There’s a reason that some of the most stressful and vital jobs in society come with disproportionately low salaries. These sorts of jobs, like law enforcement officer, pastor, teacher, soldier…they are vital to our society and yet the people who pursue these sorts of careers are often quite willing to accept the comparatively low pay that comes with them. This doesn’t seem to make sense until you recognize that they’re often not so much career choices as callings.
When you believe you are called to pursue a particular line of work, answering that calling provides a level of fulfillment and compensation in your life that works to make up for lacking monetary compensation. Those pursuing their callings find contentment that diminishes the overt desire to demand the highest salaries. The market rightly responds to this fact by modifying salaries downward. This is not to say that people in these professions cannot rise above the average level of compensation, but even at the lower levels of pay those answering a calling will continue to do yeoman’s work with little or no promise of increased financial gain. Sadly, this characteristic can leave individuals or whole professions ripe for exploitation.
The ones who soon begin to balk and accumulate bitterness at the seeming injustice in this arrangement make clear that they see their profession not as a calling, but as a job. I’m not trying to make value judgments here, but I think the observation is accurate.
I think that design fits comfortably into the list of professions that many perceive as a calling rather than merely a career choice. This is true for many of the designers I know and it is true for me. This is what I’m supposed to be doing and I will not choose to do anything other than pursue my current profession. I and others I know have sacrificed much in order to do so. This is not something one does for a mere job.
Designers can be highly-paid, but this is the exception rather than the norm. Although I chafe at the needless indignity of the fact, many designers endure ridiculous circumstances and ugly, myopic, or gravely-unhealthy company culture—often for embarrassingly-low wages—all so that they can continue to pursue their calling. I don’t mean to say that it’s entirely healthy to do this, but those pursuing a calling will do so and complain little.
As I’ve mentioned before, I think there’s a difference between those working on a career and those pursuing their calling. What are you pursuing?
