What would your dream job be?
 

Forgive me if this has been threadded already, but the search is down and I did look.

I've been considering changing careers recently, but I am drawing a blank as to what career would be worth it. I'm less concerned about money, and more concerned about being able to look forward to going to work. Basically: I want a dream job. I want to do something fun, challenging, exciting, new, and possibly unique. To contrast, I am currently a vip at a .com and my job is marketing and babysitting the company. It's so boring I could cry. Right now I am financially stable enough to really have an open mind about a new career. I'm even willing to do more school if necessary (I love school).

So what would your dream job be, and why?

the kind where I go to the mailbox and open an envelope and have checks...

real estate investor, landlord, stock invenstor, royalties recipient... those types of things...

this then frees me up to travel the world and help people when and where I can...

So, you'd want a decent amount of capitol to invest to begin with. Do you know how you'd actually enter those careers?

I've already started, I bought my first 1 bedroom condo in Las Vegas in 1999 with $6,000 down payment. I bought at $60k and it's now valued at $181k. I'm 1/2 way into the 15 year mortgage.

It isn't Trump but it's a start.

Leveraging the equity in the condo, I'm now looking to buy a 2-4 family dwelling somewhere in the US. That covers the real estate.

Investments, I contribute to my 401k which will give me somewhat of that ability in the future. I have some outright stock purchases, but not many. I really need to get on the ball and purchase more mutual funds.

Royalties, well, that's about an invention, creative something, which is a shot in a million. It's the one that I have the least amount of control and most doubts in succeeding.

edit: I forgot to add my own current living quarters, I live in a 1 bedroom in Manhattan, in one of the last affordable areas. It will probably be a place we never sell because it gives us a place to stay and live when we visit NYC. I bought it 4 years ago and was trying to convince others to buy in the same area. I bought for $265k and comprables are going in the $400k range. note I was renting even though I owned someplace in Las Vegas, I couldn't afford to buy where I lived, so I bought where I could afford.

in a general sense for me a dream job is one that you spend the least amount of time on and make the most amount of money.

one possibility i've come up with on this (esp. living in l.a.) is Voiceover artist for television and radio. You get ridiculous amounts of money for spending 2 or 3 hours recording a few sound bites, and then on top of that you oft times get royalty checks depending on what markets your work is played in and how often!

That's a really good idea!!! I did some radio work at SJ State for a bit (Ground Zero Radio....), and I've been told I sound like Clive Owen without the british accent. Tell you what, if I can get a job for that, I'll PM you with some details.

How about a travel journalist, like Sandra Brown, Anthony Bourdain, Michael Palin or my favorite Kevin Brauch, a.k.a. The Thirsty Traveler?

Sounds like a great job to me.

That does sound like a fun job, and I love writing and traveling. I don't know how well my wife and 2 year old would take traveling that much. Maybe if I only made 5 or 6 trips a year, and they were no longer than a week.

If it payed better I'd like to be involved in science. Specifically solar energy, space exploration, and equivalence in environmental adaptation.

Either a journalist or a correspondent of some kind

In all honesty, I have my dream job of sorts.

I work for a extremely good company that does Computer and Network management for a few medium companies around Southwest Ohio.

I have a "boss" but he is awesome. Example: My car broke down, head cracked, beyond repair.. I told him about it, and he said swing by on Sunday, and I could borrow a car... just like that. Plus, he works out of Dayton, and I am about 30 mins away from the "home office" so really, I am all on my own out here.

I work at a small credit union, I have my own office, I am lord and master of this network. People look to me for help and support, and I don't mind playing the 'hero' role and swoop down and fix things for people. Every day I get 10-20 "you the man" and "awesomes"

This is what I want to do, and I am doing it.

I too am currently in my dream job.

If I wasn't doing this is would be acting and voice work. I have done a lot of both and always wanted to do it full-time (I was going to say professionally but heck, when you get paid to do you are a pro).

Just a note about voice work. Yes, the actual process of voice work takes up very little time compared to an "ordinary job". That said, as a freelancer, your job is to get work. This can be harder than it seems.

Until you are a well-positioned in your career as a voice-over artist, you will find getting work to be a part-time job at best. It isn't easy to get hired. There is a lot of competition out there for the slots that are available.

At this point I haven't even touched the topic of training. You may have a great sounding voice but do you really know how to use it? Can you do a cold audition? Can you take direction? Like any craft, you need to be really good with your tools (or tool as the case may be).

It can be a rewarding career choice, just be aware of the whole picture.

It might not be my long-term dream job, but I have it. IT guy at a resort hotel next to the gondola of a ski resort. Chatted with my boss, and we both agreed that during ski season, if everything is up and running, and no one has any problems, and I have my cell phone on me I can hit up the slopes for a bit.

Couldn't ask for much more than that. But, of course my dream is simply to spend as many days on the slopes a year possible.

Neurosurgeon.
10+ years after practicing.

You might lost some people, but being able to meet the people whose lives you saved is amazing. Another benefit would be to talk to the patient during surgery. Quite an experience.

1. Amusement park critic.

The job would involve travelling the US, Europe, Asia, visiting amusement parks, sampling attractions and rating them, including hotels, restaurants, shopping venues and main street type attractions. It would likely take about two years to hit all the major parks worldwide.

2. Psychotherapist: The big drawback here being that I'm woefully badly equipped emotionally to do anything of this sort. Still, the most rewarding part of teaching middle school was the informal counseling I did with several of the gay kids at the schools where I taught in California. I was never much more than a sympathetic ear and someone to tell them that it's ok to be who they were, and couldn't help but think about what help I could have been if I really knew what I was doing.

College English professor is a pretty good gig. You get paid well, the work isn't physically demanding, and you're "on the clock" 25 hours a week 36 weeks a year. The job entails reading good books and talking about them with some pretty smart people who care about it. There's a lot of reading mediocre writing involved, too, but that's ok. The tradeoffs are worth it.

Child/adolescent psychotherapist.

I'd love to be in a high school or somewhere in the inner city of this country or another teaching young minds that they're much more than "kids with issues" who are trapped in a world that'll never work for them. I'd like to teach them to love and believe in themselves.

Admittedly, I sound like a dreamer but if it weren't for a few teachers who pulled me out of a 16 year funk by teaching me to utilize my natural talents and interests to build self-esteem - I'd have no idea where I'd be right now. Probably still skating in front of my old high school...

- -

Right now I've got a pretty cool job working for an armored car company (bye bye Barnes & Noble) in the vault processing high valued "pieces" and processing them for shipment to various destinations. It's really laid back in comparison to my old job and it lacks a lot of the bullshit that comes along with working in a high energy (meaning short staffed) retail environment. And it pays twice as much.