Dream Jobs of 2004

Your job shouldn't be your life. by garcia · 2004-02-06 07:49 · Score: 5, Insightful

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. by kruczkowski · 2004-02-06 07:52 · Score: 5, Informative

Work in Germany, under German law every worker must get 6 weeks paid vacation, from a janitor to a CEO.

--
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why not enjoy both? Sounds like you're trying to rationalize the career you chose.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by mbge7psh · 2004-02-06 07:55 · Score: 5, Insightful

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. by jetkust · 2004-02-06 07:58 · Score: 4, Funny

Yea, and I want to get cancer just for the remission. Good thinking.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by eyegor · 2004-02-06 07:59 · Score: 3, Informative

Which is great. But by raising overhead rates to pay for the extra vacation time, the overall effect is to make German industry less cost effective than a less enlightened country (all other factors being equal).

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Personally, I'm in my dream job. I get paid nicely to play with computers.

--

Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 08:01 · Score: 5, Insightful

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. by wrp103 · 2004-02-06 08:05 · Score: 5, Interesting

I once read that you should make a career out of your second favorite thing to do. That way, when work got to you, you could relax with your hobby rather than your career.

That said, I think far too many people keep thinking of better things rather than enjoying what they are doing at the moment. If somebody gives me something to do that I don't like, I try to figure out how to make it more enjoyable.

For example, I once had a boss that insisted that I send him a status report each week. (I hate paper work). So, I did what I often do in situations like that ... I automated it. I segmented the status report into different sections, created text files for each section, and then wrote some code, along with a Makefile, so that each Friday, I ran a single command, and out came my status report e-mailed to my boss along with other interested parties.

Now, I could have spent time bellyaching about what a lousy job I had been given, but instead decided to make it more tolerable. After it was done, I actually enjoyed submitting status reports.

Now, certainly there are jobs with little or no redeeming value, but most of the people I hear complaining actually have it pretty good. Most have food to eat, a place to stay, and make enough money to make ends meet with a little left over.

Blaise Pascal, in his book Pensees, states that people spend too much of their time regretting the past and dreaming about the future, that they don't have time to enjoy the present. As a result, they are often unhappy when they don't need to be.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by Jorrit · 2004-02-06 08:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

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,

--
Project Manager of Crystal Space (http://www.crystalspace3d.org). Support CS at http://tinyurl.com/cb3x4
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 08:15 · Score: 2, Funny

I would quiet my job the moment it stops getting fun. How exactly do you 'quiet' a job, do you pay it hush money?
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by Cyclone66 · 2004-02-06 08:17 · Score: 5, Insightful

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. by gavri · 2004-02-06 08:19 · Score: 2, Insightful

Why don't you hit your head with a hammer all day so you'd feel real good when you stop at the end of the day?
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by altamira · 2004-02-06 08:23 · Score: 2, Informative

That's just not true. The legal minimum is 21 days a year, depending on one's age. That translates to about 4 'real' (ie., non-work) weeks.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by visgoth · 2004-02-06 08:26 · Score: 2, Insightful

To quote a great thinker of the 20th century:
"Huh huh. You gotta have stuff that sucks in order to have stuff that's cool."
-Butthead

--
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 08:33 · Score: 5, Insightful

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. by mbge7psh · 2004-02-06 08:36 · Score: 2, Insightful

I agree with you that family comes first, but the OP said: 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?
Why not spend time in the office working if you enjoy that more than geocaching?
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by elefantstn · 2004-02-06 08:36 · Score: 4, Funny

Another benefit is that more than 1 in 10 Germans gets 365 days off from work every year. What a country!

--
If it ain't broke, you need more software.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by HungWeiLo · 2004-02-06 08:42 · Score: 5, Insightful

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.

--
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by rixstep · 2004-02-06 08:46 · Score: 3, Informative

Same in Sweden. And it goes up from there to about ten weeks. Plus, you can't forget the month off at Xmas, from about 15 December to 15 January. And still we're both amongst the most productive countries in the world per capita. I wonder why that is?

Poor aboriginals in those third world countries like the United States...
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by __past__ · 2004-02-06 09:08 · Score: 4, Informative

