Dream Jobs

I have always wanted to write about dream jobs. As a kid, I always thought about becoming one of the three: An air force pilot, a cricketer or a computer science engineer. I ended up becoming a computer science engineer, but I can tell you that I would have done well if I had chosen any of the other two. I was a good cricketer and used to dream about playing for the country even though I never tried for state or district level playoffs. But I knew I had it in me to become a good cricketer. When it comes to choosing a career, there is always a choice although it is never an easy one. There are a lot of external factors that play into your decision. Examples include seeing your relatives, seeing other friends, being brought up in a house that places a lot of importance on higher studies, being influenced by a place or a country, opportunity to travel the world, risk of a short-lived career (especially in sports or entertainment), etc. And it is not just one moment that you decide to choose a career. You continue working towards the one career that you really will be choosing sometime in your future. You do not make compromises when it comes to anything remotely related to that career choice. And that is how it becomes easier to make a decision by the time you graduate high school. It is not like you woke up one day and have to decide which career you need to choose. Coming back to the third option: air force pilot. I had even given the NDA exam and qualified for the air force interview. I did not go due to multiple reasons. But it is clear that somewhere in my head I knew which direction was pulling me much harder.

It has been almost 14 years since I treaded the path to become a computer science engineer and then do my MBA much later. And I like both computer science and management. No doubt about it. Growing up it was hard to envision any other careers that we see today. May be it is because there was no internet back then. May be most of my relatives were engineers. May be the other careers were not lucrative. May be the world was not as globalized as it is today. Now that I look at other people in the world, I feel like would I have known about so many possible different careers, I would have had a very tough time choosing one or the other. Sometimes I wish every human being should work in one career for 10 or 15 years max. Then move on to something else. The hard part about that is learning new things and becoming an expert. Human beings in general are very resistant to change and going back to a lifestyle that pays less than before is unthinkable for many. I guess the entire economy incentivizes to gain more and more depth and earn more and more money with one profession. On the contrary, I also think that the economic law of diminishing returns applies here. After a point, you cannot gain more depth or knowledge about a subject. You just live off of the experience and the skill set that is embedded in your head. Nothing new to learn. At times, I think there should be a mandatory school/college for all adults of 35 years of age. This will give them an opportunity to learn something new and take a break from the workforce. It is debatable as to what this age should be. It depends on the field and the industry. Anyways, I should stop digressing and return to the topic of my post.

Here are the careers that I am fascinated by the most and had never thought of choosing one while growing up:

  1. Travel show host
  2. New York Times book reviewer
  3. Movie critic
  4. Lead guitarist in a band
  5. Electronic gadget reviewer
  6. Bridge (Structural) Engineer
  7. Stand-up comedian
  8. Sommelier
  9. Wildlife photographer
  10. Strategy professor