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The First Step to Finding Your Dream Job

As you create your dream job must-have list, it’s helpful to 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. Geography is perhaps the "hardest"— the least flexible of dimensions. Would you move across the country or abroad for your dream job?

Will you move across town, doubling your commute? Think really hard about these questions, because these factors aren’t likely to change.

Be as specific as you’d like as you create your dream job profile. For instance, “I want to manage human resource information systems for a global employer with 10,000 or more employees and a proactive, forward-looking management team in the apparel industry in the New York metro area.” In fact, the narrower your scope, the easier it will be to identify potential employers and begin to research them. But before you do that, let’s back up and list the ‘soft’ attributes of your dream job. After all, it’s these soft elements that make these jobs so dreamy.

Left Brain Vs. Right Brain

On this list, you want to dig into what makes a work environment appealing for you, including items like: How mature an industry do I want to work in? Typically, the more mature (heavy equipment manufacturing, for instance) the more conservative the corporate culture will be. How flat vs. how tiered an organization do I desire? If there are 14 levels of management between me and the CEO, my experience at work will be drastically different from how it will be if there are two. How “left-brain” vs. “right-brain” an organization do I want? Although neurology types don’t use those left-brain/right-brain models as they once did to understand brain function, they’re still useful for us in understanding our strengths and preferences. Left-brain areas are math, music, programming, and flowcharting.

If you’re that person, organizations dominated by that type of thinking are perfect for you—research institutions and engineering firms are two examples. Right- brain- focused people veer toward the humanities, language, and the arts. An advertising agency or a freewheeling startup might be a better fit. What looks like a dream job on paper will quickly turn to ashes if the organizational culture doesn’t celebrate what you love to do and do well.

Identify Your Dream Team

More questions to answer: What kind of manager do I want? A coach who’ll mentor me as we go, a hands-off manager who’ll let me put my own stamp on the job, or a combination? It’s just as difficult to work with too much managerial guidance as with too little, so the length of your ’leash is important.

What kinds of people do I prefer to work around? Some of us look for an environment where everyone knows his or her role and sticks to it. Some like constant change and role-shifting. 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. What does your ideal team look like?

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