Ideal
Though I’ve been working at Biogen Idec for the past year, I’ve been technically employed by Veritude, a staffing company. In the day-to-day scheme of things, I spend exactly 0 seconds thinking about that fact. Recently, however, it was announced that a new staffing company will be taking over later this month. (No scheduled changes to my budgeted time.) However, I was asked to enter some basic information into their system, and the form contained the following prompt:
Describe your ideal position or career objective.
Easily the most interesting question on the form, I thought for a couple of minutes and then wrote:
My ideal position is located in a temperate, sunny place. After a relatively short bike ride, I arrive at a company or institution full of brilliant people who are working passionately on interesting problems. My private office is relatively spare but totally functional and features a beautiful view. I have total control over the noise levels and lighting in my work environment, and I’m allowed to use whatever tools I’d like to perform my work. A portion of my time at work can be spent on the topics and projects of my choosing, and I’m encouraged to set my own hours. There’s healthy, delicious food available throughout the day. Meetings are held only when necessary, though it’s a joy to talk with my colleagues at lunch or during the day. Salary is relatively unimportant, though benefits for myself and my future family should be fairly comprehensive. My contributions to the organization are appreciated, and the work that I do is intellectually and emotionally engaging and fulfilling.
Some of these things I already enjoy, and many more I hope to see down the road.
A couple days later, this popped up in one of the (relatively) few RSS feeds I subscribe to:
Cool stuff.