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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a legit feeling. So many parents think life is rosey and you should follow your passion.

In 99% of instances, following your passion will create financial stress.

Your parents did in fact not prepare you for the real world in a major city where high incomes are a necessity.

I have two middle school girls, I want them to do what they want, but I am not against telling them their path may make life harder than it needs to be.

If they want to follow their passion, I guess I'll be putting the down payment on their home[/quote]

I echo this.

Too many parents, loving and well-meaning, effectively told their kids to follow their passions and sooner or later everything will work out. Well, no, it doesn't quite work like that. Life is about choices. If your passion means being a broke editor in the AI revolution that is going to destroy the industry (and already is), is it smart to make the choice to follow your passion? Or sit back and reassess? And, really, what is passion? You love reading? Ok, you can do that outside work. But what makes life much easier is money, indisputably.

There are so many routes into adulthood. There are so many career trajectories. Most people do not end up doing what their "passion" was at age 22, if they ever had one. But smarter people figure out they can be good at something else and make more money, even if it wasn't their passion. Lots of corporate management jobs fall into this category. People managing, project management, keeping the ball rolling. OP is in her early 20s, which means she has plenty of time to get on the career track. What will help her is 1) determination, 2) grit, 3) drive, and 4) learning (quickly) from mistakes and moving forward.

OP, if you're good at writing and managing a writing project, I'd suggest looking at proposal management. You'd have to start out as an lowly specialist but it's a career trajectory, especially in the DC area with all the fed contracting, that has a lot of room to grow in. [b]It's not BIGLAW but after five or so years as a specialist, an  experienced proposal manager can absolutely command 125k+ salary, and directors of proposal management approaches 200k or more with bonuses. You could even look at tech firms, they have proposal teams and can make pretty good salaries, especially if you join young and develop a niche area managing tech proposals (if you're really good at it, it can be big money with RSUs).[/b] And it's a good gateway job to other project management or group management roles in corporate America, if you hustle and network.

I would not go down the MFA route. That is a guaranteed money loser. [/quote]

OP here. Not bad ideas at all. I know that something like corporate communications/project management/tech writing would pay really well.

The problem is that I don't think I have it in me to "hustle" and market myself towards these roles. Maybe I'm inherently just self-absorbed and immature, or maybe it's a product of my ultra-liberal upbringing (most likely a combination of both). I just feel like, with my ADHD and my personality, that I absolutely HAVE to be interested in whatever job I take. If I'm not in the zone of ADHD hyper focus, I totally lose interest in whatever I'm doing. I just don't think I have it in me to force myself to work a boring, soulless job. The prospect of the part-time journalism internship I have lined up (at an artistic magazine that aligns with my values) lights me up and makes me excited. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I'd rather go back to my high school job bagging groceries at Trader Joe's than have to work at something so soulless like project management at a tech company.

I'm also graduating from a progressive SLAC (similar to Oberlin if we're using the Girls example) where most students work at non-profits or idealistic jobs. So I don't really have an alumni network to rely on if I'm trying to break into something more lucrative like tech or corporate writing. [/quote]

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