Most U.S. workers not in "dream jobs," survey says (Reuters)

[Up2Late]

(Dude, I'm totally going to WIN the "You needed a study to figure that one out..." award this year with this one!) :evilgrin:

Most U.S. workers not in "dream jobs," survey says

Thu Jan 25, 2007 12:46am ET148

By Ellen Wulfhorst

NEW YORK (Reuters) - More than four out of five U.S. workers do not have their dream jobs, which most people describe as work that is fun, according to a survey released on Thursday.

Salary was one of the least important requirements of a dream job, cited by just 12 percent of respondents in the survey by CareerBuilder.com, an online job site, and The Walt Disney Co, which is holding a contest in which winners can get a chance to work at a Disney theme park job for a day.

Having fun at a dream job was cited by 39 percent, with 17 percent saying making a difference in society was most important, the survey showed.

"That fun was more important than money, that was reassuring when you're looking at the workplace and what defines happiness for people in their jobs," said Jennifer Sullivan, spokeswoman for CareerBuilder.com. Overall, 84 percent of respondents said they are not in their dream jobs, the study found....

(more at link) <http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-01-25T054612Z_01_N24355710_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-WORK.xml>

[RoyGBiv]

1. No shit?

I'm shocked ... SHOCKED I tell you.

Personally, as a child I dreamed, literally fantasized about sitting at a desk and having nameless idiots scream at me because they were too stupid to understand the concept of a 30 day billing period or the fact that one does not "download" the internet.

Download the internet ... I should work on that. Be back in, oh, a few years.

[ryanmuegge]

2. Now THAT is funny.

:)

[RoyGBiv]

3. I'm up to 51.6 KB/s ...

Any century now. :-)

:toast:

[BlueIris]

4. Yeah, no kidding.

In other 'news,' Americans think they pay too much for prescription drugs.

[Up2Late]

7. Well, at least we are a realistic people. "...17 percent said (they wanted to be a) princess..."

...Asked what they had wanted to be as adults when they were children, 22 percent of people surveyed said firefighter, 17 percent said princess and 16 percent said professional dancer. An equal number of people -- 14 percent -- wanted to be cowboy or president....

<http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-01-25T054612Z_01_N24355710_RTRUKOC_0_US-LIFE-WORK.xml>

What the hell happened to "Normal News"??? I feel like I'm living in Bazzaro World.

[RoyGBiv]

10. I wanted to be a secretary ...

Seriously.

And I didn't even get THAT. :-)

[redqueen]

21. "Normal News" might make people think...

better they don't do that. They might start asking questions or something.

[Up2Late]

5. Where did you get that graphic?

That is LOL Funny! :rofl:

[RoyGBiv]

6. I have no idea ...

I'm sure I stole it from someone here at some point. I uploaded it to my photobucket account for opportunities such as this.

It makes me laugh a lot. :-)

[llmart]

18. You started my day with a big smile...................

I work with people who think they should be allowed to show up to work and do nothing but make personal calls, gossip, take a four-hour lunch and put on their makeup all day and get paid for it. And how dare you reprimand them for abusing company policies!

[Tracer]

22. Hey! I fired that person!

I'm not kidding.

This woman did EXACTLY as you describe in your post! And when she wasn't doing all that, she talked non-stop about EVERYTHING in her personal life.

[0007]

27. Hilariously funny!!

[hughee99]

8. I think I saw something about this in "No Shit" magazine...

If everyone had their dream job, would anything ever get done? IMHO, a vast majority of the jobs in this world are nobody's "dream job", but somebody has to do them.

[LongTomH]

9. Brought to you by the department of "No Shit Sherlock!"

nfm

[cdsilv]

11. I have the 'dream job'

I work as tech support to our sales force - I support one guy who is responsible for GA/AL. We are a reseller for a
large computer co. I work out of my home (telecommuting), and have to travel 400 mi. at times (driving).

