BrandTuitive recently welcomed two college students who expressed interest in shadowing NYC branding and marketing agencies for a day. One of their assignments was to write a blog about something meaningful to them. We’re proud to share the first of their blog entries from Tristan, a college sophomore who shows lots of wisdom writing about the importance of being happy in one’s career.
Guest blogger: Tristan
Everyone is familiar with the age-old phrase, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” The main objection to this phrase is that what you love does not always lead to a high-paying job. This poses an issue because the majority of people want money to have enough funds to follow their passions and have their definition of a happy life. This frequently causes people to decide to follow the money instead of following their passion. While a higher paying job will lead to more financial freedom, I believe that it can be more financially responsible to accept the lower paying job. Before making the decision on what to pursue, ask yourself this: Is this extra money really making an impact on my happiness? You can save money by accepting an exciting job offer with less pay; because if you love your job, there won’t be a need to spend all of that money searching for happiness outside of the workplace. You will already have a happy life. For example, instead of paying for a satisfying luxury vacation with all that extra money, you can be on vacation every day from 9-5.
I am pursuing a major in mechanical engineering and a minor in business. I have been having this conversation in my head where I debate whether or not to focus on business or engineering. Historically, business has the potential for a higher payoff, if successful, than that of an engineer. What I realized through these internal conversations is that I should focus on what I love the most. Maybe I would make more money being a businessman; but since my goal is happiness, being an engineer will save me a lot of money that would be used finding happiness outside of the workplace. My advice is to find a job you love regardless of pay and decide whether a mundane or less appealing job that pays higher is worth all of the money that would be spent searching for happiness.