Question

What careers did early astronauts have before they were astronauts?

Answer 1

In the old days, when space travel was mainly about flying the spacecraft and getting home safely with science a far lower priority, the astronauts were mostly military combat and test pilots. Now, most of them are multi-disciplinary scientists or engineers or both, with a significant plurality coming from the military combat pilot and test pilot communities. Think of space travel as a scientific expedition to a distant land on Earth—you need a few people to drive the boat and serve as guides as you go overland, but most of the expedition is going to consists of the naturalists, anthropologists, geologists, and the other scientists whose research is the purpose of the expedition in the first place.