Eighteen months ago, I sat down and wrote out a description in bullet points of what my ideal job would be like. I described my position, the company, and my co-workers. My previous job had many of those qualities. It was a good job at a good company, but it wasn’t everything I wanted. I wanted to change things, but they weren’t mine to change.
I’ve been at SafeNet for about 7 weeks now. I realize that’s not that long, but so far it seems like every single bullet point on my description of an ideal job has been satisfied. Here’s my list from June 2010.
My Position
- I want to be irreplaceable (see what I mean by “irreplaceable” here).
- I want to focus on building relationships, both co-workers and customers.
- I want to be able to mentor someone.
- I want to be able to learn and be mentored.
- I want to be challenged without being overworked.
- I want to be expected to do things I don’t know how to do.
- I want to design and deliver important solutions.
My Company
- Must be a place that outsiders get excited about when they see how we do things.
- Must be known for its technology as well as for its business — for execution as well as ideas.
- Must be full of irreplaceable people.
- Must be full of passionate people.
My Teammates
- Must care.
- Must have an opinion more often than they don’t.
- Must share their opinions.
- Must debate.
- Must be irreplaceable.
- Must be passionate.
- Must treat their work as a craft or art.
- Must give “something” (intangible) more than their work..
- Must have insight and understanding.
- Must be able to troubleshoot.
- Must act like they work for themselves.
- Must be empowered.
- Must be respected internally and externally.
- Must be compensated enough to not worry about compensation.
I didn’t realize until tonight when I came across that 18 month old list just how ideal this job is for me.
Do you have a description of your ideal job? If your ideal job is more like my ideal job than it is your real job, we should talk.