Social security is getting worse. The last step was the "Gesundheitsreform" (health reform) of January 2004, which made the healthcare system a lot worse (at least one death directly due to the changes has been reported, and is currently dealt with in court). The unemployment rate here is as bad as everywhere else, esp. in the IT sector, and the Arbeitsamt ("employment agency", the guys that take your money while you are employed and might perhaps give you a fraction of it back when you aren't) is less willing then ever to help you find a new job, or a way to pay for food - it was also involved in a major political scandal in the last months, which forced the chairman to resign (his successor hasn't been chosen yet), which didn't help either. Going back to Uni is also not an option (at least in my state, north-rhine westfalia, other states already did that or announced to do it in the next years), because it costs EUR 650, in addition to the ~ EUR 150-200 that it cost before, for "long-time" students (about 60% of all students), something explicitly ruled out by the social-democratic party (which has the majority both in NRW and the germany as a whole, together with the green party that promised the same) in the last election. Taxes are going up. The software patents situation is likely going to get a lot worse this year, and copyright law already has in 2003 (and the equivalent of the RIAA has just annouced to massively sue private file sharers). The weather is lousy. Everytime you stand up in a Bus to let some wrinkled old guy take your seat, you wonder if he has been a member of the NSDAP - but that problem tends towards a bilological solution, unlike the militant young nazis that keep beating up foreigners and bombing jewish cemetaries and synangouges. At least they are not the only antisemitits or fascists, at least once per 6 months, some prominent politician or author gets some publicity for being one as well (not always bad publicity, mind you). After the monetary reform (from german Marks to the Euro), a lot of things have become a lot more expensive. You cannot buy beer in cans anymore, because of the 25c "Dosenpfand", cheap beer is now sold in plastic bottles, which sucks. The german pop culture is pretty much a mixture of the worst parts of the american pop culture and some really, really bad german artists. Did I mention that the weather really sucks?

--
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by GOD_ALMIGHTY · 2004-02-06 09:10 · Score: 2, Informative

" Which is great. But by raising overhead rates to pay for the extra vacation time, the overall effect is to make German industry less cost effective than a less enlightened country (all other factors being equal).

Not that there's anything wrong with that."

What a boneheaded thing to say. There's no logic to it. Perhaps German cultural factors make Germans more productive with a mandatory 6 weeks paid vacation. Personally, I'm a lot more productive when I know I'm going to get breaks to enjoy other aspects of life. As a software developer, my job requires mental focus. If 6 weeks of mandatory paid vacation allowed me to be more productive during the time I was there, the overall net benefit is to my employer and the GNP.

All your analysis shows is that you can do a quick back of the hand calculation given some data points. Your analysis lacks any understanding of the data points and does not look at results. Germany happens to have productivity rates near the US depending on how you count software in the numbers. Also you equate attendence with productivity, while productivity only has sustainable gains when you get more done in less time, not simply work more to get more done.

This assumption treats humans like machinery, which every totalitarian regime has shown, doesn't work. Humans tend to be far more productive when all of their needs are met. Expecting humans to act like machines is operating them out of spec. It's just like overclocking, sometimes you can get away with it, but in the long run, you'll have problems (over numerous chips) like stability or lifespan.

Take the US growth numbers from 4Q03. They were huge, but with no job growth. That meant that a lot of these productivity gains were made through working people harder and finding cheaper labor. If it had been through honest to god productivity gains they would be listed in SEC filings, like supply chains, software and the internet were in the last decade. These things would then be "hot" markets.

One can't simply look at dollar amounts involved with labor. They have TOC and ROI values much like any other component of an organization, it's just that it varies from "unit" to "unit". Most bosses I've known would have shot the employee that suggested paying $50k a license then skimp on the $10k support contract for production software. You simply have to look at the TOC for an employee and factor in things like downtime and maintenance.

--
Arrogance is Confidence which lacks integrity. -- me
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by BenEnglishAtHome · 2004-02-06 09:15 · Score: 4, Funny

I once had a boss that insisted that I send him a status report each week. (I hate paper work). So, I did what I often do in situations like that ... I automated it

I once had a boss that insisted that I send him a status report each morning. I don't mind paperwork, so I did what I often do in situations like that ... I buried him in what some people call "malicious compliance."
I can write fast and wordy. So every morning, right after my to-do list, I'd write two pages, minimum, listing every single little thing I did the day before. We're talking excruciating detail.
It took less than a month for the guy to tell me that he didn't need daily reports anymore. He wanted a single monthly report, no more than one page, double-spaced.
Sweeeet. :-)
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by __past__ · 2004-02-06 09:50 · Score: 3, Interesting

