my mother told me I ought to be a farmer.
  Roy: My dad wanted me to be a baseball player.

Franchises

• G.I. Joe:
  • Roadblock's first choice of work was culinary in nature, as he wanted to be a chef. However, he was convinced to join the army when a recruiter pointed out that he could train to be one while serving. He's considered quite the cook, with even COBRA grunts being aware of his skill in the kitchen, but he sticks with the Joes because he feels a sense of responsibility for his fellow Joes. And to make sure they actually get good stuff to eat.
  • Gridiron was a fairly successful American football player, but he joined the Joes out of a sense of patriotism and loyalty. He'd like to go back to the sport, but he feels he does more good as part of the Joes.
• Transformers:
  • The Technobot Lightspeed is considered The Ace by quite a few Autobots, due to being intelligent, tough, skilled, and (by Cybertronian standards) quite handsome. His abilities make him highly effective in his role as a data processor and courier, but secretly what he really wants is to be a space explorer. He accepts that his dream of being rebuilt with a starship mode is unlikely so long as the war is going on, and so channels his energies into his work.
  • The Monster Pretender Slog is a sophisticated, erudite individual who was initially recruited by the Decepticons to produce works of art depicting the rise of the Decepticon empire. However, when it was realised that his skills made him a more than capable warrior, he soon found himself on the battlefield making "masterpieces" out of his Autobot enemies. ^note These experiences caused him to no longer be quite as enthusiastic a supporter as he once was, and he became disturbed by the sheer loss of life to the point he began holding underground art shows using the corpses of fallen combatants, leading to an antiwar movement known as Slogism. He'd love to just stick to being an artist, but considering he's too good a warrior to waste and is also part of the combiner Monstructor, there's not much chance of that.
  • Throughout IDW Publishing's Transformers comic continuity, it's heavily suggested that Optimus Prime disliked having to become leader of the Autobots. The Chains of Commanding weighed heavily on him, and in "The Death of Optimus Prime", he leapt at the chance to give up his name and title to revert to his original name of Orion Pax. Other material suggests that part of this is because he was quite happy simply being Orion Pax: Super Cop, where he felt like he was actually making a change in people's lives. It's not hard to understand why: in Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, the more Tailgate hears about Orion Pax from people who knew him, the more he thinks Orion was crazy awesome ^note  When Orion Pax appears in a flashback diving down upon a fleeing flier, Tailgate demands to know where Orion came from, only to be told that Orion had a habit of appearing unexpectedly just when he's most needed, and has his mind blown when he finally learns Orion became Optimus. As Autobot leader, Optimus pretty much had no choice but to spend much of his time ordering his troops to their deaths, because the sheer scale of the conflict led to A Million Is a Statistic.

Literature

• In A Damsel in Distress by P. G. Wodehouse, Lord Marshmoreton wanted to be a fruit farmer in Canada, before the deaths of his uncle and cousin left him with the duties of running the family estate.
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Dobbins initially wanted to be a doctor but medical school was too expensive. Instead, he became a schoolteacher, sometimes reading an anatomy book to remind himself of his dreams.
• In One-Shot Toothpaste by Paul Jennings, Dr. Binn has a shtick where if his patient is a child, he'll ask them what they want to be when they grow up. When they tell him, he'll claim he wanted to have that job too when he was a child. If the kid asks him why he's a dentist instead, he tells the story of how he allegedly became one (he stopped a Mad Scientist who did abusive Animal Testing trying to invent a toothpaste that is only needed once).
• Reign of the Seven Spellblades: In the story's present, Oliver Horn Cannot Tell a Joke. Volume 5 reveals he was once very good at it and wanted to be a comedian when he grew up, but the Training from Hell he went through to be able to house a Soul Fragment of his mother and take revenge on her murderers caused him to permanently lose the part of his soul that housed his sense of comedic timing.
• In The Stormlight Archive, Kaladin spends a lot of time lamenting the fact that he threw away his chance of becoming a surgeon in order to follow his little brother Tien to war. He thought he could protect Tien, but Tien ended up dead anyway, and Kaladin ended up on a much darker path.

