Is It Your Dream Job ? How to pick the right career path to fast track your career

A guy from Australia, Ben Farrell - recently quit his job as Quality Program Manager from Apple, Inc in Sydney, Australia.  Some of us may find working in Apple (or Google, Microsoft, all the world class company) as "the dream job".    You can find Ben Farrell posting in his blog : http://roadlesstravelled.me/2015/04/06/why-steve-jobs-motivated-me-to-quit-apple/

As posted in his blog, he mentioned several facts about working conditions in Apple :
1) 16 hours a day work, filled with meetings after meetings, and more meetings.  Even when he is on a day-off, he needs to dial-in to what seems to be an important conference call, where little to none of the attendees showed up.
2) "Sickness, family emergencies, and even weddings are given no respect at Apple" -- these are quoted directly from Ben's blog.  In other words, Apple don't want you to have your personal life.  You are hired with great compensation package, so we expect you to sacrifice these things for company.
3) No team spirit, as people attack each other or have their own agenda.

At the end of his posting, Ben added Steve Job's quote : " Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. Thanks Steve, I choose to follow your advice."

Now, I don't think you and me have the right to judge Ben or people from Apple now - we are not in their shoes, pr we might not know the whole story.

However, look at your current situation or condition now, and ask yourself : Am I doing the right thing with my career now ?

I have here another article posted in Linkedin : https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-stanford-students-turn-down-150000-entry-level-salaries-carlson

For these Stanford graduates, they are looking for something beyond the salary offer, or the job security.  They are looking for the challenge, purpose/mission, ability to grow (be it career-wise, experience-wise), working with interesting people, and freedom,

So, what do you need from a job ? Personally, I list down the priorities from the most important one (to me) to the lest important one in these orders :
1) I must love the job (scope) and what I will be doing.
2) The challenge, or experience that I will gain.  Remember these will relate with the company that you are working for - compare working for Pepsi Cola and Apple, Inc (yes, I am taking John Sculley as example - those of you that has no idea, just google John Sculley).
3) The salary (well, yes, I still need the "moolah")
4) The working environment - Are the people great to work with ? Do they encourage information sharing and mentoring - so that you will improve your ability at the same time ? Or is it full of back-stabbers playing office politics to maintain their "status quo" ?
5) The boss and the colleagues.  Good Boss will praise you for your achievement in front of the others, and scold/point out your mistakes behind the closed door (that, my friend - is the Basic Management 101).  However, there are some "Gestapo" or "KGB"-educated Boss that like the otherwise approach (scold you in front of your colleague during the office party, and using the ^*%*%^&^ words) - and thinking that they are "doing you a favor" and taking "what didn't kill you will make you stronger" approach.

Well, those are my priorities,  You may find yourselves in a different situation, but you may find the above helpful for your considerations.

Enjoy your Monday !