Ask HN: Do you have a dream job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you have a dream job?

31 pointsneilsharma37 comments

Most of my friends have jobs they don't hate, but also don't particularly care for. This seems to me like an unfortunate use of life if they aren't doing something they love while also feeling fulfilled and advancing their career.

I'd love to hear:

- What you do

- Where you work (if you don't mind sharing since you have only good things to say)

- How did you get the job (esp if its a a bit unorthodox)

- Why is it awesome.

If some people can identify with your goals and interests, this may help them find a job they love.

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I had my dream job awhile back, where I was paid to work full time on my own open source project. Essentially my employer was offering the software to customers, and they wanted to make sure it was maintained. It was easygoing, I set my own roadmaps, and I had the freedom to contribute to struggling third-party dependencies as needed (I felt like an open source superman, swooping in). This job lasted for several years until I quit to pursue startup life.

I'm currently the founder of my own funded company, which in a way sounds like a dream job too, but because there are a lot of non-coding distractions and also huge stress levels, I don't think it's really the same. The cushy open source gig was the dream job. :) Maybe after I'm "successful" I'll go back to that.

No, I have a shit job. Started great went downhill after a year.

I loved it the first year, getting requirements, designing and building the database, and web front end for a sequencing centre. Learning a new language, web framework, some JavaScript, using my existing database and coding skills and pushing them further.

Three and a half years on all I seem to do is fix the same excel upload errors (it was a temporary quick fix solution that has always been bottom priority for replacement), go to dumb meetings where they spend half an hour discuss the acronyms used in the menus, and change colour of items. I never get a chance to focus on anything that takes more than half a days coding, so basically all the interesting work is now replaced by trivial fixes usually where the users seem incapable of reading the error message (though with Excel it impossible to guess what the problem will be).

I was promised a promotion last year, but that hasn't happened yet (I work in Spain, and government cuts mean it not allowed until we merge with another institute). I have realised recently, that it is making me frustrated and deeply unhappy, so I am willing to take a pay hit (on my future wage) to do something that I actually enjoy again.

Ideally I want to go freelance, but there isn't such a big market here in Spain, and the common advice is to build up your portfolio (tricky when your work is in house).

Anyway, as I realised recently, do something you enjoy, and don't get sucked into the management style thing if you that isn't what you want to do. If management are not listening to your suggestions, it is time to get out. The promise of more money has kept me hanging on far too long.

Sorry to hear about the job becoming something you stopped liking.

Are you unwilling to search for another job? Is that due to Spain's large unemployment rate? What about freelancing on the side doing small, cheap portfolio-building projects, and then switching to a minor role at your company?

I am looking. Trying to get some freelance clients is tricky, as it seems a case of who you know rather than what you know here.

> If some people can identify with your goals and interests, this may help them find a job they love.

There's a solid, recent book on this very subject by Robert Kaplan. Here's his presentation from Talks @ Google, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sY-qwEYjs0

Thanks for the link!

Program Manager overseeing data collection

Washington, DC

Applied

My job isn't awesome but I certainly don't hate it. I would much rather be working for a law enforcement agency. But I'm at a solid point in my current career, and I was going to work for the FBI but I would have to take a pay cut and it would take 2 years to get back to the pay I currently make. So add that in with a house and family and I just don't think I'm going to make a career move. So I just try and volunteer places to do criminal analysis and may pursue my PhD.

I work as a System admin and a client support tech for a small-ish MSP.

I really thought that this is what I wanted to do. I could solve interesting and new problems every and be given a chance to explore what is effectively the infinite depths of computing at a very technical level.

I was really happy initially but as time has went on, I've become more and more aware that customer-facing IT has a lot less to do with solving technical problems, and a lot more to do with solving social problems - Talking to people and setting expectations and bridging a gap between what should actually be done and what the customer thinks should be done....and I'm not good at that. I want to solve difficult, technical problems. I don't want my job description to be 'I primarily deal with people and technical competence is secondary'.

So I'm not there yet, but I feel this experience has helped really carve out what I do want for a career, so I'm glad I've had the experience. If there is one thing it helped define, is the quality of people I work with. I get to work with awesome people, and if I could find these kinds of people doing a more technically-focused job, that might be the dream.