The name is Budweiser, and it (the name, at least) is Czech. The original Budweiser is called "Anheuser Busch" or some such in most parts of the world. I'd agree about rather drinking Paulaner out of a plastic bottle, though, even if I still prefer a Jever Pils out of a glass bottle (I happen to prefer beer out of 0.5 liter glass bottles over everything else).
(I guess that is enough proof that I really am german ;-)
Frankly, I have often considered emigrating. Actually, it has been a constant theme for the whole of my life, given that my father is an immigrant (from Iran), my parents once considered moving to Canada, and it looked like it would be simply irresponsible to stay in germany during the pogroms of the early to mid 90ies.
The big, big problem is - THERE IS NO REALLY GEEK-FRIENDLY COUNTRY. Why on earth would I want to go the the USA, the land of the DMCA, where unfounded lawsuits are considered a respectable hobby? Mid- and South-America is a huge mess, as far as I understand (I only have first-hand information about Brazil, where an aunt of mine happens to live) Most of mid- and western europe is in exactly the same situation as germany is, and eastern europe tends to be worse. People in huge parts of Africa seem to be busy surviving in the first place (the causes of which deserve their own thread), and my experience taught me that I have trouble getting along in east asia, let alone wanting to spend my life there. Antarctica is obviosly not interesting, and, well, Australia might be, but I just don't know, never been there.
In other words, I agree, I would love to get out of germany. But I do not know where to go from there!
If anybody knows about the perfect society for a geek to live in, please speak up!

--
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by spruce · 2004-02-06 10:15 · Score: 3, Insightful

Well, you should get a -1 flamebait for your aboriginal/third world comment, but it sure is popular to mod against the US.

I certainly wouldn't mind a little extra time off, but I'm not complaining too much. My work allows me to live a very nice lifestyle, with plenty of time for friends and family.

From the CIA world factbook - Per capita purchasing powers :

US : purchasing power parity - $36,300 (2002 est.)

Sweden purchasing power parity - $26,000 (2002 est.)

Germany : purchasing power parity - $26,200 (2002 est.)

So you're being pretty handily outproduced by a buch of aborigines. Maybe I can use some of my hard earned cash some day to visit the enlightened part of the world, Sweden.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by tetsuji · 2004-02-06 10:58 · Score: 3, Funny

So you're being pretty handily outproduced by a buch of aborigines. Maybe I can use some of my hard earned cash some day to visit the enlightened part of the world, Sweden.
Or, at least, you could if you had the time off to do so!

--
nuke the moon
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by david.gilbert · 2004-02-06 11:01 · Score: 2, Interesting

I can't afford to take any time off after my first child is born in August.
Yes you can. You only *think* you can't afford it.
Re:Your job shouldn't be your life. by rif42 · 2004-02-06 23:56 · Score: 2, Interesting

My work allows me to live a very nice lifestyle, with plenty of time for friends and family.

Congratiulation with that, just a pity that in the US more than 1 in 10 has to live on income below poverty line.

US : purchasing power parity - $36,300 (2002 est.) ... and these numbers was brought to you from the same organisation that one year ago fabricated reports about weapon of mass destruction.

Note these are estimate for 2002 not even final numbers from 2002. From Jan 2002 till Jan 2004 the USD has fallen 30% against the EUR. So once these information-twisters update their figures the numbers will surely look different.

Re:Dream Job #1 by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 07:50 · Score: 5, Funny

Dear Anonymous Coward,

After further revision your skillset and experience does not appear to match our First Poster job position requirements. In fact, you miserably failed.

We at Slashdot value professionals like you and would like to keep your resume in our database for future positions open.

Best regards,
HR

IEEE Magazine? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 07:52 · Score: 5, Funny

If I wanted a list of what's hip & cool, I wouldn't look in IEEE magazine to find it.

Dream Job by Linux+Ate+My+Dog! · 2004-02-06 07:52 · Score: 3, Interesting

As a UI designer, I once saw somebody have my dream job: he was creating an application for JPL to visualize the data and state of a deep-space probe. It would reflect the health of the probe at-a-glance and give access to further data. So it had NASA, space, complex data, and cool visualization all rolled into one. It would be for Depp Space One.

He was not enjoying the work and the circumstances (like the pay). I would have given my left arm (i.e. learned to program on OpenVMS from nothing) for that gig. We all have different dreams.

Win the lotto! by RicJohnson · 2004-02-06 07:52 · Score: 2, Interesting

Here's my question:
If YOU won the lotto, what would you do? Would you still work in IT?
Would you get bored or would you seek to challenge your self with a "dream job"?
I am such a workaholic, I am convinced that I would create my own company AND I would hire some of those IT people that were layed off!

Re:Win the lotto! by four12 · 2004-02-06 07:55 · Score: 2, Insightful

Would I still work in IT? No. Not only "no", but "hell no". I'd play with some computer stuff, but I wouldn't hang my hat on it.
What would I do? I would be a world-travelling photographer, specializing in great hiking trails and locations. I'd specialize on Europe, but branch out occasionally.
Yep, that's what I would do... go hikin' and take pictures.
Re:Win the lotto! by 4of12 · 2004-02-06 09:06 · Score: 2, Interesting

If YOU won the lotto, what would you do? Would you still work in IT?

I'd set up a foundation to hire 5 of the sharpest, most personable programmers from 3 continents and commission them to produce a Powerpoint replacement based on SVG and get some good international outline fonts made for good measure.

