Christopher Michaelson, an assistant professor of ethics and business law at the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis, has conducted a classroom exercise on meaningful work over the past few years. That research is the basis for an article in the 2009 Journal of Business Ethics Education. Over the course of each academic term, he asks undergraduate and graduate business students three questions:

1. A year out of this program what do you expect your job will be?

2. What kind of job contributes the most to general well being?

3. Practicality aside, if you could be doing anything 10 years from now, what would it be?

The first question is one of pragmatics, figuring out market fit and also the reality of needing to pay off loans and support a family. The second has more to do with the idea of social responsibility, of what we should do and not what we’re motivated to do in terms of self-realization or economic necessity. And the third helps define what students consider their dream job.

What’s striking is that there is almost no overlap among the students’ answers to these questions.

For the first students often respond by discussing jobs in finance, marketing and information technology. They talk about becoming banking managers, financial analysts or IT analysts. For the second they discuss fields like education, medicine and public safety. They discuss becoming a social worker, research scientist, doctor, teacher or charity director. For the third they talk of working in the arts, entertainment or sports and recreation. In their dream jobs, they see themselves as professional athletes, entrepreneurs, filmmakers and travel guides.

The question then becomes: Why are students studying so hard and paying so much to reach objectives that are neither what they dream of nor what they think of as especially responsible?

[Source: http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/11/meaningful-work-employment-leadership-careers-mitsloan.html]