I got a master's degree in computer science last february (image recognition, stuff like that), however I tought (and still do) I wouldn't like to work in that field. What I wanted to do is something close to web development and design (I mean visual stuff here).

I had two goals: - Live overseas (I'm french), no real destination, I think I would like to move from time to time - Work at a startup or at least where people care about what they are doing instead of how much money they make and how much time they can skip without bosses noticing.

I got some interview, one who almost went through in London, however my degree wasn't really relevant to what I wanted to do, so I started to try learn stuff as quickly as possible, so I made a portfolio in Node and Angular (in the most basic way you can I think, I litterally used/read about angular for less than 20 hours).

However having this thing done opened me some more interview, and I found one opportunity that I really liked, at a startup as a front-end developer. The lack of experience didn't allow me to get an interview though, however the recruiter took the decision on his own to make me do a test originally for another dude, and apparently I passed because I work here for 2 months now, and things are going really well.

At that time, I was ready to accept pretty much anything that pay, but I got very lucky and got exactly what I wanted and expected. The only downside is that I use 2 hours to commute (1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening), but I can't afford closer and better.

I would qualify that as my dream job, however I know I will want to upgrade, change country in the future, dream job evolves along with you growing up I guess.

Congrats on finding a job that you like!

I got my degree in EE/CS, but have mostly done web dev these past few years. Unlike you, however, I want to do Image Recognition and the like in my day-to-day and largely give up on web dev. I also want to move from time to time and live overseas (I'm from SF/Bay Area).

I think you hit the nail on the head -- a "dream job" is an ever-changing concept. Some people get their life kicks from doing one thing they are passionate about every day for decades. They love diving deep -- so deep that they start to learn what few people know.

Others get their thrills from continuously doing different things that keep their horizon expanding. Learning this skill, working abroad, shifting industries, etc. I think you and I fall in that category. For those guys, "dream jobs" are temporary.

I'm a teaching professor of information systems and I'm in charge of the capstone course for our undergraduate program. That means I get to act as coach/mentor for about 35 web and mobile app projects per year (for real clients ranging from startups to multinationals), am very plugged in to the IT and startup scenes in the area, and I get to learn through students' experience about all the development subjects I'm interested in. I assign students to give "tech talks" on the things they're discovering, and I can invite all kinds of experts to come give guest lectures to my classes, which they are often happy to do. On top of all that, publishers practically throw tech books at me if I even hint that I might use assign of their titles as a textbook. And I get to wear a bow tie to work with no one second-guessing me. At least not out loud...

Getting the job meant hard work, prayer, and mental toughness to get through the hazing process of a 5-year PhD and 1-year postdoc earning next to nothing. There are probably easier ways to get a dream job.

I'm a technology lawyer in Toronto, Canada.

I got my job by starting my own law practice after working at a large tech company + a large law firm. Most lawyers work at firms for several years (or forever) instead of doing their own thing. I did contract programming work for many years before starting my practice so I knew what I was getting into by starting my own business. Without my background in programming I wouldn't have most of my clients. I also get a lot of inbound leads because my website does well on Google (re: former web developer).

My job is awesome because I get to help entrepreneurs start their businesses/keep them running smoothly. I'm independent so I can offer reasonably-priced, fast and flexible service. Another benefit of being independent is that I get to work for businesses that other people might not touch such as Bitcoin-related companies. It's more interesting than being a programmer because I get a higher-level view and work with a wide variety of people. I still keep one foot in the world of programming by building my own services on the side.

Did you go into law after working in the webdev industry or what was your education path?

I've had two parallel paths:

1. Starting doing programming for pay in high school ---> continued working throughout school

2. Biomedical Sciences degree -> Law degree -> Lawyer

I actually created an account since I think I'm the younger version of you and I think your experience could help me. I'm in my final year of an undergraduate law degree, but I've worked in various programming jobs during my studies.

Did you go into a law firm right away after you finished studying? Or did you do some more contract work on the side first? How did you frame your experience in programming as useful to the firm that you worked at? How does it help you now?

