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Dream Jobs of 2004
prostoalex writes "We've read about the worst jobs out there, the most overpaid ones, the worst job postings and the outsourcing tendencies. Can an article on employment in scientific and engineering fields can have a positive outlook? February issue of IEEE Spectrum talks about the dream ('coolest, baddest, hippest, grooviest') jobs, where people have fun and enjoy what they're doing. IEEE publication covered the dream jobs for Electrical Engineering majors only. The linked article is actually a story about 9 different people with 9 different jobs, each leading to a separate article."
I don't want a dream job...
Dream jobs eliminate the one good thing about life. Vacation. Whether that be on the weekends, your random days off in the middle of the week, or the two weeks you spend lounging in Jamaica.
They don't call work "work" for nothing. If it was fun they would call it Vacation. Work gives me something to look forward to when I don't have to do it. It shouldn't be an escape from your family, it shouldn't be fun, and it certainly be something you overly enjoy...
My enjoyment everyday comes in the form of looking forward to the weekend when I spend my free time geocaching with my friends or myself. If I enjoyed work I would probably be sitting in my office working. What good does that do me?
We are a sad society when we put work in front of our "real lives".
Remember that before you go off in search of the job that you just can't wait to get to everyday. Family, fun, and vacation > work.
BTW - I don't mind my job in the least. I don't complain about it and I don't hate coming to work everyday. I just think it's better to enjoy yourself outside of your job.
How many here simply dream of a job? Wont be long until there are no more employed westerners outside of wally worlds, fast food and politicians. Can we outsource our politicians and ceo's to India too?
Naysayer that I am, I think a "dream job" is impossibly subjective.
Some people may be thought to have dream jobs because it pays well in general(professional sports stars). Some people because it is something you wish you were paid for (professional gamers or err.. movie critics, if you like). Some may have dream jobs because you wish you were doing that job (it's description, at any rate.. some people entertain fantasies about being a photographer for a magazine like Playboy :p). Some people may wish for cutting edge technology jobs.. Hey, when Marcelo Toscatti was interviewed, I remember a comment saying "he's 20 years old, kernel maintainer and married".. :)
So what is it that we like about these jobs ? The fact that the grass always looks greener on someone else's pasture ? or the fact that we wish we were doing something else ? :)
For me, the job I landed immediately after I graduated was my "dream job". Hey, I was paid to code. I loved writing code, I liked finding tricky solutions to problems, I just liked my job. The fact that they paid me (obscenely well by the standards of an undergraduate who had been paid nothing before for doing mostly the same thing) didn't even enter the equation. For about 6 months or so, I was one happy puppy. Churning out code, design specs..researching things I wanted to do, learning new stuff.
Then the rest of my life kicked in. You figure out the 12 hour days are ok, but you didn't want to stay in office and miss the rest of your life pass you by. A progamer interview I saw recently (ShowTime, a War3 player) said he plays almost continuously for 15 hours a day. I may like gaming, but I couldn't take that continously for too long. Even people with dream jobs need to find a balance somewhere. If a dream job demands all your energy, your time.. leaves you with no energy for anything else.. then it won't be your dream job forever.
A true dream job (definitely not something you can be paid for, so I wonder if you can call it a "job" anymore) would allow you balance. If you're earning a wage for it, then sooner or later, you will find yourself wishing for something else.
My $0.02
how many times have you heard people say that they loved computers until they started working with them professionally?
There is no dream job. The fact that it's a job takes all the enjoyment out of it.
It should also be notted that getting blank looks at SCA meetings is normal. Somthing about people who get hit in the head with sticks for fun.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
that if you find a job that you like, you'll never have to work a day in your life.
Friend, if the best thing about your job is the time you spend away from it, you're in the wrong job.
I'm not saying it should be the centerpiece of your life. (Indeed, my mother tells me that we are a nation that worships our work, works at our play, and plays at our worship. *grin*) I think I have my dream job, but I'm not going to pass up spending time with good friends to get in a few more hours just for fun. But if you dread your job to the point where the only enjoyment is looking to leave, you need to find new employment.
You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)
Sure, astronaut, deep sea submersibles, yeah, yeah. But they left out bikini team oiler.
I would NOT want to be an astronaut. Aside from the risk, it is often uncomfortable. The space suits have all kinds of poking and scratchy things in them, and you have tight quarters with even less fresh air than an office cubicle. Plus, you are expected to keep constant concentration with lots of funny beeping and flashing things all around. And The Food! Oh my. Think airlines are bad. And, there are jillions of cold metal gizmos to hook up before you take a poop, and no magazines in there.
Alien 9: "In space, you can't wear flannel shirts."
Table-ized A.I.
Just when I thought things couldn't possibly get worse at my place of work, they do. We are no longer going to have assigned seats. We'll have a new cubicle to sit in everyday. They have chosen to call it 'festival seating'. I call it crap. I did ask my manager does that mean I might be going to a new floor everyday looking for a place to sit? She said no. And then I asked does that mean if I go to lunch my spot won't be occupied? She also said no to that one as well.
Now this insult is in addition to the staggered schedules, the required overtime (since Thanksgiving of 2003 and thru March of 2004), and the required sales goals (it doesn't matter how good a tech you are. no sales. no job. nor does it matter that your original job description did not require sales). I forgot to mention we talk to angry, pissed-off customers whose problems we can't fix. This is after they had been on hold a minimum of ten minutes. My favorites are the ones who've been on hold for twenty minutes and transferred to the wrong department. Mine.
For example: Customer says "I can't place or receive any calls." Do you say A) "I"m sorry you've been transferred to the wrong department. They should have transferred you to a trouble specialist. I do data support. and then transfer them after arguing with them for several more minutes. Or do you say B) I'm sorry you can't place or receive any calls. Let me check a few things for you (while you twiddle your thumbs for a few seconds.). and say Hmm... well everything looks good here. OK power cycle the phone. Try placing a call. Hmmm.. still no go? It looks like I need to escalate this call to one of my trouble specialists. They have access to more tools than I do and can check into this more thoroughly to fix this problem. Let me transfer you. but before I do would you like to add X service to your plan."
As one of my co-workers put it "There is no bottom to this place." Theoretically the outsourced call center employees could unionize, but cell phone carrier would just pull their contract. We were ostensibly told that we are simply not making the most efficient use of computers and space. The real reason is that my company is expanding and they are cheap bastards who don't want to rent more floors in our building because they plan on expanding to other facilities later.
Whenever I hear the word festival I am reminded of the Star Trek episode "Return of the Archons" with everyone yelling 'Festival! Festival!" and "Are you of the body?"
The floggings will continue until moral improves!"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
In the process I outfitted the boat with 7+ PCs, a VGA matrix switch system, a 42" plasma, a wireless LAN, ran 1000' of cat-5 and 500' of VGA cable in the boat, installed a $30K microscope with built-in webserver, configured several satcom systems and learned the rudiements of sailing and knot tying, all while being filmed by the Discovery Channel.
In two weeks I will be headed to the Galapagos Islands for a week to make sure everything is working before the boat heads across the Pacific.
As much as this has been a dream job, it has (on repeated occasions) nearly cost me my 3-year relationship with the most wonderful woman in the world. I think the hardest thing about a dream job (just as others have noted) is finding a balance with the rest of your life.