Dream Jobs

What are all the politicians talking about?  Jobs, among other things.

Today on Yahoo’s home page, there is a story about the 8 easiest jobs on the planet, including professional sleeper (testing hotel beds), chocolate taste tester, mansion sitter, and TV watcher.  I am qualified for all these jobs, so why can’t I find one?  Actually, I shouldn’t complain.  One of my part time jobs is teaching tennis to kids.  I love it so it doesn’t feel like work.

Confucius said, “Find a job you enjoy and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

Dream jobs do exist.  So one day after a particularly bad day at work, I checked out the employment website at the college I attend part time,  in hopes of finding a dream job on campus.

There were only a few positions posted, none of which I was qualified for, and most specifically, a part time position for nude models in the art department.  Although the listing called for all body types, the only qualification I could actually perform is: “Must be able to…sit or recline without moving for at least 30 minutes at a time.”  Please, no offense intended to the models or our fine art department.  Being an artist is a dream job.

Then I checked my local newspaper want ads and among the small number of jobs listed, none met my definition of dream job.  Certainly everyone’s definition of “dream job” is different.

The Wall Street Journal reported the best and worst jobs in the U.S.  Criteria was environment, income, employment outlook, physical demands and stress.  Mathematician was top on the list, lumberjack was on the bottom, but from the “worst” list, I thought nuclear decontamination tech also sounded pretty bad.

On the flip side, there are multiple websites that list dream jobs.  Some are one-of-a-kind jobs, like the man whose sense of smell was so good that he turned it into a lucrative career in the fragrance industry.  The dream job lists at least provide inspiration.

The job market is actually improving.  The recovery has been slow but it seems a lot of people were content to live on unemployment for the maximum time, rather than accept a job they didn’t want.  The Yahoo article did mention that the easiest jobs are the hardest to find.  I can’t compete with all the unemployed people with masters degrees fighting over minimum wage jobs right now anyway, so I will use this time while I’m still in college to apply for dream jobs such as restaurant critic, BMW test driver, travel writer, movie critic, or back-up singer for The Grateful Dead, and hope that my resume never finds its way to my college art department.

### annie