Friday, April 24, 2009

Your Ideal Job

On my way to work this morning, I started daydreaming. While I am very, very thankful that I have a job when so many are struggling, I started to wonder.

What if I could have any job I wanted in the world? What would it be?

It made me pause. Why? Because I would really like to be a full-time novelist. But I also recognize that I really need to be around people a few times a week, so a part-time gig would be the best.

So if I could have any part-time job I wanted in the world, what would it be? Hmm.


I think I would like to work at a historic estate such as Chatsworth, which I visited last October in England, or even Mount Vernon or Monticello. I would love to be surrounded by history. Now I probably wouldn't be a tour guide, but I'd like to work behind the scenes, taking care of precious historical documents or coming up with new exhibits to feature.

I could have gone this route in grad school with a degree in musuem studies, but at the time, I intended to go straight through, get my PhD, and become a professor. By the time I realized that path wasn't for me, my university got rid of the museum studies program and transferring to another school wasn't an option at the time.

What about you? If you could have any job in the world - and money is not an issue here - what would it be?

18 comments:

  1. I rotate between writer, photographer, art teacher and full-time ministry. I kind of hope I never have to choose just one as a 40 hr/wk gig because I seem to enjoy doing little bits of each and I'm not sure I'd be happy doing just one of them.

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  2. Aside from the novelist dream like you have, I'd go for something in the performing arts, like musical theater. Would love that!

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  3. My dream is to earn my living writing in my shed.

    Mind you, working at Chatsworth certainly sounds tempting too.

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  4. I'd be doing what I'm doing - editing - although I might do fewer hours.

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  5. i'd own a bookstore, or a coffee shop, or breed labradors all of this in the mountains.

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  6. I love to be a librarian--research or archival. That or a puppeteer or Muppeteer. (sp?)

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  7. I'm doing my favourite job - full-time writer - and I can't imagine doing anything else. I find I get plenty of time around other people too, especially writers. A Crime Writers' conference last weekend, a Society of Authors meeting tomorrow - it's great!

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  8. I'm doing just what I want to do - writing and being a mom!

    But, I do think it would be fun to write for a tv show - just for a while, not as a career - I wouldn't want to depend on it. But I think writing as a team would be really fun.

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  9. Elizabeth Parker10:20 AM

    I'd be a full-time writer. I did the history thing at Colonial Williamsburg, and it was one of the best years of my life. The only problem was it didn't pay enough to live on. A combination of the two would be ideal.

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  10. Anonymous12:54 PM

    I owned and ran a bookstore once, and THAT was my dream job. I created it from scratch and it was eccentric and funky and had little sitting areas and a Storytime Chair for kids storytime on Saturdays. It was amazing and everyone loved it, but not ENOUGH everyones because it didn't make it. I had to go back to working behind a desk, crunching numbers, with my humility in my lap.

    If money was no option, I would do that again, better, knowing what to do and not do, and hire help so that I could write all I wanted and work the store when I wanted.

    That would be my next dream job.

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  11. Oooh, yeah! An english tour guide! NICE! That would be so awesome. Actually my preferred job (if I wasn't a mother and had so many kids that I couldn't afford daycare) would be on stage. I LOVE LOVE LOVE to act. I was a professional actress all through my summers in high school and nothing was more amazing than that! Jenni

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  12. I have to say, some days I would love to do nothing else but write and research. But for now, I squeak in the little I can!

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  13. I want to be a travel writer. I can combine my two favorite things, writing and traveling. Imagine going to all the tourist sites and writing about it... heaven..!

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  14. That sounds like a wonderful job!
    I'd love to get paid for what I do now. That would be my dream job.

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  15. I've followed a few of my dreams--owning a store and writing --but if money was no object-- I might like to be a producer of movies or own a horeranch where I could ride when I wanted to and write with a wonderful view:))

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  16. I'd like to work part-time. I'm lucky to have long holidays (I teach) but in term time I can only write in the evenings. At the moment, I can't even do that. The first in my series of crime thrillers is hitting the shelves in June so I'm busy with proofs, and now promotional arrangements, including a Virtual Book Launch. Please check my blog if you'd like to join in. It's all good fun, but now the review copies have gone out, I'm starting to panic, and wonder what I'm letting myself in for.

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  17. I have the job I want -- writer.

    And I have 20+ years in theatre, film, and television behind me.

    I'm extremely lucky that I've always worked in the field I wished, and refused to be sidetracked into other things on more than a temporary basis.

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  18. I'd be a part-time glassblower, and a full-time SCUBA dive master in some exotic, beautiful, tropical place. :)

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