If you force a kid to pick, they'll just pick something that they know. I agree with you, but I don' think you and klein are all that far apart: most kids don't have dream careers, and the rest only know what they want because they have no worldly context to understand the impracticalities of "Being whatever you want!". As a kid, I felt aware of the fact that I had no fucking idea how the world worked. I just didn't have a mind that could understand the concept of a career. I liked construction vehicles because they're big, yellow, and Bob the Builder seems like a swell guy. Maybe six-year-old mudsy was destined for a construction job? Most adults know that their dream job doesn't exist, isn't hiring, pays for shit, or is a null answer. Most people won't ever have a calling towards a specific career, because at the end of the day, your job will never love you.