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."

Comments

Your job shouldn't be your life.

[garcia]

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.

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why not enjoy both? Sounds like you're trying to rationalize the career you chose.

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[mbge7psh]

A truely dream job shouldn't seem like a job at all. If you get payed to do what you truely enjoy, where is the harm in putting it before other hobbies?

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uh, it's a sad society that SEPARATES "lives" from "work".

Why should you only enjoy yourself when you're not working?

Imagine a job in a small company where you know everybody, you and your wife both work and can freely visit, and you bring your kids to work with you every day and watch them learn and play.

Imagine you can wear whatever religious symbol you want, and say whatever you like without fear of lawsuits. Imagine that once you finish your day's work, you're free to leave, but you don't because you love doing your work.

Imagine that your life and your work where completely intertwined and you loved every minute of it.

Isn't it funny that people say "where do you live" when they ask what you do OUTSIDE of work? If "living" happens outside of work, then when you're working, you must be DEAD right? The opposite of live.

You should look forward to EVERY DAY, not just the weekends. That's sad.

I don't have the solution.. I'm self-employed and really enjoy it but I still have to deal with the "walking dead" on a regular basis.

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[Jorrit]

Work shouldn't be fun??? That must be one of the saddest remarks I have heard in some time. I would quiet my job the moment it stops getting fun.

Of course I agree with you that work isn't the only thing in life. Family comes first.

But if your work isn't fun then I pity you.

Greetings,

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[Cyclone66]

Wouldn't the more enlightened country be the one that realizes working like a dog, 50+ hours a week with only a week vacation is not a way to live?

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[Anonymous Coward]

Moderate parent 5, Insightful. Working 50 and 60 hour weeks with no vacation is very 1890s. Slaving away like a serf for a king is very 1300s.

Germany and the rest of the European countries have the right idea. A person needs more time to enjoy friends, family, and most importantly for the economy, spend money.

Yes, I am an American and yes, I might be a little upset since I can't afford to take any time off after my first child is born in August.

Re:Your job shouldn't be your life.

[HungWeiLo]

You talk about overhead, but you're making the assumption that overworked, 60+ hrs/wk individuals will produce output at a constant rate of high productivity. Also, a very high concern for employers these days is medical. Simply, overworked/tired workers are more likely to get more medical problems and drive up medical costs collectively.

dream jobs and being subjective ..

[psycho_tinman]

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

fallacy

[kin_korn_karn]

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.

Re:There's always worse.

[Kenja]

Are you kidding? I'd have t-shirts made proclaiming that I designed smart urinals for a living. You have a unique job that many people would get a kick out of.

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.

An opposing point of view would say

[devphil]

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.