(I originally created and submitted this post to another sub but it seemed more relevant here.)
I think that every young person thinking of pursuing a career needs to do some serious math and really estimate if the entry to the mid-level positions in their desired industries measure up to the cost of living in their area.
Like, do some serious planning and try to talk to people in the field and ask them how much they make. Often times glass door and labor stats are skewed and no representative of the full picture.
If you're the type of person who finds it hard to be in a relationship and doesn't want to get married, or doesn't like the idea of having to depend on someone else's income in order to make ends meet, maybe reconsider your career path if the average pay doesn't match the cost of living.
A lot of these fields like social services, teaching, and non-profit work are really designed for those who have a spouse who makes more than they do or who plan to marry someone like that at some point. Either that or it's for kids from rich families.
And this is why I feel that education is just a very sophisticated and fancy scam in a lot of ways because no school who offers these degree programs is gonna give it to you straight. They will say their programs value “diversity and welcome people of all backgrounds” but really they only value the tuition they get from these students because if they actually valued diversity in these fields they would push for all internships to be paid and for the fields to be higher paying in general.
The truth is that these “save the world” type jobs as a whole are really designed for those that can afford to take low pay and that historically means women who aspire to marriage. Which is becoming a goal for less and less of us.