Welcome back to Moving from College to Career! We will continue to use this space to share practical guidance you can actually apply as you explore careers and prepare for recruiting.
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Today's Tactics: What to Do Instead of “Follow Your Passion”
“Follow your passion” might be the most common career advice given to college students and one of the least helpful.
In his Duke commencement speech, Jerry Seinfeld poked fun at this idea, arguing that waiting to discover one great, all-consuming passion is a recipe for paralysis. Instead, he suggested something far more practical: let go of the drama, do the work in front of you, and pay attention to what you find genuinely interesting.
Or as he put it more memorably, "Fascination is way better than passion."
That’s a useful reframe. You don’t need to identify the one thing you’ll love forever. You need chances to explore, notice what energizes you, and learn what kinds of work you don’t mind doing, even when it’s hard.
What to do this week:
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Pay attention to what fascinates you. Topics, problems, classes, conversations.
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Have one conversation with someone working in a field you’re curious about.
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Read a few real job descriptions and note what excites you versus what turns you off.
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Explore a structured way to test interests, such as the Introships Career Discovery Program for this upcoming summer.
Career clarity doesn’t come from waiting for passion to strike. It comes from effort, curiosity, and exposure over time.
Speaker Spotlight: Another Take on Passion and Career Choices
Frank Bennett shared candid, practical advice with Introships participants that echoes the theme above.
“A lot of people say find your passion and you’ll never work another day in your life. I think that’s BS. The reality is...find a way to make decent money, and your lifestyle will be your passion.”
He cautioned that it’s misleading to set young people on the path of believing their work must be their passion. Work can be a means to an end and that’s not a failure. In fact, it can be a smart strategy.
Alumni Spotlight: How Introships Connected Her to Her First Employer
Riley Moore (Davidson '25) didn’t start college knowing exactly what she wanted her early career to look like. By the end of her freshman year, she had explored paths including pre-med, economics, and even law school.
In her words: “Introships was amazing in the sense that I had to really look inward and see what I wanted in the future. I also got to listen to a lot of great companies speak and actually one of the companies was Barings!”
Today, Riley is a High Yield Analyst at Barings, having turned early exploration into a focused and intentional start to her career.
We hope you found this useful. Reply anytime with questions or feedback, and stay tuned for more from Introships on LinkedIn / Instagram!
Joe Fiveash & Sean Wetmore
