Poll: Job you love, or job that pays high?

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

I go to work to earn money, not to have fun. It may be nice to have a job you like, but liking something doesn't pay the bills - that's what money is for. So definitely the lucrative job, I can do things I love in my spare time.

basically this, however, i think everyone is better at certain things than others, or is more tolerable to different types of stress, in which that is why i'm in the career path i'm in, rather than being a pile doing something else.

sure there is probably an equilibrium where you can enjoy what you do, but more often then not, as long as you don't hate yourself everyday for having to work at that job, then you probably ended up in a good place in life.

 

[Chemical Alia]

Personally, I would go with what I enjoy. I'm an artist, and I've been on both sides before, and for me the choice was easy. I had a job lined up out of grad school at Halliburton that offered me a six figure salary (they even raised their offer by $20 when I initially declined). It wasn't what I wanted to do, which was make art for games. In fact, it was hardly art at all, more like graphic design/UI stuff for boring oil drilling software. The kind of work I could have easily done before I even finished college and spent several years learning to model.

When I went home at night, I was just drained of the will to sit in front of the computer and do any personal work. I lost all my creativity for a while, and I ended up quitting after a month. Now I do what I love for a living, and even though my actual job pays less than half of what I could have made, I'm able to go home at night and work on side projects, and as a result I'm making more than at my boring old job. Granted I'm working more, but since it's what I love to do, it's what I would be doing anyway.

As for art degrees, they are far from useless, but you really get out of them what you put in. I strongly recommend fine arts and traditional art training over game design art courses, as you'll gain a broader background in art history and traditional skills that are far more flexible and useful in terms of becoming a well-rounded artist. Skills like modeling, 3d sculpting and digital painting are much easier to learn on your own, especially with a strong artistic background and the millions of resources available on the internet these days.

So yeah, art degrees don't present you with as straight or guaranteed a path to success, but it's possible to do these things if you have the right motivation for them and truly love doing it. It's also very important that you set realistic goals for yourself and really focus on defining the path you need to take to make a living in an art-related field. Be careful of the schools and programs you choose to study, and be aware of how much you'll need to be paying back once you're done.

Sorry I can't speak at all from the other side of the argument, as I have no experience with that.

 

[Cari-des]

However, I also run into the knowledge that an art degree feels rather useless (no offence to anyone with one, I know I'm likely very wrong). I originally set out to obtain an engineering degree because another passion of mine has been tinkering with and building robots and machines. However after taking a few classes, I began to feel like it was not right for me despite still wanting to go through with it because I know engineers are in high demand and get paid very well.

Honestly the fun of liberal arts skills is that you can use them in a lot of different ways. I got an English degree, and while I do not make a lot of money, I still have a job that I love and that actually has some practical implications because I focused on perfecting certain employable skills. You very much can get a job doing art, you just have to focus on other things that aren't just strictly art. For example, you can get an art degree but also an MBA so you can know the business side of things, or you can even get a psychology degree and do art therapy.

The point being that what you choose shouldn't pinhole you for life. Art will give you more of a variety than engineering, although maybe you can use some engineering skills to enhance art. Point is that it's not as simple as one or the other.

 

[Vausch]

This is going to sound like a cop-out. But I'd pick the job that pays enough while still being reasonably non-soul-crushing.

I don't believe that fun-jobs exist (for me), I have never heard of anything I would enjoy doing for 40 hours a week that people actually get paid to do. However, I also don't feel a terrible need to become independently wealthy. The job I have now pays well enough for me to afford my style of living without me dreading going to work every day. It's a compromise I personally find the best option.

That's almost my current standpoint. Right now I'm a colourist for a webcomic and trying to get some more gigs, otherwise I sell individual pics. I don't quite make enough to live off right now, though I'm working to get a couple new tools to help me work a bit quicker (a wacom cintiq for one). At the moment, I'm also applying for an internship at Nickelodeon.

The cintiq isn't going to help you work faster unfortunately.

Actually I've used one before. I timed myself while using it and it took me less than half the time it usually does with my intuos4.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I'd rather have a job that can pay the bills and then some, rather than have a fun job that pays bugger all.
The extra money from a well-paid job can finance things to increase enjoyment at home, but a job I love doesn't really add long-term benefits. If it doesn't pay well enough, I'll have to find one which does.

