Career Choices Quotes & Sayings

It's thematic in my career, if you look at most of my choices. It is some level of exploration of maternal angst and maternal heroism. — Vera Farmiga

Never let your fear of the unknown and things being too difficult make your choices for you in life. One of the saddest lessons in life is finding out that your fear made the situation worse than what it was and a braver person stole the dream you gave up on. — Shannon L. Alder

The childhood poverty of both my parents and their minimal education did much to influence me and my two younger brothers in our education and career choices. One brother became a dentist and the other, a professor of anthropology with a Ph.D. degree. — Ferid Murad

Insanity is starting over a million times, expecting to feel the spark you never did the first time. — Shannon L. Alder

My whole family was very supportive of my choice in a career. I started playing music when I was about 6 years old. — Leland Sklar

Advertising. I'd definitely like to try that. In fact, it was a genuine second choice career-wise. I'd be good at selling stuff - I've got the gift of the gab. — Tony Blackburn

I think I made the wrong career choice — Tony Blair

Sometimes I get extremely disturbed with the things that are written. But you can't do anything about it. As a celebrity, you are putting yourself out there to be judged, and that's fine. I am now learning not to get affected by such things. I am building my career and making choices that I think are right while minding my own business. — Anushka Sharma

Imagine that you are agonizing over a choice - which career to pursue, whether to get married, how to vote, what to wear that day. You have finally staggered to a decision when the phone rings. It is the identical twin you never knew you had. During the joyous conversation it comes out that she has just chosen a similar career, has decided to get married at around the same time, plans to cast her vote for the same presidential candidate, and is wearing a shirt of the same color - just as the behavioral geneticists who tracked you down would have bet. How much discretion did the "you" making the choices actually have if the outcome could have been predicted in advance, at least probabilistically, based on events that took place in your mother's Fallopian tubes decades ago? — Steven Pinker

My father's peripatetic career also gave me critical perspective when it came to my own career choices. — Hannah Storm

If you're lucky enough to pick what you do, that's the greatest career you can have. Ultimately, that's my goal: to have choices. — James Marsden

I think I'm learning to be bolder in my career choices and be more confident in my personal life. I haven't always felt very secure as an individual, but now I feel I certain confidence and sense of self that gets me through the day a lot better than before. — Winona Ryder

Everybody gets typecast in movies, but you have to make wise choices. I'd say around 90 percent of movie casting is about the way you look, so you have to fight that. If producers had their way, I'd only be in action films, but I'm interested in a more varied career than that. — Famke Janssen

Our 20s are the defining decade of adulthood. 80% of life's most defining moments take place by about age 35. 2/3 of lifetime wage growth happens during the first ten years of a career. More than half of Americans are married or are dating or living with their future partner by age 30. Personality can change more during our 20s than at any other decade in life. Female fertility peaks at 28. The brain caps off its last major growth spurt. When it comes to adult development, 30 is not the new 20. Even if you do nothing, not making choices is a choice all the same. Don't be defined by what you didn't know or didn't do. — Meg Jay

In the reality - TV era, unstable behavior become a valid career choice. — James Poniewozik

In business, your positive thoughts and lifestyle choices lead to your personal success and your career success. — Jeffrey Gitomer

I tell all the young guys, don't make choices because somebody else is telling you it's good from a career-maintenance perspective. — Brad Pitt

I think it's hard for women to be directors, particularly in the feature world because, biologically, your peak career-making years are also your peak baby-making years, and that's just the truth. And those are choices women have to make. — Laura Ziskin

Talking to the animals? Is that really how you want to start your day?"
"Manny was helping me get my life back on track. We're discussing life goals and career choices."
Maya held up her hands. "Not before coffee, I beg you. — Susan Mallery

I'm a working actress able to make choices based on characters rather than what I 'should' do for my career. — Selma Blair

Professionally, I really respect Natalie Portman - her career choices, actually going for stuff with substance. — Maiara Walsh

I like being a mother, and I want to be involved in my work, so I have to make choices. If you're a film actress, your career is from 20 to 45, but you can still dream. — Juliette Binoche

There is nothing more important in my life than being a father. I will never allow any of my career choices or aspirations to threaten this bond. — Corey Hart

If I were to look back at my career, I think my greatest achievement is very simple. I've been able to make choices where I could glorify God. — Roma Downey

when true purpose calls, double mindedness, confusion and frustration come along. — Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

Within the first twenty years of our lives, before we are really adult, we make choices motivated by insecurity, fear, and other people's expectations; certinly not guided by clarity and wisdom. We plod along for years living with the wrong career or spousal choice, in a location we did not choose and perhaps do not like, and much more. One day we wake up restless and confused, and acknowledge that we have no agenda of our own, and that we have been living someone else's passion, their dream. — Joan Medlicott

