Why dream jobs are dying out: the struggle to pursue passion over pay

When you’re a child, the world feels like your oyster. Growing up, the idea of a career seemed a million miles away. My mind flitted between wanting to be a global popstar, after watching Hannah Montana on repeat, or an Olympic gymnast, after becoming a super-fan of the Team USA ‘Fierce Five’ at the London Olympics in 2012. However, now I’m entering my early twenties, the concept of having a dream job seems to have died out. After the rigour of A-Levels, and the constant editing of my personal statement to fit the perfect mould for certain universities, the joy of picking a career has become less of a milestone, and more of a monetary conundrum. With the necessity of earning a liveable salary becoming harder and harder within certain creative industries, and everyone wanting to become a banker or a high-flying economist, the pressure to pick your career is becoming more and more important, and equally competitive.

The utopian dream of the perfect job fails to materialise due to the constant need to be the best

Going through school, we were all told you can be anything you want to be. I do not think that can be true in this day and age. Say your dream job is to be a doctor; you have to pass multiple tests and achieve the highest grades even before entering university. The immensity of the effort to get to the start line makes it seem so intimidating to even begin, with the most saturated and intense careers being led by comparison and self-doubt. In the modern day, the utopian dream of the perfect job fails to materialise due to the constant need to be the best, and the economic benefits shaping certain job fields.

However, according to Forbes, when a group of individuals were asked what their dream jobs were, their answers did not match the rigorous industries people in the UK often tend towards. Whilst the ‘wholesale, retail and motor trade’ industries are the most popular employers in the UK, the most common dream jobs outlined by Forbes included writers, dancers, and actors. Often, creative jobs as dream jobs become overlooked, requiring a sense of courage, especially with creative roles not taken completely seriously, and often not seen as stereotypical ‘real jobs’. Many people who aim to pursue careers in creative industries are hit with the question ‘when are you going to get a real job?’, or that their degree is a ‘Mickey Mouse course’, putting people off their aspirational jobs and pushing them into more linear employment.

Women are often deterred from pursuing their dream jobs, just from feelings of inner self-sabotage

The idea of a dream job often gets pushed to the side with the consistent tumult of everyday life. From a female perspective, whilst efforts have been made to push women into the fore of the working world, studies suggest that women still hold the most housekeeping responsibilities in a modern household. With the mix of childcare responsibilities, gender inequality in the workplace, and a contributing feeling of lacking self-confidence, women are often deterred from pursuing their dream jobs, just from feelings of inner self-sabotage. From a male perspective, men are often deterred from pursuing their dream jobs through the conception that they must be a ‘responsible’ individual, providing stability for their family. With these constantly perpetuated ideas in society, there is no wonder why men choose a path more secure in their employment, and perhaps less personally satisfying.

After all this discussion of how dream jobs are dying out, maybe I am being negative, and also hypocritical. In the next year, I will be beginning my journey to pursue my dream job, and whilst this brings a sense of personal fear, the idea of committing to something that makes me happy feels fulfilling. And although the future is uncertain, I am hoping to revive the idea of pursuing a dream job and go wherever that leads me.