It’s layoff season in my corner of the world, and while things are good where I work, the phone rings at least once a day with someone wanting to gossip/groan/quail about impending doom. A lot of us talk, semi-seriously, about what we’d do as a Plan B if this business doesn’t work out.
Yesterday a friend and I agreed we could happily quit our jobs for the Outdoor Lab, 210-acres of undeveloped wilderness in Virginia that was the site of blissful field trips and summer camps for most of my childhood. Wildlife! Cook-outs! Fields and streams! There’s a caretaker’s house on the property, and we’d spend all day appreciating nature and gazing at the stars at night.
Of course, I’d only take that job once I’d finished my other Plan B: a sabbatical as George Clooney’s girlfriend. See, we all know George isn’t the monogamous type. This is fine with me, because while I find him utterly dreamy, there’s no way I’d want a serious relationship with a Hollywood superstar. Also, I have no intention of ever giving up my day job. So I’d like a six-month unpaid internship Chez George. I’d soak up some California sunshine, go to Cannes, hang out at his gorgeous villa on Lake Como, have witty conversation, and make sweet, sweet love. And then at the end of six months, I’d kiss George goodbye and go back to work.
What’s your dream job? If you could ditch the one you have, or roll out of school and into the ideal situation, what would you most like to do?
I have recently ditched one of my jobs, to my great relief (if I survive until 3pm today, only 2 more days remain!).
Whatever I end up doing, I think my dream job needs to be one of two things: something physically rigorous and regimented–probably making/creating something–which may or may not be mentally challenging, and/or something that is self-directed but primarily brain work. I also want a balance of collaboration and independence. I enjoy the structure and interaction of teaching, but then I need to close a door. I fart on 9-5.
I would also settle for a position that involved wrasslin’ with puppies.
Tea shop proprietor/detective in quaint Agatha Christie-esque small british town with large number of baffling murder mysteries.
SarahMC and I have also discussed running a dog rescue/doggie daycare center like the one Frances Conroy and Kathy Bates retire to at the end of “Six Feet Under”–there’s a scene of them lying on outdoor lounge chairs with glasses of wine, throwing tennis balls for a big pack of dogs. Dorky, you should join us!
If I didn’t have kid(s), I’d want to be a caterer, but I can’t imagine working evenings when my kids are home from school and my husband is home from work. Running a bakery is also high on my list, but I think running a storefront is more responsibility than I could handle.
Instead, I’m aiming for personal chef, which I do a tiny bit of now (though that was derailed by my current bout of morning sickness). In a few years, once the kids are in school, I hope it’s a way I can cook during the day and be home for them in the afternoons and evenings. I prefer fancier event cooking, but getting paid to cook is pretty dreamy for me.
It’s worth noting that my degrees are in chemistry, and post grad-school dropoutdom I worked in banking. My bank job was horribly boring and I was overqualified and underpaid but I adored my boss, so I never looked for anything else. I used having kids as an excuse to take a break and figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up. Which, as it turns out, has absolutely nothing to do with either my education or my experience.
My dream job would be getting paid $5 million a year to work at the world’s best funded free legal clinic 40 hours a week with 6 weeks of vacation every year. Every three years I would take a sabbatical to write a book.
Av0gadro you could be a caterer for daytime events like corporate luncheons and power breakfasts and such.
Successful author. Complete freedom over your own time and you can do your work anywhere (which suits my nomadic side).
Unfortunately, I’m a much better reader than writer.
I see your successful author and raise you a successful paperback pulp novelist. Have you read the little bios on the last page of bodice rippers and vampire sci-fi? They all live on ranches with a hundred animals and their adoring spouses and children. Additionally, you can apparently sell a lot of books based on simple formulas and some basic research.
I’d love to figure out what thing I can make and make a living selling on etsy or ebay or my own website. I’ve got a couple of inspirations, but the 8-5 and its health insurance are conspiring against me quitting. The boyfriend is a small law firm, so he’s never going to have coverage except through me, so grind away it is.
I work in non-profit grant writing. Love the job, hate my boss.
My dream job would be either a) teaching Western Civ at my alma mater
or b) being a travel writer- getting paid to travel, eat, stay in fancy hotels and then write witty and descriptive blurbs about my adventures? Hell yes!
Animal caretaker at a sanctuary or something. I want to be the person holding the bottle in pictures of cute baby animals.
My dream job would be artistically-stimulating, pay well, give me leadership skills to grow into a high position of authority, allow me to meet interesting people and both be influenced and be influential to others, and leave me feeling like I’ve worked hard to reap the benefits. Work for many years, and then retire at some point, feeling respected and satisfied with my life’s work. That would be very fulfulling and nice.
I’d like to work in a film organization in NYC, showing great cinema, organizing discussions with fascinating individuals and bring art education to people who might otherwise not get it.
I would like to work for Medecins sans Frontiers, or some job that would enable me to roam dangerous regions, help people, ride horses over rough territory—I hope—-and just do something adventurous and real. Plus tents and gadgets and I’d take all my cameras and my solar-power chargers and be out in the fresh, fresh air.
Along the animal theme: this guy runs a ranch in Florida that is a cat shelter. There are hundreds of kitties just walking around, being kitties. Aaaaah, heaven.
I also think it’d be pretty cool to do what Rich from FourFour does and get paid to watch reality TV and then snark about it. But I’m not as funny as he is.