Not only a good slide show interface, but a good composition interface as well. Vector graphics. Including TeX like formatting of text boxes for math, languages going right to left, left to right, as well as top to bottom. Make all the file formats completely open. Have dynamic effects, a choreographer of objects moving around the screen (just 2D; true 3D I'd leave for someone more ambitious).

I'm convince it would be a great gift to the world.

--
"Provided by the management for your protection."

History Channel's dream job by SoCalChris · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 5, Interesting

There was a show on the History Channel this week about the autobahn. They did a short piece on some lucky bastard who works for a Porche tuner. His job? Take each new, handbuilt car onto the autobahn late at night, and certify just how fast it can go.

Re:History Channel's dream job by southpolesammy · 2004-02-06 08:06 · Score: 4, Funny

Unfortunately, that job is not without its risks, and the mortality rate of that job is much higher than the norm.

--
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
Re:History Channel's dream job by fullofangst · 2004-02-06 08:13 · Score: 4, Funny

A minor detail like "mortality rate" wouldn't put me off THAT job!
Re:History Channel's dream job by __past__ · 2004-02-06 08:22 · Score: 2, Insightful

His job might have been a lot less enjoyable after the series of deadly accidents caused by test drivers on german autobahns last year. Of course, the most spectacular case was a BMW driver IIRC, not a Porsche guy, but he probably would be affected by this as well (if he did survive until today and kept able to do the job, that is).
Even in germany, where there is indeed not a hard speed limit for huge parts of the autobahn, when you are involved in an accident, you are automatically at least partially guilty if you went faster than 130km/h. If some bozo causes an accident you are involved in without actually doing anything wrong, but you maxed out your 911, you will at least loose your driver's license, and probably a significant amount of money. In many cases, it gets worse, and righly so.

--
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
Re:History Channel's dream job by NotClever · 2004-02-06 08:40 · Score: 2, Insightful

At 36, I'd have to disagree. :)

--
Hell, there are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas Edison
Re:History Channel's dream job by CrayzyJ · 2004-02-06 09:02 · Score: 2, Interesting

I saw the same show but came to a different conclusion. He "tests" the cars. So if something breaks, the BEST case scenario is he's walking home. The worst case has been mentioned in other responses.

--
Holy s-, it's Jesus!
Re:History Channel's dream job by switcha · 2004-02-06 10:44 · Score: 4, Funny

and the mortality rate of that job is much higher than the norm.
What does Norm do for a living?

--
You know what? ... A little club soda *did* get that out!

There's always worse. by Geoffd1 · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Let me tell you something: if you think you have the worst job, there's always a more dire one.

I had a job where I was supposed to engineer "smart" plumbing fixtures - keeping water temperature right, measuring turd/bowl ratio, etc. It paid the bills, but it was boring as hell - and always got blank looks at the local SCA meets.

When the tech boom subsided, I lost the job. I wasn't too worked up about it. I found another job quickly, but little did I know it would turn out to be even worse. It was similar to the above position (experience always helps when applying), but, as I found out upon showing up on day one, I was to be engineering urinals. I fear parties, for people inevitably ask me what I do. Ten years of higher education for this, and people piss on my designs!

So, don't complain about your job. At least your products aren't full of piss.

Re:There's always worse. by Geoffd1 · 2004-02-06 08:00 · Score: 2

The point of my above post was that there's always a more smelly fish - that there's always a worse job. I know people who design cars and complain about it, though - so I thought I should speak up.
Re:There's always worse. by Kenja · 2004-02-06 08:05 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

--

"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Re:There's always worse. by CGP314 · 2004-02-06 08:35 · Score: 2, Insightful

Let me tell you something: if you think you have the worst job, there's always a more dire one.

That's only true if there are an unlimited number of jobs, which I don't think is the current situation.

-Colin
Re:There's always worse. by TheOnlyCoolTim · 2004-02-06 08:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Engineering urinals - a decent job and a boon to society.

SCA meets - not cool. The SCA should be thankful that furries are around to keep them off the bottom of the totem pole.

Tim

--
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Re:There's always worse. by 16K+Ram+Pack · 2004-02-06 08:45 · Score: 2, Interesting

Tech people are some of the worst for this (including myself once upon a time!).
Moan like mad about everything from their pay to their training to the quality of coffee. The funny thing is that I've met people who do jobs that I would hate to do like working on checkouts or being janitors, and they love it.

dreaming of having a job by maxbang · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 3, Funny

period.

