A Chinese friend of mine had a similar experience.  After getting her undergrad &#38; masters engineering degree at MIT, she lands her first job as a writer.  The job pays less than what she earned as a graduate student at MIT, but I've never seen her happier.  Her parents were both born &#38; raised in the same memorization culture back in China.  Let's just say knives went flying when she broke news to her parents about her writing job...