[quote=joec][quote=carli]Interesting piece in today’s NYT about the concept of passion and finding the right career fit by Angela Duckworth, the person who wrote that book about grit that we were discussing on this thread awhile ago.
She says some of what I was trying to express earlier, especially aimed at those young people who’ve made it through college without defining a singular career passion. I agree they should not panic. Sure, they have to find a job and pay the bills, but as she writes, “interests are developed, not discovered” and tells young graduates to “Consider your first job as an opportunity to begin an unpredictable, inefficient, trial-and-error process.”
This is nice in concept, but in reality, does this really work?
It may make more sense to at least cover the basics and get a degree where your chance for employment is exceedingly high, then pursue passions after you have something paying the bills and can make your self sufficient…
Unlike Brad Pitt, I doubt many actors make it after waiting tables or doing menial jobs, especially in this competitive global workforce/economy.
You’re better off being Masi Oka or that other Asian actor from Community who was a licensed MD and pursue acting or any other work after you can get stable “decent” pay in another career you can choose to leave IMO.
I’m sure if they talked to a lot of undeclared -> weak major grads who are having trouble finding work, their thinking and knowledge now would make them change what they studied.
Even though we will probably all change our career paths/job (I’ve changed myself), I think getting at least stable pay early on will buy you time to live/survive/travel, etc…or possibly start a new career as well.
Unless you have wealthy parents who can cover for you to let you find that long term thing.[/quote]
The point of the piece was not to encourage young people to ignore future income potential. It was to encourage them to move in the direction of their interests (not the same as chucking all rational thinking). The other point was to seek purpose and try different things when you’re young, and then the final bit of advice was to finish strong.
What I took away from this was that youth is the time to experiment and not get freaked out if you don’t have the perfect career path (i.e. your “passion”) figured out at graduation. This doesn’t require that you be someone with a wealthy family or other financial safety net, it just means it’s better to take a tiny bit of risk at a young age in exchange for a crucial long term reward, which is your contentment/satisfaction (and more likely long-term success) in a career. As they’re doing this, of course, most young people will need to at least find jobs that will pay the bills.
This seems to me to be the rational, middle-of-the-road approach, as the other two options are either on the carefree end of the spectrum where you just wing it and follow your “passion” without regard to making a living, or, on the other conservative end of the spectrum, you play it totally safe and only focus on maximizing your income potential.
