You’ve just landed an offer — congrats friend!

However, you’re not super excited about it. It’s not quite the dream job you’re hoping for. You don’t know if you’re going to take it.

You’ve probably envisioned what your dream job looks like. You can see it now: the pinnacle of happiness in your career. You’re working on something you’re passionate about. You’re working with great people. You feel competent about the work you do. You feel fulfilled. Maybe you have a corner office. Maybe this dream job affords you a big house and fast cars.

Unfortunately, this offer is decidedly not for your dream job. It passes the filter for all the common deal-breakers like money, time, and location, but you’re simply not sure about it.

What should you do now?

Most people I know obsess with finding their dream career. They often take this proverb to heart:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” — Anonymous

It’s certainly a laudable goal. While most of us have a vision (or at least some idea) of what makes them happy, many consider their dream job to be out of reach — whether it be because of a lack of experience, skills, connections, or otherwise. Having a framework that can bring that dream job down to earth is the key to gaining clarity on whether this offer is going to get you closer to your dream job.

What I mean by dream job…

In my mind, a dream job is not some sort of career aspiration like “corner office” or “lots of money.” Assuming again that all the basics (money, time, location) meets the baseline, a dream job to me is a relevant role with a great team in an industry you’re passionate about.

1. Relevant Role — is it the role you want to be in? Do you have the skills for it? Will you be responsible for, or have the opportunity to be responsible for, the activities and decisions you care about?
2. Great Team — who will be your manager and can they be able to mentor you and make you better? Who are your immediate teammates and do you respect their strengths, process, and culture? Who are in leadership positions and do you believe in their vision?
3. Industry You Are Passionate about — are you excited or passionate about the industry? Is the industry growing? Is the company solving a big, painful problem in the market?

It’s worth noting that, by this definition, there are actually many dream jobs. Maybe the job you’re in is one of them (in that case you should probably reject this new offer…). But assuming you’re not already in your dream job, and unfortunately, the offer you have in hand doesn’t fulfill all three requirements — what’s next?

Not perfect, but 2-out-of-3?

If you have an offer in hand and you have positive things to say about 2-out-of-3 of the above requirements, then take the job. Because 2-out-of-3 is a pretty freakin’ good job.

Think hard — how many people among your friends and professional network can say they have all three of the requirements above fulfilled? The fact is, a dream job is hard to come by and a majority of people aren’t there (yet). If your dream jobs, for whatever reason, are not within reasonable reach, finding a gig that gets 2-out-of-3 is the best next step and the closest thing on the path towards your dream job. Some may consider this selling out, but having this framework means taking this offer is a strategic step — a part of your roadmap towards that greater goal.

Heck, there’s even a chance that this 2-out-of-3 job will turn into a dream job through team changes, role transfers, or product pivots over time.

Needless to say, if your offer scores a 1- or 0-out-of-3, run away. Conversely, if your current job is already a 2-out-of-3, consider staying at your current job where you’ve built up relationship and reputation capital and start looking for that dream job instead.

Shouldn’t I shoot for the dream job anyway?

You’re absolutely entitled to look for that perfect job — the one that fulfills all three requirements, even if it seems out of reach. However, know that having the experience, network, or time to score your dream job is a luxury… a luxury most people earn by having made some tough trade-offs and compromises in their past. Unless you get really lucky, you will have to do your time, whether this be taking a less-than-perfect job, going back to school, or taking courses at bootcamps like General Assembly.

Whatever you do, start focusing your efforts towards doing your time with whatever is closest to a dream job — especially if your only alternative is to wait for that perfect one — because any minute you’re not getting highly relevant experience, you’re squandering potential progress towards your dream job.