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Home • News

ESSENCE Poll: What Matters the Most to You in Choosing a Career?

If it were up to you and not your circumstance, what would your ideal career be?
What Matters the Most to You in Choosing a Career?
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By Dominique Hobdy · Updated October 27, 2020
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Picture this: it’s a “perfect” world, you wake up, get ready and head out to your perfect job. Where do you go? What are you doing? If it were up to you and not your circumstance, what would your ideal career be?

A survey conducted by PayScale ranked the most and least meaningful jobs by asking over two million workers if their work makes the world a better place. The survey was to see how job meaning compares to salary.

The survey found that there were very few jobs with both very high pay and what workers described as a very “high meaning.” It also suggested that women are more likely to work in low-paying but high-meaning jobs. But the survey also raises the question: is making the world a better place everyone’s top priority when choosing a career?

If bills, mortgage, children and all of your other responsibilities weren’t involved, what would be most important in choosing the ideal career? Would it be the impact the job has on the world? The money? Notoriety? Fulfilling your passion? Share your thoughts below.

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