Mark outlines his journey from 2004-2009 to achieve his dream job through setting goals and gaining the skills needed. He began by committing to take charge of his career and determining his ideal job would utilize his planning skills and involve managing people while communicating. After creating a detailed dream job statement, he hunted for over a year until finding a project manager position in 2006. This role allowed him to develop his planning and interpersonal skills while leading a team in a fast-paced environment. By 2009, he had gained management experience and learned the importance of balancing work and personal life. Moving forward, he believes in setting new career goals and knows he excels at managing people, mentoring, process improvement and is considering related roles.

1. Achieving the Dream Job Mark’s Career Journey 2004 - 2009

2. Preamble This document is for those of you who want to know more about the type of person I am. Setting out to achieve the Dream Job is one of my greatest accomplishments. I am very proud of this accomplishment because, if nothing else, I proved to myself that I am a person that does exactly what he says he’s going to do. I am a man of my word.

3. Background Step 1: Commit to taking charge of career in November 2004 Making a transition from a bench chemist job to something more meaningful to me. Step 2: In order to get what you want, you have to know what you want Used a method outlined in a book called “What Color is your Parachute?” (along with some input from other books) to determine my Dream Job. A one-page dream job statement was developed by March 2005 Step 3: Hunt for the Dream Job Sent this dream job statement to my network, communicating my aspirations to friends, family, and strangers alike. Hunted the dream job for a year until achieved the project manager position in March 2006. Step 4: Live the Dream job I was people, project, and process manager in some form from March 2006 until October 2009.

4. Dream Job Statement Do you know what this job is and where can I find it in the greater Montreal area, preferably in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and related industries? The next job that I will take should utilize my favorite skills. I'm big on the detailed-planning process, a skill that I picked up from formal education at Concordia University and developed throughout the progression of my career. I would like to have a job that allows me to use those planning skills as part of managing people and resources. I would like to be persuading, motivating, recruiting, or selling to individuals and I'd like the next job to involve communicating with people in conversation, in person, in writing, and on the phone. Ideally, I desire to work in an environment where people are of the type to start up projects and influence other individuals. I prefer to work with people who like detailed work (a preference I developed while working within a strict GLP environment) and with people who are analytical by nature. For once, I'd like a job where I can be autonomous, but not so autonomous that there is no help from my manager when I really do need assistance. I prefer to work with managers who know “how to manage” and have some formal management training (who are, unfortunately, hard to find within scientific departments) in addition to their technical expertise. Other preferred working conditions are that the work environment thrives on team spirit, the coworkers are fun, and personal growth for the employee is fostered. Above all else, this dream job must be conducive to my highest value in life: balance. Without this notion, the dream job ceases to be a dream job and becomes just a job. I am an individual that maintains a balance between faith, physical fitness, and intelligence. This concept is reflected in my main interests such as discussions over coffee with family and friends, weight training, taking courses formally, and yes, golf. So, do you know what this job is and where can I find it in the greater Montreal area, preferably in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and related industries?

5. LIVING The Dream Job How I did what I said I would do

6. Living the Dream Job The next job that I will take should utilize my favorite skills. I'm big on the detailed-planning process, a skill that I picked up from formal education at Concordia University and developed throughout the progression of my career. I would like to have a job that allows me to use those planning skills as part of managing people and resources. I would like to be persuading, motivating, recruiting, or selling to individuals and I'd like the next job to involve communicating with people in conversation, in person, in writing, and on the phone. As a project manager/research analyst, Key to the role of project manager is the skill of detailed-planning. Managing timelines and resources, I was able develop my interpersonal skills on a professional level for the first time in my career. As a team leader of research analysts, My first people management role where I was able to persuade, motivate, recruite, and sell [ideas] to individuals.

7. Living the Dream Job Ideally, I desire to work in an environment where people are of the type to start up projects and influence other individuals. I prefer to work with people who like detailed work (a preference I developed while working within a strict GLP environment) and with people who are analytical by nature. As a project manager/research analyst, Working on a team of project managers, I was surrounded by motivated individuals who worked hard on their market research projects. This motivated me to excel in my own project load. Market research requires precision in the products delivered to the client. It requires people who look at the data and are able to analyze it; make a story with the data. As a team leader of research analysts, I achieved a personal level of skill that allowed management to entrust me with the duty of training, motivating, and leading new project managers/research analysts to perform these activities.

8. Living the Dream Job For once, I'd like a job where I can be autonomous, but not so autonomous that there is no help from my manager when I really do need assistance. I prefer to work with managers who know “how to manage” and have some formal management training (who are, unfortunately, hard to find within scientific departments) in addition to their technical expertise. Other preferred working conditions are that the work environment thrives on team spirit, the coworkers are fun, and personal growth for the employee is fostered. As a project manager/research analyst, The project manager has all the accountability, but has to trust others with the responsibility of each task of the project. As the lead, I had to make decisions for the project that no others could make, hence being autonomous. As a team leader of research analysts, I became the manager who knows “how to manage” and has some formal management training. I created the work environment that thrives on team spirit, the coworkers are fun, and personal growth for the employee is fostered.

9. Living the Dream Job Above all else, this dream job must be conducive to my highest value in life: balance. Without this notion, the dream job ceases to be a dream job and becomes just a job. I am an individual that maintains a balance between faith, physical fitness, and intelligence. This concept is reflected in my main interests such as discussions over coffee with family and friends, weight training, taking courses formally, and yes, golf. Throughout the last 3.5 years as a project manager and team leader, I learned the value of life balance “the hard way”. I achieved a balance between faith, physical fitness, and intelligence. It was difficult considering the nature of the high-pressured, tight deadline environment, but I achieved it.

10. The CAREER Continues What’s the next step?

11. Next Steps I believe that a career is made of cycles: one sets up goals, achieves them, then repeats the process again after time. I don’t know if I’d use the exact same process again, since I’m at a stage in my career where I have a better understanding of what I’m capable of accomplishing, what I like to do and what I can do. I know what I like and what I’m good at: Managing people and relationships. Mentoring and developing people. Developing and optimizing processes in operations. Some jobs suggested to me: Operations manager, project manager, team leader, human resources, trainer.