A Question For My Readers
As some of you might know, I'm graduating from Penn this semester and have officially started the desperate search for a job with which the real world initiates university students at the end of their undergraduate careers. This being the case, I am facing a somewhat difficult dilemma and would like to request advice from that infinitely profound pool of wisdom that must certainly be my readership.Basically, my problem is that while in the long-term I am interested in having a career serving others in accordance with my Catholic faith, perhaps in the field of human rights (especially the right to life), peace, or poverty reduction, I don't know whether I should try to work with an avowedly Catholic or pro-life organization as a recent college graduate. In other words, I fear that I will be branded in a particular way if I become involved with such organizations and that this will make it difficult for me to have a greater effect later in my career. For example, I have hopes that in a few years I might be able to attend a top graduate program, perhaps in International Relations, but I am worried that doing that sort of work may make it more difficult for me to get into certain schools. I am not unwilling to stand up for my beliefs, but it sometimes seems to me that it might be a good idea to wait a while before being vocal about them in my professional life. One reason, for example, is that people in general might be more willing to listen to someone with, say, a graduate degree from Yale, than someone who has been working in a pro-life organization all his life. Also, with an impressive and relatively "neutral" resume, I may have greater chances of finding high-level jobs at various sorts of organizations in order to help change them from within. I don't want to spend my whole life preaching to the choir.
So what do you think? What type of job should I get? Do you consider that making it obvious that I am Catholic and pro-life could ruin certain important prospects for the future? Let me know.
posted by ertandberni @ 2:07 AM
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