Should you major in a field you consider evil? Slate advice

[pgher]

I'm reminded of this PhD Comic.

[Wahoo Redux]

I'm reminded of Melissa Click: a communications professor who hates reporters.

[Hegemony]

It's beside the point to say, "Well, this student is very unlikely to get a job in advertising, so it's silly to worry about whether advertising would be a good career!"  We don't know where the student goes to college, we don't know the placement rate of the advertising department. We can't say that it's ridiculous to think that the student would actually land a job in advertising. Many people do land jobs in advertising.  The entire advertising field is populated by people who landed jobs in advertising.  And there are a lot of them. And even so, the question is generalizable: if you don't feel the career you're contemplating squares with your values, but the work seems fun, should you go for that career?  Answer: No. And as for all jobs involving a compromise of ethics: I still think it's clear that some involve more than others, and not every job is equally objectionable.

[dismalist]

My daughter, PhD in Microbiology and now a post-doc, has been worried about her job prospects. I have consoled her with the fact that there's always weapons research, and as long as the other side does it, to undertake research to protect against the weapons. This last apparently moral point depends on the other side doing bad.

Nothing like an arms race for personal fun and profit! :-)

[marshwiggle]

And as for all jobs involving a compromise of ethics: I still think it's clear that some involve more than others, and not every job is equally objectionable.

Sure, but someone who would describe an entire field as inherently "evil" would probably describe some other fields as inherently "good" and therefore free of any moral concerns. That level of naivete is dangerous, since there are examples in every field of horrible things.

Should this student avoid advertising? Sure, with that view. Will this student be able to find a morally pure field elsewhere? Only in his/her dreams.

[Hegemony]

I'm not so keen on advertising myself. If you think telling untruths is problematic, then the field of advertising is problematic. "But they don't tell outright untruths! They only imply that to be cool and win sexual partners, you have to use/consume/wear X. They only imply that women's bodies are inadequate unless they are young, unnaturally thin, and air-brushed. And any woman who would be influenced by that just doesn't have a mind of her own anyway. And advertising only implies that..."  Yeah, okay, we can split hairs all night.  Anyway, clearly you, Marshwiggle, and I have different ideas of morality, and of whether considering morality in life choices makes a difference.

[marshwiggle]

I'm not so keen on advertising myself. If you think telling untruths is problematic, then the field of advertising is problematic. "But they don't tell outright untruths! They only imply that to be cool and win sexual partners, you have to use/consume/wear X. They only imply that women's bodies are inadequate unless they are young, unnaturally thin, and air-brushed. And any woman who would be influenced by that just doesn't have a mind of her own anyway. And advertising only implies that..."  Yeah, okay, we can split hairs all night.  Anyway, clearly you, Marshwiggle, and I have different ideas of morality, and of whether considering morality in life choices makes a difference.

OK, you see things the same way the student does. None of those points about advertising have ever been made in the past and clearly they had never occurred to me. And I never consider morality in life decisions. No point in "splitting hairs" by pretending nuance matters in life decisions either.

I'm curious: Are the people creating political ads for the Democrats evil as well? (Or, if they're not evil, are they engaging in evil?)

[Parasaurolophus]

Since political ads don't really work all that well but the campaign consultants pushing them get a cut of media spending, yes. There's something morally wrong going on in the Democratic ad campaign, too.

Having seen the content of a few Biden ads, which I thought were racist and xenophobic, I'd say the same about people working on the campaign, too.

[ciao_yall]

I teach Marketing at a Community College. One of my colleagues teaches the class on Consumer Behavior. Apparently it's pretty intense.

I have had several students come out of her class in a very deep state of Marcia's Identity Moratorium when they realize how insidious and manipulative advertising can be.

[apl68]

It's beside the point to say, "Well, this student is very unlikely to get a job in advertising, so it's silly to worry about whether advertising would be a good career!"  We don't know where the student goes to college, we don't know the placement rate of the advertising department. We can't say that it's ridiculous to think that the student would actually land a job in advertising. Many people do land jobs in advertising.  The entire advertising field is populated by people who landed jobs in advertising.  And there are a lot of them. And even so, the question is generalizable: if you don't feel the career you're contemplating squares with your values, but the work seems fun, should you go for that career?  Answer: No. And as for all jobs involving a compromise of ethics: I still think it's clear that some involve more than others, and not every job is equally objectionable.

Reading between the lines, I'm inclined to suspect that the student views the current major as worthy but dull, while advertising, from what the student has seen of it in the elective courses, appears creative and fun.  Most youths would ideally like to go into a career that promises to be creative and fun.  It's widely understood that creative and fun careers are extremely risky to go into, unless one has rich parents.  The lucrative field of advertising looks like an exception.  But advertising is also widely regarded as frequently dishonest and complicit in our society's environmentally destructive consumer culture.

