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Pitcher for Barry Bonds. Lego artist. Jeweler to the stars. What does it take to land a job that doesnt feel like work? Here are 9 who did it, plus a guide to follow your own fantasy. By Kiplinger Continued from Page 2 Quick links to dream jobs:
Joe Garden, staff writer for the humor magazine The Onion Carol Brodie, who provides Harry Winston diamonds for the stars Scott Kelliher, hitting the road with his band L.P. Dan Bennett, master builder at Legoland theme park Kurt Franz, practicing medicine at Yellowstone National Park Frank Tursi, patrolling the coastal waters of North Carolina David Gold, tornado-chaser and tour guide for the brave Harriet Siew, tester, sampler and editor of recipes for The Food Network Guardian of the coast Two years ago, Frank Tursi was an environmental reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal, a job hed held for 13 years of his nearly 30-year journalism career. As much as he enjoyed the work, Tursi, 53, was "finding a sameness in what I was doing," he says. "And I was still young enough to try something different." Tursis itchy feet stepped right into a job with the North Carolina Coastal Federation (NCCF), a nonprofit organization that works to protect and restore the states coastline. When the group issued a press release describing a new position for a "coastal keeper," reporter Tursi read the release and saw himself. He had been a fisherman since he was a boy in Brooklyn, and he still regularly made the five-hour trek from central North Carolina to the coast to spend his weekends camping and surf fishing. Tursi took the NCCFs bait and joined the federation as one of three new coastal keepers. Now he cruises North Carolinas bays and inlets in a 22-foot skiff, on the prowl for polluters and other environmental law violators. Although the NCCF has no official police powers, "nobody likes to see his name mentioned unfavorably in the media when it comes to environmental matters," says Tursi. He supervises two other coastal keepers and relies on more than two dozen volunteers, mostly commercial fishermen, to help him patrol 1,200 square miles of water. Related news and resources on MSN Unlike many people who land their dream jobs, Tursi didnt have to settle for a pay cut. He actually makes slightly more now than he did as a reporter. Also, living expenses are lower in Swansboro, a coastal town of 1,500 where he lives with his wife, Doris, a kindergarten teacher. And, no, he doesnt use the coastal federations boat to fish. "I prefer sitting on the beach, having a drink and casting in the surf." Pursuing the perfect storm At first, David Golds job sounds like every familys nightmare vacation: Pack 12 to 15 people in a van and spend eight to 12 hours a day driving around the Great Plains for up to ten days -- with no fixed destination and stormy weather. But from April until early July, on one out of every two tours, Gold and his passengers will spot something that makes it all worthwhile: a tornado. Gold, 34, is one of a handful of people -- usually scientists or journalists -- who are paid to pursue storms. Most chasers, including many scientists, hunt tornadoes on their own dime -- and those dimes add up. Chasing storms can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to $50,000 a year when you factor in lodging, gasoline, van rental, satellite dishes, video cameras, computers and other electronic equipment. When Gold hunted storms as an impoverished graduate meteorology student, he used to sleep in his car in the parking lots of McDonalds restaurants. Then, in 1997, he had a bright idea: Take paying customers along for the ride. He started Silver Lining Tours, now based in Houston, and his weather-enthusiast clients pay as much as $3,300 per person for a six- to 10-day tour that includes hotel accommodations along the chase route. The company, which grosses about $200,000 a year, offers eight tours during the chase season, and Gold has had to hire another guide to share the load.
Gold spends about 30 days a year on the road, covering an average of 400 miles a day as he tracks tornadoes from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas to as far north as Canada. The rest of the year, he studies meteorology at Texas A&M University, where he recently completed a Ph.D. For his spin doctorate, he studied how the spiral motion of large storms produces tornadoes. Finding storms is equal parts science, intuition and dumb luck. At the end of a days pursuit, Gold studies computer models to assess the groups chances of spotting a twister; but he also relies on gut instinct, sharpened over more than a decade of storm chasing. His closest call came in 1991, when he and his friends took a wrong turn and drove straight into wrapping rain curtains directly adjacent to a tornado. They managed to escape the vortex unscathed. If tornadoes arent in the cards on a particular tour, Gold goes after smaller game, tracking thunderstorms instead. Once the skies clear, he says, "the rainbows are spectacular." At home near a range Harriet Siew spends her days writing about food, talking about food, reading about food and tasting food. Youd think that when she arrives home at night, the last thing shed want to do is eat. Not so, says Siew: "My husband and I truly love home-cooked meals." No doubt about it, Siew, 34, relishes food. And she has the job to prove it. Shes a culinary editor at the Food Network, where she samples dishes as they emerge from the test kitchen, maps the action on cooking shows and edits recipes that appear on the Food Network Web site. Surrounded by the fruits -- and desserts -- of her labor, Siews main occupational hazard is enjoying too much of a good thing: "My greatest challenge," she says, "is to keep fit." Like following a recipe, Siew plotted a step-by-step path to her dream job. Restless in her former career as a banking consultant, she began to analyze what made her happy. "I always came back to the kitchen," she says. To get professional credentials, she enrolled in a yearlong culinary program at LAcademie de Cuisine, in Gaithersburg, Md., that cost her more than $15,000. "With that kind of financial investment," she says, "it really is a career decision." A grueling internship at a restaurant convinced Siew that she didnt want to be a chef. After moving with her husband to New York City in 2000, she signed on with a public-relations firm that worked with the food industry and later landed a job at the Food Network. Now she uses her culinary expertise not only to vet and edit recipes, but also to block out how long in-studio chefs need to saut the veggies or stir the velout. Timing is everything, especially for shows such as Rachael Rays "30-Minute Meals." If the stew simmers for 32 minutes, everyones in the soup. Earning her daily bread in the food industry -- her salary is "in the mid five figures" -- is "certainly not comparable to consulting," she says. But the job itself is icing on the cake. "I knew when I went to culinary school that I was doing the right thing." Return to Page 1 Return to Page 2 How to turn the job of your dreams into reality
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