Monday, September 18, 2006
Employment woes
I've yet to graduate, and I'm already feeling the heat and the desperation I would certainly face when I finally do so after spending 4 years in NTU. I do not need a job urgently, and it might not be wise to agree to join a company before I get to learn more about what's on the table for me. But then again ... it's more likely that I'd be on the table for the employers instead. It's (sadly) an employer's market.I am really curious why are they going all out so early in the academic year to recruit the coming batch of graduates. They are really drawing hordes of suckers (like me), of whom, despite knowing that the companies are only reserving the cream of the crop for themselves even before they hit the job market, and not targeting mediocre laggards like myself. Still the suckers (like me), still tell themselves (myself) that, "If I don't try, I will never get the job." Someone is spoiling the employers really badly; they can actually come in and state what their demands. Only one of the employers actually stated what starting pay they are offering. The rest just offered 'competitive rates', which in job market speak, I presume means, paying the least for the most.
Then when I survey the attendees of these recruitment talks, they are full of foreigners and uber smart people who can probably choose offers from many companies. The field is soooo competitive! And as employers list their demands, I feel even more inadequate ... to the point that I think I would never be employed. It seems nobody wants anybody with honors of 2nd Lower, and lower. I would never know the right skills, have the right characteristics, or have the drive in the perfect employee they would prefer to hire. If there was even a slight fit, I would have to 自我吹捧 to make it sound like something great. It was never that great, but if I would to be truthful, then the bugger who made doing-nothing-at-a-defunct-committee-post or screwed-up-organised-activities a big thing would pip me to advance to the next stage.
Are employers similar to woman? Do they prefer the lies and the fancyful bits to the sincere and truthful people? Or are they merely exercising their market right to pick the best, like choosing men based on their income and looks? Sigh ... I am going to get brickbats over these comments if I were to voice them out publicly. I just feel that way, it may not be true, I also hope it isn't.
There is also the networking skills talk that I went to. The speaker was very frank, and I liked that. She acknowledged that in networking sessions, there's always an agenda to make use, and be made use of. Well, if she packaged it nicely and tried to pass it off trying to tell us that it isn't fake or what, I would have loathed her. So the angmohs aren't much better when they despised the Chinese ways of 关系. Hypocrites.
Well ... I've just gotta learn then. I just realised that learning has never been easy. I worked my ass off for my O Levels and A Levels and yeah, that's all I've got for my rear end I persevered to pass all my modules in the previous 3 years in uni, my driving, my riding and soon, diving. Really ... no pain, no gain. I kept wondering if I made an astute choice to go learn diving once I started learning. The things to remember, the fears and the difficulty of it all ... luckily the money that I've already paid and the pride factor kept me in the course.
taxi taker at 10:02 PM