I play chess on Chess.com.
Players from all over the world are on the site. Country flags are next to the name of each player. (Most everyone chooses a nickname rather than give their real name).
A player from Morocco struck up a conversation with me on the message part of the site. He is 21 and dreading the thought that he has to work for the rest of his life doing work he does not like. He had no idea that my work was in career counseling. He just was interested in speaking with an American and wanted to know what it was like to have so many choices for our careers.
I’ve been to Morocco. So I was careful in my counsel as I sensed his work was likely manual labor of some sort or the other. I did tell him that he was young and should make every effort to find work that he likes. But I also know that this was a somewhat dumb 1st world comment. The options are not abundant for most in developing nations. I spent time in Tanzania this past summer. Hotel workers had “great jobs” by Tanzanian standards. Indeed, our bell hop told us that he felt really lucky to have the job – as he refused our attempt to tip him and told us that we could put the tip into the general tip box that all workers share. To be clear, I was a bell hop when I was 17. Nothing wrong with such work. I’m guessing our bell hope was in his mid-thirties and that most readers of Career Counseling Connecticut would not find working as a bell hop to be a dream job.
In America, we have extraordinary choice. That sometimes comes with its own problems (see The Paradox of Choice: to many choices create analysis-paralysis and second-guessing).
Nonetheless, happiness awaits. We can help.