What Is A Dream Job And How Do You Land One?
Nov 06, 2024
What is a dream job and how do you land one? Let me explain 👇🏽
After securing 3 dream jobs, I figured I'd share my step by step process...
First, let me clarify that your definition of a dream job may vary widely with someone else (including mine) and that's okay. It should be different and unique to what is important to you!
Also, you should certainly, going into the year 2025, have your own custom job prospect filter so you can score each opportunity using data, weighted based on a normative benchmark. Companies and AI algorithms are scoring you so it would only make sense you score them to make more informed career decisions. Before I touch on this more, I thought it might be helpful to break down how I was able to land my first 3 dream jobs:
1) Vision Critical (now called Alida) a company that pioneered 'insight communities' at a time (circa 2013) when leveraging on demand, longitudinal research data to inform business decisions was new (and is still new for a lot of companies). Based in Vancouver with offices around the world, once every two years they bring in a cohort of 8 total interns on a rotational program designed to fast track recent graduates into executives. The interview process went as follows:
- Like all jobs in any industry, securing a referral goes a long way in getting your resume looked at in an ultra competitive market. At the time, I was attending Michigan State and whenever we had a guest speaker in our class or association networking groups, I would always look them up beforehand including where their offices are based (as identifying the top 1-3 cities you want to work helps filter out many companies). One guest speaker in particular was the Global CEO at Vision Critical and I noticed they had an office in San Francisco (the #1 city on my list). After the end of the presentation, I introduced myself, shared a couple quick points as to what I learned and why I would be interested in working for the company and asked if there were any intern or entry level positions I could apply in the San Francisco office. This person could tell I did my research and gave me their business card and said they would be happy to forward along my resume to the head of HR...
(Image Source: 1st Week Of Onboarding In Vancouver With The 8 Interns)
- 8 interviews later with the top executives, a 5 minute presentation, 2 page paper and 3 hour on-site with lunch provided, I was informed I landed the job of my dreams (at the time) and they booked a flight to Vancouver with premium accommodation included so I can meet the C-Suite and spend the first week onboarding at Headquarters along with the 7 other interns who were placed in other offices across the US and Canada. Although mentioning to a company you have a competing offer on the table can hurt you in some instances, when they asked me in my final onsite interviews, I let them know respectfully (and in the right delivery) I had a competing offer already lined up at one of the top creative firms in SF called Eleven (merged with Mekanism recently) which provided social proof I was in demand.
(Image Source: Business Trip While At Vision Critical To A Dallas Stars Game)
- The experience I gained in the Vision Critical rotational program was invaluable (I was assigned 4 different direct managers and an advisor in a separate office) and I am forever grateful for those who took a chance on me. The rotational program was structured and every quarter we had to complete 10 additional challenges graded by the top executives including one-off monthly challenges. We landed what is referred to as 'a real world MBA' and instead of us paying tens of thousands of dollars for it, we were paid for it! The learning - if you can land a rotational program early on in your career, do it. Getting exposed to various facets of business will help you connect the dots and grow much more quicker in your career (assuming you make the most of it and learn as much as you can). Just like investing, your work experience compounds early on and this led me to my next dream job...
2) WME | IMG (now called Endeavor) at the time (circa 2015), WME bought out IMG for ~2.4 billion becoming the largest sports and entertainment agency and also at the time the company was hired on by Visa as their new global agency of record becoming the largest corporate consulting client. Visa provided WME | IMG with strict criteria on those they wanted to see hire, specifically involving a research and data background, and any sports and entertainment experience a plus. The interview process was quite the opposite of Vision Critical: one round, 30 minute in person interview with 3 of the hiring managers. Given how quickly the office needed to staff up, how strong my referral was and the two letter of recommendations I provided as a follow up to the interview, I landed my second dream job.
(Image Source: Copa America, Cirque du Soleil, Winemaker Dinner, Galapagos Travel)
Joining the client marketing team I worked with all the big banks, airlines, hotels etc. of the Visa Signature and Visa Infinite high net worth, loyalty and rewards program across 4 over-arching pillars within sports, entertainment, culinary and travel. As you can imagine, I hit the ground running especially given I was coming from working in the research industry crunching numbers in excel spreadsheets all day to then having the opportunity to combine my 4 true life passions at the intersection of sports, entertainment, culinary and travel, was truly a dream come true. When Mondays would come around and everyone dread going to work, I literally could not wait to get into the office. The head of the office who had been there for decades always said that they felt like they won the lottery working at IMG. After working at the company for several years, the Head of the Olympics recruited me to my next dream job...
(Image Source: Pebble Beach Resorts With PGA Pro Golfer)
3) Oakland Roots SC circa (2019), it's important to note when I joined the start up as one of the first employees (before we had an office, stadium, league, players, sponsors etc.), it certainly was not a dream job initially, although I knew there was potential as for the first time in my career we had the opportunity to build the first purpose driven pro soccer team from the ground up, in the way we and the community envisioned it. Dream jobs do not always fall in your lap and most of the time it can become your dream based on what you make of the experience (more on this below). Landing my role at Oakland Roots SC did not come easy even with the Chief Operating Officer (former Head of Olympics at IMG) recruiting me. Here was the process:
(Image Source: The Early Days Of Oakland Roots SC)
I started out as the first street team member, managing event and player activations on weekends. This allowed me to meet the co-founders, investors, build relationships with the community advisory board and conduct further consulting work while balancing my existing full time job. After a couple months, it reached a point where I was working 40 hours a week at my existing job and 40 hours a week at Oakland Roots and the company quickly realized it was time to bring me on full time as their Head of Partnerships. In a short span, we went from no league to D4 to D3 to the top tier league in USL and were considered the fastest growing sports team and dubbed the 'coolest' brand in pro soccer by FourFourTwo and Hypebeast.
(Image Source: OG Squad @ Pandora Music Headquarters)
As Head of Partnerships, I had the unique opportunity to lead all sponsorship deals with brands like American Express, BMW Motorrad, Pandora Music, PUMA, Kaiser Permanente etc. and I also closed a multi-year sustainability partnership which ended up getting featured in Forbes and as part of the calculation of our carbon footprint, the 3rd party accountability agency recommended we implement more remote, hybrid work options. In addition, we were able to close a partnership with a brand new 41 story high rise for our players and provided the opportunity for our staff to move in as well (at a heavily discounted rate). As I mentioned previously, dream jobs typically are not just handed over, you have to work for them and design the experience you want within whatever parameters you're given. When you work at larger companies, although there may be more stability, there's typically more 'red tape' so I always recommend opportunities where you have 'upside' potential to grow, learn and define your own experience.
(Image Source Via Forbes: The Oakland Roots & Soul: Purpose-Driven Positive Social Impact & Sustainability)
How do you find these opportunities? Our new accelerator is designed to help increase the chances of landing your dream job and I'm happy to announce we just added a first of it's kind custom job prospect filter so you can score each potential opportunity using data, weighted based on a normative benchmark. Prior to developing the filter, I would sometimes spend days trying to decide what opportunities to apply for based on my 'feelings' toward it. Now I plug in a score for each criteria (which can be customized based on what's most important for you) and within 10 minutes know exactly which opportunity is a go or no-go. If you would like to as well, apply below and we look forward to hearing your success stories!
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