Ramit Sethi advises someone choosing between film production in the Midwest and going back to school for science. Instead of waiting for passion to strike, he recommends actively testing both paths: email industry contacts, do informational interviews, and spend a little money to meet people in person before committing to grad school.
Question here from Sean B. Who asks. I'm stuck between two conflicting career paths. I already have an undergrad degree in film production, but I'm stuck outside of New York and LA in the Midwest with no film jobs. I'm getting disillusioned with the lack of career progress. I'm conflicted about pursuing a major passion of mine for most of my life, science. I keep thinking of going back to school for another degree in science, but can't be more specific beyond that. How can I choose what to follow? This question is so typical of many people in their 20s who are struggling to find out what they really want to do with their life. Sean, you ask a question with the word passion in it. Like, let me just sit around and wait for my passion to fall from the sky. And I'm not blaming you for that. We have been told for our entire lives that we should do what we're passionate about. But when it comes down to okay, what does that really mean? No one really has the answers for us, do they? You also seem to be stuck between two different things and making no progress on either one. For many people in our 20s, we're stuck on 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 options and making progress on none of them. Why? Because often we don't want to close any doors. Does that sound familiar? What I noticed here, Sean, is that you trying to think your way to clarity. How can I choose which to follow? Let me sit in a room and just flesh it out. Let me do a pros and cons. But you can't think your way to clarity. You actually have to get out there and do something about it. So here's what I would suggest. I'm going to challenge you a little bit. First of all, you said you're stuck outside of New York and LA with no film jobs. Have you actually built relationships with people in the film industry? You can do that with phone and email. Have you gotten to know people? Have you emailed alumni and said, hey, I'd love to talk to you on the phone? Is this film industry all it's really cracked up to be? What do you actually do on a day to day basis? Do I need to move to one of these cities in order to make progress? No. My guess is, Sean, you haven't done that. So I would suggest that you start by doing that and find out if film is actually something you want to pursue or is it just something that you committed to years ago and now you're kind of stuck doing it. Second, let's talk about science. Have you done the same thing with science. You say you're passionate about science, but you're right, that is too broad. So have you started to understand the lay of the land in science, researchers, teachers, instructors, etc. Or have you just kind of sat and had it be this nebulous blob in your head? One final thing. Once you start to get a lay of the land and you build some relationships, email, phone, etc. Have you flown out to meet these people and learn more? Wait a minute, Ramit, that sounds pretty expensive. I don't have that kind of money. You're about to commit six figures, maybe $120,000 to grad school for science, and you're not willing to spend maybe $2,000 to fly around to a few coasts and meet people. When you think about it like that, it doesn't really make any sense, does it? Of course, it makes sense to invest in yourself by building relationships, meeting people, maybe even flying out there to take them out to coffee and learn instead of just thinking your way to clarity and then dumping 120k into grad school. So this is the basic approach that I recommend to all my dream job students, which is, you might have 10 different interests, but I show you step by step how to go through all of them and figure out which one is viable before you commit six figures to grad school or before you jump into a job and two years later you realize, I hate this. Start doing the work upfront before you commit all kinds of time, attention, and money to something you're not even sure about. All right, that's what I recommend. Build some relationships on both coasts, fly out and meet them, and you will quickly determine which of these options is the right one for you. Thanks for the question.
