A couple of years ago I commented on a post by Rick Chung on his blog post about students who are networking to find a job and develop a career. There were a number of comments about how hard it is to find a career, especially in the creative sector, and it sounded like people were not getting good results from their efforts. Here is my response:
Extremely difficult does not mean impossible. Doing things that don’t work, but doing them more frantically doesn’t get better results, it just keeps you busy. It is revealing that VMT (another commentor on Rick’s post) speaks of finding a career as though it is something concrete, ‘out there’ waiting for you like the Orient Express if you can just find the right platform. It’s more like a scavenger hunt and you’ve lost your list of items! Decide to have fun anyway.
VMT and others, your skills, your energy and your ideas are valuable to us. We need you, but the welcome mat that is laid out is not in the form you expected. I’m sorry about that, but really, the sooner you lay aside those expectation and begin to see the real opportunities around us, you’ll start to do more productive things with your time. Don’t panic now, just as you have finally gained control of your own life. You’ve just been ill-prepared for the way work works these days.
Corporate job creation is a thing of the past. There’s a million and one small businesses in your town, without the time and possibly the tools to find you, but they need help, too. Go see what you can do for them. Even employees need to be entrepreneurial these days.
If you can shift gears from thinking that what you need is a job into seeing that a job is only a means to an end, I guarantee your conversations will improve. A job is only ONE way of meeting your real needs: for income, for purpose, for advancement of your goals and aspirations, for learning, for citizenship, etc. It gets easier talking to people about yourself AND you will get better results from netweaving if you talk about your passions, goals and aspirations rather than focus on whether or not the person you are talking with can connect you with a job. If you need ‘a job’ and I don’t have one for you, what is left to discuss? Don’t short change an opportunity to connect, it’s an investment in yourself. And if you can’t say what your aspirations are beyond getting a job, I’m not sure I’d know how to connect you to other nodes in my network. Reconnect with yourself and what matters to you, so you have something meaningful to share.
I don’t think it’s true that ‘kids today’ or students in general are not willing to put in time nor work hard, They have just been fed a lot of bunk and had little time to learn how things really are with everyone yelling in their ears “stay in school” like it guarantees you anything. And from what Rick describes, the behaviour is green, it’s simply an outgrowth of the indoctrination they’ve received throughout the school years.
Learned behaviour is a result of the process they’ve been put through. Which includes being raised in a time where letting kids have paper routes (business experience) or free outdoor play time (group/team dynamics, negotiation and leadership) have virtually disappeared. Replaced by structured time, training, tutoring, and being managed by others day and night, newly minted grads are used to others intervening on their behalf, so (they) can be clueless when that ‘agent’ isn’t there to make things happen.
Unfortunately, many of our brightest young things will have succeeded in this outmoded system through achieving high grades and beating others out in competition, and thereby earning their place to the next level in the game. This is not the way things actually work in the world of employment, there’s no right answer, no ‘beating the level’, no ‘cheats’ that will get you there faster. Credentials are a screening tool to make the number of applicants manageable.
For you young ones who have artist hearts with a desire to create, and had hoped to satisfy your inner artist, your parent’s concerns AND authority’s edict to get a real career, you’ve cleverly taken degrees and diplomas in film, design, broadcasting, etc. that you have been told will get you work in the creative industries. Even to be in demand in a creative economy.
And so it must feel like the ultimate betrayal when you finally get through to the end of the ‘sausage factory’ (as Sir Ken Robinson calls it) and those people are not returning your calls. It IS a form of betrayal, but you will get over it if you can shift gears.
I can’t believe that we – parents, teachers, counsellors, faculty advisors – continue to perpetuate this disservice to our young people, but it’s worse when you are burdened by student load debt and feel trapped by it.
Now, if anyone in the demographic I’m talking about has actually read this far, you’ve clearly disproved Rick’s claim that you are not willing to put in the time or work hard. Feel free to like or Tweet the comment or visit my website and let me know it’s not all in vain! You know how to Google, right?
I do agree with Rick that the tools are out there to help you, but what is missing is direct encouragement that you can find the right tools, or that you will know them when you see them. Including those within yourself, to let go of what everyone has led you to believe and start seeing things with fresh vision.
Just because the world you find isn’t the world you were told about, doesn’t mean it isn’t a fabulous land of OTHER opportunities, Think of it as an unexpected frontier. Find the adventure, be curious, follow your passion and approach everyone as though they are the most interesting person in the world. Even yourself. Share with us.