How does religion affects one's career choice?

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vg2903's picture
How does religion affects one's career choice?

Most of the time, there is not much influence a person’s religion would have on a career choice, which is why using religion as a factor in hiring is illegal in this country (the U.S.). Only in the case of certain occupations is religion legally allowed to be considered - for instance, a church hiring a pastor has a legitimate legal interest in only considering people who belong to that particular faith.

Also people with strong religious convictions about violence, or use of physical force, or war, would not choose a career that involves any of those - so not the military, not the police, and so on.
For the most part, this is a question whose answer depends on the attitudes and beliefs of the individual who is choosing a particular career. There are a very few careers that people only choose because of their religion. However, for the most part, religion plays a different role in affect different people’s career choices, even if they choose to enter the same careers(https://cbseneet2019.co.in/).

There are a few careers that people only pursue because of religion. Presumably no one (or very few people) enter the ministry for reasons...religion affects one's career choice

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Cognostic's picture
@vipin kumar: Not sure.

@vipin kumar: Not sure. Someone should do a study. It will be interesting to see where this one goes. I don't know that religion is much of an influence at all. I think people justify what they do through religion. Ideas like, "God will forgive me." or "God is testing me." or "It's all a part of God's plan for me." will go a long way in allowing a theist to do anything they end up doing.

LogicFTW's picture
Back when I was picking

Back when I was picking possible careers, I did eliminate a few career paths that were too heavily influenced by religion. Where I lived at the time, teaching, medical and even many government jobs were out, as both the workers and the companies tended to be heavily religious.

boomer47's picture
The Catholic boys school at

The Catholic boys school at which I served seven years churned out tradesmen, public servants and bank clerks. .
Not sure how much that had to do directly with religion unless you count the often absurd career suggestions they often made. This was a bunch of incompetents and idiots, leavened with the odd sexual sadist .

At that time, the federal government public service had two power cliques; Free Masons and Catholics. I was still a practising Catholic at that time.

Grinseed's picture
@ Cranky, interesting stuff.

@ Cranky, interesting stuff.

You don't need religion to get lame career advice, only bureaucracy.
The state high school I attended in the late 60s was almost totally secular.
It churned out tradesmen, public servants,and bank clerks and the odd professional criminal.

I am not aware that there were any sexual predators on staff but it was the sadistic ex-Changi POW teachers, hell bent on discipline that terrified me. It was in the days before legislation declaring the illegality of corporal punishment and bamboo cane beatings as educational tools. I recall the president of the local (and quasi religious) Returned Servicemen's League lamenting in the local paper that this change was the beginning of the end of morality and an insult to the memory of the Fallen.

Meanwhile in school we were guided in career choice by a government career advisory service ie public servants.
On the basis of answers to a bizarre set of puzzles and abstract multiple choice questions my best path was determined to be in the financial sector. I was failing Maths and Economics. My loving but ignorant deaf mute parents, in awe of official government letters generally, and my bullying materialist older siblings, pushed me to follow the government advice (there ain't no money in academic shit). I wasted many years trying to be a good public servant. One day I just walked out and the next I took up labouring work on a construction site earning more money with my shovel . That's when my real education began.

As an aside, looking back I can't help thinking the old public service was much like a monastic order. It jealously maintained almost sacrosanct privileges that earned the envy and scorn of those in the competitive private sector. Was this the outcome of that Catholic/Freemason dynamic? I was, and remain, a naive pagan ex-protestant, who had little knowledge of Catholics and none at all of Free Masons.

Whitefire13's picture
JW’s ... no higher education,

JW’s ... no higher education, no doctors or scientists, no military, maybe govt (depending)....

Anyway to make a long list short - cleaning. JWs clean - window washing, disaster clean up, offices, etc.
I wish I was joking but the proportion of “cleaning” careers within the organization is verrry high.

Kevin Levites's picture
I bumped into a

I bumped into a disproportionate number of religious people working in the medical field . . . especially nurses, and--to some extent--paramedics and EMTs.

There were times and occasions when religion created conflict.

As an example (mentioned in another thread), I discovered--because I'm autistic and have an eidetic memory--that if a wife accompanies her husband (who may, for example, be having a heart attack), that I can use smaller doses of cardiac meds to accomplish whatever it is that I want to do.

This is important, as cardiac drugs can be very powerful, and if you use smaller doses, then there is less chance of dangerous side-effects, and possibly less chance of an untoward reaction (This is an important point, as my ambulance doesn't have the resources that a full-fledged hospital has, so it's vital that we don't complicate an existing problem by creating another one on top of it).

This is probably because the wife knows much more about keeping her husband calm than I do, as I may have known the guy 5 minutes . . . while his wife may have been married to him for 20 years.

