How do I get my dream job?

How did you get your current / previous dream job?

• What is the dream job you have / had and how did you get it (e.g. Website, career services, volunteer work, LinkedIn, social media, friend, cold reach out, headhunter, networking event)?

• Answer:

  I always say that I am ridiculously lucky in that I managed to work in the profession that I trained for for 7 years, spent untold thousands of dollars doing so, and am really, really good at it.  There's no humble way to say that, really, and I base it on the fact that I haven't been fired yet and my students write awesome reviews about me on Rate My Professors.  (Except for that one kid who wrote "This woman has issues," which I really can't argue with). I got said dream job 20 years ago before there was any social networking at all.  Basically, I just sent my resume to every college within reasonable driving distance.  There was no such thing as submitting online, so I always got an actual personal response.  I was lucky in that I was hired almost immediately by a local community college, largely based on my credentials and that I interviewed well. As for how I got THAT far, it was pretty simple:  I worked my ass off.  I honestly don't know how I was able to do it without ending up in a psychiatric ward.  Graduate school was very intense, but as I thrived on that particular kind of intensity, it was all good.  I also held a part-time job as a graphics designer on the days I didn't have class.  My only friends were the other people in my graduate program (which was fine, as they were just as mad as I was).  I somehow managed to have a boyfriend, and occasionally re-introduced to my parents. The downside of all of this was that the human body doesn't know the difference between "good" stress and "bad" stress.  If you're an adrenaline junkie like I me, your body doesn't understand that it's NOT being held hostage in a pit of vipers--it's just excited because you finished your dissertation. The other sacrifice I had to make was that I had no concept of popular culture between the years of 1991-1994.  I completely missed "Seinfeld."  I missed "Friends."  I still have no idea what music was popular.  I knew these things existed because I heard them bandied about in that place called "the outside world," but because "yadda yadda" wasn't going to help me pass my comprehensives, it was useless to me. But holy jumping Jesus in drag, it was worth it. I start to get excited about getting to go to work as soon as the previous work day has ended.  The surest way to kill me is to send me on an extended vacation; 7 to 10 days is the optimum, and after that I start to go a little insane.  97% of the time I leave the classroom feeling like a rock star, and like I'm the luckiest SOB on earth.