College Jolt

I imagine most people, at one point in their lives, have wondered about basic philosophical questions.  I hope to reflect on some of the most important philosophical questions concerning college students today.  I will draw these questions from famous philosophers, but also from my own life experiences.  While I may not provide many concrete answers, I will certainly provide a lot to think about.

With more and more youth attending college in today’s floundering economy, one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind is, What am I going to do after college?  The options are seemingly endless, but instead of granting opportunity this can be overwhelming.

The trend now is to specialize and focus, making it difficult to try out various different career paths.  Another struggle is how to match your major to a job.  Many people say it isn’t necessary to choose a career within your major, but chances are your major matches up with your interests.  Even if we ignore America’s incredibly competitive environment and current lack of jobs, the question remains: How do we decide which job is right for us?

When choosing a job, there are a few factors to take into consideration.  How much money one makes, how passionate one is about the job, and the people you will work with are just a few.  These three factors are not mutually exclusive, but any combination can have an effect on a person’s happiness.  It is important to decide which of these factors means the most to you.

The way that a job search relates to philosophy depends on what you hope to get out of it.  Money and security are nice to have, but they don’t necessarily satisfy our spiritual needs. Should a job just be work, something that pays the bills?  Or should a job be a fulfilling passion that gives meaning to our everyday lives?

Many people believe that humans are on this earth for a purpose. People search many different places for this fulfillment, including their working lives, even if their job may just seem like another stepping stone on the career path. If all you wanted was to make a lot of money, then you could probably handle a mediocre job with people you didn’t love.  On the other hand, if you were incredibly passionate about service work, you might join the Peace Corps, make almost no money, and not really have many fellow employees to speak of.  Someone may be happy in either of these career tracks, or not at all.

This leaves us with a couple of choices.  The first choice is this: you pick a job that pays the bills, and in your free time you pursue what is truly meaningful to you. Maybe during the day you write up legal briefs or conduct trade meetings at your chamber of commerce.  You don’t really love your work.  But maybe at night you become a writer, or an actress, or a piano performer.  Maybe you spend your weekends volunteering at your nearest homeless shelter.  Or perhaps in your free time you simply find a good book and read it at the beach.  In this way, a person would be able to find meaning and fulfillment in their lives without relying upon their jobs to provide this.

Then there is the second choice: you follow your undying passion into a profession and follow it through no matter the costs. This could mean you travel the world performing as a musician in the hopes that you will make it big.  Or you could be a starving artist who spends his only money on more paint supplies.  This comes with a greater risk, but contains the promise of a far greater reward. You could fail and never become a musician or a painter, and your lack of money would lead you to starvation.  On the flip side, you could succeed and live out your dreams.  Either way, you would feel alive every single day because you would be actually living, instead of just trying to make it through each day.

These are two extreme options, obviously.  Many people fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.  The main question is how to decide where on the spectrum you would be the most happy.  Many people want to make some sort of impact on the world.  They want to find meaning and purpose in their lives.  Should we look to a job to fulfill that, or should we accept the fact that work is inevitable?

I think that you should find the best balance possible.  A job should relate to something you truly care about because that will fuel your motivation.  A job should provide enough money to live reasonably, without fear of not being able to afford basic needs.  Finally, a job should provide an environment that you are comfortable working in.  If a job can meet these minimum requirements, then you are well on your way to finding work that may actually inspire you, instead of making you dread your alarm every morning.  Such a job could help contribute to your overall happiness.

That leaves the question: is being happy a worthy goal to strive for?

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