Jla writes that employers would rather hire employees who would be passionate, but if one were forced to apply at McDonald’s because everywhere else turned him down, then I’d guess he’d have to pretend he was passionate about wanting to work there huh?

I’ve hated every one of my jobs but I was always a good employee. I doubt McDonald’s really believes anyone applying there really has a burning desire to work there but we do it so we don’t become homeless…

I learned by experience to follow the advice of Stephen Covey of “7 Habits” fame: Begin with the end in mind.

I may yet go back to graduate school, but if and when I will do it will be for a specific reason or objective, not because I don’t know what I want to do.

I concurred with the restatement, “Don’t do a job which you hate.” There are a wide range of jobs which fall between love and hate. By all means, everyone should work to get out of a job they hate.

I’m the opposite, since I consider above to be a ridiculous statement.

What I hear is:

“Put yer nose to the grindstone boy, and because you hate your job and have no choice in the matter since you have other committments show up everyday, I’m going to take advantage of that fact and pay you less and give you crap work so you can be a cube zombie.”

I do believe that work isn’t everything..but since it’s 1/3 of your life (if your lucky and not work massive overtime like most Americans) I better think you would want to do something you really like doing.

I like the rephrased advice much better than the usual trite, “Do what you love.” All of this advice seems to focus on getting all of your fulfillment from your job. That is a recipe for failure, or at least a really boring retirement. I work to provide for my family and support the Church. I am working on starting my own business and I’d love to dedicate more time to it, but responsibilities must come before passion. If I were the boss, I would rather hire someone with a steady level of commitment, even to work which he hated, than someone who only worked on what he was passionate about.

I have always believed that I work to live, I don’t live to work.

If you don’t know what you want to do, the best thing I found is temping. You get to work (entry level) in a bunch of different industries, doing all different kinds of work. You learn what you like, what you can live with, and what you can’t stand – both in jobs and in industries. I found it to be pretty interesting, and it’s how I landed my current job.

Rather than “do what you love” the advice should be “create a life that you love.”

I generally like my job, but a lot of days, I just don’t love it. But I do love my life, I love that my job challenges me, and also that it demands just 40 hours giving me time/money to pursue other interests.

If I “did what I loved” I’d go on backpacking/hiking trips, and write all the time. But I’d hate my life because I’d be stressed about the lack of security/stability (and food, because I’d be broke). I don’t (currently) have an entrepreneurial spirit, so I tire of advice to start our own businesses doing what we love. That isn’t for everyone.

My passions tend to shift, and like to try a little of this and that, and I really like keeping my stable engineering career as a foundation of security and mental challenge.

For now at least.

Also this “work at what you love” lingo always obmits the “slave work for years at really garbage jobs while you try to get the work you really love up and running or get hired for the work you really love” part. Oh, and do not think that your garbage jobs will then pin you down to a certain level when looked at by the job that you love.

Never says that part- just the ” do what you love”. Nothing about making your bones to get to what you love.

Example: I had a relative who, about 20 years ago, wanted to get into NASCAR. Even then you just didn’t show up at the top teams and say “Hire me, I want to work in NASCAR”

I got to see my relative work his way up the rungs, from crappy local teams based in the corner of a heavy bulldozer equipment shop to working a temporary job 40 hours and then another 6-7 hours each night on a race car to living in his worn out pickup truck’s camper to follow the race circuit to working for lower level entry teams (the then Busch series now Nationwide) to renting a room to be able to afford to live in NC to finally get to the Nextel/Sprint (then Winston) Cup team level via smaller teams and then work his way up to one of the premier national teams. I saw this guy pay his dues to work at what he loved. Many people would have looked down on and did look down on him in how he was living and what he was doing to get there but he did achieve it. That is the part the “do what you love” people leave out.

Also try making sacrfices to get to the “doing what you love” when you have legal obligations such as child support or health insurance to carry. Can someone quit a professional office job paying X to work as a hiking guide paying 1/4 of X and still satisfy child support payments of 1/4X based on a salary of X? That math never works and so why not ask for a change in support payment amount? Buddy, dont think it will ever happen as the court (and former spouse) wants that childsupport amount of 1/4X based on the salary of X and you better well be working at a job that makes X or you are going to jail! Sure “do what you love”. Right…

PS I went to grad school (after career #1 turned out to be a dud) and it was the best thing I’ve done. It was a lot of work, and a fair amount of money, and I didn’t get a job out of it, but I am SO GLAD I pursued something just for me, just to satisfy pure intellectual curiosity. Not for everyone, but certainly for me.

If you don’t know what you want to do, how are you going to know what kind of grad program you want to go to? It’s not just “more undergrad” where you sample the various things life has to offer – it’s serious, intense training in a particular academic or professional area (and if it’s not, it probably results in a degree not worth the paper it’s printed on, despite how much it cost you). It’s a particularly poor way to “figure out what you like to do.”

