Earlier this spring, U.S. News & World Report had a front cover headline: "Great Jobs Ahead!" Its subheads were equally exclamatory: "Cool options for college grads," "How to land that great spot now."
Talk about good news, maybe worth two exclamation points!! USN&WR tells us "workers are suddenly realizing they can demand a little bit more" in salary and amenities: Workers can get jobs in places where "the quality of life" is high, with one indication of that being an "abundance of ski slopes."
USN&WR performs an additional service by noting occupations "where the hiring is the hottest" -- such as education paraprofessional, forensic scientist, dental hygienist, and biomedical engineer -- and reporting three pieces of information about each: "How hot," "How to land the job" and "How much."
What's missing from this picture? Before answering that question, consider a second article, a recent New York Times piece about college students who are majoring in poker. The NYT poster boy was Michael Sandberg, 22, a Princeton senior who won $10,000 last summer: "My parents thought I should do something useful. ... I thought that was pretty useful." He has won $120,000 since September in Atlantic City and, according to the NYT, plans to make poker his postgraduate occupation: "I don't think I can make $120,000 doing anything but poker."
What's missing from both articles is one word, "calling," a word suggesting that God calls people -- sometimes dramatically, often subtly -- into various occupations that productively use their God-given talents. We need money, but money's not the prime reason for working, and by itself does not make a job "useful."
So don't lower the boom on Sandberg: He's following USW&NR's materialistic way of thinking. Nowhere in its long cover story does the magazine emphasize what people actually do all day on their jobs. Its emphasis is on material rewards and on what a job enables people to do off-the-job.
Poker is thus one "useful" occupation among others -- and USN&WR list of hot occupations includes "casino cage worker." That's because "there are plenty of applicants for glamorous jobs like poker dealer and big-tip jobs like waitress. Better odds can be had in the 'cage,' where cashiers turn gamblers' bills into chips and supervisors keep watch on the cash."