Career advice is everywhere, even when you’re not looking for it. The internet is full of people telling you what you should do with your career. What you should wear to an interview, what you should say, when you should say it, what fields to go into, and which ones to avoid. Then there are the people in your family. They’re also full of words of wisdom on what to do with your life. They try to dole out conventional and unconventional tips about attacking the job market, which is not an easy thing to do. But it’s rare that you can get advice right from the horse’s mouth, that is, someone whose field you are directly interested in. 

This is a more useful thing than the average one-size-fits-all job advice. But what happens if that advice is different from what you expected? What if it ended up discouraging you from your chosen field? Would you blame the person for crushing your dreams, or would you thank them for sparing you a lifetime of delusion? Those are the questions that came up in this story.