“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
When I was a kid, I felt anxious about the question, because I never had a good answer. Adults always seemed terribly disappointed that I wasn’t dreaming of becoming something grand or heroic, like a filmmaker or an astronaut.
In college, I finally realized that I didn’t want to be one thing. I wanted to do many things. So I found a workaround: I became an organizational psychologist. My job is to fix other people’s jobs. I get to experience them indirectly—I’ve gotten to explore how filmmakers blaze new trails(开创先河)and how astronauts build trust.
My first complaint with the question is that it forces kids to define themselves in terms work. When you’re asked what you want to be when you grow up, it’s not socially acceptable say, “A father,” or, “A mother,” let alone, “A person of integrity(诚实正直)”. This might be of the reasons many parents say their most important value for their children is to car about others, yet their kids believe that top value is success.
The second problem is the implication that there is one calling(使命感) out the everyone. Although having a calling can be a source of joy, research shows that search one leaves students felling lost and confused. And even if you’re lucky enough to stum a calling, it might not be a viable(切实可行的) career. My colleagues and I have form callings often go unanswered:
If you manage to overcome those obstacles, there is a third hurdle: Careers rarely your childhood dreams. In one study, looking for the ideal job left college seniors feeling more anxious, stressed, overwhelmed and depressed throughout the process satisfied with the outcome.
I’m all for encouraging youngsters to aim high and dream big. But take it who studies work for a living: those aspirations should be bigger than work . As they want to be leads them to claim a career identity they might never want invite them to think about what kind of person they want to be -- and about things they might want to do.
A.Many career passions don’t pay the bills, and many of us just don’t have the talent. |
B.Extensive evidence shows that instead of painting a rosy picture of a job, you’re better off having a realistic preview of what it’s really like. |
C.People who graduate from college during a recession(经济衰退) are more satisfied with their work three decades later. |
D.I have become convinced that asking youngsters what they want to be does them harm. |
E.When we define ourselves by our jobs, our worth depends on what we achieve. |
F.Your job is not always going to fulfill you. |