--
I also reply below your current threshold.

well at my job... by JeanBaptiste · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 3, Funny

i get no training and no chance for advancement, monitarily or otherwise. no raise in the 5 years i have been there...

so my dream job is any job where i get training once in a while on things i am expected to support, and where i might get a raise if i do a solid job. its not just me, nobody else at the company gets raises either. still looking for another job, but the market isnt so good, at least in my area.

on the other hand, i know people (at other places) that are far more qualified than I am, and they have been looking for a job for quite some time more... so i cant complain too much, i guess.

to summarize, my dream job would be one where i could potentially advance for doing good work. oh, that and i want to be surrounded by hot chicks.

Does this count? by JZ_Tonka · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 5, Funny

Sitting on a couch in my parents basement, posting to Slashdot from my Linux-running laptop, surrounded by empty McDonalds wrappers and cans of Jolt provided through a generous grant from the U.S. taxpayer.

No, I'm not bitter...

Re:Does this count? by Maul · 2004-02-06 09:50 · Score: 3, Funny

I had that job before, but it got outsourced to India.

--
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah

Yeah, but what about... by serutan · 2004-02-06 07:53 · Score: 4, Funny

Sure, astronaut, deep sea submersibles, yeah, yeah. But they left out bikini team oiler.

Re:Yeah, but what about... by Tablizer · 2004-02-06 08:24 · Score: 3, Insightful

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.

A supermodel's trophy husband by Golias · 2004-02-06 07:54 · Score: 4, Funny

A great dream job would be a trophy husband to a beautiful, weathly, fun-loving supermodel.

Oh, they are talking about dream jobs for Electrical Engineers only?

In that case: A great dream job would be a trophy husband to a beautiful, weathly, fun-loving supermodel.

What? You think having EE degrees means they would rather stare at oscilliscopes all day!?

--

Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

Re:A supermodel's trophy husband by smallstepforman · 2004-02-06 10:05 · Score: 2, Insightful

Having a supermodel girlfriend is exciting for the first 4-6 months (with unbelievable bragging rights), but after that you also get tired of her shit, bugs in her head and personality flaws, and realise that they're just like everyone else (but with super looks). But then you're given crap for being overweight (she works with stick figures all day), not hunky enough (she works with male models), not seducive or witty enough (hey, everyone is trying to seduce her), etc. so you're always trying 100% of the time to keep her.

After months of this, you just want a normal witty girl who is fun to be with, looks be damned.

--
Revolution = Evolution

I have a dream job... by milgr · 2004-02-06 07:54 · Score: 2, Insightful

After being unemployed for several months, almost any job became my dream job.

Being paid to work on Linux device drivers makes it even dreamier. Or at least geekier.

--
Where law ends, tyranny begins -- William Pitt

Slashdot? by FreemanPatrickHenry · 2004-02-06 07:54 · Score: 5, Funny

I don't know, I would guess CowboyNeal has pretty close to the ubergeek paradise job. I mean, come on, he's got unlimited mod points for God's sake!

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I have discovered a truly marvelous .sig which, unfortunately, this space is too small to contain.

Dev by savagedome · 2004-02-06 07:55 · Score: 3, Funny

Stress tester for Playboy website development team. 'nuff said

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Free XBox, PS2

Sleeping by mschoyen · 2004-02-06 07:56 · Score: 2, Funny

Currently my day is split into thirds: Working, Sleeping, and Other. If I could find a job that involved sleeping for 8 hours, man, I'd be set.

How many here by onyxruby · 2004-02-06 07:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

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?

I just got my dream job by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 07:58 · Score: 4, Funny

I work for IBM. A nice person from that company trained me how to do the job. He was nice but he seemed very sad. Anyway ,I now have a job and I can feed my family.

make it so by polymorpheus · 2004-02-06 07:59 · Score: 2, Insightful

It's not just about "pursuing" that dream job, it's also as much, if not more, about creating that job. I've found it amazing to what latitude employer's will go when presented with unique job ideas. Most often one has to envision and then sell (to one's boss) that dream position before one can have it.

obligatory Samir... by *weasel · 2004-02-06 08:00 · Score: 4, Funny

"First, I would invest half of it in low risk mutual funds, and give the other half to my friend Asadulah who works in securities..."

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// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"

Re:Dream Job by verloren · 2004-02-06 08:00 · Score: 2, Funny

"It would be for Depp Space One."

Man, Lance Bass is going to be upset when he finds out Johnny beat him to it.

dream jobs and being subjective .. by psycho_tinman · 2004-02-06 08:02 · Score: 5, Insightful

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

obligatory Lawrence by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 08:02 · Score: 2, Funny

"two chicks at the same time"

"two chicks at the same time... that's what you'd do if you had a million dollars?"

"damn straight, always wanted to do that. i think if i had a million dollars i could hook that up."

Article Index - 10 Jobs by funny-jack · 2004-02-06 08:02 · Score: 4, Informative

The linked article is actually a story about 9 different people with 9 different jobs, each leading to a separate article.