Of course my actual dream job is Supreme Dictator of the Universe — I think I’d be pretty awesome at that. If only…
I love cooking, it totally de-stresses me and lets my mind both wander and relax at teh same time. To that end, the most fufilling part about cooking is watching others enjoy the food i make for them.
So…if there was a way to get paid for foodie voyuerism i would do it in a heartbeat. The only request on my end is a Cary grant-esqe male to wash the dishes afterwards.
Bookstore-Bakery owner somewhere on the central coast of California – like Monterey or Big Sur or Carmel. Spending my days surrounded by gorgeous scenery, books, and cookies, cakes, and pies sounds about perfect.
Especially with my semi-annual performance review happening in…one hour.
I’d love to play music for a living.
I’d like to have a bookshop/workshop for binding and repairing damaged books. In my dream, I would only see customers by appointment, and they would think that I was an insufferable curmudgeon, but I would be so good that they would have to put up with me. I would have a charming, yet slightly bumbling apprentice to do all of the grunt work, and together we would solve book related crimes and discover valuable historical curiosities.
Also, I would never have to set an alarm clock and the dog would get to come with me wherever I go.
Oh, making things! I would love nothing more than to work from my home, supporting myself through my arty-type projects. Get up, sew and paint for hours, work in the yard, bake some bread, make my puppets talk to one another: what a life that would be! I’d also like to work with an urban food justice organization.
For the animal-loving-types: I have a friend who’s worked with various animal sanctuaries for the last couple decades, and they are almost always looking for dedicated employees. However, I think the ratio of poop-shoveling to baby-animal-feeding is definitely skewed more towards poop. On the upside, her current sanctuary houses an elephant.
(Successful)painter. In my dream this job would provide me with enough money and time to allow me to do a substantial amount of volunteer work.
A). Switch my major so I could get a degree in theology and teach at Mt. Holyoke, or another women’s college.
B). Go back to teaching little kiddies.
C). Get paid for writing fanfic. Marry Obi-Wan Kenobi. The young version.
Becky, I think that picture of the Cloon is enough to make me see “Up In the Air” next week!
Tenured English professor at a seven sisters college, with every class cross-listed by the Women’s Studies department.
Alternately, running a boutique animal supplies store that lets people bring their pet owners in; book store/coffee shop that lets people bring their pets; lottery winner
I used to be really, really ambitious. Then I fell in love with someone who has two amazing cats, and I got a dog and moved into a nice, cheap apartment with a backyard for a garden. And now I don’t care about anything anymore. I’m getting my degree so I can hopefully someday have a job in academia that will allow me to feed my dog organic dog food laced with pumpkin, and ideally be enough money for my partner to stay home with our animals and cook us an elaborate dinner every night. And, if we decide to do the foster kid thing, stay home with them.
Oh my god. You have no idea how much I need this thread today. (The fact that I didn’t get to check my Google Reader until 6 p.m. might give you an idea.)
I have two ideal jobs. First one would be a writer for a comedy news show a la Colbert Report. Melding my love of journalism with my often-inappropriate and morbid sense of humor would be a dream come true.
Second: Owner of a kickass knitting/coffee shop plus bar. Where I could hang out all day drinking delicious beverages and knitting and helping other people knit and drink. It would have a witty punny name and a happy hour and wide range of yummy alcoholic and non-alcoholic cocktails and be feministy DIY in slant and it would be HEAVEN!
I guess I have a third dream job, which is “librarian,” but that’s less of a dream job and more of a motivation to finish my final library school application!
I frankly just want a job where I could ride around in a vardo pulled by a Fresian/Percheron cross and solve mysteries and take pictures.
Dancin’ fool pioneer of African dance, whose daytime duty is ride horseback around my expansive British estate delivering heartfelt noblesse oblige, and to host rockin’ dance parties in the afternoons and evenings. The expansive estate could also border the Mediterranean, and have an Italian palazzo or a 400-year-old French, stone farmhouse. But the horses and dogs (I could finally have my Irish Wolfhounds and Scottish Deerhounds, among other, as well as a couple of spaniels) are obligatory. And frankly I think I’d still want to write and edit, and work with science, kids, and education. Funny, but most of what I want is what I have in microcosm, just much MORE so.
Oh, and I would definitely need to run two staffs – one for the estate, and one for my booming nonprofit education agency.
Cait:
I’m half-way through library school my own self. Come play!
what i wouldn’t give to join the circus…
If I won the lottery, this is what I do: (really, it is the same question!)
I would build affordable rental housing, townhouses and apartments. People of any income could live there, but some homes would be heavily subsidized so that someone living on welfare could afford a good home easily. There would be a mixture of housing types – suitable for folks with disabilities, family, singles, seniors, pets etc. Some with yards, some not. In the center of the complex would be a big courtyard with fruit trees, park, veggie gardens, floor gardens, playground, chickens, etc. Below the apartments would be shops and services, cafes, and so on. There would be on site daycare, a community kitchen, library, toy library, gym, game room, medical and counseling services. Jobs and volunteer opportunities in these businesses would be opened up to the people who lived in the building before being offered more widely (although of course appropriate skills and education would apply – an untrained person is not going to become a nurse practitioner without getting the education, but we could easily offer opportunities to train for home support or peer counseling positions).
For those people in the subsidized housing, a portion of their rent would be put aside as savings for them (as some microloan groups do) for investment in themselves, such as education, retirement, setting up a business, family, whatever.
This is why I’d need to win the lottery first. And, no doubt, get municipal, federal, and provincial grants.
Sure it would be hard and no doubt frustrating, but I dream about doing something like this.