What's your dream career, and how far is that from what you're doing now?

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9 Answers

Virginia Zuloaga Profile

Hi Kass,

This is an easy question for me now because I didn't have a dream career... Until now.  Yeah, I know it sounds strange because I studied Marketing but if you can see from my LinkedIn profile I didn't really worked as a marketer and I don't consider myself one now.  I do have some marketing knowledge and in my current job I've been able to update some of my past knowledge, and learned a lot of new stuff too.

So by experimenting and, on the verge of a midlife crisis, I decided to reinvent myself one year ago.  And the timing was perfect!

Now back to the question: My dream career is being a Social Media expert and according to Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000-hour rule I'm still about 7,800 hours away from my goal - in my case it will mean about three and a half more years of hard work and dedication.  So I'm not that far away!  Cool! 

I guess I was just lucky that I had the opportunity to be a Social Media Manager for the company that I've been working at during the last 4 years.

1 Person thanked the writer.
Yo Kass
Yo Kass commented
Social media is a really interesting field at the moment. I don't know how much Gladwell's rule applies here though, for two reasons:

1) As a professional industry, it hasn't been around for very long anyway.

2) Because the world of social is constantly changing, the experience that someone with 10,000 hours of practice might have might be completely irrelevant. Otherwise the experts we have today would be very useful for telling us how to get loads of friends on Faceparty and MySpace. (I was just checking out my old Faceparty account - OMG! I'm old).
Virginia Zuloaga
Virginia Zuloaga commented
Hi Kass,

You're totally right and as much as I'd like to become an "expert" on an specific field, in this case social media, I think too that the title could be misused not only in my case but basically in every other field that evolves and changes thanks to technology.

I do believe there is a degree of expertise by comparison to others from your same field; different cultures, time spent, skills, resources, etc. Maybe I could become that "kind" of expert.

But the truth is I just want to keep doing what I'm doing now. And the most important part: enjoy and have fun. Expert or not I'm definitely having the time of my life and that is my "dream career": any path that I chose that will make me absolutely happy! :-)

I do think my background has played an important part to help me on my job today, even if it wasn't social media or marketing related. It gave me the experience and the guts to embark in new projects and improve my life.
Andrew Neal Profile
Andrew Neal answered

My dream career began when I was two years old, while sitting in front of the television for hours watching The Weather Channel. As a kid, I was so fascinated and eager to learn more about weather; especially tornadoes.

By the time I was seven years old, I was determined that I'd be a meteorologist and a storm chaser. Every year in school we would learn about the different and unique forms of weather and how it impacts our lives. As soon as it was time to take the tests, I'd have it completed within five minutes and easily pass.

But unfortunately when I was in middle school things began to change. It was a hard pill to swallow as my dream was realizing how much math and science was needed to become a meteorologist; considering the frustrations in comprehending these subjects. To this day, I'm still struggling in with math and science.

When I was in the 8th grade, I lost the dream but only to discover a hidden passion that I'd soon come to love: Writing.

Today, I'm a screenwriter. And I write for fun whenever I sit down. My imagination has carried me so far and helped give me ideas to projects, movies, poetry, songwriting, blogging, and the opportunity to make an impact on others with the use of words.

Sometimes dreams must fail in order to realize a hidden passion.

1 Person thanked the writer.
Marion Catlin
Marion Catlin commented
You might be interested in the Norwich based network write2screen (www.write2screen.org.uk) which exists to connect writers and film-makers with a view to more and better scriptwriting and opportunities
Andrew Neal
Andrew Neal commented
Nice! Do I have to live near Norwich to use the service or can it work for people in the United States, too?
Chris Spalton Profile
Chris Spalton answered

After many years of kind of being a Jack of all Trades, doing design, development, graphic design and other assorted things, a few months ago I realised that I really needed to starting channel this broad range of experience into something more focused.

I think my dream career would really be one based around user experience, as I get the most satisfaction in seeing the stuff I've built improve peoples working lives, it's also a great way to combination my two key interests of making stuff look cool that works well.

In terms of how close am I, I'd like to think that I'm getting there bit by bit, the hardest part is actually defining how what I've created has helped people but I'm reading, researching, started blogging about my projects and  this is really helping me get the picture straight in my own mind.  I'm sure there's still a way to go, but I'm enjoying it and feel like I'm making the right steps forward so hopefully won't be too much longer till I can achieve it.