Actually, like the article says, they really do talk about 10 jobs. They just don't link to the last one in that summary page. Here's the index page:

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/contents/index.html

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You probably shouldn't click this.

fallacy by kin_korn_karn · 2004-02-06 08:04 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

I have my dream job by track5200 · 2004-02-06 08:05 · Score: 2, Interesting

I am the Systems Admin at, what our marketing dept. likes to call, a world class ski resort.

In fact right now, after finishing a quick lunch, I am lacing up my snowboard boots and will be spending some quality time on the snow... and I get paid for this!!

Dream Job for Linux Sysadmin by Stinky+Cheese+Man · 2004-02-06 08:05 · Score: 5, Informative

PNL is hiring a Senior System Administrator for the world's largest Linux cluster and 5th fastest supercomputer.

Re:Dream Job for Linux Sysadmin by geomon · 2004-02-06 08:25 · Score: 4, Informative

That's PN N L!

Yes, I know it is pnl.gov. That domain was handed out before it was upgraded to an environmental laboratory. Looking forward to becoming a 'homeland security' laboratory soon (yeah).

Great place to work, though.

The supercomputer is housed in the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory. The pay is good and the people are friendly.

Did I mention that I work at the Lab?

--
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"

I have _THE_ best job in the world! by GoMMiX · 2004-02-06 08:06 · Score: 5, Funny

$345 a week and all I have to do is send out three resumes during that week.

That Master's degree sure is serving me well now!

An opposing point of view would say by devphil · 2004-02-06 08:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

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.

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You cannot apply a technological solution to a sociological problem. (Edwards' Law)

Testing industrial robots' collision detection by Dr.+Manhattan · 2004-02-06 08:11 · Score: 3, Interesting

That was my job for about 6 months in 1998. Taking 12-foot-tall industrial robots that can lift 500lbs and smashing them into things. Almost no one has bigger toys than that, and they don't usually get to test them to destruction.

It was kind of secret. Everyone walking by must have thought I was the worst robot programmer on Earth. But I still had that big grin on my face...

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PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!

Re:Dream Job by Dr.+Zowie · 2004-02-06 08:11 · Score: 5, Interesting

I worked doing mission ops for the SOHO spacecraft for four years. It's a cool place to be -- cutting edge stuff, you're beaming commands daily to a spacecraft a million miles away, yadda yadda. But you rapidly learn that "glamour" is something you can only see from far away. When you're actually doing the stuff, it's just another high stress job in a room with no windows, and debugging and fixing the spacecraft is just what you do every day. I used to have to force myself to look at the big picture and realize what an amazing place I was in.

Now I'm doing pure research and some teaching, in Boulder, CO. This turns out to be closer to my dream job -- more flexible hours and lots of self-directed variety to the tasks. It's certainly not for everyone -- I basically sit around staring at equations, or images, or image-processing software, most of the time -- but every once in a while I get to figure out something nobody's ever known before, and that keeps me going the rest of the year.

Of course, the problem with a self-directed job is that you're always with your boss... :-)

Here's a serious answer by edremy · 2004-02-06 08:12 · Score: 3, Interesting

I'll hype my position: Instructional technologist

Yeah, the pay's not great, but here at least are a few of the perks, at least at my school.

Lots and lots of different things to do. I've worked with everyone from physicists to ancient Greek profs.
Imagination counts. Try to figure out new ways to teach old concepts.
Your choice of tools. Learn whatever you want if you can justify it. Just today I've done work with PHP/MySQL, Flash Actionscript, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.
Fun toys for the asking. Already told my boss I'm getting a dual-G5 and a top of the line PC desktop soon. She knows I'll actually use them.
A technically clued boss who will support my decisions if I can justify them. (No, we're not going to pay for Blackboard/WebCT when I can install an Open Source CMS.)
Very few night/weekends needed, not on call.
Very flexible vacation/timeoff policies.

It's not perfect by any means. Pay and benefits lag industry, there's some scut work, and I'd really like to get back to teaching students instead of faculty, but it's got some pretty nice bennies.

--
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"

Per Norm McDonald by Spanky+Lovesalot · 2004-02-06 08:13 · Score: 2, Funny

Worst job:
"Assistant crack whore"

uh...ok by DirtyJ · 2004-02-06 08:13 · Score: 5, Funny

Q: Why do you keep hitting your head with that hammer?

A: Because it feels so good when I stop!

Re:Lawyer? by spamania · 2004-02-06 08:13 · Score: 2, Funny

You would, I assume, be referring to the creative freedom you would have as such?

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My other .sig is a troll.

