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Right out of college I landed my dream job, a job I dreamed about since childhood. This particular job was not only the type of role I wanted in the industry and company I wanted to work at, but it met pretty much any other intrinsic or extrinsic desire I could think of. Competitive pay, benefits, flex schedules, great culture, tons of perks, my own office, a perfect geographic location for me, short commute, great supervisor, and most importantly, work I was passionate about doing and work I felt personally connected to. I felt confident about my skills and felt good at what I did. I got up every day actually excited to go to work, and sometimes worked late without even batting an eye because I would get excitedly lost in the work I did. It was an extremely happy period of my life and I felt "complete".
Unfortunately, this all came to an end when I got laid off 3 years in. This was very consequential because this particular job was very niche and I knew it would be hard to find new work. Varying circumstances occurred, and I found myself pushed into a totally new career path and industry for the sake of paying the bills and not being a homeless nomad... Re-entry into the field would be a pipe dream and perhaps a rinse and repeat situation of the same events that caused me to switch careers in the first place.
Because of those events, I'm currently in a new career path in the business world that has great potential to transition into a high paying career, but I find the work dreadful and soul sucking. I dread going to work everyday. I find no satisfaction in what I do. 3 years into the new career and I honestly still feel that I'm "faking" it and that I really have no idea what I'm doing. (A big change since in my dream job I felt perfectly at home and confident in my skills). I feel bad about myself because I'm not passionate about my work and thus I'm not really giving it my best. I hate not being able to see tangible results of my work (something I realized is very important to me) since most of my work is just pushing papers and reviewing numbers. I recognize I have a lot of good things going in the new career, better stability, better upwards mobility, the ability to consistently pay the bills and support my family, but I can't help but feel miserable daily and constantly obsess over the dream job I once had.
How do I stop obsessing about the dream job I once had and move forward with my life? While I do have plans to try to find my dream job in a different capacity in the future, these plans are far down the road and I am having trouble coping with actually getting there, and especially fearful these plans may never pan out - that I'm doomed to work in jobs I hate forever. Personal contacts I have spoken to about this topic all say I was extremely spoiled with my first job and the actuality is that most people won't like their jobs and that work environments are generally never going to be even close to what I experienced in my dream job. That I should just accept that and find happiness outside of work, but for me, I feel my identity is tied to finding this dream job....
Has anyone else had their dream job, then lost it or moved on from it? How did you cope? How did you find happiness past it?
Well you should be thankful! But you should be able to find your dream job again, even if it is a different dream job. You had 3 years experience in it. Maybe move to a bigger city with more options? I would say don't give up. I spent years applying for jobs trying to land my dream job and I finally got it. But you also do need to find happiness outside of your job! You need to find meaning to your life besides your job. That is my advice.
I had one of those jobs once. Got promoted out of it. Would have been happy to make a career out of it. It was a combination of the work itself and people I was working with. It did set me up for other follow on jobs that were very good. But that job was just about perfect. Still think about it today 30 years later.
I landed my dream job in January 1994 doing the night shift six days a week at a rock station in Virginia. Full time, under contract with full benefits. That lasted until September 1995 when I was demoted to part-time status and lost all benefits and of course going from 6 days a week under salary to working one day week and getting paid by the hour a big loss in pay too. Of course I was upset at the time but being in small market the other stations in the area knew what happened so a few months later I was hired by another radio station in town ( this one was classic rock ) and within a year I was back doing the disc jockey thing full time and with even better benefits too. Stayed there until about ten years ago when at that point even I knew that local radio is dying. Good thing I left too as today that station only has two local announcers and both including the woman who now does the morning show are part-time with no benefits whatsoever.
..Oh yes that radio station that demoted me in 1995 well two years later they were sold and everyone was fired since the station had went fully automated.
I landed a dream job (or so I thought at the time) but the hours were horrible. As a result, my life outside of work suffered a lot and was always tired. I was also new to the industry so I made mistakes at work and I just did not show a good impression. I got fired 1 year later.
It led to a long unemployment gap because I did not want to return to my previous industry. While the money and experience were good to have from this "dream job", it was certainly a setback after becoming unemployed. I'm doing better and working a much more comfortable job, but I still deal with the consequences as I get questioned on these during interviews and i'm always concerned about this red flag in my background.
