The closer I got to leaving home for college, the more I was encouraged to change my major. I am a print journalism major and yes, I am aware that “print is dying.”
The older I got the more I was encouraged to get into computer science and with that, the more I realized my school was implementing more money into buying rooms full of computers instead of paints for my art class.
I could not blame them; how do you balance between the creative world of technology and the creative world of physical arts when one is ‘booming’ and the other is being neglected at times?
Technology has grown into a very large industry and has become a substantial source of jobs for coding, engineers, and computer science majors in general. I think the growth of the industry and an area like Silicon Valley is extremely interesting, as well as something that has given the people of the United States a lot of income source through both large and small companies.
But sometimes the multiple elements that make up a business are forgotten and overlooked. A tech company encompasses more than just simply tech based jobs, there is a company behind it as well that has to manage public relations and other entities.
Startups in Silicon Valley, as well as big companies like Google and Apple, do not only need computer geniuses or people who can write code as if it was their first language; they also need people in public relations, people with communication degrees and people who can bring the creative front to their businesses as well as the actual business person.
Yet, we still are encouraged to develop skills in one area of the company.
The youth are being encouraged to study a subject for two to four years just because it has higher job salaries and there are a good amount of them.
But what happens when my generation graduates and works for these companies without any interest in their job?
A lot of people who are majoring in computer science and other technological majors are interested in the subject, but what I am most concerned with is the men and women who have been swayed by this campaign-like encouragement.
Fast forward ten, fifteen or twenty years from now when everyone I know at Suffolk and other universities will have graduated and are hopefully working in the field they studied in, will they find happiness in their work?
The want for money is understandable, and I know that there is a higher chance there will be a job waiting for you at the end of your four years at university, but I find it hard to believe that after working in a field I find no interest in, I will still be fulfilled.
Working a 9 to 5 job, five days a week is something that can be very strenuous on a human being and in an equal world everyone would be able to work in an environment that made them happy and fed their interests.
The world may not be equal, but my belief is still to work toward doing what I want and to not be controlled by the idea of an income because in our economy, nothing is guaranteed.
If we are not doing what we want to pursue and accomplish, and in an environment that does not stimulate us, it will backfire. The tech industry and STEM research will always be developing because there are plenty of minds who think specifically in the language of those fields. The same is applied to every other industry.
If someone forces their way into an industry with an income goal in mind, and they reach it, suddenly there will be nowhere else for them to go and the realization that they are not content in that specific industry will come.
The human race is a very creative and innovative force with a plethora of different stimuli to spark their interests. So, in return there is space for those differences in every realm.
As college students, we should be encouraged to follow in pursuit of interest, instead of in pursuit of a certain income.