Whoa, too nice? by Faust7 · 2004-02-06 08:13 · Score: 2, Funny

"Once you get through to them, engineers are too nice to hang up," says Fruehling.

Do you really want us to supply counterexamples? :)

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The coolest voice ever.

A Short List of Dream Jobs: by VoidEngineer · 2004-02-06 08:13 · Score: 3, Interesting

- International Courier - Movie Producer - Astronaut - Virtual Reality Engineer - Rock Star - Vertebral Paleontologist - Chaostician - Professional Skydiver / SCUBA Diver - SWAT Team Member - Pyrotechnician - Demolition Expert - Entrepreneur - Emergency Room Doctor - Supreme Court Judge - Shaman / Rainmaker - Ranch Hand / Wrangler / Cowboy - CIA Agent - Striper - Detective / Private Investigator - Security Systems Auditor / Hacker - Catburgler - Magician / Illusionist - Black Hat etc. etc.

Re:A Short List of Dream Jobs: by jafuser · 2004-02-06 10:02 · Score: 2, Funny

Striper

Is that the people who put the lines on the roads? =P

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Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF

Heh, I can beat that! by sideshow · 2004-02-06 08:16 · Score: 2, Funny

$370 a week and all I have to do is check a box that says "Did you look for work?".

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Hollow words will burn and hollow men will burn.

In Soviet Germany by Gothmolly · 2004-02-06 08:17 · Score: 2, Funny

The budget deficit and unemployment due to an unsustainable socialist economy find YOU!

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I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.

That just wrong... by LilMikey · 2004-02-06 08:19 · Score: 2, Funny

You're not supposed to like work... that's why it's called 'work'.

Besides, if everyone liked what they do, there would be noone posting on Slashdot.

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LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto

Ultimate job: House husband... by HarveyBirdman · 2004-02-06 08:21 · Score: 5, Funny

...to a rich and sexy and loving wife.

Rich, loving, sexy wife: Honey, I'm home. I made another million dollars today. And I stopped at Fredrick's Of Hollywood today, but that's a suprise.

Lucky husband: Great. Oh, the 25" mirror for my new telescope arrived today along with the racks of G5 XServes. I'll mount the mirror out in the Large Array tomorrow morning.

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--- Ban humanity.

My dream job by Anita+Coney · 2004-02-06 08:23 · Score: 3, Interesting

I'm involved with a lawsuit where a partnership is attempting to kick out one of its partners. For the last 2 1/2 years the partner has been locked out of his office, but he still collects a salary of over $90,000 a year while he sits at home. Sure it's a drop from his normal $250,000 salary, but I could certainly live on it!

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If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.

Slashdot dup checker by Tablizer · 2004-02-06 08:29 · Score: 2, Funny

You are never punished if you fuck up

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Table-ized A.I.

Obligatory Simpson's Quote by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-06 08:31 · Score: 4, Funny

Smithers: Uh, hello. You got a Help Wanted sign in the window?

Moe: Yeah, I need someone to help me with the midnight beer delivery. Your job is to distract Barney until it's safely off the truck.

Smithers: I'll just wait out back until then.

Barney: I look forward to working with you!

Re:Be born rich by lambent · 2004-02-06 08:32 · Score: 3, Funny

Ah, but you'd lose your revolutionary status. You'd still be a geek, yes, but you'd be a bourgeois geek: one of the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Re:I had that job too for a while by Shut+the+fuck+up! · 2004-02-06 08:33 · Score: 3, Funny

Until the benefits ran out

Hehe, you got layed off from being unemployed.

Dream Job by mewyn · 2004-02-06 08:40 · Score: 2, Insightful

I recently saw my dream job (well, at least for this point in my career) and applied to it.

It is a PC/Mac/Unix admin job at Pixar. Too bad I'm sure my resume got lost in the noise. I think it would be so awesome to work there.

Mewyn Dy'ner

Maybe you should RTF parent post again... by sean.peters · 2004-02-06 08:42 · Score: 3, Informative

... since he referred to "a less enlightened country" as one that makes you work more than Germany, presumably the two of you are in violent agreement.

Sean

The obvious answer... by djeaux · 2004-02-06 08:44 · Score: 3, Interesting

...which I didn't pay any attention to when I was younger, is "do something you absolutely love to do."

I worried too much about money (and to a secondary extent, the "prestige" of the job) with predictable results. Now, I make a good salary, I have a fancy title & I have days that are merely a tick on the calendar en route to my pension.

Of course, if you happen to absolutely love doing something lucrative (and legal), more power to you!

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"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)

Festival Seating by Ranger · 2004-02-06 09:10 · Score: 3, Insightful

Let me tell you about my dream job:

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!