Nonetheless, most of my time is spent at home generating configs/quotes/proposals for our customers.

Right now, I'm living in Pensacola, FL - 15 min. from the beach - my bosses (my immediate boss and the VP who hired me) want me to move to Birmingham, AL to be closer to the salesrep I support & our customers in B'ham and ATL. What with global warming and all, why not?

Don't really want to be in a place overwhelmed by sea level rise - which will happen in the next few years if the
projections are correct....


It really is a 'dream job' - witness that I am online at 1:06 a.m...........

[ohio2007]

29. But does it come with a "dream girl" ? nt

[Blue_Tires]

12. oh wow

you mean i WASN'T MVP of the World Series last year? what the hell AM i doing with my life, then???????

[madrchsod]

13. my wife and i would like to -have-a job.....

figures-CareerEnder .com

[Up2Late]

15. Me too.

I've yet to find my "Dream Job" on CareerEnder .com either.

[Dogmudgeon]

14. No one should have a job. Robots should do all the work.

We should spend our lives doing whatever-the-f**k we want to.

--p!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

16. Who agrees with my T shirt???

I have a lovely T shirt with BIG WHITE LETTERS on black that say

QUIT WORK

PLAY MUSIC


I'm unemployed and playing music. Workin on my chops!!

[Dogmudgeon]

17. Me, too

I've been disabled for four+ years now. A bad ear, in decay, plus enough pain to build an alt-rock career on. I used to be a computer programmer, but I can't concentrate enough anymore. But I hate to be idle, so within my span of concentration, I'm doing a lot of writing.

And, yes, I've also begun studying music again; I used to write music back in the day. It's got amazing pain-killing properties.

--p!

[HughBeaumont]

19. Corporate America is a prison to many, just like America.

And yet, the powers that be do absolutely nothing at all to change it. They want things bad, but our bellies full. Once our bellies aren't full, they know shit's going to hit the fan, so they continue to dangle the carrot.

Ted Rall had a comic once where a man is sitting in prison and next to him is an almost identical picture of a man sitting in a cube. Same environment, really. Only difference is the pay.

Unhappiness is everywhere. Coming to work in prison-grey walls, having the worst luck with bosses that you can stand to be around, nothing but rote busywork 94% of the time (same with school. Are we feeding young minds or training them to be non-complaining corporate drones?), hard long work with nothing but average review points to show for it (again . . . just like school), poor air quality, depression medication, very little vacation, working longer hours than ever while getting paid the same as our 1970's counterparts (factoring inflation) . . . I could just go on and on but I'm in a bad enough mood as it is.

"Gee, you don't like what you do, why don't you CHANGE it?"

Really? Let me see if that works. I want to be a rock star. Oh wait. That, like any artistic-based career, depends on people liking you for your success. I can sure pay these bills on a crapshoot, can't I? Not only that, I'd need equipment. I'd need a band. I'd need equipment to record with. We're already up to a few thousand dollars and we haven't even started.

"Change it." And do WHAT? Go to school for four MORE years (because I have a money tree in the back yard, of course. Don't we all?), consume all my time doing reports, oral presentations and other assorted busywork? All so I can do some MORE boring-ass corporate slavery, where I'd STILL be coming to work in prison-grey walls, having the worst luck with bosses that you can stand to be around, nothing but rote busywork 94% of the time . . . etc, etc, etc. Only THIS time, I'd be starting at the bottom and staying there.

How long does one do this until we say "enough is enough"? Before we're age-discriminated out of the work-force?

Does corporate America have to be THIS BAD?

[SutaUvaca]

20. Today I do have my dream job, but tomorrow..?

After my sweetie left this world a couple years back I took up painting and then opened a fine art gallery in a small town. What a year full of delight every day 2006 was. Now though it's used up all my dollars, along with health care needs and a grown son who seems to find himself homeless often as not. 2007 will be the year I go back to not-my-dream job, assuming I can find one.

