All work and no play make an uninspired employee.

As it turns out, only 37 percent of college graduates who received business degrees are “strongly interested in the work they do,” according to a Thursday Gallup-Purdue Index. This percentage, compared to other types of degrees, showed people who majored in business to be significantly less engaged in their work. The survey examined graduates from four different subject areas: social sciences and education, sciences and engineering, arts and humanities and business.

This is a rude awakening for many millennials who have chosen a specific career path thinking it could make them a lot of money, as some who choose business careers might do. So the question is, should millennials follow their passions with the risk of not making a hefty amount of money? Or should they instead study a subject that might bore them, but has a guaranteed safety net?

In almost all cases, I think it’s better to pursue something you’re passionate about, instead of pursuing something solely based on perceived financial security.
According to a Sept. 4 Washington Post article, 79 percent of millennials said it’s better to have a job that is enjoyable, rather than one with a lot of zeros in the check.
This however, doesn’t mean that passion and money can’t mix together. Although there are many cases where someone’s passion wouldn’t necessarily lead them to a pot of gold, sometimes, working on something you enjoy can actually inspire you to be more creative and dedicate more time and effort.

In fact, a lot of the time, finding something people enjoy doing for a living also correlates to helping improve the world we live in. The Washington Post article also stated that approximately 86 percent of millennials want to pursue a career that “does some good in the world.” With this said, about two-thirds of this percentage state that they don’t know what that career is yet.

That explains the fact that around 91 percent of millennials surveyed expect to work somewhere for less than three years, according to a report by the Future Workplace. This lack of commitment does not mean our generation isn’t hard-working. Instead, many young millennials don’t really know what they are passionate about. The only way for them to find and realize what they are passionate about is through personal experience, which happens by sometimes bouncing from job to job and trying to find the most enjoyable one.

Even Steve Jobs, entrepreneur and former CEO of Apple Inc. said the company believes that “people with passion can change the world for the better.”
While many dream of living in a large house and having financial overflow from a sensible career, the 83 percent of business degree graduates who aren’t “strongly interested” in their work show the lackluster side of that dream.

With people working an average of five to six days a week, from early mornings until late evenings, I don’t think the reward of a high salary is worth the hours of uninspiring and uninteresting work.

It’s probably terrifying to pursue something that may not necessarily pay for an extravagant lifestyle. However, millennials should overcome their fears by putting their interests ahead of money. The daily reward of a career that inspires you is worth more than any paycheck.

Tamara Rasamny is a junior international relations and newspaper and online journalism dual major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at twrasamn@syr.edu.

Published on October 8, 2014 at 12:02 am