I extended these ideas and concepts to cover the other half of the gay and lesbian couples under the principle that a paramedic must be nonjudgmental, and this is what landed me in trouble.

1 hospital bed out of every 6 (1 bed out of every 8, by other estimates) in Florida is in a religious hospital. The religious administration had a hard time--and frequently wrote me up--because I treated a gay couple like a married couple when doing my job.

My administration got pissed off at me, because these hospitals gave our company business in the form of non-emergency transports.

Our company would--quite literally--go bankrupt if we lost these hospital contracts . . . so I was often drawn into conflicts that were harmful to my EMS career.

Someone once asked me why I wouldn't compromise on this principle if it was hurting my career, and the answer is somewhat complicated.

As a paramedic, I made life and death decisions all the time . . . and I was quite comfortable doing this.

To say that I'm comfortable deciding issues of life and death for other people sounds extremely arrogant, but there are 2 reasons why I was comfortable:

1) Someone has to be a paramedic. Without paramedics, the world is a poorer place, and these kind of decisions are part of the job.

2) I have a moral and ethical compass to guide my actions. If we discard this moral compass, then the paramedic is playing God. Playing God is something that I flatly refuse to do.

This state of affairs with hospitals refusing to include gay and lesbian partners in patient care came to a head in Florida (where I worked) with the Lisa Pond/Jackson Memorial Hospital fiasco.

I recounted the situation in another thread, but the gist is that the hospital kept a lesbian from visiting her partner of 18 years when she was dying. They also excluded their children from saying goodbye, as Florida is an "anti-gay state" per the charge nurse.

President Obama intervened, and created guidelines for hospitals that are more inclusive.

It's sad that it had to come to that.

See link below for details:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes...

LogicFTW's picture
On a side note, I wonder how

On a side note, I wonder how many of those religious hospitals realize the hippocratic oath "its original form, it requires a new physician to swear, by a number of healing gods, to uphold specific ethical standards."

Let me restate the bolded part of that: "a number of healing gods."

HAH! They will try their darndest to separate perceived gay couples, but have their staff make oaths to ancient greek gods, just about any of the major religions in florida that I know of, making oaths to a number of "other" gods is a major no no.

So do they just edit hippocratic oaths to suit their needs, or do they just try to ignore this little fact, (while again, making the lives of gay couples miserable because they personally do not like gay couples for completely unevidenced reasons.)

Its sad that religious hypocrisy seeps into even our life saving medical institutions.

Could you even began to imagine the uproar if some atheist created a hospital, but refused to admit religious people because they do not like them for personal, unevidenced reasons? Hoo whee, I would not be surprised if the hospital was not firebombed, kind of like how abortion clinics are treated today by religious nutjobs that want to enforce their unevidenced opinion on others, if not by politics then by pure brutal violence and associated fear.

Kevin Levites's picture
I agree.

I agree.

I get disgusted with religious hospitals for a variety of reasons.

One of the most ridiculous conflicts that I got into had to do with condoms and a Catholic hospital . . . although in fairness, the ambulance service that I worked for backed me up on this.

If soneone has a collapsed lung, the air can keep accumulating in the chest until it pushes against the heart and the opposite lung. It's like somebody inflating a beach ball inside your chest, and pushing everything over against the other side so that your lungs and heart can't function . . . and then you die. The medical term for this is a "tension pneumothorax", which is quite deadly, and is often seen in shootings, car accidents, stabbings, and so forth.*

Fortunately, it can be quickly fixed in the field by using an IV "needle" (actually an IV catheter), and a condom. A finger cut off of a glove may work, but because of the geometry and size, a condom works better. I also preferred using condoms, as they're sterile until opened.

You "stab" the patient in a certian part of the chest through the rolled condom, and this lets the air out just like putting a nail into a tire or an inflated ball.

You then unroll the condom, and it works like a flutter valve to let the air out, but no air can go in.

This saves the patient's life.

The Catholic hospital ER religious administration was insensed that I used condoms for this purpose, as condoms (and other forms of birth control) are not allowed on hospital property under any circumstances.

This flack was from the religious administration, by the way.** The ER doctor high-fived me and took my partner and I out for beer when the shift was over.

See below:

https://books.google.com/books?id=44U5XgThWJsC&pg=SA23-PA20&lpg=SA23-PA2...

-------------------------
* I oversimplified a complicated subject, as this is forum post and not a textbook, so there may be minor discrepancies if you research this subject . . . but the gist of what I'm pointing out is true.

** It was an intensely stressful call, I was exhausted, people had shot at my partner, and part of the flack came from me telling the ER priest to go fuck himself. You had to be there to understand. Mea Culpa.

