31.“Financial gain should be the most important factor in choosing a career.
“If someone had told me a few years ago that I’d pay to pick weeds on a tropical island, I would have told them they were crazy,” said Leonard Stone, a dentist from Chicago. Yet Stone and his wife now are both environment volunteers working in laceName w:st="on">MidwaylaceName> laceType w:st="on">IslandlaceType> in the Pacific Ocean. They work on a tiny island helping ornithologists look after birds nesting areas and counting chicks. While the conditions are spartan, Stone, who is an enthusiastic bird watcher, finds it a worthwhile experience. This case may well illustrate that there is some factors other than money can affect one’s decision when they choose their career.
Financial gain is certainly on factor to consider when selecting a career. But many people do not and should not, focus on this factor as the main one. The role that money plays in career choice should depend on the priorities, goals and interests of the particular person making the choice.
The main problem with selecting a career primarily on the basis of money is that for many people to do so would be to ignore one’s personal interests, talent and larger life goals. As Maxim Gorky, a famous Russian writer said, “When work is a pleasure, life is joy! When work is duty, life is slavery.” When I was in my collage, I chose chemical engineering as my major, considering it would offer me a promising job. But during 4-year study, I found that the endless experiments were so boring. Obviously, it was not my favorite, so when I graduated, I gave up my major and became an editor.
Others choose to pursue intellectual or creative fulfillment—as writers, artists, or musicians—knowing that they are trading off dollars for non-tangible rewards.
Another problem with focusing primarily on money when selecting a career is that it ignores thenotion that making money is not an end in the end of itself, but rather a means of obtaining material goods and services and of attaining important goals. Recall the soap opera Friends: Chandler, one of the 3 heroes in the play, once had a well-paid job—President in Tulsa Office of his company. But he never liked his job. And moreover, though he could earn a lot of money, he had no time to spend with Monica—his wife, even on Christmas Eve. So at last he quitted his job. Admittedly, Friends was a fictional account; yet I think it accurately portrays the circumstances which we must face when choosing a job.
In conclusion, economic gain should not be the overriding factor in selecting a career. People should temper the pursuit of wealth against other interests, goals, and values. Moreover, money is merely a means to more important objectives, and the pursuit itself may undermine the achievement of these objectives. |