By TIM HARLOW, Star Tribune
 
Last update: September 26, 2008
 
 
Two weeks ago, Daniel Seddiqui worked as a hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado.

Last week he was employed as an announcer for the South Dakota Rodeo Association.

This week he's finishing up a stint as a cartographer in North Dakota. Come Monday he'll be on the job in Elk River where he'll work for a company that makes devices for the medical, industrial, computer & aerospace industries.

Seddiqui doesn't keep a job for long, and he doesn't stay in one place long either.

In a period of 50 weeks, the 26-year-old from Los Altos, Calf., is on a quest to hold 50 jobs in 50 states.

"I might have end up having the longest resume in the Guinness World Book of Records," Seddiqui said in a telephone interview. "I want to showcase all the careers, environments and cultures that are out there."

Seddiqui came up with the idea of working in every state - and possibly finding his dream job - after he bounced from job to job after graduating with an economics degree in 2005 from the University of Southern California. "I failed 40 to 50 job interviews," Seddiqui said.

Undaunted, he has held a raft of positions ranging from coaching cross-country running at Northwestern University to painting steps to tutoring elementary school-age children and doing accounting for a biomedical firm. He even coached football, even though he never played the game.

Seddiqui admits that spending eight months on the phone securing one-week paid and non-paid positions "is an odd way to find jobs and an odd way to get into most careers."

So far he has lined up 35 jobs. Seddiqui said he attempted to find jobs that represents each state he'll visit. That has included drawing water samples from the Colorado River, preparing hygiene kits for hurricane victims while working for the Church of Latter Day Saints in Utah, and securing a position as border patrol in Arizona.

His oddest job thus far is calling a rodeo in South Dakota.

"I'd never seen a rodeo before," he said. "That was culture shock."

When he wraps up his cross-country trek, Seddiqui said he hopes to write a book about his experiences, and perhaps land his dream job.