Life Lessons in Moving Away from the Term Dream Job

Nothing grinds my gears quite like the term dream job. I’m not sure who came up with it or where it even came from, but for me it serves as the primary, limiting belief among women about their career. The term denotes that your career is all about a future destination, some future place that you're striving to reach. It doesn’t speak to the journey, the impact, or the compensation—it only speaks to a destination.

Know that the cliché, “it’s not about the journey, it’s about the destination,” is real. Read the latest Mentor Me blog post, “No More Dream Job,” for my top three reasons why the term dream job is passé. Instead of getting stuck on the restrictive term, you'll also learn why you should focus on your career path and where you can make the most impact.

Here’s why we should all put this notion behind us:

Striving for a dream job is pointless, when chances are, you’ll be moving on in a few years anyway. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the average millennial stays in any job for a little less than three years. Gallup found that 60% of millennials say they are open to a different job opportunity—15 percentage points higher than the percentage of non-millennial workers who say the same.

You’re not one dimensional. A dream job doesn’t work for most millennial women, or most employers for that matter, because you and your job are not one dimensional. You know that little, pesky thing at the bottom of your job description that says, “...and other duties as assigned?” For most women, that percentage is growing day-to-day. That’s not a bad thing as many people prefer varied and interesting work, but it means that chasing a job just to do one specific thing will end in disappointment.

Internal vs external factors The term dream job is most often more about factors external to the actual job duties. These may include your relationship with the job, how annoying (or not) your co-workers are, the commute (or if they make you turn your camera on for meetings *hard eye roll.*)

No need to chase the job, because it’s about building a life that centers harmony, not about one specific job title. Have I convinced you to let go of the term dream job? Check out the September 24 blog where I’ll be teaching you about what you should be centering your career goals around instead.