LogicFTW's picture
A hospital, even a religious

A hospital, even a religious one, against condom use.

WOW. And they still can call themselves a hospital?

Whats next? Banning of latex (or substitute) gloves? Oh no it may be used as a birth control device just like how a birth control device can be used to assist keeping someone alive?!!!

The more I read and learn, the more I learn about absurd new ways religious institutions damage the communities they are in.

Edit:

I bet some latex (or more likely latex alternative) manufacturer makes bank selling special devices that does the same thing as a 5 cent condom can do, for 20 bucks each, that gets billed out to over 100 bucks. And only the most "cadillac" insurance plans in the US cover even 50% or more of EMT's costs. Wonder how many, even reverently religious folks, upon seeing the final bill, and had it explained to them, be okay with: spending 100+ dollars on something that normally cost 5 cents, simply because its not shaped like a condom.

And like you stated, even if only 1 hospital in the area was like that, all the EMT's will have to bow to the demands of that particular hospital, or risk losing perhaps a crippling amount of business.

Or in other words, if I ever found myself in a similar situation I can think: "oh joy, my bill may be an extra 100 dollars because some religious hospital somewhere took objection to a condom being used as a life saving device." Ridiculous.

Grinseed's picture
@Kevin. amazing condom story.

@Kevin. amazing condom story. I now appreciate your avatar but can't decide whether it depicts you dealing with religious medicos or them dealing with your use of a condom. Thanks again for the education and the story.

Kevin Levites's picture
Thank you for reading and

Thank you for reading and answering.

Whitefire13's picture
Kevin - amazing stories. I

Kevin - amazing stories. I have a deep respect and appreciation for those in the medical field. I never “thank God”. I thank them!

Kevin Levites's picture
Thank you.

Thank you.

boomer47's picture
@Grinseeed

@Grinseeed

Don't want to give the wrong impression. There were no sexual predators of whom I was aware at the De La Salle Academy Of Applied Brutality I attended.

Because of their utter incompetence, their preferred teaching aide was the strap. Consequently, one got belted at l least once, most days, for 7 years. Not as much in the senior years. I think they may have realised that by that time, there were some pretty hefty blokes who might just hit them back.

There was one sadist I saw in action and one I heard about from my brother who also attended a few years below. It was clear to us that those crunts enjoyed hitting little boys especially. Hence the description of 'sexual sadist'

At one point I worked in a Social Security regional office, with a staff of 100 . I made a point of asking every single staff member if the public service had been their first career choice. Not one answered yes.

This was an unusual place, with a full 30% of staff having some kind of a degree. (much higher than usual) That meant a lot of very bright people, but also a bigger than expected clique of the very bright, the gifted-odd, weirdos and malcontents . I belonged to that clique, they were interesting. Besides the normals were boring and wouldn't have me.

Has ever been thus. Apparently I irritate such people and they are intimidated by me. A simple fact about which I can do very little.

Grinseed's picture
"the very bright, the gifted

"the very bright, the gifted-odd, weirdos and malcontents"
The description fits most of the co-workers I favoured in my work life. Rebels, alcoholics and misfits. Those with physical and social handicaps make for more interesting and meaningful conversations. And yes, the normal were discriminatory and boring.

Kevin Levites's picture
I see your points, and

I see your points, and largely agree with you.

It's the artists, the eccentrics, the people who aren't easy to fit into a specific box . . . these are the ones who lead us into the future.

How does someone who is completely normal sit down and work out the details of particle physics and quantum mechanics?

The answer is that a normal person wouldn't.

Kevin Levites's picture
In any case, another condom

In any case, another condom story that's almost as ridiculous . . . and, I assure you, quite true.

After my EMS career was over (due to an injury that I prefer not to talk about, if that's ok), I found work as a cardiac technician in a Catholic hospital.

There was a guy I ate lunch with who worked in the environmental clean-up crew. This guy was a recent immigrant from, I believe, Panama . . . although it may have been Ecuador.

In any case, he was a devout Catholic from an intensely Catholic (and impoverished) part of the world.

He helped me refine my Spanish, and I occasionally bought lunch for him. He would sometimes buy me beer after work was over and we'd hit some of the Latin clubs. It was fun, and we were good work friends.

Well, he got multiple needle sticks one day while cleaning up after a "code blue" (ie: a cardiac arrest) and a defective needle box opened up all over him.

He was getting emergency post-exposure AIDS treatment, and part of that entails couseling.

They told him that the meds are great, but not perfect, and that he needed to protect his wife of 26 years for about a year to make sure that he didn't become HIV+.

This is all good . . . so far. But, there's a catch.

They told him he had to abstain from all intimacy with his wife. No condoms. Don't use them, as it's against Church doctorine. It's wrong.

