There’s doctors and lawyers and business executives

Now that I’ve been out of school for a while, I’d like to see a survey showing where my fellow graduates ended up. It would probably be more instructive to take that survey five years after graduation (rather than 1.5 years), but the feeling remains the same. In the last year of college you begin hearing more and more people talking about their plans to continue with some sort of postgraduate work and to come out of it with a name-brand profession in hand. Doctor. Lawyer. MBA. CPA. If you spend any time in a math department, you’ll hear some kids talking about becoming actuaries.

They're so happy.

  I’d like to see how many of those kids are now on those paths (again, five years would be better), and more importantly, I’d like to see how many of the kids now on those paths are actually enjoying them. I noticed in my math classes that a lot of the kids talking about becoming actuaries had basically just stumbled onto the idea because they had nothing more inspired to pursue. Math majors can become actuaries, so that’s what they decided to do. But becoming an actuary is no joke. It takes years of hard work. I’m sure that at least one or two of these smart but aimless kids I knew will stick it out and become fully credentialed in this profession that means little to them.

I imagine this is also the case with many of the young people who go to law school and even with many who go to that holiest of holies, medical school. People fall into these professions, I’m convinced, in much the same way people fall into being sales managers. The main draw for young people to become lawyers, doctors, or accountants is that it’s easy. I don’t mean to say the day-to-day work of medical study or medical practice is easy. But finding the path is.

If a 22-year-old grad-to-be goes into his campus career services center and says he wants to be a lawyer, they’ll tell him what to do. He’ll have to take the LSAT and start looking at schools and write some application essays. Then when he starts law school he’ll have to show up to class and work really hard and do some internships and stuff. Then before he knows it he’ll have a J.D. But if that grad-to-be goes in saying he wants to direct documentaries, or that he wants to launch a ground shipping fleet that will utilize alternative fuels, specially engineered vehicles, and carefully calculated routes to turn huge profits, they won’t have a clue what to tell him.

The people in those high-paying, high-profile jobs undoubtedly bust ass. But because those jobs have become so institutionalized and structured, the most confusing and frustrating part (the first step) has already been figured out for them. Getting all the way from a Bachelor’s degree to a private medical practice surely takes some creativity and initiative, but entering that world doesn’t. Just get into medical school. For the kid who wants to write travel books, though, where does he even start? He’s got to figure out the first step himself.

I’m sure there are plenty of CPAs, doctors, and attorneys who love every minute of their jobs. But I’m equally sure there are more than a handful who feel just as miserable in their 9-to-5 (or, more likely, 7-to-6) grind as anyone else. Confused, ambitious young people begin down these career paths because they seem (before one considers student debt) to offer wealth, and also because they offer instant respectability and recognizability. At the family gatherings, you get to answer the question “So what are you up to these days, James?” with just one word: “Doctor.” None of that confused and embarrassing explication of climbing some nebulous ladder by way of bad jobs in pursuit of your dream of building the next great web service.

The idiosyncratic jobs that most people would probably find more fulfilling often have little to no respectability when one is on the lower rungs. Steve Jobs, God rest his soul, didn’t achieve mainstream respectability until fairly late in his life. If you pursue something genuinely in line with your desires, it’s likely a lot of the people close to you will either not understand or, worse, not care.

It’s a tough fear for college kids to shake. If you decide you want to do something outside the box, and you’re met with indifference, you might feel like a failure before you even get out of the gate. Better to go to law school and have the parents and family friends say “Ohhhhh. Law school.” The hard work involved and the recognition received make smart kids feel they’re reaching their potential.

The trouble is that these professions can be tough commitments to go back on. Let’s say you spend years talking about going to medical school, then spend years (and tens of thousands of dollars) working at a medical degree, then finish at age 26 (or later) to find that you don’t really want to be an M.D. It takes an enormous swallowing of pride to admit that to the people in your life. Plus, you’re a good four years (or more) behind the curve at getting started on some other pursuit.

Most of the smart kids with these sorts of plans would do better to just admit they don’t know what they want professionally. Virtually no 22-year-old does. Most of them probably have an idea what sort of processes and activities they enjoy, though, and the pursuit of those is likely where they’d find the most reward, even if the financial side of it isn’t totally clear. At least that way they wouldn’t be saddled with (even more) debt, wasted time, and a fancy degree they’re ashamed not to use.