Does the role that potential income and employment outlook play into our career choices contribute to our overall dissatisfaction?
Millions of college-age students, unsure of what to do with the rest of their lives, enroll into ghastly expensive educational institutions each year. Despite their inner uncertainty they proudly declare majors based on a myriad of factors such as the required time investment for a certain degree, potential earnings, level of interest, and demand. Under pressure to rapidly choose what they want to do for the rest of their lives at such an inexperienced young age, some even decide to allow the arbitrary results of career assessment tests to make the choice for them.
Cue in Lyndsay Rogers, a freshman at the University of Central Florida studying elementary education. Rogers initially decided to major in pre-clinical health sciences based on several career assessments she took in high school and some online research she conducted which foretold of a high annual salary. After her first semester, however, she dropped the major because she found herself really struggling with the entry-level science courses, and figured it was not for her.
She decided to switch to elementary education. Her reason? Well, she likes kids. Although she expects she might change her major again some time later to one that provides a better income.
The interesting part of Roger’s situation is she fact that she desires, more than anything, to spend her life taking part in New York city’s urban life attending Broadway shows, eating at fancy restaurants, and watching ballet performances. She said she has a strong interest to be an entertainment or food critic but does not pursue this occupation because she believes it would be too difficult to make a decent living from.
Of course, Lyndsay Rogers is not the first to experience such indecision. Many young adults spend time on sites displaying charts on future employment outlook and earning potential of various professional occupations before setting their mind on a career choice. They are fully aware they are committing to something they will gain expertise in and have to do for the rest of their lives, but fear a future of insufficient monetary income more than a future of endless hours at a job they do not even remotely take pleasure in.
A YouTube video titled “what if money didn’t matter?” that went viral in the last few months, receiving over one million views, explores the cultural conditions underlying this social norm. Controversial as it might sound, it ultimately recommends that everyone should simply pursue their passions and dismiss their financial concerns in order to lead a fulfilling, happy life.
The three-minute clip features an excerpt by Alan Watts, a relatively well-known British philosopher and writer. His stance is that the education system, and western culture in general, pushes students to choose a career based on which is the most profitable and tolerable to them rather than what they really enjoy doing and how they truly desire to spend their lives.
Watts then explains why this sort of logic is inherently inane assuming one’s main goal in life is to be happy. He asks people to imagine a world where money is not an object and urges people to carefully consider what kind of lifestyle they’d truly prefer and aim for that, regardless of the income it may or may not provide. He reasons that if you’re passionate about what you do, enjoyment, happiness, and fulfillment will inevitably follow.
After watching this clip, several UCF students expressed suspicion over the practicality of the video’s message, and others enthusiastically concurred with its guidance.
Sasha Perard, a UCF student majoring in art, said she firmly agrees with the clip and thinks the situation described in the video is extremely relevant to what is happening today.
“I think it’s dangerous to allow potential income to dictate our career choices,”said Sasha Perard. “In fact, I think it probably has something to do with the mid-life crisis phenomenon where people wonder ‘is this really what I want to do with my life?’ I think people are way too driven by money and then they realize their mistakes too late.”
A senior studying digital media from Bates Technical College, Blayne Ruzicka, had different thoughts and shared his inhibitions with the premise of the video’s message and its implications on societal order.
“It would be difficult to live in a society with no money,” Ruzicka said. “There would be nothing to incentivize people to do the sucky jobs that are boring yet need to get done nonetheless. I think modern society would crumble without money.
“I understand his [Alan Watts] point of view and how following your dreams leads to a more enriching happy life, but it’s actually antithetical to a functioning society if you think about it. Everyone can’t follow their dreams. Someone’s gotta be the janitor, someone needs to be the secretary, and someone needs to be the coroner.”
Ruzicka was not the only skepticist as Jasmine Yamini, a UCF student majoring in business management, also said she would still exercise precaution because pursuing your dreams becomes more difficult when everyone else follows suit and industries become inundated, causing demand for the most desirable jobs to sink.
“I think it’s wise to follow your passions, especially if money didn’t exist, but I think it’s also naive to ignore other factors,” Yamini said. “If you ignore demand then you’ll just prepare yourself for a position in an industry that already has enough qualified people and really has no more need for people in that expertise. It sucks, but if you don’t consider those sort of factors you can easily find yourself with a degree you spent four years studying for and still no job.”
Yamini did admit, however, that were money not an impediment she’d choose to be a dancer and study environmental science, or physical therapy.
Despite having an obsessive fantasy of becoming a princess during her childhood years, Caitlin Faulkner, who is studying psychology has now set her sights on becoming a criminal profiler. Although she confesses she still harbors a desire to become a teacher like her mother. Nonetheless, she decided against pursuing the occupation because of the consistent cutbacks in the education budget which have resulted in massive layoffs and diminished teacher salaries.
“My mom’s a teacher so I’ve been in the classroom my whole life, but teaching as a career kind of sucks right now. Just with the economy and things like that, they keep cutting things and asking for more and more from the teachers but not paying them for it. Like, you’re supposed to get raises and stuff every couple of years for however long you’ve been teaching but they’re not getting those anymore. So yeah, whatever, you can’t find a job in that right now anyway,” Faulkner said.
Catherine Bustamente, a student majoring in public relations to work in advertising said her dream job is actually a travel journalist, but would never go for it because of the unreliable income and fierce competition for those type of jobs.
“Obviously everyone wants to do something that they actually like doing but it’s not very practical sometimes, ” Bustamante said. “I mean, sometimes the things you like doing are things you can’t translate into a marketable skill. You know what I mean?
“It’s like, I mean, the whole starving artist thing may seem thrilling and all but when you find yourself in a situation where you’re in debt, unable to afford healthy food, and living in a crappy apartment; your priorities tend to change pretty quick.”
Lyndsay Rogers also had her own perspective to add on why many people generally settle for careers that are not related to their true passions.
“What he [Alan Watts] says makes sense, but I don’t really have anything I’m passionate about, which I guess makes it harder for me,” Rogers said. “Although, I think many people don’t really develop any hobbies or have anything they’re passionate about either, so that’s probably why some people aren’t really sure about what they want to do when they’re older. Those kind of people are probably the ones that just go for, you know, whatever career is the most doable and offers a good income. That probably sounds terrible, but that’s just the way it is sometimes.”
