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Dream Job
Do any of you work at your dream job? How long have you been there? What steps did you take to get there? Was it your first choice?
I think I skew younger on the spectrum of women on this forum, so I’ve always been curious to know what an outside perspective might look like. Sadly, I’ve often abandoned the notion of a dream job for something more practical. I’m sure that’s pretty common.
Barb HansenStartup Product, Growth & Strategy
6.67k
07/21/20 at 7:45PM UTC
Do I work at my dream job? Yes
I have been in this position (across many companies) for 25 years.
Was it my first choice? Nope. I went to school for, and worked for 13 years as a medical scientist in a hospital. I was 34 when I leapt into a new career (I graduated from a 4-year college when I was 21, in case you were adding up the years from college to career pivot :)
What steps did I take to get to my dream job?
I was not happy with my hospital job - it was a great job on paper but it wasn't enough for me. So, I made a inventory of my skills, likes/dislikes, and what I wanted from a job (pay, vacation, wfh, industry recognition, etc). Then I kept my eyes open, gained some skills that I was missing, pushed a startup to hire me and then crafted a job that fit my skills (which was a lot easier to do in the early days of internet startups).
The biggest change that I made was I to started to treat my career as a MINE, not as a forgone conclusion because I had obtained a degree in a particular subject.
If I worked for a company that wasn't a good fit, then I moved on (something that is easier to manage in startup land where shorter tenure jobs are more common), I took jobs that paid less but gave me the experience that I needed (when I could)
And I continuously re-adjusted what was important to me in my job. 25 years ago, I would not have said that being a co-founder of a startup was even on my list of a dream job, but as my skills grew so did my "dream job requirements"
Was I always able to always move forward? Nope. but I tried to at least not move backwards. In hindsight, for about 10 of my 25 dream job years where I worked at two perfectly fine jobs with great job titles and I paid well but I wasn't really moving my career forward and that was just fine at the time. Having a job that pays the bills and gave me time to be a parent was (at the time) more important that my "dream job path"
Hints:
1. Don't look at a dream job as working for a particular company but what your role is (assuming your dream job includes working for a company and not working for yourself). Companies come and go, and your talents can take you anywhere.
2. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a job that fulfills you and pays the bills. There are other ways to have a dream life --- family, volunteering, vacations, past times. You need to find your bliss - whatever that bliss is.
3. Sometimes that itch to make a change can be fulfilled with other items in life (volunteering, friends, new activities). For me, I started a pretty serious workout routine about a year ago, when I was feeling a little lost at work.
3. Set aside time every quarter or every six months to check in on your dream job wishes. I set an appointment with myself every six months (for about an hour in the middle of a work day) to check in with myself on where I want to be in 2 to 5 years. About 3 years ago, my dream job morphed from a senior position in a startup (which I had secured numerous time) to becoming a co-founder of a startup.
JENN O'TOOLLeadership and Career Transformation Coach
99
07/21/20 at 7:27PM UTC
Hi Naja-Michelle...
I'm not sure if there is a universal definition of "dream job" but the reality is you are unlikely to find something that meets those standards in your first (or maybe even 2nd or 3rd) jobs. Experimenting and trying new things early in your career is a good way to try on different elements of your career/company/environment options to see what works and feels best for you as you develop a more composite view of what the "dream job" looks like.
In my career I have had both great and horrible positions, worked for both excellent and highly toxic companies, and have had both optimal and sub-optimal environments. And you are always hoping that in your next opportunity, you find something that KEEPS the components you like but improves on what you don't like. It's a dance and there is no straight path to get there. And because we all have different definitions of the "dream" job, trying to replicate someone else's path is seldom the answer.
That was a long way to say you need to be both persistent AND patient. Persistent in figuring out what specifically it is for YOU that will define the dream, and Patient in letting your imperfect path teach you all you need to know to get there eventually.
I've found that it not the destination we're trying to reach that has all the value. The journey is a critical part of your career adventure so don't miss out out on all of the opportunities you have in your "not dream job" to further advance what that dream could look like! Don't abandon the idea...create it as you go!
Aly BrineHelping Corporate Hippies thrive on LinkedIn!
1.59k
07/21/20 at 7:25PM UTC (Edited)
I'm a huge proponent of "a dream job" vs. "the dream job."
There's too much pressure to find the exact absolute perfect dream job that pays millions and lets you sit home and watch tv :P
I think that dream jobs can change based off of what you need at that time in your life. It could be flexibility and challenging work. Later in life, it could be something different. It's important for you to decide what that dream would be right now and to not stop chasing it. I also believe the people that say that you shouldn't chase your passion or try to find your dream job are afraid to chase theirs or have been scorned in doing so previously.
I actually created a free training that talks about Why You're Not Working in the Dream Job and the Exact Steps to find it. You can find it here: https://www.alybrine.com/freetrainingdreamjoboptin
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