Ahhh, the dream job question. As a staffing person (you can use whatever title you like) there are some things that makes your job a little easier. For me I wanted to know what was that person’s dream … job. As simple as it sounds, some people don’t have one, don’t know what it is, and couldn’t begin to detail what is important in it. Why is this important? This secretly is reworded as “Where do you see yourself in the company in 5 years? Are you management material? Is this a stepping stone for you? Are you just using us for a paycheck until you get the real job you want? What are your career goals?” Damn. Yes, all these things are secretly hidden in this question, and how you answer it, what you say can either help or hinder you in the interview. Explain. Okay. I am hiring for a _____ at Best Buy, a retail electronic store. Candidate tells me he wants to open a restaurant bar one day and sing in the karaoke. How long do you think this candidate is going to stay working in retail? Exactly. Not very long at all. Next candidate please.
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Do you see how I just saved a bad hire? Karaoke guy has no intention on making a career and putting his best foot forward in helping our customers/business/sales revenue. He would be in the media department singing. If I DID hire him and 6 months later he quits or gets fired for a multitude of performance issues, he can always say “I told you when you hired me I wanted to run a restaurant, not work in retail. This doesn’t align with my career goals and I would never be happy working here.” Yep, he is right. Hey some people just want a temporary gig to get them by until the real job comes along. Great, that is fantastic. Go do it somewhere else. It is costly, expensive and time consuming to constantly train and retrain employees over and over again. Ideally, you hire an employee and they are there for 10 or 15 years. It does happen. It is okay to tell the interviewers that one day you hope to be part of the executive management team. It shows drive, goals and a career path. And unless you are looking to BE the interviewer, do not say “Your job.” If you want the job, you are going to tell that hiring/HR person “It has always been a dream of mine to work at _____, and one day join the ranks of management.” You do NOT need to tell them that you are secretly at _____ looking for work at one of your vendors/competitors or whatever. Seriously, do not tell them that. People are stupid and tell shit like this in interviews. Don’t be stupid. Answer with THE most impressive answer possible.
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Like most companies, many positions are promoted jobs, years of service, contributions to the company, things like that. I am sure you have heard of “getting your foot in the door” and “paying your dues”. This means you take a job you really don’t LOVE, but you are willing to do until you get promoted. Some people start working in the mail room, delivering and sorting company postal mail. Very boring. Remember Transformers? The kid had to work at some crappy job that his girlfriend’s boss got for him. For me, as you know, it was working at Taco Johns. Yeah, real fun scraping gum off the drive thru asphalt and picking up trash in the dark after close. No wait, it was cleaning the greasy, disgusting food prep pans for hours of dishwashing chores. Fuck I hated that job.
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It taught me that I will work hard, educate myself and never have to say “Hi, is this for here or to go?” Worst boss ever. Worst customers ever. Horrible hours. Drive thru stayed open until 1 a.m. Oh and not to mention my disgusting brown uniform would stink to high heaven. I had to rip it off as soon as I walked out the door so I wouldn’t stink up my car. All that grease and fried foods gets on you, your clothes, your face, hair. It was awful. So back in the days of running the drive thru, I would dream of a job where I sat at a desk, in clean clothes, not dealing with customers yelling at me for more hot sauce, … and it would be in an office. A real office. When I was being punished with cutting 100 pounds of onions, I would literally be crying for a new food free occupation. Sadly for me, when you are only 16 your only options are fast food or some retail slave service. Dream job. Not that. And for the record I was the asshole that dumped an entire bag of hot potato oles all over your already soggy tacos. Your sauce is at the bottom of the bag. Extra hot. And yes, my crappy $3.35 an hour job was still a real job.
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So, think about some of the things you hate about your current situation, and then what are some of the things you desire. Write them on a separate piece of paper. Once you define the “perks”, think about what actual jobs have those qualities. If no one will hire you, you can always hire yourself. It is called being “self-employed”. You create something or offer a service and you decide how much you charge. You choose your working hours. Your only boss is your current paying customer. Some people can start small and clean houses for $___ an hour, or build something, or cook something … Etsy is full of these people.
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James Ray taught me to create MSI’s. Multiple streams of income. Your spouse, … is a source of your income. Your rental property, Etsy store, Air B&B, Turo car, catering/baking, photography, …. whatever … are all sources of other income. Everyone has an extra room. Rent it out cheap online and make some extra money. When I build my dream home, it will have lots of extra guest rooms just for that reason. With that dream home, can build a dream job. Meet new people, get paid, make them an awesome gourmet dinner and bask in the gorgeous Florida sun. That would be … living the dream.
Keep working on your action statements, along with defining your dream job. What is impressive about what you just wrote. It that a steal from your job description? Shame on you. No one cares about duties. Write down something that makes you an asset. “I spearheaded an internal committee called Voice of the Employee to reduce turnover and increase job satisfaction.” Really? Oh yeah, we sat at Starbucks every week, expensed our lavish drinks and bitched about management. We loved it.