This is all of course unless some Austin,Texas based punk rock band decides they need a singer from the UK who can't actually sing... In which case I'll be on the next flight!

thanked the writer.
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Chris Spalton
Chris Spalton commented
Blog hasn't been up for long, but working on it, it's here : www.spalton-creative.com and yep, Austin is my spiritual home, great place, great people, and we've made some really great friends over there.
Yo Kass
Yo Kass commented
Oh cool, just checked it out. That Agent Assist sounds like a mini-revolution for your business - they're lucky to have you! What are you using to sketch those designs out btw?
Chris Spalton
Chris Spalton commented
It's an awesome app simply called 'Paper' by a company called FiftyThree. Free App, but you have to pay about £4 or so to get all the tools. It's great though, really natural feeling tools, etc. Would recommend a stylus for it however. Been meaning to write a review of it for my blog as it's proved really useful for me, to give a bit extra positive praise, and vary up my blog content a bit.
Becca Sibley Profile
Becca Sibley answered

I love all things social media, which is what I've been doing and hope to carry on doing but there is a small part of me that still wonders about teaching!

I would have loved to be a teacher of primary school, mould young minds and inspire some kids in the way I was inspired at school. But it is something I didn't follow, and whilst I don't regret it, I sometimes wonder about it!

Marion Catlin Profile
Marion Catlin answered

I didn't really have a dream career either except that I knew it had to be something creative. At 16 I wanted to be a silversmith and my teacher said be a secretary - arts-type things are too competitive and so for a while I was diverted as I headed off to London to learn to be TV makeup artist. But I was too young and couldn't do the BBC training course till I was 19 so I went to hairdressing college on their advice, then left London, had children, opened a wholefood shop (when it wasn't trendy) and it wasn't till I was 28 when a graphic designer friend said 'yes, it is competitive but you just have to be thee one that's good enough to get the work' so my life changed and I went back to art school. Now I have a degree in graphic design and work creatively everyday - not always as a designer but I use all my creative and design skills when I plan projects, set up networks and generally solve problems that other people have in the arts and cultural sector. And I still do a fair bit of design too. Now I am self-employed so I can even choose, to some extent what I work on so yes, it is pretty good - though I can't say I make loads of money - but then, money has never driven me all that much.

Stan Smith Profile
Stan Smith answered

I know most people don't end up being what they want to be when they grow up and I know just how fortunate I have been to have become all THREE of the things I wanted to become. I wanted to be a soldier, a police officer and a firefighter.

I started volunteering as a firefighter while I was in college and lived in the fire station while attending classes. I stopped when I turned 50 and moved to Europe.

I joined the army before I graduated from college since they paid 75% tuition as well as having the Montgomery G.I. Bill. I stayed 21 years and retired as a MSG/E8.

Then I went into law enforcement as a police officer eventually becoming a chief deputy sheriff before moving.

Roz Soccorro Profile
Roz Soccorro answered

I've never been one for long term plans...

I spent a lot of my childhood dreaming of having a job, any job, just so I could afford to by sweets whenever I wanted.

As an adult, my plan is to be an accountant. I have been working towards this qualification for the last two years, and have two long years to go.

Its definitely not what you would call a 'dream career'... But its realistic, reliable and can be (financially) rewarding.

Nickie Wren Profile
Nickie Wren answered

I don't know if I've had a dream career - I always wanted to work, have a career and I am lucky on both counts!  Growing up I would never have dreamed that I have ended up where I am.  It's been an interesting journey with twists and turns and if there's one thing I've learned, there are more to come! 

Surendar Selvam Profile
Surendar Selvam answered

My dream career's an animated future film maker. I decided  my career when I was in the 8th grade, then I chose visual communication for developing my knowledge concepts, movie making processes, dialogue, and script writing for films. 

I'm a good water painting artiest so that's help me to study Animation, studies about human body mechanism... individual character and concept arts designs, when I entered visual effects technical studies my college knowledge guide me to grow up. So that fact is everything makes me stronger in concept and technical person .

Whatever I got well knowledge, I can't enter my dream career because of my family situation. I came from a poor Indian family... My father was auto rickshaw driver, so after my studies I had situation to care my family. I was 17 , started  work at an animation studio worked as a technical director  for  good salary . Then i got good experience .. When i was 19 teen i earn almost $10500 for month. I knew that was good salary but i got bored , everything changed in my life ... I worked like a machine ... My creativity's almost dead. that's also creative job but not my creative ...i was worked for others creativity . Was really herd to work this way ..some of good concept make me works well , bad concept that make me travel into hell . When i worried and realize that .. I quit  my job ..

now i'm 21 years ,  with my savings money , i started my individual animation studio in Chennai .  I spend more money for Motion capture Equipment , software licence ...i got happy to start my studio but in India there's no hope,  film producers don't wanna take risk with animation films...

7 months before i got chance to make my animation movie... But small understanding with producers so that movie got drop... Now i'm just working for my studio's show reels ...and taking about movie  with  other producers .. Hope within few months i will get chance to make my movie ... :)

( i know  my English's too  bad ,plz  forgive me for grammar mistakes ) :)

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