What Drives Your Career Path?

When someone asks why you chose your major, what do you tell them? Is it because the subject is interesting to you? Challenging? Will give you the skills necessary to pursue your dream job?

What about when they ask why you want your dream job? Do you say you want to pursue that because you are passionate about it? Because it pays well? Because you have always been good at it?

The answers you give to ordinary questions like these say a lot about you: your goals and values and possibly even your deepest passions. I say possibly, because it’s not all the time that students pursue a major or career path strictly out of passion. Usually there is some, we like to say practicality, mixed in there. And by this we mean, could get us a well-paying job. For every student dreaming of authoring novels, there are probably many who have either paired that dream with a “practical” major or completely given it up academically, in favor of something more “realistic.”

But why? Why is it that students who are passionate about one thing pursue something else because that something else might bring them more success?

For many, a college diploma is a measure of success. What successes do you hope to achieve?
Image via Flickr.com

Yes, we need to find some way of earning a sustainable income. And no, not everyone will have a passion that will align with a prosperous career. But that doesn’t mean careers have to be a complete abandonment of interest, excitement, and passion.

In our interconnected world, where media allows us to know what is going on all around the globe, every day, we are constantly exposed to the best of the best in every field. From Youtube videos starring four year old musical prodigies to Nobel prizes awarded to groundbreaking laureates, we have an endless supply of athletes, writers, scientists, and speakers to compare ourselves to.

This can be a bit discouraging when we find our talents in the areas we love lacking compared to our larger-than-life role models. With these figures looming over us it can be easy to put our dreams on hold in exchange for fields that might be easier or that our skills might be better equipped for. This may be why some students slave through four years of college work (and often more in graduate and post-graduate academics) without enjoying any part of it, their studies not pertaining to their interests.

Maybe you think business will get you farther in the professional world than studying the history of indigenous people in Latin America. But if that history is what keeps you up at night pondering, and wakes you up every morning with new ideas, shouldn’t you think about pursuing that? It all depends on what your priorities in life are: passion, monetary prosperity, job security. There is no reason these can’t all align, but when they do not, which will be your priority?

Passion can often be underrated in deliberations for a career path. When it comes down to it, many students will choose a field based on its prestige or starting salary. (This may be the root of the humanities vs. STEM debate, where STEM tends to be seen as more rigorous and practical than the humanities, but we will not get into these stereotypes and their implications here.) Career choice is about deciding what you want to do for the next big portion of your life. It is a big decision.

From a young age we attend federally mandated schooling that defines the majority of our lives for thirteen years. Stepping into college, we now have the opportunity to exercise more power in our lives to decide what we want to study and where that subject of focus will take us. It is here we can choose to leave behind subjects we were less excited about, in favor of those we like better.

Yes, these areas we are more interested in might not be as applicable to the general job market, but in the end choosing a career path is about asking yourself what you want your life to be defined by. What will be your legacy? The answer may be something like putting yourself through work you are not fond of to make enough money to support a family. It is important to understand your goals in order to use them as a driving force throughout college and beyond.

On the other hand, if you want your life to be defined by the field you are passionate about, then you should pursue that with everything you have. That interest and drive will allow you to wake up every morning, reliable job and steady income or not, and remain excited about the work you are doing.

Each of us has a unique perspective on the world, and this perspective gives us each different ideas of what our contribution to this world should be. Maybe you love computer science and your contribution will be to sustain and advance the vast network of technology. Or maybe you are passionate about international relations and your contribution will be to try and create international peace. Whatever you love, whatever subject brings you joy and wonder on a daily basis, can be what you spend the rest of your life doing.

Ask yourself what you want out of life, what you hope to one day achieve, and then find a way to get there. It may not be easy to pursue what you love, but it will bring you far more joy, and thus, you will bring that same joy to the world around you through the life that you lead.