Emily Oster Quotes

There came a point sometime during high school when I started thinking about exploring acting as a career, but it was more of an intention than an actual decision. I was very interested in a lot of different subjects, but every time I envisioned myself actually pursuing one as a career, I always ended up thinking that I would rather be acting.

I was never afraid of taking the wrong job because maybe it would hurt me. I was more interested in the experience.

Having an education is extremely valuable, but we need to help people connect their choice of studies to a potential career at an earlier age so that they are better prepared to get the job they want when the time comes.

I had the privilege of being able to choose, or at least have the opportunity to work at, being anything but an actor.

I thought I wanted to be an electrical engineer, which I turned out to be. But I was always curious about other things too, and what if I got interested in history or the law?

I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. It's funny - people ask me that, and I don't know what to tell them.

Not a great deal is known about the factors in childhood that doubtless underlie a person's choice of career - I'm talking now about a career to which one is passionately committed, in contradistinction to a career chosen merely as a means of earning a living.

I didn't dream about being a director. I didn't know I wanted to do something with film until the summer between my sophomore and junior years at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.

I think it's been confusing for people because I haven't had a linear career.

I think in the early part of my career, the roles were so disparate that it never gave anybody an opportunity to understand my essence and what I would be good at doing, as opposed to what I would not be good at doing, so these little moments of beautiful things that were happening to me were consistent, but very few and very far between.

I know from experience that careers do not always arise from a deep sense of destiny.

If I hadn't had a childhood career, I probably would've signed a contract with the first person I came across.

I had no plans to be a director.

I don't know if acting is what I want to do for the rest of my life, it's just what I've, you know, ended up doing when I was little, and I've kinda grown up with it.

In school, you get a limited view of the world. Start working. Find your passion. Take your time doing that. Once you've found what you're passionate about, then lock down. Even if you want to start a business, it's helpful to work, see how other businesses are run.

I have now spent over a year trying to figure where in the workplace I belong.

I think it's unreasonable to expect kids at 17 to know what they want to do with the rest of their lives. And actually, I guess I had a desire to be an artist, and I did enroll in art school out of high school.

I'm always trying to look for different roles.

I have never, for better or worse, thought about a 'career path' or anything like that.

I had a very good friend who was two years older than I was, and she was in law school, and she said, 'It's a great thing to do when you have no idea what you want to do.' And she was right. I learned a lot, I practiced law for 10 years. I've never looked back once I stopped practicing law, but it was a really good experience.

I don't think I've ever had a real desire to pick out any particular role - I just see what comes up.

I always have looked for the best challenge, I guess, that I could take on. I haven't been producing my own work or anything like that, so I've taken the jobs that look most interesting that come my way.

I had no idea when I graduated from high school and then from graduate school what I wanted to do with my life. I had no idea that I was ever going to be an actor.

I'm not a huge fan of the concept of 'passion' when it comes to careers. Instead of trying to answer the daunting question of, 'What's your passion?' it's better simply to watch what you do when you've got time of your own and nobody's looking.

I never set out to be an actor. Again, my mother presented this job by job to me at the time, and if it sounded fun, I would say yes and if it didn't, I would say no. I always knew, since I was 7 or 8 years old, that it was a means to an end and that I wanted to go to college.