It’s pretty amusing how sometimes in a gathering, people gauge the prestige of your career in terms of that little identifier attached to your name and how much you make. And most of the time, it also comes with the title. If you’re a lawyer or a doctor or a Ph.D. or a CEO, chances are, people will have a good grasp of how you make. Somehow if you mention that you’re a government peon or a quick stop clerk, then people would know that you practically work for peanuts. And have you encountered some hotshot professional in such a party trying to make people think too highly of him? They’re common, aren’t they?

It’s no real surprise that these three (prestige, titles, and the pay) go hand in hand in hand. It’s true that many corporate biggies and hotshots have invested a lot of time trying to get those added titles and graduate and postgraduate degrees (or a great deal of a**-kissing) to climb the corporate ladder. The higher they climb, the bigger the pay.

While there are concrete reasons why these people get the bigger piece of chicken, the danger in this is the great under-appreciation of other fields and jobs which society labels as unglamorous. There are many people who opt for simple lives despite the meager pay. It’s not that they don’t have the drive or the intellect or the skill to go toe-to-toe with these professional hotshots. More often than now, it’s more of a decision. We’ve got a whole bunch of these people - farm folk, those in government service, teachers, etc… Imagine what would happen if no one would take on such lines of work. And the sad thing is they are also affected by prestige mentality.

Let’s take my case for example. For many, the “word” freelance is just the next step out of bumdom. However, I can always call myself a “content consultant” and that ups my ante by a few notches. But it’s just a title. It makes me smile deep inside how people consider me as one close to the dregs of a capitalist society but in reality, if they ask me how much I make they’d find it to be a decent enough sum to put some corporate monkeys thinking too highly of themselves to shame. I have some freelancing friends who can even out-earn a small company. For many of us, the pay’s decent, we love our jobs, but still, we get looked down upon by society’s snobs.

So how do you view your career? Do you get annoyed when people belittle your noble field? As slam poet Taylor Mali says, “I make them understand that if you got this (brains) then you follow this (heart) and if someone ever tries to judge you by what you make, you give them this (the finger).”