When your dream job turns out to be a nightmare

Note: Names have been changed to protect the innocent and prevent retaliation by the guilty.
One overlooked truth of the work world is that often, the jobs that “everyone wants” aren’t actually that great. Sometimes when you get your “Dream Job” it might actually turn out to be a nightmare.

I have a friend named Brianne. People’s jaws dropped when they heard where she worked. (“Wow, she works there? I’d love to work for that company.”) Brianne’s company had a great reputation. It was creative, high energy, and highly profitable. But what most people didn’t realize was that this “dream company” was a terrible place to work.

Brianne put in ridiculously long hours – she would often work from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and then bring work home on the weekends. (And she wasn’t a highly paid executive, either – she told me that the most she ever made at that job was $41,000 a year.) The pay raises were a joke – the biggest raise she ever got was 1.5%. The atmosphere was catty, paranoid and rife with backstabbing, with hysterical bosses dishing out mean-spirited criticism of anyone who fell short of expectations.

Another friend of mine, John, worked hard to get a job in the music business. It was his dream job – he had always loved music, he had always wanted to work with musicians and be close to the creative process of making music. The fact that he worked in the music industry for such a well-known company always impressed people: “Wow, you work there?” But again, it was in many ways a terrible job at a dysfunctional organization.

The hours were long – and inefficient. John was expected to spend a lot of “face time” sitting around the office, even though he could have been just as productive working half as many hours or working from home. John’s bosses were mercurial, unpredictable and disorganized. He was constantly getting blamed for things that weren’t his fault – he had “responsibility without authority,” a classic sign of bad management.

The organization never really appreciated John’s talents, and the only people who ever got pay raises (or praise) were the top performing sales people. After a few years of this, John finally got laid off and was relieved to be done – his dream job had turned out to be a snake pit.

When you think about it, it’s not surprising that “dream” employers in glamorous fields might actually treat their people worse than companies in “boring” fields. Unless you’re a superstar, your “dream job” employer knows that you’re easy to replace, since there are so many other people who would love to have a chance at your “dream job.”

As career coach Marty Nemko says, “Not only do salaries in ‘cool’ careers tend to be low, employers in those fields know they can get away with treating their employees shabbily…Status is often the enemy of success. You’re more likely to find career contentment in a not-high-status career.”

To be sure, not every dream job is a nightmare-in-waiting. There are plenty of people who work in high-profile fields who love their work. But it’s worth keeping in mind that not every dream job will be as great as it seems. Before you set your heart on working in a certain field, getting on board with a certain company or finally achieving the job of your dreams, remember not to attach too much importance to the job – or base your identity solely on your work.

Ben Gran is a freelance writer based in Des Moines, Iowa. He is an award-winning blogger who loves to write about careers and the future of work.
Find a dream job – or at least a “good” job – on http://www.manhattanjobs.com/.