The Truth About My Dream Job

Over the past few weeks I have looked through hundreds of different career opportunities. It's really amazing how the Internet helps and at the same time confounds the job search. Although this isn't the main topic of this post, it's definitely interesting. At any one point I have access to thousands upon thousands of job opportunities; whether those are actually available to me is a completely different thing. How did people find job opportunities in the past? On one hand, I'm sure there was a lot more personal interaction during those times than there is now, but on the other, within 40 minutes, I can apply to 3 different jobs (not considering time I rewrite my cover letter), and already have followed up to whomever posted the job.

Anyways, that will be a topic of a later post. With all these jobs postings and the ability to see how much they pay vs. how interesting and stimulating they actually sound, it reminded me of an argument I was having with a co-worker at my last job. For his privacy, let's call him Bill. Bill essentially did the same thing as I did, although he had a little more responsibility and earned a lot more as he had been with the company for over 6 years. Bill is in his mid 40's, has a wife and a six year old child. One incredibly slow day, we started discussing our goals, and aspirations for the future, while also looking retrospectively at the choices we had made to get us where we were. He wanted to be a screenwriter, and in fact, was in the middle of writing his first movie. However, even though he didn't necessarily get much satisfaction or mental stimulation out of his current job, it paid the bills, gave him a chance to spend quality time with his family, and simply made more sense than trying following his dreams.

The first thing I thought I had to do before starting my job search was list my priorities. What kind of job I wanted, what would make me happy, where I wanted to live, what duties I could perform successfully, and of course the reason you work, the minimum salary I'd consider. Where people rank these is completely individual, for some people, like Bill, it's a simple equation, whatever he could do to work the least and make the most amount of money, regardless of what he did was ideal. I've learned, in my humble experience, that I cannot reach my true potential in a position if my heart and passion isn't in it. While, I understand that some people don't necessarily have the convenience of having this choice, I'm going to make the assumption that most reading this blog do. While Bill was in a certain situation, where he had people who depended on him to make enough to support a family, he acknowledged that even if he didn't, he would make the same decision. While looking through the hundreds of jobs offered by the thousands of various companies, finding exactly what you want to do is like finding a needle in a haystack. Especially, when you are looking for a fat paycheck that comes along with it. As mentioned above, where I end up, and how much money I initially make while doing it comes secondary to whether I can take pride in what I do. If that means Iqaluit for 25,000 a year, for something I love, I'll see you there (I hear Nunavut is beautiful in the spring).

Will my priorities change in the future? Probably. Is there a chance they will change tomorrow?  Once again, it's a possibility. But for now, this is the way I feel. The ideal situation is to do something you love and be compensated nicely for it, but I'm guessing that everyone either has, or will have to decide between the two at some point. Bill went with the money; I'm going with Nunavut and whale blubber. To each his own.

By the way, interesting video from the TED lectures which is kind of on the same topic (First 5 or so minutes): http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html#.Tsgb2_exq14.facebook

Rob Baral