A new survey suggests that few IT managers are fulfilling their childhood dreams in their current roles.

IT staff were questioned at this year's Infosecurity show about what they perceived as their ideal professions when a child.

Only six per cent said that they had always wanted to work with computers. The most popular choice was airline pilot (14 per cent) followed by astronaut (nine per cent) and football player (eight per cent).

One respondent may have misunderstood the question as he said that he always wanted to be a seagull.

Tom Newton, product manager at SmoothWall, which sponsored the survey, said: "IT has always suffered an image problem, and those that wish to swell our ranks would rather be programmers or engineers.

"Today's network managers face a harder task than ever, so it comes as no surprise that at least one beleaguered soul would rather spread his wings and go nicking chips down the seafront."