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Some good career advice from Kiplinger.com (via Free Money Finance):

If the personal growth industry had a motto, it would be “Follow your passion” or “Do what you love and the money will follow.”Sure, if your passion is a rare one, like entomology, or even a moderately common one like accounting, money may follow. But if you are like the many people whose passion is shared by half the continent — for example, activist or performer — you’re in trouble. Millions of people are competing passionately with you for the small number of decent-paying jobs. That’s the reason the word “starving” so often precedes “artist.”

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My advice? Unless you’re a driven superstar, pick a non-glam career that you’d be good at. Then do a competent job search so you have multiple job offers. Pick the one offering as many of these characteristics as possible:

• Moderately challenging
• Meaningful work
• A kind, competent boss
• Pleasant co-workers
• Learning opportunities
• Reasonable pay
• Reasonable work hours
• A short commute

A job with even half of those will make you more likely to love your job than if you had pursued a longshot career.

- Do What You Love and Starve - Kiplinger.com

When I was first setting out in my career, I found it very hard to decide which path to take, partly because I felt so much pressure to fall in love with my career. I had never actually done anything for work aside from being a cashier at A&W. I knew that I was basing a major decision on fantasy, half-truths and media hype, with a large helping of ignorance.

Instead of spinning my wheels for several years while trying to ‘find myself’ I decided to plunge in. I evaluated my skills, interests and talents and tried to imagine what job might be a fit. I came up with book editor, because I love to read and have always been good at spelling. I ended up in online media instead of books, but I still think it was a good move. I enjoy the industry I’m in, the people I work with and the kind of learning I get to do on the job - and I’m not starving to do it.

Trying to ‘follow my passion’ was too abstract for me. I probably would have ended up going to art school. Not a bad choice, and I would have enjoyed it, but I would certainly be making a lot less money, and I doubt I would be happier. Instead of trying to chase after passions, I
watched for, and embraced, interesting challenges. Even when I didn’t love parts of my job, I have always found something in the industry or corporation or big picture that captured my imagination, and sought out ways to learn new skills or relevant theory, adding value to my work and keeping me engaged in what I was doing.

The book Live Rich promotes a similar philosophy to work. It’s not so crazy to work to live instead of living to work, so long as you are generally happy with your life. I don’t believe anyone should stay in a job they really hate - after all, there are lots of other opportunities out there - but I don’t believe that fulfillment can only be found in your career.

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