Often times I run across articles on various business-related sites that have something to do with job choice. Of course, this isn't unexpected. What is interesting is the number of articles that deal with pursuing one's 'dream job' or doing something a person loves. They're the kind of mushy inspirational posts you might see in a school counselor's office, designed to keep you focused on some far-off dream, telling you that if you work hard, you can achieve your goals.
It's a nice thought, but it's total bullshit.
I'll give you an example. I have an acquaintance who went to school to pursue a petroleum engineering degree, finding the idea of doing whatever it is petroleum engineers do to be appealing to what he wanted to do with his life. The only problem was this: while he had the education, he was openly and flamboyantly gay, the the culture of part of the workforce he was trying to get into was fairly conservative and homophobic. Additionally, as more and more companies switch from petroleum to other energy sources, the availability of jobs in the petroleum engineering area will dwindle. As such, even with the necessary education, demand for jobs that my acquaintance was going into wasn't high enough to get him his dream job. And trust me, he worked his ass off, so this wasn't the result of being mediocre. And his story isn't the only one I've heard: more and more I'm hearing of people who went to school to pursue a particular job but didn't get that job because there wasn't enough demand for their services. This is one of the many ways that what I call the "Modern American Dream" isn't widely possible.
Let's move beyond the realm of college students and go to other people. Let's say a woman named Bertha wants to write books, as she believes its her purpose in life. Here's the only problem: writing books takes time, time that, to Bertha and many other Americans, can be better spend doing something that earns money. As such, Bertha isn't going to be able to write books full time and survive, unless she's privileged enough to write something that lots of people will love and perhaps be turned into a movie (and with how unpredictable people are, this is more of a matter of luck). It also depends on the opinions of whatever publishers she tries to send her books to, so being able to survive while living her dream full time is in the hands of others. Let's say, however, that Bertha has a job as a grocery store clerk, and earns minimum wage. It's barely enough for her to survive on, but she can, at least survive. Will she pursue her dream of becoming an author in her spare time? No. Why? Because Bertha, like so many other Americans, believe the only things worth doing are things that earn you money or material goods. Think about it: the kinds of hobbies that exist in America consist of collecting things (which gains material goods) and refining skills that could one day get someone famous (writing, music, etc, etc). There's little else in the way of hobbies that we Americans do, because those are the ones that have a possibility of gaining us things or money, or both. Our hobbies are never for enjoyment, they're for personal gain, because that's how our capitalist/corporatist society works.
Let's say, however, that Bertha is like me, working a boring job (or in my case, still working through college) but able to pursue her dreams in her spare time. This only works if her dream is something that doesn't require training or experience to perform. Creative arts are probably the only kind of dream that can be pursued without official training and certification: most others require a college degree and some amount of training. Let's take my acquaintance from earlier. Let's say he works at a fast food restaurant to survive, but he wants to do petroleum engineering in his spare time. He's unfortunately screwed because there's no way in hell a company is going to hire a hobbyist for a job that needs a petroleum engineering degree or going to hire him part time or hire him without experience. It just won't happen. So, he has a choice: either give up on his dream and settle for another dream, or go to college and get the training and certification he needs to be applicable for the job. He'll still run into the problems he faced when we talked about him earlier, but they're now a bit reduced.
Of course, this depends on the ability to get a college education. With rising college costs and costs of living, more and more people are unable to get college degrees and pursue whatever dreams they have that require a college education. And with more and more jobs requiring degrees (hell, even trash men need them now), less and less people are able to pursue a job at all, much less one they want to work at. Can these people pursue their dreams? No, at least not most of them. Only those whose dreams lie in creative pursuits truly have the opportunity to pursue their dreams, and if they don't care about getting money from them, then they are some of the few can achieve them.
Of course, that won't matter if they don't have the time to pursue those dreams. More and more people, especially those with families, are working multiple minimum wage jobs just to support their families. As such, they don't have time to pursue their dreams: they can't write, they can't act, they can't work on their music, they can't work on a college education. They simply don't have the time. As such, these people, trapped as they are by our capitalist caste system (more on this later), can't pursue their dreams, no matter what they are. They might be able to after their kids leave, but by then, they start to face age discrimination, slowly deteriorating mental and physical abilities, and a general loss of interest in a dream they gave up a long time ago that it no longer becomes feasible to pursue it.
So many of these business sites have articles that try to tell people that the world is full of opportunities, and that all you need to do is take advantage of them. Of course, these are usually written by middle to upper class individuals, people who have never had problems finding opportunities in life. They have a strong disconnect from the rest of the world, and believe that everything else is as bright and sunny as their world. Of course, so do many of the people who read those articles, so there's no need for the writers to expand their horizons. For them, they have opportunities, and there's no reason for them to consider those who don't.
Following your dreams is a nice thought.
But unless you're rich, it's only just that: a thought.
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