If you look at anybody who's had along career, if you look at the choices they've made - even if the movies haven't worked - they've always worked with great filmmakers. — Bradley Cooper

Whatever you do, do it with purpose. Being focused is not something to be ashamed of. It is something to be proud of. When you know what are you are doing and have a clear vision of where you are going, you will not need to chase opportunities. Opportunities will seek you. Happiness will chase you. And, instead of being a choice, you will be the one choosing. — Najwa Zebian

I've done a lot of independent travelling, which hasn't been the best career choice, but it's been a really great life choice. — Nikki Reed

Fortunately, our colleges and universities are fully cognizant of the problems I have been delineating and take concerted action to address them. Curricula are designed to give coherence to the educational experience and to challenge students to develop a strong degree of moral awareness. Professors, deeply involved with the enterprise of undergraduate instruction, are committed to their students' intellectual growth and insist on maintaining the highest standards of academic rigor. Career services keep themselves informed about the broad range of postgraduate options and make a point of steering students away from conventional choices. A policy of noncooperation with U.S. News has taken hold, depriving the magazine of the data requisite to calculate its rankings. Rather than squandering money on luxurious amenities and exorbitant administrative salaries, schools have rededicated themselves to their core missions of teaching and the liberal arts.
I'm kidding, of course. — William Deresiewicz

She didn't know then that life has a way of backing you into a corner. You make your choices when you're far too young to understand their implications, and with each choice you make the field of possibility narrows. You choose a career and other careers are lost to you. You choose a mate and commit to loving no other. — A.S.A Harrison

Mike Leigh taught me about making choices - as an actor, you choose between being honest and clever, and with Mike, it's always about being honest. I learned how to behave on a film set from Jim Broadbent. He was a great example of someone with a fantastic career who kept his feet on the ground. — Eddie Marsan

What I'm interested in is how your career choices can affect your private life, romantically or with your mom, your relatives, your friends, your hometown, and how media manipulates information - not newspapers or blogs, but the magazines that people impulse-buy that tell you what's hot and who's not. — Xavier Dolan

So there's a choice that I made to tell stories that are still psychological melodramas about domestic issues. The challenge is to figure out how to make 10 films a career as a filmmaker, and that's a really challenging thing. — Ira Sachs

I'm trying to go with the flow, which is not what I used to do. I used to try to micromanage my career choices. — Aaron Lazar

It's not always so great to be objectified, but I don't feel I have much of a choice right now. I'm young in my career. I know I have to strike when the iron is hot. — Jessica Alba

I'm a really good cook. I left home to start my career at 15 - so my choices were to either learn to cook or eat Ramen noodles for the rest of my life. — Jaime Pressly

Don't make career choices on short-term financial gain. Job satisfaction and career enjoyment are far more important. — Henry Samueli

the tougher you are on yourself, the easier life will be on you. The quality of your life ultimately is shaped by the quality of your choices and decisions, ones that range from the career you choose to pursue to the books you read, the time that you wake up every morning and the thoughts you think during the hours of your days. When you consistently flex your willpower by making those choices that you know are the right ones (rather than the easy ones), you take back control of your life. — Robin S. Sharma

Because you do it out of passion, as well as hoping it will bring better opportunity. It's like you're investing in yourself, so although you don't see anything up front there's always the possibility that the kind of compensation that is priceless can come later. For someone who's striving to get where they're meant to be, opportunity over a quick buck is something that will always be taken by the wise. Because they know opportunity is king, and all other benefits will follow... — Rico Lamoureux

Balancing my film career and my music will be something I'm just going to have to deal with, as it happens. I think I can balance it out; the choices will probably be pretty clear. If there's a movie I just have to do, I will work the music around it. — Lukas Haas

You perception of a person, place, or thing may not be accurate. Just because it looks good does not mean it is good and vice versa. Always be aware of your surroundings. Pay attention to the people, places, and things around you. Don't allow your misperception to put you in an uncomfortable situation. — Amaka Imani Nkosazana

When I decided to take on acting as a career and a profession, I didn't know much about it. I knew that I was passionate about it. There was nothing else I could think of that I wanted to do and that's when I knew it was the right choice. It was also one of the scariest moments of my life. — Drew Waters

Our lives are made up of choices. Big ones, small ones, strung together by the thin air of good intentions; a line of dominoes, ready to fall. Which shirt to wear on a cold winter's morning, what crappy junk food to eat for lunch. It starts out so innocently, you don't even notice: go to this party or that movie, listen to this song, or read that book, and then, somehow, you've chosen your college and career; your boyfriend or wife. — Abigail Haas

Over the past decades, students who have blindly followed their passion, without rational analysis of whether their choice of career truly was wise, have been more unhappy with their job choices than those who coupled passion with rationality. — Barbara Oakley

