I work for myself. I don’t sign my own paycheck, but I choose my job based on my goals and needs. This means that my family plays a heavy role in deciding what jobs I consider. I don’t want to work for a company where I cannot make a difference. I don’t want to work on a really small, specialized task in a cubicle farm of people working on small, related tasks. This is why I didn’t call Google for a second interview (one of a very large team of system administrators). This is why I am not talking to recruiters about jobs that pay 30-50% more than I make. This is also why my career goals / path have more to do with starting a company than working my way up in a company with advancement potential.
Disclaimer: I have a job that I recently started that I am really enjoying. This is not about that.
Kevin Burton has a post today Jobs are for Suckers. I generally agree with what he is saying. I have picked jobs that don’t necessarily pay as much as I could make but have an environment that I want to work in. I take jobs based on educational potential so that I can keep growing and stay engaged. Kevin said “Of course in most situations you already have had to prove yourself and change the world before you land your dream job.” in his post today. I think that is mostly true unless you are able to separate “maximum earning potential” from the definition of dream job.
Kevin may disagree with my thoughts, and if so then I will have to defer since he is an “already change[d] the world” geek. At least in one sense I work for myself, and I think that is the spirit of what he is saying.
