©2008 Ryan Patrick Clarke Photograph

Sarah Nun has worked in youth development for over a decade, and is the Vice President of Mental Karate—an organization that has helped youth take over 100,000 inspired actions across the U.S. and Canada. She has served as the executive editor for numerous publications, including the highly acclaimed book Team Clock: A Guide to Breakthrough Teams. Sarah earned a Bachelor’s degree from Wheaton College, and is currently completing her Master’s in Sociology at DePaul University in Chicago. Her documentary film researching vocational trends among recent college graduates in urban environments is due for release in 2010.

Gisele Nelson:  You’re doing a documentary with 20-somethings.  Why are you doing it?

Sarah Nun: I’m producing a filmic ethnography for the thesis portion of my graduate work in sociology. I am using film as a means to capture the cultural context and articulate the lived experience of a particular cohort. I am looking at recent college graduates who have migrated to major urban areas. In particular, I am interested in their attitudes toward vocation. To a certain extent it is a study of privilege. People with college degrees have more job options, so vocation becomes somewhat of a luxury item. I have been filming folks in Chicago, Atlanta, and Portland, Oregon over the past three years.

Gisele: Explain what you’re hoping to accomplish with this project.

SARAH: My research is a reaction to neatly packaged theories about what has been called the “creative class” (see: Richard Florida) – highly educated, analytical people who bring an unprecedented set of expectations to their jobs. These theories also extend to dialogue about globalization, information technology, and urban development. I wanted to show a more comprehensive picture of what a member of said “creative class” experiences on a daily basis. How do they go about making decisions about where to live, work, and spend their time? What characterizes their interpersonal relationships? What are the values that drive the structure of their lives? What are the inherent challenges?

Gisele: With all the interviews you are doing, what are the most consistent threads you are seeing?

Sarah: One of the most significant observations is a redefinition of class. Traditionally, class has been understood in economic terms of lower, middle and upper. While these definitions still exist to some extent, there is a greater emphasis on class as cultural affiliation. You have attorneys and baristas sharing virtually the same lifestyle outside of their job. This isn’t just a matter of shared hobbies or coincidental neighbors, but rather people hold loose ties to the corporations/entities for which they work.

On the other hand—and this seems contradictory at first glance—there is more weight attached to one’s vocation. One’s job is viewed as an extension of one’s self, an expression of one’s values. If someone is an attorney or doctor it is because they feel compelled to use their resources (brains, money, educational opportunities) to help people. If someone is a barista it is rarely because they love making coffee. Rather, in many cases it is an expression of voluntary downward mobility. They’re rebelling against their family’s connections to higher paying jobs, rebelling against corporate America (unless, of course they’re working for a corporately owned coffee shop), or they simply choose the relaxed life-style that offers them more flexibility to pursue what they really want to do—their art or non-profit work, the business they are starting on the side.

With the rising significance of cultural affiliation comes a greater emphasis on location, because culture is mostly concentrated geographically. What this means is people follow culture rather than jobs. People in this cohort migrate to cities that possess the lifestyles with which they identify, rather than where jobs are available. It is more likely they would relocate out of boredom or a general sense of dissatisfaction with their life than for a job opportunity.

Gisele:  Why do you think it’s important to talk about the changing career trends of this generation of workers?

SARAH: It’s important because it’s happening on a large scale and is indicative of a generational mindset. The promise that a briefcase and corner office will bring happiness has mostly faded. People are looking for one of two things – either a job that is in line with their deepest passions, or a job that provides enough flexibility to allow them to pursue their deepest passions outside of work. However, in fleeing an unfulfilling job, an almost spiritual expectation is attached to vocation. If your job is supposed to be the expression of your values and personality, if the emphasis is on finding a vocation that uniquely suits your talents and interests and makes you deeply happy, can any job meet these qualifications?

As with any trend, these experiences are not true for everyone. For many people a job is still just a job – a means to an end. And plenty of people are still working hard to climb the corporate ladder. But the reality is that in today’s economy more job security actually resides with those who chase the aforementioned sense of dissatisfaction. A good resume is one that is saturated with diverse experiences and a person who is able to think outside the box.

Gisele: Why do you think the importance has shifted from merely bringing in a paycheck to working in a job where their passions lie?

SARAH: Most significantly it is a result of globalization. As factory jobs have moved overseas, well-paying jobs in the United States have increasingly become information based – creating the need for higher education. Globalization has also shown us the insecurity of corporate affiliation. White collar jobs are now being off shored in increasing number. Today’s job security is necessarily tied to the constant accumulation of knowledge, a multidimensional resume, and a sense of autonomy that allows one to shift vocations seamlessly. So, the shift has occurred as a means to survival, but is intensified by the fact that the more knowledge one accumulates the less a mundane job seems bearable. People who have been trained to think analytically become frustrated when a job doesn’t cater to their strongest skill set.

Gisele:  Are there any negatives you see coming out of this or do you think it’s a mostly positive change and why?

SARAH:  I definitely think there can be some negative consequences. On some level these trends are expression of dissatisfaction, entitlement and a post-modern obsession with one’s own identity. If you follow the mindset through you end up with a world where your job, city, relationships, place of worship, everything should exist to make you happy. Although many in this cohort are focused on social justice and working in non-profit, there is the looming threat that even this can be an avenue to self-satisfaction – i.e. an escape from a less fulfilling job and a way to ease one’s own guilt. In the end, perhaps it doesn’t matter whether we work to make the world a better place out of purity of motive or not – as long as the job gets done. But what will we do when we get tired of our causes? Do we want to live in a world where a sense of obligation has nearly disappeared?

Gisele:  In your research, what are you finding out about how these trends overall affect culture?

SARAH:  I think all good social research shows us our story is larger than ourselves. The twenty-three-year old who graduates from a Midwestern university with a B.A. in English and moves to Seattle because the city sounds cool, who passes up an office job to stock groceries for $8.00 an hour so he has more flexibility with his band’s practice schedule, and who after a couple of years decides to go do relief work in Latin America before then enrolling in graduate school – is not, in reality, a very individualistic story. Understanding the world as a collection of trends is important because it shows us what our cultural values are, what the education system, technological developments, and even public policy has done to shape the way we invest ourselves. Conversely, we can understand how this generation is shaping these entities.  There is much to grapple with regarding the sense of dissatisfaction characterizing this generation. Dissatisfaction compels us to move forward, but can also be self-serving and misappropriated when we expect things like jobs, cities and even people to fulfill longings in the human soul that they can never satisfy.