Plenty of graduating college students who haven’t figured out what they want to do with life come up with the “hey, I’ll just go to grad school” idea on their own, and it’s usually a bad one. They really don’t need someone in a position of authority/credibility backing them up on that play.

When I went off to college my parents urged me to do something that pays well. They raised 2 kids on a minimal income. We were not poor by any means, but money was always tight. The realized that life is much easier with a good income. I took their advice; I don’t love what I do. But our house is paid for, we have a fully-funded emergency fund and quite a bit of savings.

Another problem is what if what you love does not easily translate to work? I love baseball, reading, walking and history. How do I make a living with that? (No, I’m not good enough to be a baseball player.)

I’m always glad when someone can make a living doing what they love. But too often those people seem to look down on those of not so fortunate.

Grad school is more often than not about training you to be a professional of one sort or another: a social worker, a business manager, an academic. It isn’t about taking a few years to try different fields on for size. You’d be better off planning to take 5-10 years to work series of entry-level jobs in a variety of potentially interesting fields, because then you’d actually have a sense of what the work/industry entails, AND you’d be getting paid for your time.

There is obviously a minimum standard that you need. I would rather work a less than desirable job than have no car and live off of Top Ramen all week, but once you meet that minimum, having a job you love is much more important than extra toys.

I mean, I think you can learn a lot by working at a job you don’t like, as long as you aren’t there for more than a year or two.

As for the internship advice, I would second that. It has been crucial in my life and I think every college student needs to realize that it’s the perfect thing to do: you have the time, you don’t “need” the money, so go out there and try lots of different fields to see what you life.

Sorry to here that you’re a little bitter about the “you can do anything” bit..

In my experience and of my friends you can actually make it to most of those jobs you think are unattainable (video games, musician, etc.) I’ve been at my “dream job” for almost a decade now.

It all comes down to three things:

Sacrifices

Persistence

Flexibility

When I say sacrifices I mean the big ones: knowing that you may never make as much money as your friends and family ever but you’re doing what you love and still make an ok living. You can definitely do this as an artist or musician. It’s if you want to go that path.

Going without on many things: new car, maybe never getting a house, no cable, no eating out for YEARS, practically living in the closet. Looking to attract a mate with that lifestyle? Don’t plan on it or wait decades for someone that is understanding enough of your worldview since it’s so very rare. This is what is needed t make it.

Next is persistence. If you aren’t in it for the long haul and I mean the LONG haul you have no business going for it anyway. The roadblocks are there to see how serious you and other people are.

I’m talking 5-10 years minimum, at least 10,000 hours doing what you need to do to become a master. Most pianists don’t get to Carnegie, why? It’s not because of talent, it’s because of iron will commitment. There are too many distractions in this world so very few people have real commitment to what they think they really want.

Now the third one seems like a reversal of the second, flexibility, but really it’s not. It’s a sense of acuity where you know what’s working, change your approach to your goal and re-commit.

It’s a sense of knowing how far you can stretch and knowing your limitations and most likely readjusting to your reality but not your uber-end path.

Ex: Someone wants to get into Pixar. Insanely hard to get into. You have the same odds as getting into the Yankees.

So what is your purpose to get into Pixar? You’re committed to creating beautiful art and telling a story that touches people. Do you have to get into only Pixar? Not really. You could get into Dreamworks, or freelance around a major city in smaller boutique studios. Maybe not get into cg film at all, go into videos where you’re the art director. Ends up you have more flexibility than being a cog in a well oiled machine. Not as much fame but you’re still creating art.

These three things are the fuel to push you to your true dreams. I know plenty of people who got there and it was never, ever easy or lucky. You make your own luck. Hope someday you see it that way.

I’ve heard the latter line from a lot of different people since I was in high school…but of course I had no idea what I wanted to do when I went to college, changed my mind a few times, and even now that I’m out of school, I’ve changed my mind again. Along the way I’ve racked up student loans that were unnecessary (but that I don’t regret in the end since following the educational path I did led to me meeting my husband!) and am now faced with getting a job that I “don’t hate” to fund what I love.

What I wish someone had told me is that the work you do to make money can and sometimes should be completely separate from whatever it is that you really enjoy doing. Some people will never make money from doing what they love (I’m going to attempt to set up my own business eventually, but that’s still years away) and it’s totally fine to just work in a job you simply like well enough to bring in an income and pursue your interests on the side. Your job doesn’t have to bring you fulfillment, you just have to not hate it (unless of course, you’re lucky enough to not have to worry about money at all!)

Maybe all this seems obvious, but so many people kept telling me “you can be anything you want to be!” and “your career should follow your passion!” that I bought into it hook line and sinker and didn’t even think that one day, working in a job that’s just “okay” would be good enough. But, you know what? It is.

