posted
I found the perfect job, and it's all thanks to my mother.
Mom signed me up for the LRF (Louisiana RenFest) newsletter last year as a deterrent from going to the large one in Texas. And now they're taking applications for jobs there!
*swoon*
So... While I contemplate signing up, I would love to hear how everyone here found their perfect job.
posted
I found mine completely by happenstance. It had been over four months since graduation, no job in sight, and I was getting desperate. One night my dad went to a guest lecture at the university, and one of the profs from my former department who he knew saw him there and sat next to him. I'd never had a class with this guy, but apparently I made something of an impression with the faculty while I was there. *shrugs* Anyway, as they chatted Dad mentioned that I was still looking for work, and the professor recalled that another faculty member (who I had also never studied with) was looking for a few students to work for the summer as software testers. The university's cyclotron facility had built an experimental proton radiation therapy room for treating cancer patients, and it worked well enough that they were adding two more, only now they had to bring everything into line with the FDA's requirements, which meant lots of documentation and testing to do.
So Dad put me in touch with this guy, he hired me after one very brief, informal interview, and I spent the summer doing unit testing for the patient positioning subsystem. The other four testers were all students, three undergrads and one graduate student, and at the end of the summer they left to go back to classes. I didn't have anywhere to be, and I really liked the work and the environment, so I'm staying on until the second and third treatment rooms deploy, which will be around the end of this year. I even got a field promotion of sorts, and I'll be allowed to do some actual programming of my own as well as testing the other engineers' code.
And I really do love this work. According to some career placement/personality/aptitude tests I took shortly after graduating, I have a strong wish to help people, but I don't want to be around them, interact with them, or deal with them in any way. This job lets me do exactly that--I'm doing my part to make the world a little bit better place, but I can be alone in my cube coding all day. It's awesome. I also like that the culture is so much more academic than corporate; there are no managers per se, just more junior and more senior engineers. Yeah, there's a "guy in charge" of the project, but he's also the engineer in charge of one of the subsystems, so he's got his own work to do. Nobody's looking over my shoulder, they just give me an assignment, and unless I need to ask them questions, I'll see them again when it's finished.
Unfortunately, this probably won't last forever. In fact, I'll most likely be looking for work again come January. They said I'd probably stay on until the treatment rooms are up and running, but after that I get the distinct impression that I'll be superfluous. Alas. But hey, at least I got to have it for a while, and it'll be a step on the way to a more permanent job.
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:And I really do love this work. According to some career placement/personality/aptitude tests I took shortly after graduating, I have a strong wish to help people, but I don't want to be around them, interact with them, or deal with them in any way. This job lets me do exactly that--I'm doing my part to make the world a little bit better place, but I can be alone in my cube coding all day. It's awesome. I also like that the culture is so much more academic than corporate; there are no managers per se, just more junior and more senior engineers. Yeah, there's a "guy in charge" of the project, but he's also the engineer in charge of one of the subsystems, so he's got his own work to do. Nobody's looking over my shoulder, they just give me an assignment, and unless I need to ask them questions, I'll see them again when it's finished.
This is actually a very good description of my current job, except it's a relaxed non-profit atmosphere instead of a relaxed academic atmosphere.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
The closest I ever came to a dream job was being offered an interview as a clerk for the juvenile court system. But I turned down the interview because I would have had to miss work at this stupid temp gig that I wound up quitting a couple weeks later. Oh well. If I had gotten the more meaningful job, I probably wouldn't have stayed home after I had my second baby. But it's one of the few "what ifs" I still think about.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I was a junior at BYU when I heard about the Creative Department at Nu Skin. Two of the members of the department came and did a short seminar on finding great marketing writing jobs. I was thrilled to discover that such a workplace existed and I immediately wanted to work there.
I kept up on job openings at Nu Skin for the next couple of years. I had my resume in their files for about a year and had forgotten it was even there. Then they called to ask if I was interested in an interview. I had a fairly decent job as a technical writer at the time, and I hadn't been actively searching for some months. But of course I said yes.
It was a little intimidating going into the big blue glass building in downtown Provo. It felt like a "real" job and I didn't know how ready I was for that. But everyone in Creative was smiling and laid back. I got along well with the creative manager and the senior writer who did the interview. They had me do an editing test and take home a writing test (write a nice ad for a new line of shampoo).
I did well on the editing part, I think, and they called me back for a second interview. My wife and I were pretty keyed up. She had worked at Nu Skin previously and loved the company. I couldn't believe I was in the running for a job I had dreamed about having.
This time, after I met with the department director, they took me back to the manager's office and left me there for about 5 minutes. Then they came back and offered me the job right there.
I came home and told my wife, and she was ecstatic. I was kind of in a daze, and kind of scared. Still am, three years later, although I'm not so nervous about getting a new project assigned to me anymore. I am much more familiar with my best writing habits and I no longer sit there in the conference room silently wondering if I can really do this at all. I am even writing our next annual report, and I took the assignment without batting an eye. Three years ago I would have been frozen to my chair.
The two new writers we've hired recently have gone through the same "learning curve," I think, but they're starting to get the hang of it. They love it here, just like I do. It really is one of the most perfect jobs a writer can find, at least in Utah Valley.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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quote: According to some career placement/personality/aptitude tests I took shortly after graduating, I have a strong wish to help people, but I don't want to be around them, interact with them, or deal with them in any way.
posted
I groom dogs on Saturdays, show dogs some weekends, and work with horses at the LSU vet school during the week. I have three perfect jobs.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
I am a teacher, and it is the perfect job for me. Summers to be with my kids, an end to summer when my kids are getting on my nerves, lots of people to chat with, I get to make up and play a lot of games. Lots more.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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posted
The job I have right now is pretty good. High pay, only one shift during school, and it will look good on a resume. I am basically 2nd line tech support. I watch servers, and when they break I sometimes fix them myself but usually call someone else and have them fix it. The only bad part are the 12 hour shifts, but I would rather sit down for 12 than stand up for 8.
My dream job would be running an opium den, and my realistic dream job would be staying at home while people mail me checks. This is why I want to be a landlord. Posts: 281 | Registered: Aug 2004
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