College students should be encouraged to pursue subjects that interest them rather than the courses that seem most likely to lead to jobs.

The dilemma between choosing jobs and what the students like is a persisting issue among all students at the brink of choosing their future field. The author of the statement above recommends that people should hearten the students to follow the subjects which interests them instead of courses that mostly lead to jobs for them. I find this recommendation flawed in several respects.

To begin with, it is not the responsibility of any people to encourage or discourage the students to follow subjects; pursuing a field of study is a personal matter and any interfering would be equal to infringement of the privacy of students. When anyone dissuades a student from following a field, then comes the part that they introduce the other fields to pursue. Now, if the persuaded student became unsuccessful, will the adviser be answerable for the failure of that person? Students should themselves decide what to study because any failure or any triumph is for them.

The obtrusive encouragement aside, students need to meet both the interests and also concern for the jobs they will fulfill concomitantly. People grow in the fields that they are interested in. But sooner or later, finance would have an impact on the students’ interest; if students do not find jobs related to the field they like or they do not earn satisfying money from the following of their interest, they would become less interested in the field they previously chose and would refrain from pursuing it.

At the same time, the students who pursue fields and at the end find jobs who are not interested in them, are at the risk of a job burnout, and with the lack of job satisfaction they will be prone to quit those jobs. Afterward, they would regret the fields they chose to learn retrospectively. Therefore, we see that in determining a field to educate, students should consider both their interests and the perspective jobs they would have.

Finally, as we see the mutual importance of the job availability and the interest of students, they should strike a balance when students want to choose a field; they should list the subjects that interests them, and among these subjects prioritize those which can lead to jobs. With their interest, they would have a motivation for their everyday work, and also, they can gain enough money to meet the needs of a contemporary life.

In short, as discussed, we should not know the students as passive entities needing other’s encouragement and students themselves should decide what to learn. Aside that, as much as it is possible neither the interest of the student nor the opportunity of future jobs should be sacrificed for each other and both should be considered in choosing a field.