What Do We Choose First-Status or Occupation?

November 12, 2004
For the past 24 hours, I’ve wrestled with the question of whether we choose our desired status in society before picking a career, or if most choose a career and accept the economic status that is comes with it. Here is my response.
I believe the people who choose careers based on salary are the ones who end up switching jobs at least five times, and endure the dreaded mid-life crisis. Money should never be your motive because salary is often beyond your control when applying for jobs. You often have to take what you can get. Plus, if you base success on things such as material wealth, you will often find yourself in a never-ending competition. Somebody will always be one step ahead of you. Why else do you think they invented the phrase “Keeping up with the Joneses”? This type of motivation will undoubtedly lead to endless frustration and eventual unhappiness.
On the other hand, I believe the people who choose a career based on interest often satisfactorily retire after 30+ years in the business, and have established a legacy for themselves that many admire. When asked why they’ve been teaching so long, they admit it’s because they love it. They manage to acquire personal satisfaction from their jobs. Money doesn’t seem to be a factor that influenced their decision. They just accepted whatever salary was offered with the position.
What decision-making approach sounds more appealing and/or rewarding?
Personally, I chose my career path based on interest. However, being somewhat intelligent, I was constantly bombarded with information about the careers that had the latest job demands, or offered the best pay. I don’t believe anybody had dishonorable intentions though. They just wanted to see me succeed, and didn’t want me to shut the doors on any of my options prematurely. What I failed to tell everybody though was that my mind had been made up a long time ago about what career path I was going to take. I was going to become a teacher.
By the time I started grade twelve and began sending out post-secondary applications thereby making my decision public, I met more resistance to my choice than I thought. Many people downplayed the importance of a teacher based on their mediocre status in society. I had friends scoff about the academic potential that I was wasting. After all, in their minds, anybody could become a teacher. It was a position that lacked prestige, and many saw it as an insult to my level of intelligence. Due to the relentless backlash I was getting, it came as no surprise when I started to doubt my decision. I can remember resorting to a phase where took an endless amount of those stupid career matching tests based on your interests, but every single time the career lists popped up, teaching was always listed near the top. Lucky for me, those stupid lists helped to reinforce my decision, and it was reassuring that my parents were going to support me no matter what. Now most people I meet are frustrated by the fact that I always knew what I wanted to do with my life. Usually the decision isn’t that easy. There are normally more obstacles that stand in the way. What they fail to realize though, is that I have had to modify my decision. Originally, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher, but that’s not going to happen because I’ve realized it’s too physically demanding for me. As well, my original instinct was to teach English and Social Studies, but because there was such a high demand for other subject areas, I switched to French and Science. I had faith that I could handle the challenge. Therefore I have come to realize some of my limitations specifically within the field of education. As I sit now, my ideal job would be teaching grade four, and I hope to be able to incorporate my French background into the elementary setting thanks to that mandatory second language program that is taking effect.