Everybody is aspired and inspired in different ways in life. Only very view know from a young age what they want their life to look like, however, most are wandering around and following paths they got to know from parents, relatives, friends, role models, or whoever might has had influenced your horizon.
I truly admire people who chose something and stick to it. Never question anything (like real career change). And most importantly...
are happy with their chose.
About my career choices so far
On paper I guess my resumé looks similar. I studied economics with corporate finance, worked alongside accounting and am now supporting M&A transactions by doing financial due diligences. It's an easy enough story to tell.
Which by the way is the singular important thing about your resumé. You need to be able to sell it properly and specifically to the vacancy you are applying to. Whenever I hold interviews with graduates and their story does not has a silver lining and is in itself providing reasoning why we're having this interview in the first place it is a serious red flat. Mostly, because introducing yourself and stating your motivation is key. I guess especially in a demanding job as in M&A, where you have long hours and managers can be quite though on you - it is not the money that brings you though these projects but motivation to learn and bring yourself forward in the finance world or whatever it is for you :).
Back to how I really ended up in M&A. The truth is, I've worked some years before going to university and while I was intrigued by economics (2008/9 really impacted by teenage years), I also was way to afraid of going for any science degree as I felt not prepared mathematically. I felt strongly for psychology or political science, however, I felt career options would be rather limited looking at amount of students and pay for sure is worse then econ or finance.
Looking for a challenge
After University, I wanted a job that challenges me and where I could learn a lot. As I always was decent in accounting & finance topics it was streight forward to prefer M&A over management or strategy consulting. Which I don't regret at all. While management consulting may pay better salaries, hours are usually comparable while I don't really know many people that find management consultating eventually that interesting and value-adding (generally speaking from my experiences).
Given the nature of the consulting industry, I as most don't intend to stay for a consulting career. Consequently, the question of when to leave and where to is ubiquitous.