On meeting a person for the first time, our first question is often "What do you do?" That is, we ask what they do for a living, what their job is, because we feel this will help us place them. It helps us to define their status. We can judge where they stand socially, we can make a guess at how much they earn, and through that what kind of a standard of living they can afford. In addition, it can give us a fairly good idea of their educational background.
The problem is that people often choose a career for the wrong reasons. For instance, some people follow in the footsteps of a parent, either entering the same trade or profession, or inheriting the family business. Others make exactly the opposite decision, either out of a fierce desire for independence, or to spite a parent, or simply to get away from family. They decide that whatever else they might do, they will certainly not do what their mother or father did. People may also persuade themselves to pursue a career for which they are unsuited out of hero-worship, or as a result of meeting people they admire. It is a pity that we have to make such an important decision about our future career at a stage in our lives when we are so easily influenced by factors which have little or nothing to do with the central issue, namely, that we should do those things for which we have a natural talent.