Career Satisfaction vs. Money: The Travel Agent's Touch

Choosing the right career path can be much harder than searching for jobs that are only monetarily rewarding. A career that aligns with your passions may be more intrinsically rewarding than those that offer higher pay. This is a true story as told to JustJobs Academy which houses career interviews and job search advice for professionals in any industry. Visit to read about how to find the perfect job and how to get promoted once you land it.

Like many in high school, I fought hard for every grade point earned although I still graduated out of the top twenty five percent of my class. My family was not the wealthiest in town, yet we managed to have one vacation per year in a different location. As a young person, I had ambitions to make my first million before I was twenty years old and retire to become a world traveler and my family could have as many vacations as they so desired. However, reality set in.

Although accepted to a four year university, it made better financial sense for me to begin my post-high school education at a community college. I did not know exactly what I wanted to major in only that I wanted to make large sums of money. In the early 2000s, business seemed to be the major player so I began taking business oriented courses and majored in accounting after I began attending North Carolina Central University.

I enjoyed my college experience although sometimes day to day activities became mundane. A typical day would revolve around going to class from eight in the morning until about one in the afternoon with a quick lunch. I was always diligent with my school work, but after I finished there was always time to socialize. I met many interesting people in college, which relit that old flame to travel. I knew that retirement was not around the corner as I was already twenty years old and wondered how I would fit that desire in to life after school. I attended classes regularly and sometimes struggled with my school work but stuck with my original major area of study and managed to finish college within four years.

During my senior year, our school offered a number of job fairs where employers from different companies would visit the school to speak with potential graduates and employees. I handed out over twenty five resumes to possible accounting firms in the last semester of school and, before I graduated, I had three firms that were willing to hire me although the pay scale was below entry level. The job market was slow at the time so I accepted one of the offers and started making arrangements to move to a town eighty miles away after I left the university.

After beginning my new job, I found the world of accounting to be tolerable at best. I never realized that sitting in a cubicle crunching numbers would become so boring. Our office was filled with motivational posters showing people in all types of elaborate places telling us to "reach for the sky" and "never give up." Some days I would stare into the crystal waters of one poster in particular where a man stood poised to dive from a rock into picturesque waters I had only seen in books and television and wonder how I could get there. Each day I distanced myself from my responsibilities yearning for an adventure. The working world was not hard itself, I just disliked my job.

One night I was out with my friend apparently looking more lethargic and depressed than usual when he said he had someone he wanted me to talk to. Instantly, I thought he meant a counselor and began a defensive stance that would have made General Patton proud. He laughed and said he was tired of my babbling about traveling the world and knew someone that could help. The next night he introduced me to a friend of his who was a travel agent for a small company. Immediately, I thought nothing about this and began mentally dismissing the conversation. However, I perked up when she began to explain the day to day tasks of her job. Even better, she said each year her firm gave their employees a week's vacation at cost. You could go practically anywhere in the world and it cost little of nothing! Even airline tickets were almost cut in half. The more I listened, the more I became fascinated with this occupation. The questions began rolling out of my mouth, and if I was playing poker the table would have folded instantaneously.

The next day I began sending resumes to travel agencies all over the city. Instead of retiring and traveling the world, I could work in the world travel. It was pure genius and an actual attainable goal. I was eventually hired by a larger company that did not have quite as many perks as my friend's company, and I took a substantial cut in base pay. However, I am now working in an industry I truly love. Not only do I enjoy the benefits from my company, but I love helping other people plan their vacation. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to their destination as well.

Unfortunately, when I was in college I did not take advantage of some of the programs offered to help students find a career path that fit with their desires. I since have learned that there were many degrees such as recreational management and hospitality service degrees that would have enabled me to get a job in an area I loved faster than I eventually did. If I had to do it over again, I would have gone to the career counseling centers offered at my school and would not have wasted two years of my life in a job that I abhorred.