Work and Education

There's loads of variation on paths that people choose to live their lives, especially when it comes to learning and working. Some believe that it's better to have more stability and therefore will opt for careers that value, some ditch that and head for what gives them satisfaction, others would study hard at school to earn a career in Investment banking to live the high life and settle down when their younger. It's clear that there's endless paths

What do people here think and feel they should do, or have done already?

Me: I'm still in education rather than the working world, but I believe it would be better to choose education based on interests rather than stability, high ranking careers or prestiage. While it makes sense to "setup" the future, as my asian parents would agree, you can't help but think that it's setting you up for a job that you may not enjoy. Essentially my motto is "Find a career rather than a job"




Topic brought up by considering college applications and the importance of prestiage/study.

Different people, different situations...
You won't have the same situation with a boy from a super-rich family, a boy from a middle-class family (whatever middle-class means, but it's not for this thread) or a boy from a really poor family who struggles to pay its food.

Besides, one useful point : ambition is (allegedly) good, but is not all.
Being a renowned surgeon is probably a prestigious job. But a good plumber will also be able to make money, more than enough to live well (and will have a less fucked-up timetable than the surgeon).
So you must make a mix between what you can achieve (studies is not easy for everybody), what you want (what you really want, not what sounds cool, like this PhD in ninjutsu) and what will be useful for later (A typical example here, I don't know how the job market is elsewhere : Studying Japanese*. It's cool, you can read Naruto in Japanese ! \o/ And it's pretty much useless except if you study it in the top-school INALCO, because the job market is too small).

*I speak obviously of taking Japanese as the main part of your studies, not as an additionnal course (or whatever it's called in your country).

Indeed.
I never expected one answer
Just curious on what people have decided for their own path.

never expected this thread to pop up! well i'm kinda in this situation where i'm really looking to careers for the future being a senior student and all but i guess its more important to enjoy what you're doing... However some people because of their circumstances cant afford that luxury - so like Dalriada said "Different people, different situations" i think the ultimate luxury is being able to study what you want when you want and not because you have to, be it for the reason that you need to pay the bills, put food on the table or just because everyone expects you to.

As for me - i think i'd like to study education; and i can understand what Dalriada meant when he said we should have a mix of what we want, what we can acheive and what it'll be useful for later on. Because well, you can aim for the moon but if you dont get it you'll still get the stars at the very least right?