Overheard at Stanford: “You’re in New York!”

Overheard at Stanford is a biweekly column written by Linden Hansen ’27. Hansen takes notable quotes she hears around campus and develops them further — whether they be insightful, astonishing or humorous! No matter what, they are guaranteed to represent the pulse of the student body.

“It’s like… You’re in New York! You’re working a new job! Do you have opinions about the world?!”

— Overheard at Casper Dining outdoor tables

It’s the weekend of my third real week at Stanford (we’re not counting NSO). It’s Saturday morning: birds are twittering, a breeze is flowing, it’s happily 54 degrees, construction grinds on in the distance and so does the lingering urge to do something. 

Upon overhearing this student’s sarcastic lament, I could not help but feel pleased. Another Stanford student who doesn’t put all the weight in the world on a career… I collect them like bottle caps.

It’s true — no one ever said they didn’t want money. If they did, I applaud them. Money is freedom, and freedom is a means of securing mobility, driving impact and fostering change. But that doesn’t justify the insurmountable pressure placed upon us to have it all figured out at eighteen, let alone third grade, when “What’s your dream job?” was the demanded fun fact of the day in circle time.

Dr. Darrick Smith, Oakland native and founder of TryUMF, a program teaching local students fundamentals in sociology, feminism and critical theory, was a speaker in a class I attended this quarter —  Public Service and Social Impact: Pathways to Purposeful Careers. We expected him to talk on career paths and readiness. Instead, he practically yelled at us: DON’T STRESS ABOUT YOUR JOB. YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW WHAT YOU WANT TO DO (almost implying we were naive if we thought we did). 

Smith stressed the importance of evolution, or in other words, riding a roller-coastering career trajectory. 

He mourned the loss of childish dreaming in our fast-paced world, and emphasized that the drive to be “career ready” in our society stems from economic motivation at the top — schools that are incentivized to produce high-performing students (that’s us) in return for funding. 

“It has been done to you” echoes in my brain now when I think of myself sitting in that lecture room, the fuel behind my motivations sucked out and hung up dry. “Asking a five-year-old child what job they want is ridiculous… they should be dropping things and pulling hair,” Smith said.

So what even is a career? What is success? Do we find it “in New York?” Is it “working a new job?” And in the process of obtaining it, do we lose sight, neglecting to sustain our true “opinions about the world?”

Traversing the opinions — the experiences, the values, the convictions — of the Stanford student body has been a distinguishing delight in recent weeks. It’s a breath of fresh air when someone asserts a long-pondered sentiment — a core belief held dear to their soul, nurtured into resilience against skeptical pokes and prods.

Our admin want us to ponder, to really think about the opinions we deem most crucial and ask the questions that make us who we are… or do they? 

A career fair is shoved down our throats, and it is all tech booths.

A civic, liberal, global education is required through COLLEGE courses, yet the creative writing program is drowning. 

Is this what I came to college for? To have my ambitions repressed and replaced with code? I don’t know what I want to do yet, and I’m bashful to admit I actually do like coding. But I also like writing, creating, designing, formulating, calculating and philosophizing. Passion isn’t meant to be boxed in. A career does not need one path. The greatest piece of advice I’ve received recently is the idea of the pivot: always be ready to move on if one ambition collapses. A bunch of eggs in one basket… probably only means broken eggs. 

And, if I have to sacrifice my worldly opinions to have a shiny new job, I think I would rather not live in New York anyway.