File photo / Warren Buckland
Opinion: Dr Jacqueline Rowarth takes a look at career choices and whether you should “follow your passion” or “follow your blisters”.
Career choice used to be easy. In fact, so easy it wasn’t scoped as a career or choice – you did what your parents did. You grew up following in your parents’ footsteps and learning through watching and then doing.
Acting families (Redgrave, Fox, and in New Zealand the Harcourts), butchers, doctors and farmers are examples, as are circus families.
Health and safety regulations made a difference, and so did the television. Glamorous lifestyles were portrayed and the grass tends to be greener on the other side.
Couple this with the massification of education – where new tertiary qualifications appeared in response to consumer demand, rather than country or global shortages in employment, and it isn’t surprising that there is confusion.
For a couple of decades, the advice was to “follow your passion”. In the last few years, this particular piece of advice has been shown to be less than sound.
Teenagers and adults tend to have different passions. So do young adults and older adults. It might be that you actually aren’t as good at your passion on the global stage as in the school environment. Or that once it becomes your work it isn’t as fun as it was.
A further problem – if the world doesn’t need another “whatever” your passion might not lead to employment at all.
Instead, think of what the world needs and how your interests align.
New Zealand’s skill shortages are easy to find for both the immediate and longer term.
Agriculture, education, engineering, health, IT, science and trades feature in the lists and when something is in short supply, the rewards are likely to be better than when there is a glut on the market.
Your interests might not be directly in the areas mentioned, but knowing something about those areas might assist with achieving the job where your interests can flourish – will knowing something about agriculture improve your chances of being an accountant or designer for one of the big processing companies (Fonterra, for instance) or many agricultural support companies?
The same might go for engineering or health - think laterally about a core training and what it will enable.
Professor Dan Cable, London Business School, suggests that you “follow your blisters”.
A blister appears when something wears at you – and even chafes you a bit – but you keep getting drawn back to it.
What he likes about the phrase is that it implies something about perseverance and struggling through tasks even though they are not always blissful.
“Follow your blisters” makes him ask the question, “What kind of work do I find myself coming back to again and again, even when I don’t succeed right away, when it seems like it’s taking too long to make progress, or when I get discouraged?”
The point is that coming back to something means that you find it rewarding and that you care enough about it to keep trying.
Professor Cable suggests that “follow your blisters” implies something that you come back to so many times that you eventually develop toughened skin. Further, “eventually, the activity ‘marks you’ through use and practice, and you develop a special competence”.
If that special competence is needed in a country, you will have employment.
A further component is the respect that the career brings.
Last year over 1000 Americans responded to a survey on respect - which jobs they considered most respectable, what factors engender respect, and what jobs they’d like to do themselves.
Doctors, scientists, and farmers were joint first place with 83 per cent on the respect scale. Firefighters and teachers achieved 82 per cent and then nurses (81 per cent) and members of the military (80 per cent).
The surveyors commented that “two years into a global pandemic, the tireless efforts of medical professionals and scientists have been a source of hope. And with supply chain issues affecting us all, it’s no wonder that people recognize the work of farmers in putting food on our tables.”
Social media influencers, reality TV stars and politicians all scored under 45 per cent.
Factors making jobs respectable were caring for others, trustworthiness, being essential to society and having a high level of intellect – all scored 80 per cent or above.
The final part of the survey asked respondents if they’d like to have the job themselves. somewhat or very much like to be a member of that profession.
Listen to Jamie Mackay interview Dr Jacqueline Rowarth on The Country below:
Seventy-one per cent of people wanted to be a scientist (83 per cent of people respected scientists), 70 per cent wanted to be a farmer (83 per cent respect) and 70 per cent would want to be an entrepreneur (achieving only 65 per cent respect).
Farmers are entrepreneurs in some definitions: a person who sets up a business or businesses, taking on financial risks in the hope of profit. Some would say that they are scientists as well.
Farmers are needed globally, as are all the support mechanisms along the supply chain.
Do something that the world needs that is aligned with your interests, and the more you find out about it, the more interesting it becomes.
You might even find it becomes your passion.
- Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, Adjunct Professor Lincoln University, is a director of DairyNZ, Deer Industry New Zealand and Ravensdown. The analysis and conclusions above are her own. jsrowarth@gmail.com