I'm in a job that I love. And am currently looking for a replacement because it just doesn't pay enough.

This is my point in a nutshell.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I've had a job that pays high. Well, high for me (so, not like I was rolling around in Italian suits) and I lost it because I was too bored to work (not really but close enough).

So I know for a fact that I'd prefer a Job I love. Or, preferably, a not too boring one that pays just enough.

 

[Susan Arendt]

I had a job that paid obscenely well, but made me so miserable I went home every day with a migraine. I also had a job that was good, solid, and reliable, and left it to take a massive pay cut to become a full-time game journalist. So I've been throughout the entire spectrum of money/enjoyment when it comes to a job.

You have to be able to earn a living you're comfortable with. If you're constantly stressed about money, you won't be able to enjoy what you're doing and may even come to dislike it. That said, there is simply nothing that can compare to having a job you actually look forward to doing every day. One that you feel like is a reward unto itself, even before you get paid. But life is full of practicalities - you've got to be able to keep a roof over your head and food on the table without too much stress.

Also remember that what you do today is not necessarily what you have to be doing a year from now - or two, or five, or ten. Your dreams are just are no less rewarding if you have to wait a little while to achieve them.

 

[Kilo24]

It sounds like you're thinking about "which degree is best?" over "which job is best?". I don't have a lot of personal experience with degree-requiring jobs, but I do have some reasoning for why I've picked an engineering degree that might be applicable.

Going to college teaches a formal curriculum, and engineering fields benefit more from the structure than others. In other words, in engineering you need to learn the basics before you can learn the advanced stuff. That's certainly not to say that there isn't a learning curve in arts, but studying Michelangelo to learn how to draw better is not nearly as fundamental as is learning calculus to be able to do physics. The further away a field is from hard science or math, the harder it is for educators and employers to agree on what the essential knowledge required for it is.

Don't confuse a degree for a job. Degrees are about education, jobs are about I don't think that there are many doors that an arts degree will open that an engineering degree won't also open. Employers who want your artistic talents won't be looking at your education; they'll be looking at your previous art.

As far as jobs themselves go, I do know that artistic jobs especially are quite vulnerable to creative limitations. You might find that you like drawing a lot less if you have significant restrictions on what you can draw; that's a major reason as to why I'm not looking for a job in writing or acting myself. To have a reliable job, you need to be doing things that other people want enough to pay you for. If you're working in a creative field and don't already have a name for yourself, you're probably going to be doing precisely what your employer wants or otherwise be out of a job. That may not be a big issue for you, but it would be for me.

 

[aba1]

This is going to sound like a cop-out. But I'd pick the job that pays enough while still being reasonably non-soul-crushing.

I don't believe that fun-jobs exist (for me), I have never heard of anything I would enjoy doing for 40 hours a week that people actually get paid to do. However, I also don't feel a terrible need to become independently wealthy. The job I have now pays well enough for me to afford my style of living without me dreading going to work every day. It's a compromise I personally find the best option.

I think this is the best way of looking at it and it is the way I look at it too. I originally wanted to be a animator but decided on Multimedia designer because it allows me to do just about any media oriented job so I can still apply as a animator but I still have options when that falls through. You should always choose something you enjoy but is still somewhat realistic.

 

[Vausch]

I'd rather have a job that can pay the bills and then some, rather than have a fun job that pays bugger all.
The extra money from a well-paid job can finance things to increase enjoyment at home, but a job I love doesn't really add long-term benefits. If it doesn't pay well enough, I'll have to find one which does.

I'm in a job that I love. And am currently looking for a replacement because it just doesn't pay enough.

This is my point in a nutshell.

What if the high-paying job is a demanding one that leaves you with little free time?

 

[Lynx]

Job I love (or at least like.) If I don't enjoy what I'm doing, I don't do it very well. And I hate doing things half-heartedly. I want to be as productive as I possibly can, and actually contribute with some good to the world.

