+1 Emilyngh
I also have my dream job...as a tenured professor at a small university. Finished all my grading yesterday and have 7 weeks until I (voluntarily, for extra pay) teach a summer session. Research and writing on my own schedule will be mixed with family time and a vacation. And I can still go into the office if I want a break from family time.... Only thing that could make it better would be getting to choose my city, but for me that was the trade-off to be in academia.
+2
I'm quite thrilled with mine. Tenure track, small state school. I even got to choose the area (can't say "city" since I don't live in one). I have one foot on the dark side in admin, but so far I think I'm fairly happy with the balance. Not positive, though -- I may want to go back to the classroom full time someday. I work with almost entirely good people to work with, and I'm pretty well insulated from the few crazies.
I just learned this week I'm up for both tenure and promotion this coming year, and all signs look good, so hopefully that'll relieve some stress. That will help in terms of happiness and effectiveness both. Also, there would be a teeny tiny pathetic raise involved. Luckily I'm not in it for the money. :-)
Post retirement ideal job may involve going back to teaching exclusively online, from home, not too many classes at once (n<3). I have a much nicer home office now that the house is finished, too. I won't teach for the for-profits, but I have the contacts and experience with three different publics in two states, so that's okay. The other possibility for post-retirement would involve tech consulting for higher ed. Trouble with that is it may be more like work than I want in retirement. We'll see. I'm working to make it possible so that I have the choice.
