QotD: My Dream Career

What's your dream career? 
Submitted by Something.

Well let's see...when I was little I wanted to be a marine biologist or a vet...unfortunately for either of those careers, it's always a good skill to be able to add without counting on your fingers. The older I got, the more I shied away from any job that might require me to take more than remedial math...although I did enjoy my biology and anatomy classes in college. (Chemisty? No. I got a C+ which was WAY better than I ever thought I would do...but I can still barely handle regular old algebra.)

Anyway after lots of hemming and hawing and changing of my major in college, I am one of those people that are lucky enough to be doing something with my degree...I wouldn't have it any other way considering that I will be paying school loans for literally the rest of my existance. I am a graphic designer and I absolutely love my job. I never considered doing anything artistic for money, although looking back on my younger years I was constantly drawing, painting, making things, etc. Even now there is nothing more that I enjoy in my spare time than fooling around with photography and digital art.

It became my dream career after I took my very first design class. My dad is a designer and has been doing it since way back in the paste-up days. I actually became a pretty handy person to have around for him when he had to make the switch to a Mac and whenever new software packages are released. I still consider him to have more talent in his little finger than I have all together, but so far I've been relatively successful at what I do.

After college I worked as a newspaper advertising designer for 5 years and did some freelance on the side. Newspapers are sort of a difficult niche to get stuck in...they are somewhat restricting, there isn't a whole lot of upward mobility, and they aren't exactly what could be considered high end. I have always had a VERY strong interest in getting more into marketing (I had done some marketing freelance and I LOVED it) and also a strong interest in fashion...but I knew I never really had the proper skills to be a fashion designer (I'm much more cut out to be a stylist, which is another thing I considered pursuing for awhile).

Blah blah blah...long story short...my dream job is to work as a marketing designer for a major label or a very high end department store (think Saks 5th Ave...their catalogs are to DIE for). God only knows how far I will get with this and I will be totally happy if it never gets to say, Gucci or Ferragamo status, but earlier this year I got lucky enough to get my foot in the door working in the marketing department for a chain of retail shoe stores (www.thewalkingcompany.com). Part of me thought that it was some sort of creul joke considering that I had zero catalog experience when I came in, nor did I know how to use InDesign, but it actually seems that I have some sort of natural knack for this type of thing.

I get to be creative...I get to learn all sorts of awesome new skills like how to style for photoshoots (hence fulfilling my dream of actually getting to style people...YAY!)...I get free shoes. Seriously...what more could a girl want? So far it seem this could be a great stepping stone for achieving my ultimate goal.