Disclaimer: machine translated by DeepL which may contain errors.
For the past 11 years, I have worked mainly as a "copywriter," creating the words and plans necessary for the branding of companies, products, and services.
I am pleased to present to you a piece of writing "to encourage current students to think about their career paths. Since there is a word limit on this article, I pledge to tell the truth for me, but please forgive me if I do not tell all the facts.
(1) How I found my next theme in life
What exactly should I do when I leave academia? I reexamined my "desires. I tried to "structure my desires" instead of "structuring my knowledge.
It is easy to forget that there are people at universities who love research more than eating three meals a day, but those whose desires are that pure are in the minority.
In order to be happy throughout the rest of our lives, we must sort out what we want to obtain and in what order of priority. Some of these desires may be outwardly attractive, such as "I want to solve something" or "I want to contribute to something," while others may not be so cool, such as "I want to eat expensive food" or "I want to be popular. Nevertheless, I would like you to write down all your desires, look at them objectively, and try to structure them. If you are educated in science, you will discover something new about your own desires. And that desire will directly lead to your value in the society of the future.
(2) The value of "what you want to do" will continue to increase.
The overlap of the three elements of "what you want to do," "what you can do," and "what is required of you" is said to be "work. Now, however, only the value of "what you want to do" is increasing. The average intellectual worker's "things to do" will be done by AI. What is required" is changing so rapidly that it is now beyond the scope of what a single person can predict.
Sometimes we go through such a large number of ideas to decide on just one product name or catchphrase. (In the past, we used to print them out on paper and compare them, but nowadays, as expected, we are going paperless.
Therefore, "what we want to do" is the only thing we can lean on. Average will not be valued, only devotion will be valuable. Your strong motivation of "what you want to do" rather than "what you have done so far" will make you stand out.
My desires have been varied, but if I extract the elements, I would like to "stay in one place for a long time and build a community" as a lifestyle, aim for an income level that would allow me to "buy a new PC at my own expense without hesitation," "learn about the structure of human society" and "think about the significance and value of things" through my work, and "continue to think about the significance and value of things. I wanted to continue to "learn about the structure of human society" and "think about the significance and value of things" through my work, and I aimed to work for an advertising company as a means to achieve these goals. At the moment, I am satisfied with my choice and the results I have achieved in the past 12 years.
To choose is to lose. Choosing non-academia may take away from the joy of research. But in return, you will surely encounter joys that are not found in the world of research. I hope that your path will lead you to a happiness beyond your expectations.