Study what you love: your degree won’t give you a job, you will – A controversial opinion on choosing degrees.

As you know, I am quite a fan of unconventional mindsets when it comes to studying. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the choices we make when it comes to the degrees we choose. Quite often, we choose a degree based on the options it keeps open for us; however, more often than not,

1- these options are somehow linked to the studied field,

2- restricting options by making relevant choices for ourselves is supposed to be part of the higher education process.

Thus, choosing a degree with similarly a lot of options is not always the most relevant way to choose. Especially if the degree you choose to study is far away from the type of things you enjoy in life; why suffering in a degree when you could as well study something you love?

Why people who do not know what job to do should NOT choose a ‘wide-options’ degree

Naturally, if you want to become a nurse or a doctor, you will need to study a very specific degree; however, you do not choose it for the options it opens for you, but for a specific outcome. However, if you do not know yet what job you want to do after your higher education, this does not mean you need to choose the degree with the widest range of options. Actually, I think the contrary tends to be true!

If you know why you study (e.g., “I study medicine to become a doctor”), then you have a strong intrinsic motivation to keep hustling. However, if you do not know why you study but want to pursue higher education anyway, chances are you do not have this strong intrinsic motivation. Thus, what I would recommend is choosing a degree you love so that your intrinsic motivation does not have to be the result, but can be the process (e.g., ‘I love studying literature because I love literature, thus this is what I choose’.)

Why the degree you choose both matters a lot (now) and so little (after)

We live in a society that valorises knowing early on what you want to do later in life in terms of career. The truth is that often, we do not know and this is all fine. Personally, I have worked all along my studies to then find a path I love and that has nothing (closely related) to do with my degrees. For a little personal background, I have a bachelor degree in English literature and civilization and a master degree in art history and library science, as well as several trainings in parallel medicine (bibliotherapy) and entrepreneurship. None of my degrees similarly “make sense” together, but they have led me to a job I love and that, at first view, has nothing to do with them: I am a chief of staff for an EU initiative.

The truth is that I have chosen, quite controversially, to always follow my heart. My professional life has started very early, as I have had to work to live and pay for my studies. So I have chosen early on to study things I loved, as I was already working multiple jobs and knew that at least I needed something in my life to let me dream of a brighter future. I do not wish this situation on anybody, but I think that living it has led me to making this decision and now allows me to share it with you. If I had had another choice, maybe I would have chosen another path; but today, I am happy I did what I have done and want to share with you the mindset that has come out of it.

Please keep in mind two important things when hesitating to pursue studies you love:

1- What you study will have something to do, even remotely, with the job you do…

Thus, you’d better love the studies, or I have doubts you will ever love the job. The job can be so far away from the studies, but a little something in even the way you work will be reminiscent of your field of studies, thus you want to enjoy your studies if you want to enjoy your job to the fullest.

Also, people often tell you that suffering for 3 to 5 years is not a lot, but let me tell you the truth: 3 to 5 years IS a lot, and the disillusion you may have during these early years of your career would have an impact on far more years as you are now building your mindset and relationship to your career. Take care of yourself and of your soul, and listen to your heart when choosing studies: this is my greatest advice in this realm.

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2- … but what you study does not limit your opportunities

Even if this second important item is quite counterintuitive right after the first one, it is actually going hand in hand with it. Of course, you need to love your studies if you want not to be conditioned early on to hate your job (cf 1.), but you must also keep in mind that your filed of studies does not necessarily dictate your field of work. If you look at my example, you would never guess how I have ended up where I am now.

The truth is that personality does the work far more than the degree itself, and that the older you get (and the more work experience you have), the fewer employers look at the specifics of your degree. You want to do a degree you love and have side activities that you love to network and expand your vision. We have power over our vision and self-perception, and it is exactly that that leads to job opportunities. Thus, you can follow a seemingly ‘optionless’ study path and end up in a great job because you have actually learnt way more in your degree about how to work and how to be than about the specifics of the degree. We study to learn how to learn and expand our being, not to learn by heart the specifics of each studied topic.

With that in mind, I hope you will be able to understand how much studying what you love matters, and how much we have been conditioned in a way that, actually, is not beneficial to either our present reality nor the results. I hope this post has shown you logically how much loving what you do brings greater results in the present and in the future.