If logistical/family issues, financial reward, required training or availability wasn’t an issue, just what would you love to do?

I was watching Lost Land of the Tiger recently and I must admit that I would absolutely love to be an explorer/naturalist. They don’t ever suggest that one to you at school careers days though do they?

Designing and making bikes/other mechanical things.

Or a professional rowing coach (that’s rowing, the sport, not rowing the thing most of us do on here…)

Or probably a professional coach in several other sports actually.

Wouldn’t mind being a Dales Park ranger. Not ‘perfect’ but it would do me.

Ski guide. Just sounds brilliant, spending all your time in the mountains with people who are interested in what they are doing and looking to step outside their normal comfort zone.

travelling the world checking out sustainably run independent adventure travel companies. currently doing it from my computer though…

I’m lucky enough to be doing it.

i often consider this point. I actually enjoy what i do; what i don’t enjoy is the stress that having to do it brings. By that I mean, I really need to keep this job in order to maintain the mortgage / std of living, etc. Hence when the other idiots ask me to do pointless and ridiculous things, I can’t call them on it, for fear of losing the job. If I had the safety net of not really needing to work, I’d probably be more likely to say what I thought (which is probably right / justified anyway) which would make it even more enjoyable.

As a halfway (because being retired would quickly also become boring) I’d like to drive the DHL van. Listen to the radio, chat up receptionists all day, and still get a wage. Again, i know van drivers will tell me it’s hard work and stressful too, but as above, not if you had enough money so you didn’t actually have to do it.

Mountain bike trail builder, or something similar.

Holly Willoughby’s Bra 🙂

In a perfect world I’d be an elite athelete in the sport of pro cabbage flinging.

They don’t ever suggest that one to you at school careers days though do they?

I do occasionally wish that at school they had explained to me that doing science (which I was good at) could lead to all sorts of cool careers. I didn’t realise that, learned computers (which was always an effort) and now have an IT job 😐

Sam – me too. Would love to be a coach for Warren Smith or similar.

Just checked Warren’s site – you can hire him for £599 a day!

Ski Instructor / MTB guide here, too. Still clinging on to that dream…

EDIT: A friend of a friend works for Warren Smith and has possibly THE best life of anyone I know. He was hired to take a group heli-skiing in Japan last year. Thats WORK to him….

Anything that doesn’t involve being away from home in a party/alcohol-free zone until 6th January 🙁

Actually, aside from International Man of Mystery, I could really get to grips with being a virtuoso musician. Piano, violin, or some such classical instrument.

I wanted to be a ecological researcher, then I did it and found it was crap. I’d like to have a small farm if money was no object.

He was hired to take a group heli-skiing in Japan last year

I WANT TO DO THAT… YES I’M SHOUTING…. BUT I REALLY REALLY DO WANT TO DO THAT.

I WANT TO DO THAT… YES I’M SHOUTING…. BUT I REALLY REALLY DO WANT TO DO THAT.

Get in line, Buster

Half the year spent as a scuba instructor somewhere hot and idyllic, the other half spent as a ski instructor/guide. One can dream!

@Jimmy – I’m so in the line. Probably lacking some talent, mostly lacking the balls to ditch everything else and jump.

Complete fantasy, but when I heard there were proposals to reintroduce wolves to the remoter parts of Scotland, I thought wouldn’t it be cool to have the job of tracking and monitoring them across the mountains by Land Rover and mountain bike.

jimmy, he’s one very lucky guy!

I was close, very close, to doing all I could to make it as far as I could with skiing as a serious career. Fear of either not actually being good enough or getting there then blowing a knee out and being left careerless and pennyless stopped me though.

Well, having had enough of being a courier, 5 years 3 months and knowing full well it was always gonna be a short lived thing (5 years is 4 to many), i’m on a mission in the new year to do what i want to do. Riding for a living has had its moments, i know central London better than the back of my hand and the sights have been something else but painting and getting back into my music are where it’s at so yeah..artist and musician….allowing more time to ride for fun.
This, should it go as i’d like, should afford me greater opportunities to see more and experience more. I hope.
Tis sock pulling up time.

007 had a cool job.. I’ll have that one.

Recognised for the fantastically talented guitar player that I clearly am, and celebrated around the world. Either that or Working in the fabrics industry ( what I’m actually studying for)

i would love to be a river keeper/ghillee on a hampshire estate, or a road train driver in australia.

random, i know.

Helicopter pilot would do for me…due to health reasons, don’t believe it would be possible 🙁

Mountain bike guide half the year, snowboard “host” the other half.

Oh wait… 😉

Half the year mountain bike guiding – very hard work but very rewarding (I’ve done two seasons guiding).

Other half of the year as a mechanical design engineer working in the automotive industry (I am an engineer but seem to have landed in contract management).

I used to want to be a gamekeeper on a Scottish game estate. That probably comes from the ‘beating’ i used to do as a kid (flushing out pheasants, not beating people up!).

Now, I’d quite like to be a successfull professional wildlife photographer.

fluffer?

edd + 1 kinda

6 months working on very hitechy problems
6 months being outside helping people have fun and be safe – i.e. a guide of some sort

I think fluffer might be more of a job for the ladies binners 🙂

Pro surfer would be good but useless if you have a family.
Royal Marine (did POC and AIB and passed) Officer seemed like the dream job in my late teens – but glad I didn’t go for it.

TBH this job offers flexibility, decentish money and we can operate it from home. It’s also very interesting (to us) so without realising, it may be the dream job.

Wouldn’t mind running a few hedge funds on the side though 😉

Wait…I could have done both at the same time!

Why did I decide to go into IT…oh yeah, I wanted lots of money.

Write long distance walk guides for Cicerone books.

* I actually have a great job that I find interesting and lucrative enough that being self employed I only need to work a day or two a week.

However I think doing a hobby or a dream as a job is a sure way of finding faults in your dream and turning yourself against your hobby eventually 😉

My brother in law is a mountain guide in the alps. On one level, it sounds incredible, but on another, he’s a glorified tour guide with a whole world of potential pain when things go pear shaped. He bases himself in Chamonix for the season, and complains about how many Tour de Mont Blancs he has to do – quite boring and repetitive after a while.

A talented heavy rock guitarist in a constantly global touring band with plenty of girls, drugs & money !

Pah! Seen one mountain? You’ve seen em all

Norks on the other hand…..

I want a job that involves norks 🙂

I’ve got it. House husband and full time student. Do a wee bit of maths here, bike ride, housework, bike ride, make the wife dinner as she comes in for work, do a multiweek bike tour, come home do some dusting, then go for a hill walk. Do some structural engineering, take a bottle of whisky to a bothy and have a big fire, clean the bathroom then write an essay. Followed by a bike ride.

something creative

either architecture or interior architecture

or some kind of creative journalism