If there’s one thing that careers advisors and admissions tutors for university courses hate, it’s the following. During the course of either reading a student’s personal statement or interviewing a student, said student puts forward their career or study motivation as being grounded in an inspiration they got from either a TV show or a character from one. The student goes on to explain that the glamorous/dramatic/do-gooder lifestyle that the TV show conveyed about the profession in question made them realise that this was the field of activity they knew they should be dedicating their life to.

If this exchange takes the form of a conversation with a careers advisor, it’s likely that what the student said will be met by the careers advisor with an involuntary grimace or raising of eyebrows, before they then–whether tactfully or otherwise–tell the student to never, ever say such a thing again. Ever. If all this was put forward through a UCAS statement or an interview to an admissions tutor, the response would almost certainly be a rejection.

Yet there’s certain careers where time and time again students confess–or rather say it openly, not realising its a real careers-planning taboo–to having been inspired to study or train for a particular job because of a TV show. And when they’re told off, laughed at or rejected from being able to work towards that career as a result, they’re left mystified.

Why is this?

Let’s look at two of the career usual suspects that this applies to for an answer: doctors and lawyers.

Given the fact that many TV shows are either based squarely on their workplaces or feature main characters who do one of these jobs, it’s probably unsurprising that many people are drawn to these jobs as a result of seeing them on TV.

But it’s not just that they’re on lots of shows that draws people into these careers; it’s also the way they are portrayed. Leaving aside the fact that in general both of these professions are portrayed as being well-paid and glamorous–even if some shows also highlight their darker sides–what causes them to appeal to make so many people want to do these jobs is that lawyers always spend their getting serial killers banged up, speaking elocuently and powerfully in a packed court house as they deliver the damning evidence that sends them down; or doctors spend their time dramatically pulling back sufferers of incredibly rare diseases from the brink of death.

If you want to find out what’s wrong with such portrayals, all you need to do is get the opinion of them of lawyers who actually spend their time doing things like defending people accused of shoplifting from poundstores, or doctors who spend the bulk of their time treating the cuts, bruises and fractures of drunks and clumsy children. They will probably tell you that they’ve yet to see a TV show that accurately reflects the routine, boring side of the job they do, and will only be able to name a couple of shows that accurately present the negative side of the job.

And careers advisors and admissions tutors are also fully aware of this. And they also know that a person who does cite a TV show figure as their source of inspiration probably isn’t aware of the gap that exists between TV and reality–certainly with regards to this specific career, and quite possibly also in general–and as such is not a suitable candidate for their course.

This kneejerk aversion to people taking careers inspiration from TV heros is understandable, given that no course tutor wants places to be taken up by people who haven’t bothered to research their career, but it is also a little inflexible. Can it really be claimed that everyone who initially got an interest in a career through a TV show doesn’t really understand what it’s all about?

The answer is almost certainly no, even if this is a case with a good proportion of them. The key deciding factor is what they have then done to find out about what the career is actually like, through doing things like attending trials at one of their local courts, or completing work experience in a hospital and volunteering to look after old people. Take steps such as these, and you’re likely to find out what it’s really like; and if you still like what you see, then your motivation for the career is essentially sound.

The thing is, though, that in seeing the career as it really is, your motivation for doing it has in fact changed, from the fictional version to the real one. The moral of the story, then, is that although it’s fine to have your initial, childlike amazement with the job come from TV, the career choice then needs to be explored in a more mature way before settling on it. And then it’s just a question of never, ever telling them about the TV show part. It’s just not a risk worth taking.