At school we were taught that the key to success is a graduate degree and a steady job at an established company. Yet over the past decade we have seen many major companies collapse, and during the recession that began in 2008 many millions lost their jobs just in the United States. Many had graduate degrees. People began to realize that their lives and security depend solely on themselves, and that job security is often a hollow promise. This raised the question: if a job can be lost at any time because of external factors, why not work instead on something you actually care about?

Working in a corporate cubicle on something that does not really correlate with your values did not seem so appealing anymore. Employers have often misinterpret...