

What Is Your Dream Job? - macournoyer_
http://garyharan.com/2010/04/22/what-is-your-dream-job.html

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wallflower
I know a little kid who was the son of a family friend and who grew up to
become a smart young man and high school valedictorian. Jonathan said in his
valedictory address something insightful: "Work does not necessarily make you
happy but it may give you the means to be happy."

Don't put all your eggs in one basket, one dream job, one relationship. Treat
your job as a good friend, don't become too emotionally involved with it.
Don't just get a paycheck from your job - if you do, you are _underpaid_. Do
things outside of work. If you work with computers all day and you don't do
other stuff that does not involve computers, consider new hobbies that pertain
to interests. For example, if you like sexy iPhone app UIs like on
<http://wellplacedpixels.com>, consider going to an art gallery with friends
to see what kind of art is out there and why you like certain pieces of art.

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abyssknight
There's a running joke among my friends that I "can't hold down a job" more
than a year or two, and for completely different reasons than most. Reading
this post makes me wonder if that's why. I like changing things for the
better. Not necessarily because something is new, but more for the customers
and employees. Where I am now I can't do that, except in the smallest
increments. I feel like I have the potential to do so much, but the red tape
and flexibility just isn't helping.

~~~
illumin8
I changed jobs regularly about every 18 months for the first 10 years of my
career, for mainly the same reasons as you do. What I found was that I would
start a new job with a lot of hopeful optimism, immediately making huge
amounts of progress, impressing my co-workers and managers with my hard work
and new and improved approaches to problem solving. After 90% of the low
hanging fruit improvements had been implemented, the last 10% would be hung up
by red tape, unflexible co-workers, bad management, and the general suckitude
that almost every company has.

I would get frustrated and start looking for greener pastures. After doing
this for the first several years, I realized this approach was better as a
contractor than a full time employee. I did contracting for several more
years, until I found a company that just "sucked less" than the others I'd
worked for.

One thing you will learn as you have more experience: All companies suck to
work for (unless you started it yourself). Some just suck less than others.
Try to find one that you can at least tolerate the suckage. When I get bummed
out about idiotic co-workers, management that doesn't know what the hell
they're doing (example: no backup generators for a data center with $millions
in equipment), I just close my eyes and try to meditate on the six figure
salary and five figure annual bonus. That usually makes me forget how much it
might suck at the time. Oh, and the fact that I still get to play architect
and design some cool systems.

Good luck!

~~~
abyssknight
Thanks for the great advice. I've been considering breaking out and doing my
own contracting, and have done it before, but I'm in need of stability.
Hopefully I'll find that place that just 'sucks less' soon; it just hurts to
be in what others would consider 'the perfect job' and feel so empty. Good to
hear I'm not the only one that struggles with this.

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patio11
I think I've got my dream job, but three years ago I said the same thing about
the last job, and three years prior I said the same thing about the job before
that, so your guess is as good as mine what my dream job will be three years
from now.

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mchiasson
Please watch this inspiring video on youtube: Did You Know 3.0

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpEnFwiqdx8>

1:10 : The US Department of Labor estimates that today's learner will have
10-14 jobs by the age of 38

1:16 : 1 in 4 workers has been with their current employer for less than a
year. 1 in 2 has been there less than five years

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harry
<http://www.picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=86>

Pretty much sums it up!

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F_J_H
Maybe instead of a dream job, the question should be "what is your dream
life?"

Found this on "BetterExplained" a while back. It's about 3 minutes and well
worth it:

<http://www.neticons.net/music_life/>

I love the last line...

~~~
nfnaaron
Is something supposed to happen after "Click to Play?" I'm just staring at a
blue coffee cup stain.

(Linux, FF 3.5.9)

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lotharbot
One thing I liked about this article is that it's not about "working on
technology X" or "making a lot of money" or "having a great title", but about
challenge, learning, and passion.

I finally realized last year that my dream job is having a bunch of kids and
helping them grow into adults. In a way, it's not so different from Gary's
dream job.

~~~
justlearning
you sir, have balls of steel.

could you comment on how things have changed for you over the years? I matched
your dream job with _patio11_ 's comment : " _I think I've got my dream job,
but three years ago I said the same thing about the last job, and three years
prior I said the same thing about the job before that, so your guess is as
good as mine what my dream job will be three years from now._ "

~~~
lotharbot
I grew up as a smart kid with an aptitude for math and computers, much like my
dad and my oldest brother. Went through high school, college, and grad school
wavering between math and computer science, thinking some sort of math-with-
computers would be my dream job. During grad school I made my first big shift:
I realized I really liked teaching, and thought I might become a math teacher.

Shortly after, I participated in a program that paired me with a public school
teacher. I liked working with the kids, but I felt like I was out of my depth
(didn't have proper training to work in the classroom) and the teacher didn't
like me personally (my politics weren't acceptable to her.) Here, I made my
second big shift: I realized I liked teaching, but I didn't like schools,
either in terms of their structure or the prevailing politics.

I ended up burned out, left grad school, and got a low-paying job teaching in
an aerospace museum. Here, I had solid training, and nobody ever got on my
case about my political views. At first I was disappointed that I wasn't using
the skills I'd developed in grad school, and I began to envision some sort of
software/systems engineering position as my dream job (my wife is a systems
engineer.) Over time, I realized I didn't really care that much about the
specific math or engineering stuff I'd done, I just wanted to do something
worthwhile, and inspiring future generations was just as worthwhile as
building airplanes.

It was in this context that my wife and I started talking seriously about
having kids. Over the course of many months, we'd discussed all sorts of
strategies for avoiding child care -- me working 4 10's with her part time, or
both of us working 3 11's on alternating days, or all sorts of crazy schemes.
Eventually I realized: when we had this discussion, she was really
enthusiastic about her career, while I was really enthusiastic about kids. One
of us made the suggestion that she could work full time and I could watch the
kids, teach them, and be a "domestic engineer" (that is, create processes and
systems to run the household), and I realized we'd just described my dream
job.

So for me, it was a process of convergence -- several steps leading me closer
to the realization that this is what I want to do with my life. I don't think
it'll change in the same way patio11's dream job changes every 3 years (but
good call on citing that comment; it was what originally inspired me to
respond.)

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EliRivers
Unemployed, with just enough to magically pay the rent.

~~~
aoriste
I did that for the last 18 months and have recently taken a temp (6 month)
programming gig to amass some capital before I revert to crumbbumhood.

On the one hand - the professional slacker lifestyle is pretty brilliant: youu
sleep when you're tired, work on whatever you like, and you can finally get
that stack of books read.

On the other hand - the lifestyle can be somewhat isolating, especially so
when you find that everyone else is asleep when you're awake. It becomes too
easy to lose yourself in tangents, endlessly exploring to eternal infecundity.

So - while I agree - it is a great lifestyle - I make one small addendum: to
be "magically unemployed" along with two or three other persons whose
interests all overlap.

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TotlolRon
"It's not having what you want It's wanting what you've got" -- S. Crow

~~~
jfcouture
I like that quote. Also, sometimes, what you want is not what you need.
(that's also my philosophy when meeting with clients: even when they "know"
what they want, I try to find out what they really need)