I begin my studies to become a nurse this fall. I'm a complete and utter medicine geek, I enjoy helping those in need, and I want to be part of something real and down-to-earth. It's definitely not going to be fun all the time, in fact, it'll probably be "soul-crushing" every now and then, but nothing's perfect.

P.S. And as someone already mentioned, it's a question of balance. Nobody wants to hate their job and nobody wants to be poor. Everyone finds a solid middle ground. For example, I'm not gonna aspire to be a professional dancer, because 1) I'm not good enough at it to support myself doing just that, and 2) I don't want that kind of financial insecurity.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I'd rather have a job that can pay the bills and then some, rather than have a fun job that pays bugger all.
The extra money from a well-paid job can finance things to increase enjoyment at home, but a job I love doesn't really add long-term benefits. If it doesn't pay well enough, I'll have to find one which does.

I'm in a job that I love. And am currently looking for a replacement because it just doesn't pay enough.

This is my point in a nutshell.

What if the high-paying job is a demanding one that leaves you with little free time?

Then at least you're making enough to enjoy what little time you have.
Besides, there's always leave and public holidays.
I feel it's still better than just making ends meet in a job you love.

 

[HoneyVision]

I just think the world loves to preach so much about having a "job you looove" and your "dream job", that everyone just buys into it like delusional idiots. But in reality a majority of people end up jobless, poor and living off the government...and LORD knows how much my government taxes us to support those people. So I'd have to pick "job that pays high", because it makes more sense. Nothing wrong with pursuing a job that you love, but it's less important than actually having money.

 

[Gitty101]

Is it too much to ask for both? It would depend on whether I was capable at doing the job well, but I guess I'd go for the one that pays more, at least for now. An early retirement to devote to what I love would be the preferable outcome.

 

[ATRAYA]

I don't think engineers will be in high demand very long. Almost everyone I know is getting an engineering degree, and it seems like there's just going to be a massive flood of these poor, soon-to-be-out-of-work bastards very quick. Everywhere you look, someone is saying to some high-schooler, "Engineers are in high demand! You should become one, instead doing what you WANT to do!"
There are other jobs in demand, people; don't all flock to the same damn thing, just because your friends are going to be in your classes, and it might pay well someday.

 

[sXeth]

While taking on a disliked job to survive is probably gonna occur at some point. The degree can vary of course.

As the given example goes, I'd be very wary of dedicating a lot of time/money(yours or whoevers) of education into a full on career path (engineering) that really doesn't do it for you. Spending 5 years and thousands of dollars to get a bit of extra padding on your lifestyle budget is the sort of thing that can come back in bad ways when you get older in terms of stress/anxiety/depression.

 

[Jumplion]

For me, personally, I am planning to pursue a dual-major in both Computer Science and Arts, specifically with animation and game design/programming. I plan to get into the game industry and I want to learn as much as I can to improve my chances and develope my skills for other areas.

I don't know how feasable it is for you to pursue a dual major, but, for me personally, I see college as a way to improve and develope skills in a wide variety of areas. I want to learn as much in both the technology and artistic side and it seems you do to to an extent.

By all means, if you have the dedication and/or time to do it (and the money, of course), a dual-major may be a good choice. That way you are learning many things from the art side of what you want to do, while also developing skills that not only help you have a more stable future but may also help you in the art side of things as well, making you an overall better candidate for what you want.

 

[Terminate421]

Like you, I had the option of studying for a higher paid career or going to art school. I chose art school. And I think you're right that it's a kind of useless degree even now when I'm almost at the end of it, and I'm not even sure I'm going to have a career in art and design because too many people want to do it and many of them are better than me. But it was a fun four or five years and I learned a lot about what I love and I got to practice doing what I love and I made a lot of contacts in the industry.

I wish I could speak to you from four or five years in the future, because I couldn't say for certain if I've made the right choice or if my life is going to go to crap because I haven't chosen the more financially secure career path. HOWEVER, I will be happy so long as I can earn enough to keep a roof over my head and decent food in my belly, and if that means stocking shelves at a supermarket while only having the very odd illustration commission here and there over weekends, I think I'll be doing alright.

You make it sound like an Animation degree is suicide towards one's life.

I am going for that degree.

I know I won't be some billionare, but I at least know they're being asked for.