Live-Action TV

• Bodyguard (UK 2018): When asked what he wanted to be as a child, David says that he actually wanted to be a doctor, but his family had neither the money nor connections to get him into the proper schools for that, so he went into the military instead. After returning from his tour of duty, he found that military veterans were highly sought after by civilian law enforcement agencies. Not having any other skill set, he signed up and was assigned to protection services.
• The Brittas Empire:
  • Carole currently works as a receptionist in Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. However, in "Mums and Dads", she confides to Laura that she had always wanted to become a pianist, but was forced to give up the piano when her parents, who wanted her to become a wife, sold it to afford beauty classes for her. Her Earn Your Happy Ending in "In the Beginning..." reveals that she does eventually manage to become an international pianist.
  • Jim Brittas worked as a night watchman before his move into sheltered accommodation. However, he reveals to Laura and Helen that he had always wanted to become an astrologist, being forced to change careers when his parents refused to let him take further classes.
• One episode of The Drew Carey Show sees Drew avoiding a fatal accident because he was kept late at work and missed his carpool. This reminds Drew that he once contemplated becoming a priest, and he spends the episode exploring whether that's still something he's interested in. After managing to counsel a woman through a difficult spiritual crisis by using his current position as an HR manager to offer her a job, he decides that he can do more good for people in his current job than he could as a priest.
• Friends: In Richard's first episode, he's hosting a dinner party where he complains to Monica that his guests are all boring ophthalmologists. When she points out that he's an ophthalmologist, he says, "only because my parents wanted me to be! I wanted to be a sheriff!"
• In Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Det. Zack Nichols originally went to college to become a doctor but ultimately became a cop instead. He has also sometimes mentioned his regrets about not becoming a pianist.
  Nichols: I wanted to be a pianist. Now look at me. I'm a cop who can bang out a tune or two at a party. I should have listened to my wife. I didn't need the paycheck that badly.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus:
  • The famous lumberjack sketch is usually established as one, the Michael Palin character (most often either a homicidal barber or the pet-shop owner from the "Dead-Parrot" Sketch) admitting that they would have preferred to be a lumberjack to their current job.
  • One of the characters in the "Dead Parrot" sketch is a railway attendant. When Mr Praline (the owner of the titular dead parrot) tries to make a complaint to him, he blurts out that he doesn't have to do this job, he's a qualified brain surgeon, and he only works for the railway because they let him be his own boss.
• The Office (US): Much of Pam's early series angst stems from her desire to be an artist and her disappointment that she took her current secretary job rather than pursuing it. Eventually she does go to art school, but ultimately decides that it isn't for her and sets her sights on becoming a saleswoman instead.
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In one episode, Dr. Bashir says that he tried to be a professional tennis player once, but it didn't work out, so he became a doctor instead.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Unification: Part II", Sela comments that she likes writing and she doesn't get to do enough of it in her current position. Data suggests that maybe she'd be happier in another position.
• White Collar: In an episode revolving around a robbery attempt at Yankee Stadium, Peter reminisces with Jones about his old dreams of becoming a Major League pitcher.

Music

• Dave Matthews Band opens "Dancing Nancies" with the questions "Could I have been a parking lot attendant? Could I have been a millionaire in Bel Air?"

Puppet Shows

• Fraggle Rock: Played for Laughs in "The Thirty-Minute Work Week", after Marjory the Trash Heap mentions that she always wanted to be a fireman.
  Philo: So how come you didn't become a fireman, Marjory?
  Gunge: Yeah!
  The Trash Heap: Oh, I couldn't have. I don't even know how to start a fire.

Video Games

• Serious Sam 4: During the opening of the main campaign, Rodriguez, one of the main characters tells in a transmission what he could have been instead of a soldier.
  "Did I want to be a soldier? Fuck no. I coulda been a wrestler. Or a porn star. Or both."

Web Animation

• SuperThings: The episode “Basketball Match" reveals that Clowny, coach of the Hero Dunks basketball team, had grown up wanting to be a mime instead. Further context clues for him prove how much this path was the one he wanted to take: his casual wear is of mime clothing and makeup and, once he was ported to the toyline, his superhero ability gave him the ability to make anything he wanted, albeit invisible.

Web Video

• PopCross Studios: A Played for Drama example in Dr. Champagne McGreggor. He is a geneticist who worked at DinoCross Park, a parody of Jurassic Park, except with even more problems. His job was to create dinosaurs based on famous pop-culture characters for the entertainment of the park, but Champagne doesn't like dinosaurs or even know much about them. He always wanted to use his genetics skills to give people superpowers instead, but that's illegal in his world — whereas most of the dodgy things the DinoCross Park executives do isn't.

