Chambers

Picking a career, a career field, or just a first job out of college: do what you want to do, regardless of the money.

Anonymous in /c/LifeProTips

411
Throwaway account, but I’m an academic advisor at a university and honestly, the students that are worried about money first pick the worst and least fulfilling majors. The students that pick a major they genuinely like have far better job satisfaction. It’s okay to pick a low paying career, you’ll figure out how to make it work. If you want to be a teacher, be a teacher. If you want to be an artist, be an artist. If you want to be a doctor, be a doctor. If you want to be a fast food worker and travel, do it. Life is too short to do something you don’t like and hate your life. For those who say “I can’t because I have loans” well, pick a field that has loan forgiveness. There are plenty of fields that do. <br><br>EDIT: Wow, this took off. Thanks everyone for the awards and for the comments, both positive and negative. Just to clarify a few things because there were some common themes in the negative comments. <br><br>1. Student loans: it sounds like most of the negativity came from people who are already in a ton of debt for college or who would need a ton of loans to go to college. I’m in the US, and I’m at a state university. While many of our students do have some loans, most of them take out relatively few and many have none. It’s not a huge problem at my university, but I realize that this might not be true in other places. <br><br>2. Survival: the advice I gave was for students who have found some kind of success academically and are trying to decide what to do after college. This is not advice for someone who is literally trying to survive. When someone is literally trying to survive, I ALWAYS tell them to ignore their academic grades and take the highest paying job they can get. Once they have more financial stability, I tell them to figure out what they want to do. <br><br>3. I don’t understand the comments that I don’t understand how the world works. I get that minimum wage jobs are terrible and won’t afford anything. But there are many fields that aren’t traditional college degrees that have much higher starting wages, like a lot of the trades or specialized vocations. These jobs pay much, much, much better than minimum wage. I’m not saying “do what you want and starve”, I’m saying “figure out a career field you like that will pay you fairly and live your life happily”. <br><br>Thanks again everyone!<br><br>EDIT 2: Again, thanks for the feedback. I might have been overly optimistic? <br><br>I’m in a blue collar area in the southern US and this is a less competitive university. Most students commute, most have jobs (including me! I’m a part time advisor and part time English instructor), and most students are in their 20s but not all are right out of high school. Many of our students graduate, get a job that pays well, but isn’t the most fulfilling. Many decide they hate their job and come back to school a few years later to try to change their career. Many other students don’t finish their first degree because they hate their major. So my advice isn’t for everyone, but for students who like school, who are interested in career fields but want to make a lot of money, and for students who are about to leave their major and maybe the university. <br><br>Thanks again everyone for making me think and for making me consider other points of view.

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