Quite a lot of what passes itself off as dialogue about our society consists of people trying to justify their own choices (pursuing a creative career instead of making money; breastfeeding over formula; not having children in an overpopulated world) as the only right or natural ones by denouncing others' as selfish and wrong. So it's easy to overlook that it all arises out of insecurity. — Tim Kreider

Book your life choices in advance the same way you would book flights, car rentals, hotels, and excursions. Figure out early on in your career whether you intend to be financially independent or marry a rich man, join the ranks of the professional elite or be the stay-at- home type, postpone having children or find part-time employment. Then fasten your seat belt and sit tight as you watch your trajectory veer off course. — Veronique Vienne

Larry implored us to exert more control over our careers. He said McKinsey would never stop making demands on our time, so it was up to us to decide what we were willing to do. It was our responsibility to draw the line. We needed to determine how many hours we were willing to work in a day and how many nights we were willing to travel. If later on, the job did not work out, we would know that we had tried on our own terms. Counterintuitively, long-term success at work often depends on not trying to meet every demand placed on us. The best way to make room for both life and career is to make choices deliberately - to set limits and stick to them. — Sheryl Sandberg

When we graduate from childhood into adulthood, we're thrown into this confusing, Cthulhu-like miasma of life, filled with social and career problems, all with branching choices and no correct answers. — Felicia Day

To me, beauty is confidence. I think I'm pretty confident in the decisions and the choices I make in my personal life and career, but the same time I also let my fans know that, just like them, I have insecurities. I have moments when I don't feel good about myself. I think people can forget that, at the end of the day, I'm just a normal girl dealing with lots of the same issues as them. — Selena

Very early on in writing the series, I remember a female journalist saying to me that Mrs Weasley, 'Well, you know, she's just a mother.' And I was absolutely incensed by that comment. Now, I consider myself to be a feminist, and I'd always wanted to show that just because a woman has made a choice, a free choice to say, 'Well, I'm going to raise my family and that's going to be my choice. I may go back to a career, I may have a career part time, but that's my choice.' Doesn't mean that that's all she can do. And as we proved there in that little battle, Molly Weasley comes out and proves herself the equal of any warrior on that battlefield. — J.K. Rowling

I couldn't get the laughter out of my head. It wasn't career. It wasn't even a choice. It was a calling. — Carol Burnett

I think women should have choices and should be able to do what they like, and I think it's a great choice to stay at home and raise kids, just as it's a great choice to have a career. But I don't entirely approve of people who get advanced degrees and then decide to stay at home. I think if society gives you the gift of one of those educations and you take a spot in a very competitive institution, then you should do something with that education to help others ... But I also don't approve of working parents who look down on stay-at-home mothers and think they smother their children. Working parents are every bit as capable of spoiling children as ones who don't work - maybe even more so when they indulge their kids out of guilt. The best think anyone can teach their children is the obligation we all have toward each other - and no one has a monopoly on teaching that. — Will Schwalbe

I realized much later in life that the reason this decision between MIT and IBM was so agonizing was because it wasn't really about choosing a career; it was about deciding who I was, which part of myself I wanted to be, and that's the hardest decision any of us has to make. — Mike Massimino

Life is about making tough choices. Sometimes you have to go where your career is going. — Bill Maher

All I can tell you is that you cannot make choices in your own career, either career choices or choices when you're actually working as an actor, based on trying to downplay or live up to a comparison with somebody else. You just can't do that. You have to do your own work based on your own gut, your own instincts, and your own life. — Brandon Lee

So each time you do a shift in your life, right, or you do a change in your life, then sometimes it feels like it's not gonna happen. And your career is not gonna do well. And the next thing you know is that these choices that you make actually catapult you to the next level. — Goldie Hawn

I'm only at the beginning of my career, but I feel successful in that I haven't sold out in any way, shape or form. I feel good about the choices I've made, and I don't feel like I've let go of any of my values. — Zoe Kravitz

Choosing safety is a choice of life over career. — Warren Farrell

Our choices decide our direction and carve a path for our personal lives and our careers. — Michael Thomas Sunnarborg

As actors, you like to think about the luxury of having choices in your career, but for the most part you kind of take whatever comes your way and hope that you carved out something that you're proud of in the end. — Marin Ireland

My parents always encouraged us to get an education and establish a profession. However, my brothers and I grew up with considerable freedom, whether it was saving or spending our tips from the restaurant or our career choices. — Ferid Murad

I think I'm a very pretty girl. I'm never going to pretend to think otherwise. There are even days I feel I'm fabulously hot and sexy. I'm grateful for my looks. My family is doing well because of them. I can make career choices and turn down movies because of them and I have been making money from them for 17 years. My looks are who I am. — Milla Jovovich