I guess I'm asking because I'm somewhat at a crossroads with what to do with my life. I'm certainly feeling the current from law school trying to push me into firm work, but I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet. I always wanted to do a startup around an idea I've been working on for a few years now and maybe travel around and pick up a few languages.

The type of work you do sounds really appealing to me, but I don't know if I can launch into it right away out of my studies.

Hey,

I went to a firm right after studying because in Canada you're required to (it's called "articling").

I run a few online services and it's certainly possible to do that while working other jobs. Maybe you could build your service on the side and see if it's got legs?

I wouldn't recommend starting a law practice right out of school (if that's possible in your jurisdiction). It's good to get at least some experience/credibility.

I think it'll be tough to try to answer this post thoroughly so please feel free to email me at addison@cameronhuff.com if you'd like to chat further (email or Skype).

I'd love to have a discussion with you about being a tech lawyer one day. I'm interested in knowing more about that career path after getting into com science and then shifting over to the business side of things. Friends and family have been raving about how great of a demand there is for tech lawyers these days so I'm curious to get your perspective.

I think the demand for tech lawyers is proportional to how large the tech industry is in your area.

You might be surprised to find that demand for people with programming + law isn't as great as the demand for people with just programming. I think the reason for this is that non-technical lawyers can handle almost all of the work that a technical person could do (e.g. you don't need to know how to code to incorporate a company). Feel free to send me an email if you want to follow up: addison@cameronhuff.com.

Thanks for your reply. I'm based in Toronto as well. I always envisioned that have a technical background would be beneficial in understanding/defending/invalidating patents etc. I'll drop you a mail shortly.

If you want to do patents then a technical background is almost a prerequisite and it's very useful.

I've been coding commercially for 12 years now, and in 2008 I landed what I would class as a dream job. It was a contractor position up near Reading in the UK, but became permanent. I spent 4 years having a great time, interesting work, great people to work with, and an awesome culture. Then we got bought out by Oracle. I lasted 8 months and moved back to Kent.

Now I work for an ISP (I worked with one of the directors about 10 years ago) 10mins from home, working on everything that needs doing, and I would say that this is a dream job.

I guess it depends on your circumstances, and what you need at the time. Dream job is such a loose phrase. They have both had their downsides, but in happiness levels they have both excelled!

Edit. I should say that I worked at various places before, and none really compare, but they did give a good grounding and helped me figure out what it was i wanted from a job. (Hint:the money is nice, but after a while job satisfaction and quality of life take precedent)

Ah, Reading. Is it still a shit hole full of shallow people who are primarily concerned with how much money you make and what car you drive?

I assume so, I lived in Maidenhead for that time and I can honestly say I would never step foot in either ever again!

Edit. We used to have a sales lady who would arrive in flash cars with the bumpers always broken/full of mud and grass. Keeping up appearances...

I was down the road in Basingstoke for two and a half years. That makes Reading seem like a good place. To be fair I liked the job, but the location was hell.

At IBM?

Motorola, when they were doing well.

Hmm interesting. Can you expand a bit more on what quality of life actually means? Is a 10-min commute the perfect duration? What hours/week? Etc.

Its not just the commute, but its a bonus! Quality of life I would say is how much time you get to spend at home, with friends, having to work evenings and weekends etc. Its all relative.

If you're happy and don't mind doing some work in the evenings that's good - its not forced, its a choice.

But if you are expected to do things out of hours, it starts to fall apart - others in the team are doin tuttig it so why aren't you? That's not good.

At the end of the day, if youths are happy and social and work life coexist happily, then that's a good quality of life. (For me anyway)

Edit. I'm in the pub after work (good quality of life ;)) so apologies for my rubbish explanation!

Edit 2. Hours are standard 9:00-5:30, but I have the freedom to work from home if I need to - which I've had for the last 6 years, its a definate plus!

- I work for a mental health nonprofit, largest one in the country at the moment.

- I got into IT after being a warehouse worker and "being good with computers" there. I did air guitar to land my first IT job.

