Your Dream Job

An excellent article about finding your dream job from BusinessWeek can be found here.

Key points (direct quotes):

1. Your task is first to understand what you're looking for, and decide which elements in your wish list are most critical for you; and then to make and execute a plan to go out and find that job. The very worst way to land a dream job is to wait for it to find you.

2. Think about your wishes in two separate categories. In your first category, you'll list the "hard" attributes you're hoping to find in a dream job—company size, industry, job function, local or global enterprise, level of management, division vs. headquarters role, etc. [In the second category list the "soft" attributes - below].

3. What makes a work environment appealing for you, including items like: How mature an industry do I want to work in?

4. What kind of manager do I want?

5. What kinds of people do I prefer to work around? Some of us need, above all, to work with smart and intellectually curious people who zip through the New York Times Sunday crossword over a half-cup of coffee, while others need a friendly, supportive team and couldn't care less about intellectual heft.

6. How important is salary? Would other forms of compensation, from time-off to business travel to your favorite location to tuition reimbursement, affect the equation? How do you define "well compensated" at this stage of your career, and how important is that to you?

Or you could take the ole Warren Buffett approach and say "Which job would I do even if no one paid me for it?"

I'll answer these questions soon!