Research Essay Example 5

8/17/2019 Research Essay Example 5

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ENG 102

Professor Manley

6/22/15

Interesting Career or Lavish Lifestyle?

You’re supposed to love what you do. American kids are raised with the mindset

that they need to figure out their interests and choose what they want to do with the rest

of their life by the age of eighteen. There is room for leeway in the life-directing decision

when the child reaches college. However, America as a society expects it’s children to

know which field of study or work they want to get into by the end of high school. The

situation is full of pressure from parents, teachers, and other students. But what if when

you turn eighteen, you aren’t sure what you want to spend your life doing?

Ultimately, it comes down to two directions: the career that offers a high salary

but has little to do with your interests and the career that directly pertains to your college

degree and that you will be invested in but pays significantly less. Basically you must

decide between loving your job and living in the middle-class or not being interested in

your job but living a lavish lifestyle. There is a middle ground and obviously these are the

two extremes, but analyzing the extremes is what helps you to make a final decision.

Before exploring your options and making a decision you should conduct a deep

investigation into yourself. My generation has a mindset to aspire to make as much

money as possible and live a wealthy lifestyle. This is due to technological influence

including social media, film, and television. For example, the average person is directly

connected with celebrities through outlets such as Twitter. While growing up, one can

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view the lifestyle of a celebrity. These influences lead to a deep desire to live a celebrity

like life.

The majority of my peers would ultimately decide on the higher paying job

because of these pressures while growing up. It may be selfish to choose a lavish lifestyle

over one that aids the economy or helps the public and the world in some way. But I do

not see it as selfish. People should live their lives how they please. If somebody wants to

make a boatload of money and has the ambition to do so then I say go for it! The perfect

situation would be to pull off a double positive: help out the world while making a lot of

money.

There are tons of opportunities in our modern world to achieve this double

positive. This is due to the influx and ever growing technological industry. Guys like

Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerburg, and other “Silicon Valley” professionals have found out

how to do this. They have created tech platforms that boost public accessibility and

lifestyles while being some of the richest men in the country.

History has shown a change in the American mindset. Until recent times in

America people were making their own careers that helped out their local communities

with less thought or influence of their own interests. The economy and societal pressure

are ever changing and have never been as important as they currently are.

High school lays the basis education for the American students. This is in

preparation for college, and college prepares the student for life in the “real world.” After

high school, the norm would be to spend thousands of dollars to study in a particular

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field. Indecisiveness, pressure, money, and different mindsets are all factors in this life-

changing decision.

High school graduation, a.k.a. Judgment Day, is a scary time for every late

teenager. 18-year-olds are supposed to know where to go from there. However, what if a

student has many interests? Sure, most colleges make their freshman students take core

classes to dip their feet in the water. But colleges also have schools that you have to dive

in right away, after high school, and require good grades in for four to five years.

I am currently enrolled in the Syracuse University Architecture Program. I have

just finished my first year in the five-year program. But lately I seem to be second-

guessing my decision to study architecture more and more. Sure it’s very interesting but I

often think to myself: “do I really want to do this for the rest of my life?” I know this is

not a singular problem that just indecisive Matt has. The majority of my friends in college

are stressed because they don’t know what they want to study or they might be studying

the wrong subject.

The lucky students find what they like and stick with it throughout college. But

will they enjoy what they do for the next forty or so years they live? I doubt it. According

to Business Insider , most Americans hate their jobs for several reasons. Two of which are

that they picked a conservative career path when they were entering college and never

switched or they are influenced by extrinsic motivation. Bob Hooker says that “it's called

cognitive dissonance: people will evaluate the pleasure they receive from an activity as

lower when they are rewarded with material goods like money because it makes the

activity seem unpleasant.”

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Growing up, we were always told to follow our passions in life. Alison Green

from USA News says that this is “terrible advice.” Her reasoning is that “most passions

don’t line up well with paying careers.” She goes on, in her article entitled Why You

Shouldn’t Follow Your Passion, to talk about how students go into college and pick the

wrong major to study because they have limited knowledge of future jobs within that

field. The best thing to do would be to find a well-paying job in something that you’re

good at and follow your passions on the side of your career.

Money is the issue. According to a 2013 report from the Institute for College

Access and Success, the average amount of student loan debt rose to $30,000. College

graduates pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to earn a degree. After graduation, they

are in debt and need to pay it off as quickly as possible. How do you deal with student

loan debt? The best way would be to take a high paying job right out of college even if

your not interested in it or it will send you don’t a career path you don’t want to go down.

