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Anecdotally, when talking with my advisor toward the end of college, I was essentially given the choice between choosing a career that's really meaningful (working on data mining for climate projects was the example) and pays less, or a career that pays more but doesn't mean as much. I chose the latter for now, but I still think about it often. Maybe I'll regret it in time.

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Your choice doesn’t have to be permanent. It’s perfectly fine working for a few years in high paying jobs to build a cushion and then work on something that you find meaningful. Now the hard part is deciding when your cushion is big enough as it is very easy to always want more.

Saving the world and making a living are not guaranteed to align well. So I'd argue that it makes sense to first work to become financially independent, then spending that freedom in pursuit of making a difference, without being influenced by which path has paying jobs at any given time.

Yes lets all do that. Graduate with a degree in finance. Work for a big investment firm, make a few million. Then go help poor people with 'saving' more money 'to make a difference'

If it's any consolation, I did the same. Skipped on the academic career partly because I hate the pretentiousness of academia with a passion (while loving science), partly for a desire to get hands-on with industry and "the real world" quicker.

I think either path is fine and we can still develop to do meaningful things. Working for a paycheck to increase some random companies profit feels less and less enticing though.

In general, people in my bubble seem to gravitate towards more free time than increased salary. 32h weeks are not that rare anymore and for many jobs 37hrs is the normal full time nowadays.

Working 5 days a week will die out, as most office jobs will have people wasting time anyways just to match the clock.

FWIW there's a lot of variability in academic pretentiousness based on the lab and university.

I can relate to this. Keep your eye open for new opportunities and eventually you may find something that both pays well and contributes to solving the climate problem.

The good news is that more people are finding ways of doing meaningful work while also turning a profit. An obvious example is working at a place like Tesla, but there are an increasing number of lower-profile for-profit companies that need tech + data talent to execute.

The grass is always greener on the other side. Who knows how you’d feel about your choice if you were struggling financially in a more meaningful career?

A career is "data mining" you can apply it to anything. It doesn't have to be exclusively about climate projects.

they didn’t pick data mining

What is meaningful? You can live life the way you find meaningful, you can even spend the extra money you now make on something meaningful. I think it is a false dichotomy to begin with.

Btw way, aren't you in a better position to change the climate for the better when you are in, say, a car company? From the inside? I wouldn't listen to this BS. It's a road to a skewed market full of unhappy people, imho.

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