Warren Buffett, the fifth wealthiest man alive, has some advice for college students before they enter the job hunt: don't just chase pure profit.

This advice might sound almost out of character coming from one of the world’s most famous inventors, but Buffett said that he does not see why students should be putting a big paycheck ahead of personal fulfillment. By chasing a job in a career field they genuinely feel for, the billionaire said work would feel far less demanding in the long run.

“Economic realities, I acknowledge, may interfere with that kind of search," said Buffett. “Even so, I urge the students never to give up the quest, for when they find that sort of job, they will no longer be ‘working.’”

Buffett cited his own experience as an example of how this could play out. In his most recent letter to shareholders he wrote that he and his business partner, Charlie Munger at Berkshire Hathaway, both began their careers doing menial "boring tasks" and were paid little when they worked out of his grandfather's grocery store. As he began moving up the ladder into the world of finance and acquisitions, Buffett said he pursued it out of love for the profession rather than just because it paid a lot.

"With very few exceptions, we have now 'worked' for many decades with people whom we like and trust," Buffett said in his letter on Feb. 26.

Buffett has always been consistent in his advocacy of overall fulfillment in choosing a career field. In a biography on the investor titled "The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life," Buffett went into detail on why the advice was important for college students to consider.

“People ask me where they should go to work, and I always tell them to go to work for whom they admire the most,” Buffett said in the 2008 book, according to its author Alice Schroeder.

“It's crazy to take little in-between jobs just because they look good on your résumé. That's like saving sex for old age!”

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