Dream Jobs - How to make them happen?

[Nique]

Veering away from the silliness of General, I'd like to ask; NPF, of the positions you could likely achieve within 5 years, what would be your "dream" job? Is it working for yourself? If so, doing what? Working for the man every night and day? That's ok too, just tell us why! For both, explain how you will get there. Already making ends meet AND doing what you love? How did you get there?

Sneakily doubling this as a 'give me advice' post, I have some ideas about starting my own business;

I am really hoping to keep Web-design as an option. It may mean starting out doing websites for free* but it's a great creative outlet for me. Being on a shoe-string budget as I am, this means my 1/2 a community college certificate + anything I can teach myself.

Segueing from there, I've got several concepts for websites, the most notable is what I like to call 'the myspace killer'. I find that a lot of people are now looking for bands and artists on myspace or youtube. I want to create a site not built for social networking, but specifically for... musical networking? It would essentially be a site for unknown artists to strut their stuff. Ideally, I'd like to be able to offer free downloads and streaming radio. Are there bands out there who are into 'CC' licensing? Maybe! But that concept is for another thread altogether.

Obviously, my goal is to work for myself. I've been in-and-out of enough jobs to at least start to wonder if I couldn't do better elsewhere.

What are your dreams, and your advice for achieving our own?

[shiney]

This belongs in general. If you think it will go off topic, then petition for the reopening of the off topic forum.

[Aanaren]

Ben_Fox and I have talked off and on about starting a home-based business. I think we can be together 24/7 without killing each other...maiming is another story.

We've discussed web design and things of that nature. I have a lot of administrative experience, and I've been researching how to become a virtual assistant. I've also been considering going back to get my Bachelor's so I can finally sit for my CPA and offer business accounting and individual tax return preparation when the time rolls around.

I've thought about taking enough ECE credits to legally have a small home-based daycare once we have children, too. Daycare costs are really astronomical here, and even taking in five children and cutting the parents a "deal" I can bring in a just a little less than what I'm doing now at my 9 - 5. Not to mention we wouldn't have to pay for daycare ourselves.

You local Small Business Association is a good place to start. They offer free courses in setting up a business plan, making things legal, and you can get a loan there if necessary. Hit up your library and they should have at least some books on home business ideas and how to get started. Home Businesses for Dummies comes to mind. I'd also recommend researching other freelancers that offer similar services and see what they're charging, what additional services they offer, what their lead times look like, etc. It can give you an idea of where to price yourself and what else you might want to do in addition to the web design that might be a benefit to your customers and make yourself more money.

When I was working as a mortgage loan officer one of my clients was a freelance web designer. I asked her how she got started and she told me she went to local churches without websites and offered to do them for free in exchange for references/testimonials and being able to use their sites in her portfolio. This gave her a leg up on other freelancers when it came to a strong portfolio with current designs. You can also try doing this with local small restaurants, like pizza places. Maybe send around a flyer with your contact information and offer to build them a basic website that includes their contact information, logo and menu. You could include 'x' months of updates and may be able to turn them around as paying clients if they like the service and want to keep using you for their web needs after those free months are up.

Talking with other people who have started home businesses, they normally keep their full time job and slowly transition to working their business full time once they start making enough to support themselves. It sounds like a pretty good option, and you can always pick up a part time if needed, especially if its one that offers health benefits so you don't need to shop around for health insurance.

[Kim]

Teaching English in Japan. Or maybe just doing translations while living in Japan.

[TDK]

Ideally I'd like to make a living off my art (whether graphic or that and physical things, etc, like sculpture) once I get out of college.

And I'd like to publish a novel one day.

[Zilla]

I'm on my way already to being a video game designer. I'm at DigiPen learning the trade.

[Fifthfiend]

Originally Posted by shiney

If you think it will go off topic, then petition for the reopening of the off topic forum.

</3 U, ASSHOLE.

But really guys if you're that worried about a thread to go off-topic then put a note at the top of your thread requesting on-topic serious answers and people can answer / mods can enforce it that way.

[Mad Jack the Pirate]

novel writing, failing that then a job writing for a gaming company.

[Zilla]

Sorry Mad Jack, there are hardly any "writing" jobs in the gaming company. It's all designers, and they've got a lot more to do than just write.

I know a guy who wants to open up an interesting form of business, somewhere between internet-cafe, computer repair, and arcade. He wants to open a LAN center where people can come to play games, host tournaments, get PC troubleshooting and repair, and socialize. I'm helping him craft the business plan.

[MasterOfMagic]

A code monkey. In five years, I'll just have been out of college for a year, so just a entry level programmer. Past that, I'm not sure, really. I got into studying this just because its kinda fun, and its possible to make a living off of it.

It'd be nice to get a job at Microsoft, or Nasa*, since they both have co-op programs I could maybe possibly get into next year. Once I've got the basic programming classes under my belt, I'm going to have to find some projects outside of school to work on in my spare time, so I have something to set me apart. Even if I don't think I learned anything from it, already having an Associates in Computer Engineering might help a little, but I'm just going to act like it won't. That way I've more incentive to find something cool and interesting to get in on. I programmed a few simple things for a Neverwinter nights server in highschool (my teacher was the GM, and had me script certain parts of the story for him :P ) and it was pretty fun, so I might look into things like that.

*Just because working at NASA would be cool. I haven't looked to see exactly what they need Computer Science majors for.