So the student feels caught in a dilemma.  "I don't want to commit to spending my life going to a boring job every day.  I want to do something fun!  But I don't want to do something fun that is bad for society."  The student needs to understand two things.  One, "fun" careers aren't all fun every day.  Two, working at a "dull" career doesn't have to be miserable.  Hey, I work at what's popularly considered a quintessentially dull job for dull people, and it's honestly not bad.

I'd tell the student:  "Be true to your values.  Don't go into something you can't believe in.  You'll end up miserable.  And don't assume that following your values can only lead to tedium and misery."

[jerseyjay]

I think that the student's dilemma is actually pretty interesting. It is not, I hate law (medicine, business, engineering) and would rather be a (poet, artists, journalist) but I feel pressured to study something I hate in order to make money. This is the problem that many of my students face (who are mainly first generation students and I am a history professor).

Rather, it is: I love doing advertising, but I cannot stomach the moral implications of it. That is, the student really likes doing the field but feels that it is evil. This is similar to an article I once read about somebody who went to divinity school, became a pastor at some church, loved the pastoral care aspect, but realized that they no longer believed in God.  (I suppose in some religions this would not actually be a problem, but in any case, it was for the person highlighted.) I also remember reading an obituary about a famous "mob lawyer" who was really good at getting professional killers off, and spent his spare time doing pro bono work to assuage his conscience. (Because, yes, everybody deserves a good lawyer, but he knew that he was being paid to keep killers out of jail.)

One could parse it in different ways: are there parts of the job that you don't find wrong; are there ways to use the skills to do something good; is there something good that you can do to offset the evil that your job entails; are any jobs really free of bad aspects. (In my experience, the way that most people deal with these contradictions is to drink too much.)

Since this student is at the start of their job search, and not in the position of having to provide food for their family now, I would advise them not to do something that they find abhorrent. Perhaps I would find working in advertising not so bad as other fields, but why go into a field that you find troubling? 

Of course, another way of looking at it is, the student should find a major that they find interesting and fun, and not worry about the job. Almost none of my history students become historians, and presumably you don't have to go into advertising with an advertising degree.

[little bongo]

Finding the place where "what we're good at" and "where can I make a valuable contribution" meet is part of the whole maturity process--in college, it often takes the form of majors and minors. And we have to come face to face with what we're willing to do and say, and where we draw lines.

Our most notable senators and congressmen of the mid-19th century tried to find ways to accommodate the presence of slavery to avoid a civil war, for example.

We all find, discover, and perhaps redefine the point where we say, "Your whole caper's a boodle of bad jive! Your combo's strictly from Squaresville! What a gas!" and find something that, for us, is not from Squaresville.

[Caracal]

I'm not so keen on advertising myself. If you think telling untruths is problematic, then the field of advertising is problematic. "But they don't tell outright untruths! They only imply that to be cool and win sexual partners, you have to use/consume/wear X. They only imply that women's bodies are inadequate unless they are young, unnaturally thin, and air-brushed. And any woman who would be influenced by that just doesn't have a mind of her own anyway. And advertising only implies that..."  Yeah, okay, we can split hairs all night.  Anyway, clearly you, Marshwiggle, and I have different ideas of morality, and of whether considering morality in life choices makes a difference.

OK, you see things the same way the student does. None of those points about advertising have ever been made in the past and clearly they had never occurred to me. And I never consider morality in life decisions. No point in "splitting hairs" by pretending nuance matters in life decisions either.

I'm not really interested in judging people who have careers in advertising. You're right that we all make trade offs and most jobs involve participating in systems you don't entirely agree with. But, I don't think there's anything self righteous about wanting to find a career where the primary job isn't something you find morally questionable. For example, I can make my peace with teaching something I think is important while being part of an institutions and systems that I don't think are always great. I wouldn't, however, want to be teaching something that I thought was wrong or bad for the world.

[polly_mer]

So the student feels caught in a dilemma.  "I don't want to commit to spending my life going to a boring job every day.  I want to do something fun!  But I don't want to do something fun that is bad for society." 

Engineering is creative, fun, and pays pretty well. If one picks a good specialty, engineering is also good for society.  Just throwing that out there for people who don't know because they are unclear on the difference between being a technician and being an engineer.

[jerseyjay]

Engineering is creative, fun, and pays pretty well. If one picks a good specialty, engineering is also good for society.  Just throwing that out there for people who don't know because they are unclear on the difference between being a technician and being an engineer.

Personally, I think you can find a career in both engineering and advertising that could be rewarding, creative, socially useful, and economically worthwhile.

That said, there are many people who would really like one profession and hate the other. When I was going to high school, most of my friends went into engineering because that's where the money was. Many decided that they hated it and did different things (go to law school, start business, etc.)

Of course, from my point of view, there are many advertising jobs and engineering jobs that are of questionable moral worth. I suppose there are also history jobs like that, too.