It's a ride.

Oh, and if you have $50k - $250K you'd like to give to enhance the artistic life of a small town, drop me a line. Pretty soon. :)

[Javaman]

23. Even worse, I had my dream job and found it didn't pay enough. :(

I worked as a cinematographer in the motion picture industry in hollywood. no shit. did it for 10 years. Loved every single minute of it. but at the end of 10 years, I was broke, in debt and getting older.

I had to do the 9 to 5 job to get myself back on my feet.

Well here I am 8 years later. out of debt, money in the bank, bills paid off, have a home and a woman whom I love with ever fiber of my being, but yet, I still look back on those years of being on the set, lighting and framing a shot as the most incredible years of my life.

There was on old saying on the set, "the worst day on the set is still better than the best day in the real world". It was very true.

Be careful what you wish for...you might get it, lose it and then want it again.

The last part of that saying is the killer.

[Up2Late]

24. Similar story here, except that mine was Film/video editing.

It took me about 18 month after graduating from film school to get my first "dream job" in 1988 working as the Asst. Editor on the documentary about the making of "Gone With The Wind," best 8 months of my career, so far. Problem was that, everything else was far less interesting or just plain dull by comparison.

I moved to "Plan B" in 1993 after getting royally screwed by the Producers of "Christopher Columbus - The Discovery" when it failed at the box office. Worked for 2 years as a Production Assistant for Minimum Wage ($5.25 per hour), but when the film didn't make any money, the Executive Producer Alexander Salkind, who actually lived in $400.00 to $500.00 PER NIGHT Hotel rooms in the most expensive cities of Europe, and his Son the Producer Ilya Salkind, who ALWAYS traveled to and from Europe on the Concord (at $5000.00 to $9000.00 per flight) and stayed at the same $400.00 to $500.00 PER NIGHT Hotels, they decided they couldn't afford to pay my last 2 paychecks or the last 9 months mileage (I was also the office "runner") for a grand total of $1100.00 Dollars.

"Plan B" (running and working at a Professional Photo Lab) crapped out a few years ago due to the rise of Digital Cameras, so now I'm working on starting over again with "Plan A v2.0" at age 43. I say v.2.0 because over the last 20 years, almost everything I learned at Film School is now Obsolete thanks to the rise of Digital Video and Computer based video/film editing.

I don't have a "Retirement Plan," so I don't ever plan to actually retire.

As we used to say in 1982 when I graduated High School, "Life Sucks, then ya die."

[Javaman]

26. Damn, you sound like my reflection. lol

I'm 43 graduated in 82 left L.A. burnt out in 93. LOL And also starting film career plan A 2.0 :) I'm still trying to figure out if it's really a return to plan A or a different type of midlife crisis LOL

I guess anyone that has worked in film for any period of time has their "I got burned by a scumbag producer story". Needless to say I have a few of those LOL.

Ditto on the retirement plan.

when I graduated in 82, someone painted on this huge wall out by the football field, "what a drag it is getting old" LOL

Good Luck. New life to the older filmmakers of America!!

:headbang:

[BluePatriot]

25. Um...duh? (nt)

[ohio2007]

28. No dream job ? Welcome to the REAL world Ellen

Work is a four letter word. It wouldn't be called work if it was FUN !! LOL

[superconnected]

30. I love my job right now, but I've only been here for a few months

and the company may be folding.

I was a contractor at microsoft for a few years and left there in August. They paid the least I've been paid in a decade, worked me the most, would terminate anyones contract if we put in over time so I always worked 14 hour plus days with consistently putting 8 on my time card. I did it for years, just to stay employed because there were no tech jobs at the time. That was a real third world sweatshop right in redmond washington. I liked the people though. But could barely eat on the wages. I went up $13.00 per hour by switching jobs the second the job market opened up and one became available. I have a fear of ever working at microsoft slave labor camp again. When there are no other jobs you have no choice though.