People always ask me about career choices, though it rarely ever seems like any kind of choice. It's just like, I really want to do something, this is what I can do, and that's it. I'm lucky to be doing this at all. — Emile Hirsch

Just pay close attention to what excites you and what drains you. Pay close attention to when you're being the real you and when you're trying to impress an invisible jury. — Derek Sivers

There have definitely been ebbs and flows in my career, but, you know, part of the reason is that I'm a mom. I have a five-year-old daughter. She really factors into my choices, and I never want to go too long without seeing her. — Sandrine Holt

Living a life somewhere else in your mind is nothing more than being a prisoner where you are. — Shannon L. Alder

I'm not arrogant enough to look back on my career and criticize my choices. It's really not my place. — Matthew McConaughey

I've come to realize your career is all about the choices you make. Every single one matters. — Demi Lovato

Where you hang your feelings is where you hang your focus. — Shannon L. Alder

It was as if my sould had left my body, floated up to the ceiling, and was watching me destroy my own career with one deliberately assaultive punch. (Dark City Lights) — Peter Hochstein

I put my career in second place throughout both my marriages and it suffered. I don't regret it. You make choices. If you want a good marriage, you must pay attention to that. If you want to be independent, go ahead. You can't have it all. — Lauren Bacall

It's true that youth is wasted on the young and, if I had my life to live over again, I suppose I would pay more attention to my career. I would make better choices. But, in my defence, I would say that I have three wonderful children, and that's something I am very proud of. — Olivia Hussey

That character called 'Robin Wright' in the movie called 'The Congress' has nothing to do with me ... I've never felt that way about life choices, career, etc. — Robin Wright

There is no plan ... You need to make smart choices, But you can make career decisions for two different types of reasons.
You can do something for instrumental reasons
because you think it's going to lead to something else, regardless of whether you enjoy it or it's worthwhile ... or you can do something for fundamental reasons
because you think it's inherently valuable, regardless of what it may or may not lead to.
The dirty little secret is that insturmental reasons usually don't work. Things are too complicated, too unpredictable. You never know what' going to happen. So you end up stuck. The most successful people
not all of the time, but most of the time
make decisions for fundamental reasons.
They take a job or join a company because it will let them do interesting work in a cool place
even if they don't know exactly where it will lead. They're not fools. They're enlightened pragmatists. — Daniel H. Pink

A lot of people do things out of fear. A lot of people make choices [based on thinking] they won't have a career in five years. I know where I am, I know what I do is worth something and does not have an expiration date on it. I'm not making choices - in any capacity of my life, with any kind of endorsement, with any kind of product - out of fear. — Katy Perry

Effective life management isn't about finding more time to fill; it's about recognizing you don't have to do anything you do not choose to do. Hiding a choice behind a "have to" is irresponsible. Everything filling the white space in your life is there because you chose to put it there. We always have the power to say, "No." We just need to be ready to live with the consequences. — Joe Jordan

You know, it looks like I have a varied resume or a varied career, that I've made interesting choices, when the truth of the matter is, in a way I've just kind of piece-mealed a career together, you know? — Adam Scott

Many times an actor is stuck for the lack of choices. The same happened with me when I started my career. That was the time when mainly romantic films were being made, and that is what I was offered all the time. — Arjun Rampal

There are no guarantees with finally being honest and coming clean with people. Sometimes you don't win love back. Sometimes you lose the love you had. Sometimes you crush people that cared. Sometimes you break apart families. Sometimes you lose your career. Sometimes you lose your way of life. Sometimes you end up worse off than you were before. However, you walk away with a heart free from lies, regret and you have closure. Within time, you find yourself in a life that is far from the prison you once lived in. This type of freedom is the scariest road you will ever travel. However, it is the road God will never let you travel alone. — Shannon L. Alder

For any of us in this room today, let's start out by admitting we're lucky. We don't live in the world our mothers lived in, our grandmothers lived in, where career choices for women were so limited. — Sheryl Sandberg

Casting is everything. I put a huge amount of work into casting, and consistently across my career, I am most proud of my bold choices I made in casting. — Doug Liman

I've certainly done some turkeys along the way and made some dumb choices in my career, mostly early on. I'm one of the lucky ones who got to make a lot of mistakes very early when no one was paying attention. — George Clooney

In life, most short cuts end up taking longer than taking the longer route. — Suzy Kassem

I come from a middle class family, and my parents weren't too supportive of my career choices. — Kangana Ranaut

Sometimes you just need some reassurance about your Choice before you take any decision. — Auliq Ice

As an economist specializing in the global economy, international trade and debt, I have spent most of my career helping others make big decisions - prime ministers, presidents and chief executives - and so I'm all too aware of the risks and dangers of poor choices in the public as well as the private sphere. — Noreena Hertz