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"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"

I had a dream job- by IWantMoreSpamPlease · 2004-02-06 09:31 · Score: 4, Interesting

I worked in a morgue. It was a wonderful job

Think about it for a moment. The co-workers were (dead) quiet, I could play all the loud music I wanted and none of my co-workers ever complained.

I could read on the job, sleep on the job (overnight stay was part of the job) and no one cared.

Granted, it was a little cool at the place, but Management realized it was a dead-end job, so they allowed you free reign. We ordered pizzas, had friends over, watched movies, even got paid pretty well!

Only problem with the job was, as I said earlier, it was pretty much dead-end, though if I died on the job, they had full benefits.

--
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.

Re:I had a dream job- by Bios_Hakr · 2004-02-06 19:24 · Score: 3, Interesting

A friend of mine had the same job back in the early 90s...

He quit after walking in on a [living]coworker and a [deceased]client.

He drank for about 3 weeks straight then told us all that we were never to speak of that job in his presence.

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I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.

Dream Job by IceFox · 2004-02-06 09:58 · Score: 3, Interesting

Maybe working at Apple or Microsoft of Red Hat would be your dream job. Or maybe it would be building model trains or some other nitch thing. A number of my freinds and I talked about it last week. At the end we concluded that the company culture mattered 1000% more then the actual work. If the company is a fun place to work, feels rewarding, you arn't frustrated every other day, you arn't over managed, you arn't required to stamp in between 8:28 and 8:32 ever day, that is a dream job. When looking for a job the company culture should matter a lot more then it might currently to you. Maybe during lunch they have an old NES system set up in the lunch room and even the managers come over and play. Letting you buy books that can be marked as work related, helping you get a better degree. These are good companies. Working with people that have too big egos, try to over control everything makes the days horible even if you job is to read slashdot for neat ideas.

-Benjamin Meyer

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Do you changes clothes while making the "chee-chee-cha-cha-choh" transformation sound?

Bar Job by pixel_bc · 2004-02-06 11:16 · Score: 2, Funny

... I have a friend who tells women at the bar that he's a Hostage Negotiator. ... it works. Sometimes.

My ideal job... by FirstTimeCaller · 2004-02-06 11:22 · Score: 2, Funny

Being a lawyer for SCO.

Either that or one of those guys that makes up stories for the Weekly World News. Pretty much the same thing, actually.

--
Wanted: witty unique signature. Must be willing to relocate.

My new job by joehoya · 2004-02-06 13:36 · Score: 3, Insightful

Back in November, I took a job I found through the washingtonpost.com. The job was for tech support to executives at a non-profit bio-tech research lab. I started the job on a Monday, on Sunday I was on a private jet flying to Newport, RI to get on a 95-foot sailing yacht about to embark on an around the world research expedition. Since then I have sailed from Newport all the way through the Panama Canal.

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.

Piss on SCO by Simonetta · 2004-02-06 13:53 · Score: 2, Interesting

Let's get together and make SCO urine cakes!

Time to put our piss where our mouth is...
uh..something like that...you know what I'm saying..

Engineer at a successful startup by Happy+Cramper · 2004-02-06 17:43 · Score: 2, Interesting

Always dreamed of working in electronics but lived in Salt Lake City. First job, garbageman Need I say more.

Skip a few years.

Worked on a team with some of the coolest people on the planet in, Santa Cruz CA. Living in a place that has trees, beaches, geeks. (trees are a big plus) This fun and successful team designed a product so good, the owners of the company decided they would never need another one.(or design team)

1995: Followed the lead guy to a cable modem startup. (this is before the Web was a household term) Being an internet junky, I jumped at the chance. WhooHooo! what a ride. Being an engineer for a tiny startup which actually survived the bubble. 16 hour days, 7 days a week, working with a close team of geniuses, feining the "startup life", people with sleeping bags under the desk. watching it grow. watching the product of your work revolutionize communications. countless people addicted to your pet. becoming a paper-multimillionaire. driving the curviest, most leathal mountain road in the country 18 times per week in a sports car. All the while, married to an understanding mail-order bride, "Go make money".

Just when I think life can get no better, I get surprised.

By the way, we are hiring.

What's the difference? by SuperKendall · 2004-02-06 20:08 · Score: 2, Funny

What? You think having EE degrees means they would rather stare at oscilliscopes all day!?

I'm not sure I see a benefit, either way you're staring at curves all day...

I guess the fun lies in the frequency of oscillation.

--
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley

The answer is simple. by DigiShaman · 2004-02-06 22:45 · Score: 2, Insightful

Jobs involve doing work that other people don't want to do themselves. So, you get payed to do "work". If you are doing work and love it, then generally it's regarded as a hobby. But of course, there is an exception to everything in life. So if your lucky, you can do your hobby AND get paid for it.

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Life is not for the lazy.

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