So what am I doing now? Well, I’m going back to school, and using the degree I have to pay for training and education in a field that I’ve wanted which has always been tv/news/entertainment. I got into it in 4th grade. High school only solidified it. That feeling of a live show was something I never got over. I don’t really want the fame and fortune that comes with some of the more prominent jobs within my dream industry. I just want to work behind the scenes, make enough to live, be happy, and get rich slowly (J.D. your blog is so refreshing and puts into words a lot of ideas I had about money when I was 19/20). So for right now, I am attending a local community college working on a certificate program and other classes that can transfer to another university should I decide to be further educated in this field.

J.D. I think that something that is missing on this topic is community colleges. They are absolutely wonderful for a variety of things. I would highly recommend that people take a class or two in a field or dream that they’ve been interested in. The classes are relatively inexpensive and most of the teachers actually work in the industry. They can give real insight, guidance, and may provide contacts for students who are interested. I’m currently talking to a few professors to see how I can combine engineering with the entertainment industry, and possibly have a split or “slash” career.

The classes at community colleges are also good for upgrading or learning new skills that will help you with your current job. With the economy the way it is, I’m also going back to school to learn skills that will help me with my current job…engineering.

Yes…not everyone can have a job that they want or is interesting…or is satisfying (as I’ve experienced) but there are definitely ways to work it in…or at the very least…get to it slowly.

I would be very careful to spew the “Do what you love” advice, and instead maybe say, “You don’t have to be stuck at a job if you really hate it. There are other options out there that you might actually enjoy more than what you have now.” I know that “Do what you love” is easier to say, but it can be misleading to a lot of people.

jegan

No matter what your degree, no matter how high your grades, test scores, skill set, college graduates are going to enter any field at the bottom of the ladder. They may even stay in that entry-level position for quite some time, through no real fault of their own. Get used to it, and get used to the fact that crap rolls downhill. Every career choice has this aspect, and it’s just a part of being an “adult”. The situation will improve over time, so don’t get demoralized while you hang in there. Sometimes you do have to take any job, just to pay the rent, but try and focus on things that provide fulfillment for you on your time off, since your job likely doesn’t do it for you.

Currently working in collaboration with a small business owner, I will echo the sentiment that employers prefer employees who are passionate about their work. Too many workers simply show up to collect a paycheck vs. being actively engaged in their work. While you are working, be focused and passionate about that. Other things can come after you punch out for the day.

Graduate school is tough. Having conducted research, endured rigorous classes, and written a thesis, I can say that this decision is not one to take lightly. You will be in school with (hopefully) the best and brightest in your area. While you don’t have to have scholarly aspirations to make graduate school a good choice for you, you do need to make schoolwork a higher priority than most people do while in undergrad. Late and sloppy work is not accepted, less than a B equals failing a class, and if you screw up or make yourself look foolish, it will be pointed out, somewhat publicly. Thick skin is recommended.

Instead of figuring out whether or not individuals should do or not do what they love, I think it should be best phrased “do what allows you to do what you love.” This sentiment has been echoed by others. You definitely can’t always follow your dream full time, and if not, decide what you can do to make your dream as big a part of your life as you can without dropping the ball elsewhere. As foolish as it may sound, I am working to get my employer’s small business up and running so I can attempt to “make it” as a professional musician. Time, not ability or resources, is my main deterrent from doing so, and the small business job allows me great flexibility to allow me to maximize my time devoted to music. Because we both want to “work smarter, not harder”, as well as spend time doing other things, this philosophy allows us to make more money in less time with some careful planning and research.

If working the graveyard shift at the local gas station allows you to {insert goal here} and still meet your financial obligations, do it. While not everything comes down to availability and time, be open and flexible with what you do to earn money. Having to pay the bills does not have to equal work in a cubical farm. If you don’t have many more options (like I did right after college), just bide your time until a better opportunity comes along. This is what I did, and it worked out well for me.

Obviously, this likely won’t, and probably can’t, work for everyone, but that is my 2¢.

Why on earth would I want to invest time, money, effort, training, and heartache on an employee who isn’t enjoying what they’re doing? If they don’t like what they do, they’re sure to go away and do something they like better (either for the money or for the content).

When advertising for employees and subcontractors, my primary question is “why are you perfect for this job?” and the responses I get make very clear who it is who loves my field (new media translation) and who is sort of ok with it.

As an employer, which kind would *you* hire?

I’ve had that environment both as an hourly cafe worker and as a highly compensated National Sales Executive. The jobs were completely different but both “environments” were remarkably similar. I advise graduates to learn as much as they can in any job – not just about the profession but about themselves and what environments make them happy. That knowledge is priceless and gives you a lot more career options.

The vetenerian’s office in my neighboorhood is looking for an assistant for about $30 000 a year. Now, that I would love to do. Money is NOT everything.

Going to work every day and feeling like you’re dying inside is very bad for the soul.