Yet, all other sex acts are wrong, like manual and oral techniques (which carry little risk of infection).

Now . . . for those of you who stuck with me so far, here's where I get to the ultimate point: His wife had a hysterectomy from uterine cancer. No ovaries, no uterus, no Fallopian tubes.

In their case, condoms really are for disease prevention only.

Yet this man had all of this extra strain on his marriage, but he had to be a good Catholic. And yes, they knew about the surgery.

It's shit like this that gets me disgusted with religion.

P.S. (added later after further thought) If I was going to suspend my disbelief and really try to stretch my imagination, I suppose I could argue--from the Priest's point of view--that the act of buying condoms is a "dirty transaction" that supports a harmful industry.

I, for example, would not buy whale meat if I was traveling in Japan or Greenland.

Still . . . this seems like a reach for me. I think I remember reading somewhere that you're never more than three money transactions away from a "dirty transaction". Even so, the bus boycott in the 1950s sparked the civil rights movement by successfully forcing the bus company to integrate from financial pressure.

So . . . I don't know. I still think the situation that I described should never exist.

David Killens's picture
@ Kevin Levites

@ Kevin Levites

"I think I remember reading somewhere that you're never more than three money transactions away from a "dirty transaction".

You know me from this forum. I know my father-in-law through my wife. My father-in-law shook Hitler's hand.

Kevin Levites's picture
Great point! I agree.

Great point! I agree.

LogicFTW's picture
I know a guy that I have

I know a guy that I have chatted quite a lot over the past few years that has a family member that shook Hitler's hand.

Cool!

I got my own to add.

I have in my possession a personally signed document of gratitude by Gerald R Ford given to my grandfather for his service in the WW2.

Gerald R Ford, the 38th president of the US. Vice president to Nixon that took over after he resigned.

The same guy that is the only person in history to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the Electoral College.

The same guy that gave Nixon a full and unconditional pardon for any and all crimes he might have committed against the United States while president.

The guy that signed the documents that started the cold war that nearly led to total nuclear annihilation of this planet, likely more than once.

But hey.. we are still here!

Maximilian's picture
In my case, religion didn't

In my case, religion didn't affect my career choice at all, I was thinking about my career path and salary the most. It didn't take me long to discover a good job offer among Python jobs with relocation assistance, and I can say that I don't regret such a decision at all because I'm more than satisfied with my life.

StephanRees's picture
Religion can have a big

Religion can have a big impact on one's career choices, depending on the individual and the religion they follow. We all have beliefs and values that shape our decisions, and for some, those beliefs and values come from organized religion. For example, someone who is a devout Christian may have beliefs that guide their decisions, including their career choices. They might choose to work in a field that aligns with their beliefs, such as education, ministry, or social work. The important thing is to be true to yourself and your beliefs and make the decision that is right for you, regardless of what religion you may or may not follow.

KyneMalias's picture
It's true that most of the

It's true that most of the time, religion isn't a major factor in career choice. That being said, it's also true that there are certain careers that people pursue specifically because of their religious convictions. Also, certain religious beliefs can determine the types of careers a person might choose--for instance, if someone is against violence, they might not choose a career in the military or law enforcement. If you want to help people, save their lives, and provide meaningful assistance, then you should consider working in the field of medicine and healthcare. Check out this site https://www.exploremedicalcareers.com/ to find the healthcare career that suits your goals. Everyone's experiences, beliefs, and values are different, so it's important to take the time to think about how your own beliefs and values align with the career you're considering. Good luck with your decision!

xoxosta's picture
I'm glad I got into business

I'm glad I got into business at some point. It changed my life. But I can say that it was not easy for me. Especially at the very beginning. For beginners, I can advise you to check list of companies in Singapore. I quite often turn to specialists for help, including company registration, accounting, etc. I think it's a good option to run your business effectively.

davidjohn68's picture
Religious institutions or

Religious institutions or schools may shape an individual's https://slopeonline.org educational path, leading them to pursue careers in theology, religious studies, or other fields that align with their faith-based education.

Annata20's picture
Individuals who have a strong

Individuals who have a strong spiritual link with a higher power and are religious owing to intrinsic motivation are more secure in their capacity to make work https://connectionsnyt.com/ decisions and are open to explore a variety of employment options, according to the findings.

timothyferriss's picture
while religion may not be the

while religion may not be the sole determinant of career choice, it can certainly influence https://spendelonmuskmoney.io/ individuals in various ways as they navigate their professional paths.

nytconnections's picture
Individuals who have a strong

Individuals who have a strong spiritual link with a higher power and are religious owing to intrinsic motivation are more secure in their capacity to make work https://connections-nyt.com/ decisions and are open to explore a variety of employment options, according to the findings.

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