The term “dream job” often gets thrown like a rag doll, often accompanied by some degree of sarcasm or cynicism. Just ask the 6 in 10 Canadians that report not feeling engaged by their work. The truth is that very few people seem to have found their dream job… yet everyone wants it. But in order to land your dream job, you first need to be able to accurately define what that looks like. Here are five factors that studies have shown to contribute to that elusive definition.

You work with good people.

This one hits the bullseye for me. When you like the people you work with, it almost doesn’t matter what it is you work on; it’s way, way more bearable. The opposite is also true: if you don’t like your colleagues, you could be doing the most interesting work in the world, and still be completely miserable in your job.

Specifically, it’s crucial that you feel like you can call on your colleagues for help and constructive feedback, should you need to. If that’s true for you, it’s a huge step in the right direction toward your dream job.

Your work is engaging.

Of course, it can’t all be about the people you work with. The reality is that your work does matter, too. The old saying that “Time flies when you’re having fun” couldn’t be truer for work.

So what makes for engaging work? Four factors:

• Clarity – you know what you’re supposed to be doing
• Variety – you get to work on different things
• Freedom – you decide how to get your work done
• Feedback – you’re told how well you’re doing, and where you can focus on improving

There’s no denying that people who self-identify as working their dream job are engaged by their work. But there’s more to being able to call it a dream job…

You’re good at your work.

I love woodworking. But the reason I do it for fun, and not as a career, is that I’m not that great at it. I wouldn’t buy the stuff I create… so it’d be hard for me to ask others to do the same!

See, it’s not enough to do engaging work – you also need to be good enough at it that others are willing to pay you for it. Whether that’s as an entrepreneur or as an employee doesn’t matter; the end result is the same. It gives you a sense of achievement and actualization, which are two components of a real dream job.

Your work helps others.

We humans are social creatures; we like helping others. Those who don’t, A) suck, and B) are exceptions to the rule. This is exactly why we’re more likely to love our work if it helps others. Helping others is meaningful, and meaningful work is much more enjoyable than picking up that stack of paper and putting it over there instead.

Your work doesn’t have to directly help others (the way a firefighter would, for example) to be meaningful, either. Work that indirectly helps others, like a coder who creates software that doctors can use to save lives, is also incredibly meaningful, and drives the same degree of job satisfaction.

Your work fits in with the rest of your life.

Flexibility is the name of the game. If your work gives you the flexibility to integrate it into your life in the way that makes the most sense for you, it will make the work easier to do on your end. When you’re able to work wherever best suits you, whenever you’re at your best, you’re likely to put out high-quality work. And when that happens, it has a halo effect on all of the other elements in this list.

Wrapping it Up

As you can see, there is no silver bullet factor that defines a dream job. Rather, it’s a combination of a number of hard-to-get-right things that, when put together, make a career truly spectacular. It’s not easy to find; if it were, everyone would do it. But when you know the things that are important in finding work you truly love (notice we didn’t talk about money anywhere in this list), you’ve taken the first step toward getting closer to your dream career.