(or computer science)
I have told a few people that I was thinking about pursuing a career in computer science, and the reaction was often surprise, and some people have tried to talk me out of it.
“You should do what you love.”
“Sitting in front of a computer all day sounds boring.”
“Have you tried applying for a tenure track job in music?”
I have to be patient with these people, because they haven’t had as much time as I have had to process this. They know me as a musician. I’m a college music instructor. That’s what everyone knew I was going to be since I was a little kid.
Look folks, here’s the deal:
I love playing music, but what I do for a job is a completely separate decision. Some people love their jobs, some people hate their jobs, many people just think their jobs are okay. My job is teaching music at a college, but I belong to the group that thinks their job is okay.
There are things I love, things I don’t love, and things I hate. That’s pretty much how most jobs are. I love working with students, and I love playing music. But I don’t love the meetings, and I kind of hate giving grades. I like designing courses, but being on committees is kind of boring.
One thing I hate is the salary, which is closely tied to the other thing I hate, which is that there aren’t a lot of jobs available. Salaries are low because the market is flooded with people who have graduate degrees in music. So I struggle to save money, I worry about not being able to retire, I worry that I am going to live in an apartment forever, and work until the day I die. So to compensate for that, I take on extra work, which throws off the work-life balance.
Now let’s talk about computer science. I love programming. It’s fun. Even the hard parts are fun. It’s like a game to try to solve the problem in the best possible way. I’ve never worked in that industry, so I have to guess about the parts that I might hate. But I’ve been around long enough that I think I can guess.
I bet it can be boring. I bet some of the work is tedious. I bet there are boring meetings. I bet there are annoying people that you have to work with sometimes. I bet some bosses are hard to deal with. I bet some clients are hard to deal with too.
But the salaries are higher (I googled it), and there are more jobs available, which means if you’re in a job you don’t like, you can apply for other jobs, and you might find something without having to relocate. And my understanding is that people with these jobs can and do retire, and they can save money for the future. And they have flexibility, and work life balance.
What is work-life balance? That means you work for a reasonable portion of your time, and you can spend the rest of the time doing things that are important to you, like spending time with your family or pursuing hobbies, such as music, or pottery.
In the two scenarios above, the musician is doing music to survive and pay bills, and the computer programmer does music for the love of it, and does not depend on it to survive. That means he is free to do whatever music he finds interesting, and doesn’t have the pressure to please a certain audience or his colleagues in order to maintain his status.
Your job does not have to be your “passion.” That doesn’t mean you don’t care about your job, or don’t do good work. It must mean that you are using skills that you have acquired to do work that someone else is paying you to do. That’s what a job is.
Even if you love your job, it’s still a job, and if you stop getting paid, you’re going to stop doing that job. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s not really that weird at all.
So I say, stop worrying about finding a job that you love, and start thinking about what job you are willing to do that will be somewhat enjoyable and not too miserable for you, and worth the amount of money you will get paid to do it.
Then after work, do the things you love. Write a novel. Compose a symphony. Start a band. Follow your bliss, now that you have the time and resources to do it.
