I thought this could be interesting… what’s your dream job?
I keep trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up and I keep finding myself scratching my head. I think I want to continue to do things like software architecture or maybe solution architecture, but at the moment I’m not really sure.
How 'bout you guys?
It’s funny—I feel the ideal job will grow with you and let you do a lot of different things while you earn enough to pay at your bills and save some.
H was so happy with his 45 year career because his job changed a lot and often and he was happy to change with it. He was allowed a lot of autonomy and rarely had to supervise. He got training he requested most of the time and even traveled a bit. He liked most of his coworkers, which was another big plus.
I’ve loved my jobs as well. I’ve been an attorney, a judge and now am running a nonprofit and am also a patient consultant about lung disease It’s not the career path I envisioned but it has been fascinating and I’ve enjoyed the journey.
I hated working so my ideal job is the no-job I have now in retirement.
My ideal job would be traveling the world with enough money that when I see something that needs fixing I could do something about it. My favorite “causes” are medical, educational, and basics (food, shelter, etc).
I guess I want to be one of the front gals for an aid organization?
But I doubt that will ever happen. For now, since I’m not teaching, I get my “jollies” donating what we can to places I think are reliable. I had extra to donate when we weren’t traveling due to Covid. And I’ve gotten more into the stock market managing part of our own investments. That’s been fun.
But I want to get back to wandering.
I need a job that changes daily. I find myself getting bored doing the exact same thing day in and day out.
My ideal job is the one I had 25+ years ago. I was in corporate accounting (Director level) and loved every minute I worked for that company (8 years). Wonderful boss (and boss’s boss), co workers, company culture, opportunity for advancement ( I did not start out at that level), benefits, etc. I loved the work I did.
Alas, due to restructuring/relocating my colleagues and I were all eventually laid off…
I had the same career for 20 plus years but it’s always been the people I worked with that made the difference in job satisfaction. Having a real team of smart, capable people coupled with management that allows freedom is what made things great. We did have a lot of stress at times ( more often than not) but knowing your friends are there backing each other up made it easier.
I’d do what I’m currently doing - teaching - but without the grading.
I think I’d like to run a clothing consignment shop. I’ve always been into thrifting. I used to sell on eBay, mostly clothing, which was pretty fun, and if I had a shop people would bring inventory to me and I also wouldn’t have to ship it. We have one in town run by a mother and daughter that I like shopping at and it would just be fun to putz around organizing clothes.
I owned a maternity and gently used children’s consignment shop for a few years when my D was first in school. I loved everything about it. I loved the low overhead, regular customers (those maternity ladies eventually became baby/toddler clothes buyers), and easy hours. I started carrying high chairs, baby swings and things of that nature (no soft goods like mattresses). It was a successful business and I would recommend it to anyone looking to start a business with little cash outlay. I filled my 600 sq ft shop with all merch I found at garage sales in high end neighborhoods and thrifting. Eventually I sold the shop to one of my best customers.
Anyone remember Samantha Brown? She had a travel show where she travelled the world reviewing high end hotels and restaurants. That’s my dream job, sans Covid
That sounds like it was so pleasing to you - may I ask why you sold it??
I’m not sure this would be an ideal job in reality but I always had this dream to open a little local neighborhood breakfast/lunch spot. I had a name all picked out “Popovers” or “Pop Over”! 
I would sell coffee, popovers, scones , muffins and such and then add in soups for lunch. It would be a small spot or a spot split in half and my husband would have an antique resale/repair shop in the other half.
Long time ago dream because antique stores are not a hot item anymore it seems and I just make my baked goods for my own people!!!
I have always admired people who thought and succeeded at a fulfilling side hustle
We love Samantha Brown! She does have another show Places to Love but we can only find it online and streaming it to our TV is a bit of a pain.
I do! I do! My D and I actually used to muse that we wanted to do a similar type of show, as mother and daughter - that format still hasn’t been done.
It was in the mountains, about 90 miles from where I had lived for a long time, where my friends and my grandmother lived. There was a major earthquake (known as The Northridge earthquake) one morning in early 1994, I was sound asleep and assumed my kid was running through the house as it was shaking, I yelled at her to “stop running” a few minutes later my phone rang, it was my grandmother (she raised me and was my biggest supporter), she was in tears because everything around her was crumbling and falling and she couldn’t get to her business to see what damage there might have been, and suddenly I felt very alone and protective of her. We packed a couple of bags, went to grandma’s and along the way we saw so much damage it shook me to my core. All my friend’s homes and places of work were being “red tagged” - I wanted to be closer and to help. Even though my D was only 5 1/2 she and I talked about moving back “to the beach” and that weekend we found an apartment, and about 6 weeks later moved back, after selling the shop and finding work (via a phone interview). I’m glad we made the move, so many positive things came out of it. It was a kneejerk move, for sure, and I’m not usually that kind of person, but it turned out to be the right thing for us.
I had a fantasy of opening a breakfast take away spot across the street from the ferry terminal on Friday Harbor, WA. It was going to be bento box style, with pre-made boxes and then you’d also receive a hot coffee, tea, or cocoa. All super fresh and healthy. I would open from 4 am to noon. I got the idea as many people would line up in their cars starting around 4 am for the first ferry (some even parked the night before, and got a ride or walked back home) and once when I did it I realized how much I wished I didn’t have to pack food for the wait and the ferry ride. Then a little shop came available for sale right across the street, like 500 sq ft - and my brain was swirling, I almost did it.
I’ve got a head filled with all sorts of ideas for small businesses. If I could afford the rent anymore(!) today I would open an arts and crafts consignment shop - all local artisans, and all unique items, no two artists consigning similar items. I would even like to hire a pet portrait artist to paint/draw customer’s pets as a special draw to the shop.
I could go on…
My favorite job ever was one I took when I couldn’t find work straight out of architecture school. I was the librarian for the Munger Africana Library at Caltech. It was the collection amassed by Professor Munger who taught African History to Caltech students. It was 20 hours a week and easily paid for my share of the house I shared with a bunch of Caltech grad students with plenty left over for fun. It even came with health insurance that cost me $12 a month. My duties were to shelve books, catalogue new ones, find and file newspaper clippings of African news and help Caltech kids write their papers for the course Munger taught. The kids were friendly and bright. In my spare time I read the books and learned more about African than I had known living in East Africa as a child. In my spare time I looked for architectural work, volunteered with the Pasadena historical Society and generally had a good time.
I think that the idea of an ideal job changes during your lifetime. But, it became clear that I needed to have a set schedule so I could raise my kids.
I would say I am closest now to my ideal job…retired.
I went from business executive to big firm lawyer to investments. It wasn’t any different, just that now, it’s my own money. It’s a cool “job”. I can work some days, remote, or not. And sky’s the limit, literally.
my future job is to be a clinical Psychologist. because i want to help people out and let Them know that they’re never alone in this world, that They can always count on me, and call me whenever they feel like it.