I applied to be in military intelligence when in the Army. When I was declined, I did not reenlist. Did not want to leave, but my own pride would not permit me to stay.
Oddly, the most likely reason for my failure to be accepted is now tolerated activity for POTUS.
My advice would be to find an outlet to keep you happy outside of the working world. Americans put too much emphasis on their careers to the detriment of other pleasures in life-great partner, kids, travel, leisure, etc. I never had a dream job, I had great companies that I worked for, I had interesting assignments, I am definitely fulfilled in my career and am very happy at the company I work for now and probably, switching to another company/career would be a major adjustments, but I treat this as a variable in my life and pay more attention to the constant.
Yes, I was working in my field after doing temp work. I only lasted about six months. It was good pay, lunch was included (instead of being more time), and close to home. However, the atmosphere was very unprofessional. There was too much politics and kissing up. I couldn't do that. Also not in my favor, the lady under me was like 60 years old. She wasn't qualified to anything and very bitter. If you tried to rise her up and give her some spotlight, she would throw you under the bus and criticize your work. If you ignored her or put her in her place, she would run to hr and claim I wasn't a team player. I took getting fired well, because one of the top managers told me the lady under me is complaining too much. They're probably to fire you to shut her up. I was ready. I've two other jobs since then. I'm hoping the next job I take, as I am unemployed now due to my last job closing, is the same salary as my former job.
Right out of college I landed my dream job, a job I dreamed about since childhood. This particular job was not only the type of role I wanted in the industry and company I wanted to work at, but it met pretty much any other intrinsic or extrinsic desire I could think of. Competitive pay, benefits, flex schedules, great culture, tons of perks, my own office, a perfect geographic location for me, short commute, great supervisor, and most importantly, work I was passionate about doing and work I felt personally connected to. I felt confident about my skills and felt good at what I did. I got up every day actually excited to go to work, and sometimes worked late without even batting an eye because I would get excitedly lost in the work I did. It was an extremely happy period of my life and I felt "complete".
Unfortunately, this all came to an end when I got laid off 3 years in. This was very consequential because this particular job was very niche and I knew it would be hard to find new work. Varying circumstances occurred, and I found myself pushed into a totally new career path and industry for the sake of paying the bills and not being a homeless nomad... Re-entry into the field would be a pipe dream and perhaps a rinse and repeat situation of the same events that caused me to switch careers in the first place.
Because of those events, I'm currently in a new career path in the business world that has great potential to transition into a high paying career, but I find the work dreadful and soul sucking. I dread going to work everyday. I find no satisfaction in what I do. 3 years into the new career and I honestly still feel that I'm "faking" it and that I really have no idea what I'm doing. (A big change since in my dream job I felt perfectly at home and confident in my skills). I feel bad about myself because I'm not passionate about my work and thus I'm not really giving it my best. I hate not being able to see tangible results of my work (something I realized is very important to me) since most of my work is just pushing papers and reviewing numbers. I recognize I have a lot of good things going in the new career, better stability, better upwards mobility, the ability to consistently pay the bills and support my family, but I can't help but feel miserable daily and constantly obsess over the dream job I once had.
How do I stop obsessing about the dream job I once had and move forward with my life? While I do have plans to try to find my dream job in a different capacity in the future, these plans are far down the road and I am having trouble coping with actually getting there, and especially fearful these plans may never pan out - that I'm doomed to work in jobs I hate forever. Personal contacts I have spoken to about this topic all say I was extremely spoiled with my first job and the actuality is that most people won't like their jobs and that work environments are generally never going to be even close to what I experienced in my dream job. That I should just accept that and find happiness outside of work, but for me, I feel my identity is tied to finding this dream job....
Has anyone else had their dream job, then lost it or moved on from it? How did you cope? How did you find happiness past it?
Can you start your own company doing this "dream job"?
I had that dream job, but in hindsight it wasn't a dream job at all and I was just blinded by my own perception. I don't think any dream job really exists for the masses, and only a minority of people will have them IMO. I since moved on to owning my own Company and although not perfect by any stretch of the imagination at least I don't have to deal with superiors other than my own idiotic self.
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