Western Animation

• A Running Gag with the The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius villain Beautiful Gorgeous has her almost admitting what she really wanted to do (revealed in "My Big Fat Spy Wedding" being putting aglets onto the ends of shoelaces) but her father Dr. Calamitous raised her to be a supervillain just like him.
• In Ben 10 episode "The Return", Ben is astonished to learn that his grandpa, Max, was once a candidate to become the first man on the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission. Max doesn't mind his lack of notoriety, as he took "his step for mankind in other ways" by becoming a Plumber who defended Earth from alien invasions instead.
• Bluey: Parodied in "Work", in which Bandit roleplays as a worker in a drainpipe factory who wanted to be a professional dancer instead and becomes one after being fired.
• BoJack Horseman: In "Chickens," the wife of the Gentle Farms farmer is deeply traumatized in her job, which entails drugging and killing other chickens for food. She confesses that her actual dream job is programming video games that help children learn math.
• Family Guy: Peter Griffin mentions that when he was younger he dreamed of being a podiatrist. At first this seems to be a set up to a Cutaway Gag, but Peter tells the audience that he was serious and that at one point in his life, he had hopes and dreams.
• Futurama:
  • Bender Bending Rodriguez is a bending unit who's good at bending girders and enjoys doing it (since he was literally built for it), but he's expressed multiple times that he dreams of becoming a Folk Musician, a dream he actually gets around to living out in "Bendin' in the Wind" and "Forty Percent Leadbelly".
  • On several occasions, Dr. Zoidberg has expressed a desire to be a vaudeville performer and comedian instead of a doctor. In fact, his doctorate is in art history. Flashbacks show he was pressured into being a doctor by his family, though they also guilt-tripped him for "giving up on his dream" when he did become a doctor. He does occasionally get involved in the arts, but it usually doesn't work out for him (though neither does being a doctor).
• The Loud House: Lynn Sr. starts off as an IT man, but "Job Insecurity" reveals that he always wanted to be a chef instead, and he changes jobs and becomes a dishwasher at a restaurant. As of "Cooked!", he succeeds in becoming a chef.
• In The Owl House episode "Sense and Insensitivity", Luz Noceda admits that she had always wanted to become a writer, her #1 dream — becoming an actual witch — having been a Tragic Dream before finding herself in the Boiling Isles and becoming a writer being the more realistic option. She technically fulfills that dream in the episode, though the novel she co-wrote was thoroughly butchered by King and he winds up taking the credit for the story when she disowns the finished draft.
• The Patrick Star Show: Patrick's mother Bunny works as a greeter for the local prison. However, in "The Patterfly Effect", she confesses to Patrick that she always dreamed of becoming a race car driver until she had children. This leads Patrick to go back in time to make her dream come true.
• Phineas and Ferb: Major Monogram became head of OWCA because the career ran in his family, but he really wanted to be an acrobat. To cope with this loss, he tries to pressure his own son, Monty, into being an acrobat, even though Monty actually wants to work at the agency.
• There's a Robot Chicken sketch where Mojo Jojo says that he wants a steady job, maybe own a pottery shop, but he's stuck in a life of crime now.
• The Simpsons:
  • Any longtime fan of the show will know that Homer Simpson absolutely loathes his job at the nuclear power plant, but he still works there mainly to support his family. In "And Maggie Makes Three", Homer finally proves to be financially stable enough to quit his job at the plant and work at his dream job, which is at a bowling alley. However, when celebrating, he and Marge get busy, and she gets pregnant. Although it's a tough decision, Homer eventually decides to go back to the nuclear power plant in order to financially provide for Maggie. He even has pictures of her around his station, and have them covered around a sign so that it reads "Do it for her".
  • Played for laughs in "Poppa's Got A Brand New Badge", as Marge tries to talk Fat Tony and his gang out of killing Homer.
    Marge: Fat Tony, how can you do this?
    Fat Tony: Sorry, but this is the business we've chosen.
    Marge: But you're just perpetuating a negative Italian-American stereotype! I mean; you could be a pizza-man, organ grinder, uh, Leaning Tower builder, and, uh... Did I say pizza-man?
    Fat Tony: (sheds a Single Tear) You are listing my broken dreams.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987): When Shredder monologues his Evil Plan to Krang in "Take Me to Your Leader", Krang admits that he has a way with words. Shredder then confesses that he had always wanted to be a writer.
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): At the end of the '87 crossover episode "The Big Blowout", the 87 turtles tell the Bebop and Rocksteady of their dimension that they don't have to be villains if they don't want to. Rocksteady admits that he's always wanted to be a personal injury lawyer, while Bebop "just [wants to] dance."

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