But how much money would it take to sway an American teenager down the

wrong path. Money is an obvious factor when making your career decision. It may be an

ambiguous number but a base salary of around $100,000 straight out of college would

make a college graduate choose a job they are not interested in over something they are

interested in. Money equals happiness in modern America. College graduates would

easily choose the much higher paying job that they know they wont enjoy than the latter.

I firmly believe that the majority of my generation would choose the higher

paying and less interesting career. This is due to societal pressure and the ever-growing

technological industry. I took a poll with 15 of my peers, college students entering the

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second year of their degree. I gave them two options and told them to choose one to do

for the rest of their lives: the higher paying career that you will not be happy in (upper

class) or the significantly less paying career that you will enjoy for the rest of your life

(middle class). The results were exactly what I thought they would be. 13 out of the 15

participants choose the first option.

“There is no better measure of a person than what he does when he is absolutely

free to choose,” said William M. Bulger. In the past, I am sure there was a different

mindset about choosing one’s career and people weren’t so worried about making a

boatload of cash. Nowadays, everybody wants to be rich! Hell, even I do. Nobody goes

out of his or her way to be poor, that doesn’t make sense. Modern Americans want

spacious mansions, sleek cars, food for years, and as much spending money as possible.

To sum it up with a quote from Mr. Krabs, the cartoon crab from the TV show

Spongebob Squarepants, “Money, money, money.”

If the current situation continues as it is then the economy will go in a downward

spiral towards a recession. This is due to large amounts of people taking higher paying

jobs and not taking the more interesting jobs with a lower pay that they would work to

their full potential in. The extreme grand scale of this situation would impact all

Americans. I believe it is important for the individual to choose the career route that is

best for him.

There is a middle ground though. It is possible to find a job that will compel you

to work to your fullest potential for your entire career as well as make a lot of money. But

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the majority of people never find this middle ground. Your mind or interests could

change at any point in your life. Does job security cover that?

Many people are stressed about where they are in life. Those who were pressured

into a lifestyle they do not enjoy because of societal pressure or financial aspirations, and

others who are related to this life predicament. Most Americans must choose a side of

this situation at some point in their lives, either career pathway. I say to do what you

want. But who doesn’t like money?

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Works Cited

Bidwell, Allie. "Average Student Loan Debt Approaches $30,000." US News. U.S.News

& World Report - News, 13 Nov. 2014. Web. 01 June 2015.

Bulger, William M. "William M. Bulger Quote." Iz Quotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June

2015.

Goodman, Leah McGrath. “Millennial College Graduates: Young, Educated, Jobless;

These Grads are Facing the Longest Sustained Period of Unemployment in

History.” Newsweek 5 June 2015. Student Edition. Web. 1 June 2015.

Green, Alison. "Why You Shouldn't Follow Your Passion - US News." US News RSS .

U.S. News & World Report - Money, 17 Apr. 2013. Web. 01 June 2015.

Korkki, Phyllis. “Job Satisfaction vs. a Big Paycheck.” The New York Times. The New

York Times, 11 Sept. 2010. Web. 03 June 2015.

“Math and Science: Gateways to California’s Fastest-growing Careers.” ERIC. N.p., Jan.

2011. Web. 3 June 2015.

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Miller, Daniel. “People Choose Higher-paying Jobs Even If They Know It Will Make

Them Unhappy.” Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 24 Aug. 2011. Web. 03

June 2015.

“Not Hiring: Young Adults Struggle to Find Work in Rural Utah.” Utah Business 74th

ser. 29.1 (2015): n. pag. RDS Business Suite. Web. 28 June 2015.

Rothstein, Jesse, and Cecelia Elena Rouse. “Constrained After College: Student Loans

and Early Career Occupational Choices.” The National Bureau of Economic

Research. N.p., May 2007. Web. 9 June 2015.

“The High Cost of Graduate School Loans: Lessons in Cost Benefit Analysis, Budgeting

and Payback Periods.” Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal

56th ser. 18.4 (2014): n. pag. RDS Business Suite. Web. 8 June 2015.

Von Furstenberg, Diane. “The Key to Success Is Trusting Yourself.” Interview. The New

York Times [New York City] 3 May 2015: n. pag. RDS Business Suite. Web. 8

June 2015.

“Wealth by Degrees; Free Exchange.” The Economist (US) 66th ser. 411.8893 (2014): n.

pag. RDS Business Suite. Web. 8 June 2015.

Zagorsky, Jay L. “The Highest-Paying Jobs Of The Future Will Eat Your Life.” Fast

Company. The New Rules of Work, 20 May 2015. Web. 04 June 2015.

Zhang, Maggie. "Here's Why So Many People Hate Their Jobs." Business Insider .

Business Insider, Inc, 19 June 2014. Web. 01 June 2015.

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Research Essay Example 5