ESCHLEMAN: Keep your passions alive, even if you cannot major in them
Column: Shower Thoughts
When people ask me why I am studying marketing, my answer is a stable salary. I realized that if I removed the financial aspect, I would be studying journalism, something completely different. I was curious if this held true for other Rutgers students, so I interviewed four Rutgers first-years.
I asked them “what would you pursue as a career if money was not a factor?” From these interviews, I learned many people have passions outside of what they are studying and determined people should not let their projected career path stop them from pursuing other passions.
Take Dhiren Patel, a Rutgers Business School first-year, for example. He is studying finance but dreams of opening his own fine-dining restaurant in New York City. Dhiren wants to start with a finance job in order to build wealth and gain credibility with investors, as immediately entering the restaurant industry “would be dangerous and more risky than pursuing a conventional path.”
Patel acknowledges that there may be pressure to remain in finance. He admits “when you are stable, it does not sound practical to lose all of that for something that is a dream.” But, Patel knows that ultimately he “cannot go to a restaurant without thinking, 'I kind of want to own this … when I am around food, I know this is something I want to offer other people. This is an experience I want to create.'”
Patel has had to become comfortable with the idea of switching careers and breaking from the pressure to “pick one thing and become the best at it and do it for the rest of your life,” and it is worth normalizing the idea of switching careers in order to fulfill one’s passions.
Meanwhile, Justin Seo, a first-year in the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, has a passion for video editing. In his free time, Seo makes unlisted Youtube videos of his travels and utilizes Skillshare classes to keep his skills sharp.
Seo is considering a film minor but questions whether the packed schedule of a pharmacy student prevents him from doing this, and says if “I feel as if I am being limited by the school and by my career options, then I for sure need to reconsider my path.”
Due to this, Seo is considering transferring to the School of Arts and Sciences on the pre-med track and envisions a career as a doctor in which he can incorporate his passion.
“I have always wanted to do some sort of social media … I have always seen a lot of people in medicine that are on Youtube, and they have millions of subscribers," Seo says. "There are definitely a lot of gaps, and there are a lot of holes in our hospitals and in our insurance field, as well, that need fixing, so having a spotlight on those things through video would be such an informative thing to do.”
As Seo reflects on his career choices, he knows this for sure — “I definitely want to find ways to incorporate my passions with the career field I am choosing." Considering this, I believe students should consider if their projected career will allow them to pursue other passions.
But, for someone like Nami Jain, a School of Engineering first-year, Jain says she never “seriously considered anything that would not make me money, just knowing the fact that I have two immigrant parents … you do not even consider something seriously unless you know it is going to support you in the future.”
Due to this pressure, Jain has only taken classes or extracurriculars that contribute to her career aspirations. She describes enjoying coding but says “a lot of people have this one thing that they just know they love, and I did not have that.”
But Jain also says, “I really like theater and creativity, but I never got to fully experience that or pursue that in a club … One of my friends is a film major, and I think the stuff that she is doing is really interesting. I also think I would really, really enjoy doing set design. I think it combines engineering but also the arts and creativity.”
So Jain plans to finally branch out and take some introductory film classes to see if she finds her true passion and might add a film minor.
Your major should not make you feel trapped to the point where you do not feel as if you can pursue other passions. Normalize taking random classes, adding unrelated minors, having a side hustle and being okay with exploring multiple careers in a lifetime.
Take notes from Albert Zou, a first-year in the School of Engineering with a double major in computer science and applied sciences in engineering. Even with his demanding academics, he says, “I read a ton right now, and I think every time I read stuff, I am left thinking about fiction, themes, characters, philosophies. And I think the more I think about that, I think eventually maybe ... I will write a really cool novel.”
Zou describes how “even if you have a certain major, you can totally do something on the side … There are numerous examples of famous fiction authors that were scientists and had no writing background, and they wrote some really cool sci-fi,” which illustrates the ultimate potential of not limiting oneself.
Sara Eschleman is a Rutgers Business School first-year majoring in marketing and minoring in English. Her column, "Shower Thoughts," runs on alternate Thursdays.
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