What's Your Dream Job?

I get calls from recruiters fairly often asking if I am interested in looking at new opportunities. I am always honest with them and I usually say that I am curious what is available, but I am pretty happy where I am. I like the company I work for, the majority of the projects are interesting, and I have a manager who I trust and treats me fair. I have worked for some pretty bad managers in the past, so that is always a big concern. Making a little more money has no advantage if your boss won't sign off on your invoice and you don't get paid. I have had that happen a number of times and the amount of stress it causes makes the job extremely unpleasant. That being said there are some downsides to my current position. 

One of the biggest downsides to my job is the commute. On a perfect day with no traffic at all, it takes just under 40 minutes to get to work. If it snows, rains, or if the sun it too bright, the commute can be over an hour. Over the past three years there have been construction projects that has affect my commute in one direction. Right now I can usually get to work without incident, but getting home always takes over an hour. When I think of how many hours of my life is just wasted sitting in a car, it really make me feel like I am missing something in my life. Fortunately I do have the option to work at home on occasion if I need to. 

In my last post I discussed the potential opportunity at Google and how that would probably be a dream job for me. I started thinking what would be a job that was too good to pass up. Obviously getting rid of the commute would be a huge incentive. I would love to work within walking or cycling distance, so I didn't have to drive to work. Working from home is okay, but I am an introvert, so if I am not forced to interact with people, I just don't. In the past I worked from home a lot more, and I could end up going days without seeing another human being. I also had trouble knowing when to stop working. I don't think being cut off like that is healthy. 

If I did have the opportunity to work from home regularly, I think I would rent a small office in the downtown area near my home, and walk to work everyday. I think that would actually be really great. I could walk to work, I would have my own space to work in, and I would have very little distractions. When I needed a break I could walk over to the coffee shop, and I would be able to interact with people in my community. I really think that would be a healthy option and something I should strive for.

Another thing that I would find very appealing is a focus on new technologies and professional development. Most of the companies I have worked for have been manufacturing or more classic verticals. I haven't worked for a high tech company when it comes to software development. I spend a huge amount of personal time every week trying to stay up to date on current technology. I spend a lot of money on training classes, books, and seminars. As a consultant, I have only had one employer who was willing to invest in training for me. Not only having my training paid for, but also being paid while being trained was a real treat for me, but that is not something most employers will do with a consultant.

Working at a company headquarters again would also be top on my list. When I look back over my career, my happiest days were when I worked at the company headquarters and reported directly to the CIO. When the company was acquired by a much larger company, we became just another plant in much larger ecosystem, and instead of innovating new solutions for the company, I spent most of my time implementing solutions the parent company pushed on us. So being a part of the headquarters where you get to do the real IT work is something I would love to do again. 

When I was a part of the headquarters, my job description was prototype developer, and I loved that job. The CIO or one of the other managers would come to me and say they needed a solution of some type, and I would be in charge of researching the appropriate technology, proposing a solution, and building a proof of concept. This could be a home grown solution that I would design and develop or it could be a vendor provided solution where I would work with techs from the vendor to show a prototype of how their system would work in our infrastructure. I had test servers of all kinds. I worked with Unix, Linux, Windows, and even some mainframes. Once a proof of concept was approved, I would either lead the project implementation or turn it over to our IT provider and move on to the next challenge. I would have been happy doing that job for the rest of my life.

In summary my dream job would be close to home, high tech, lots of training, variety of tech, good management, good pay, and leading the company innovation. When I have talked to recruiters, they are recruiting for jobs they have, and they will tell me that a job like that just isn't available in this market. That's why I call it a dream job. The point is this, if you know what your dream job is, you can make a more informed decision about switching jobs. If you are only looking at financial aspects of a move, you may really miss out on a lot of things that are more important. Having an ideal in mind allows you to make a full comparison of positions and do the thing that is right for you in the long run.

It is always easy to look at your life in hindsight and say you should have done something differently, but it is really hard to remember the lens you were looking through at the time. One of my biggest failings is that I am a creature of habit. If a routine is working, I am not going to change it if I don't have to. When my job changed from being an innovator to being an implementer, I should have looked at changing jobs, but I didn't. As I have gotten older, having stability is a trade-off I have been willing to accept. That doesn't mean I have given up on innovation, I just do it on my own time. 

So what is your dream job? If you could have a job catered exactly to you what would it be? What are your highest priorities when looking for a new job? Let me know if the comments.