- My current job is awesome because as a nonprofit everyone is very huggy-feely, lots of psychiatrists leading the way and whatnot. It is also awesome because I am given free reign to come up with solutions, design new systems and generally tinker with a home-built lab using old equipment I was loaned by this non-profit.

- We get several different models of charity licensing from various vendors in addition to having some of the best negotiators around. A non-profit running all EMC storage, backup and replication? Pretty awesome.

I love the work in general and would do it for peanuts, almost.

It might not be anyone else's dream job, but I find myself working on things I would anyway be doing for fun (like a specialized bytecode interpreter, audio effect algorithms, various little research projects which happen to improve my Python and Javascript skills...). The only problem is it makes my non-work time feel a bit less interesting by comparison!

Hey

I am still studying computer engineering. My dream job has two branches: travelling and coding, I want to have a job which let me travel to countries, and I want to have enough time for creating something with my codes which are useful for me or for others. I dont know how to get this job, it is the next episode, I learn now how to program.

Check out ThoughtWorks - software company that provides professional services: http://www.thoughtworks.com/

Might be a good match for combining traveling and coding.

thank you. I havent heard of it =)

No problem. Good luck finding something you like!

I am looking for my dream job

I'm a web architect / software engineer at a language learning company.

I got the job by a referral of an acquaintance from a local software Meetup.com group that I attend regularly. When I got frustrated with my last job, I approached the leaders of the Meetup group (who I sort of knew as acquaintances by that point) and said "Hey guys, I'm sort of looking around now. Let me know if you hear anything." A few weeks later, one of those guys made an email introduction to me of another guy who works at the company I'm currently at. He brought me in for an interview... at first, I was just kind of going to the interview as a courtesy - I was pretty sure I didn't want to work here - but when I met the guys and the boss I would be working with, I was sold pretty quickly. They seemed like really fun, intelligent guys when we met and they are. If there was a point in the interview that sold it to me, it was probably the point where I asked them if we should start the whiteboard coding portion of the interview and they waived it off, saying "That's just for people who we think are bullshitting us. We can tell you know what you're talking about and what you're doing."

I just got back from the beach for a week, and while it was nice to be away for a little bit, I was genuinely excited to get back in the office on Monday. I don't remember ever feeling that way at any other job I've had, so I guess I have to say this is my "Dream Job". That doesn't mean I want to do it forever - I'm a firm believer that even the "Dreamiest" job doesn't beat working for yourself, but I have to say I really enjoy it. Unless someone offered me something on the order of 2-3x what I make here, I wouldn't consider leaving (and I make a pretty decent amount for my region/experience).

What makes it that way?

1. Boss. Best/most competent guy I've ever worked for. He somehow has the "magic touch" of keeping the team focused on things we can deliver, calling bullshit on all the paper-pushers and meeting-mongrels that try to sap our time ("No one on my team has a company phone. No one in this company has the right to innterupt my devs while they're working."), and rolling up his sleeves and coding when we have to stay super-late to get something done (only happened once). He also judges on "body of work" more than individual incidents ("You went out at 2PM and get drunk with your co-workers yesterday? No problem, you usually get your shit done in good order and on time. You showboated about staying until 1AM last night? Bullshit - on a regular basis, you don't get shit done. Try harder.")

2. Open-ness of the team. "You have been messing around with a new library/framework at home for the last couple of weeks and you really like it? Come in and show it to the rest of the team for a couple hours tomorrow. Team discusses it, weighs benefits/drawback/long-term-maintainability...it's in production a week later." "You met an awesome guy at a meetup last week? Bring him in here and interview him. Two weeks later, he's hired."

3. "Goldilocks" company atmosphere. Not "douchy-SV-startup concrete walls and beanbag-chairs", but not "corporate cubicle farm" either. It's a great mix of people from different parts of the world, different age ranges / genders / etc. We have free sodas/coffee, but not free beer. People leave at 6. There is usually a happy hour every couple of weeks where we get together at a crappy bar and have a great time, but no one's social circle consists entirely of coworkers. If you're married/kids people tell you what happened at the happy hour the next day so no one feels like they're "left out".

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