A Future?
By Monday evening I will have had my 3rd job interview with as many companies in as many weeks.Do you remember what it was like to hunt for your first "real" job (if you've been there)? Did it always start so soon? I'm interviewing now for jobs that would start this summer at the earliest. Perhaps it seems rushed because I'm not quite ready on a personal level. I've only just gotten comfortable in America again, only to be whisked up in a whirlwind of applications, interviews and thoughts about my future.
I hesitate to refer to something so cliche, but Mayer's song, "No such Thing" manages to capture the spirit of my generation's plight (complete with guitar). They sit you down in Middle School and tell you to study hard or you'll have a rough time transitioning to High School. In High School the big focus is College: "Study hard and do lots of extracurriculars or you'll never get into a good school (or just as bad, end up homeless!)". So you do. You study in MS, you do the extracurriculars and SAT's in HS, and you get into University. Then you find out its only really beginning. Now you have to study hard, do extracurriculars and get internships. "Because if you don't, you'll end up digging ditches". The business school (my school) is probably the worst of them all. Resume workshops, interview preparation, internship seminars, job fairs, networking events (and all the while counselors, professors and parents are in the background waving their arms and chanting "Go! Go! Go!").
When do we actually get to enjoy what we are doing now? Why must we always be planning the next big thing? I've been back in Boulder for 2 months, but all I've done is plan my next 2 years.
Sometimes I can't decide if I want that lucrative consulting job (that I've so rigorously prepared for since I was 6), or if I would rather move to Ljubljana and work in a Bohemian cafe. I feel like no one learns to learn or because of the love, but rather as one more tick towards that career. I'll admittedly complain to you about my next midterm, but class as a whole has turned into just another hoop you jump through. In the last 3 weeks, I've spent as much time preparing for interviews, writing cover letters and researching companies as I have studying for my midterms. What is going on?
For those of you already beyond college, does it ever change? Is there really something better on the other side? If not, why do we even bother, much less enforce it as a societal expectation? Does our work-crazed society force its doctrine down the throats of its up-and-coming "because we are already working like dogs, which means you need to be too"?
I understand as well as anyone the competitive threat rising in Eastern Europe and Asia: smart people who are willing to work long long hours for $Pocket-Change USD. They have every right to earn the standard of living we have earned. Although I am certainly not preaching complacency in the face of this economic challenge to our dominance. Rather, I am asking if there is there a way to keep pace without first losing our souls? This is not a rhetorical question.
posted by Jason @ 7:05 pm
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