Why I started Dreams and Jobs

Finding fulfilling work has been a personal struggle of mine.

I’m Frank McCaughey, the founder of Dreams and Jobs.

I've spent more than 25 years building businesses, working in marketing and growth, advising founders, and helping companies grow.

Before Dreams and Jobs, I built a marketing agency to around 100 people, with offices in the US and Europe. It won a number of awards, and I later sold it.

Those facts tell you what I built. There is a more personal story behind why I care about this.

I have always struggled with duty, repetition, authority and a lack of freedom, and for a long time I found it hard to put that into words. I needed work that left room for openness and creative freedom, and that still pointed at something larger than myself.

In the corporate world I found the hierarchies hard to live with. I often wondered whether people really knew what was best, or whether they were speaking from ego and the appearance of authority. That feeling had been with me my whole life. I need variety. I do not belong to anyone. I needed, and still need, to be the one driving the bus.

There were days when I would sit in a cubicle at work and scream silently. It was either continue with the certainty of pain, or step into the unknown. I chose the unknown.

Even when I was running my own company, I encouraged people on the team to chase interests outside the ordinary run of work. We paid for one senior executive to take a forensic criminology course, and another to study music production.

If — and I say this with humility — if Dreams and Jobs helps people discover work they find more enjoyable, or sets them on a path that feels more fulfilling, that would feel to me like a life well lived, and a company that had truly served a purpose. Nothing would make me happier than to offer something that gives customers a meaningful direction. And perhaps, in doing that, I could finally find peace in my own vision of what I believe work should be: something that serves people, and is a positive influence in their lives. Dreams and Jobs is only the start. You still have to go and find out whether what we suggest is true for you — talk to people, go to open days, and test the path yourself.

All my life I have heard people talk about the vision they have for their businesses. Mostly, in my mind, those are soundbites — a vision because they feel they have to have one. My vision, mission and hope for Dreams and Jobs is that it helps you find work that brings even a little more fulfilment into your studies or your working life. These are not empty words. If we cannot do this, we do not have a business. Our relentless pursuit will be this.