Journal of James's Journey with Jesus

I've Got Jobbed

I felt so pissed off after going for interviews at two public relations firms last month. But I was angry with my own colleagues, rather than the interviewers. I had only realised during the interviews that what I have been doing at my company is the tip of the iceberg for public relations work. The rest are all errands and stuff certain people are too lazy to do themselves. One firm told me I could have learnt more in three weeks with them than in my current company.

After going through national service, I have understood hierarchy and how the world works. You always start at the bottom and do the mundane but neccessary things no one else wants to do. Everyone has to go through this stage before becoming qualified enough to do the things that really matter. And I was totally fine with that.

I delivered Starbucks coffee, posted letters, banked cheques, shopped for magazines and ran other errands. But I was furious about the fact that the internship I undertook was deemed not sufficient a job experience for me to qualify for an entry-level position in the public relations industry.

Which is why you have to ask about your job scope and express your interest to be involved in the whole process of an industry when you are applying for an internship. Be proactive to ask your superiors to show you the ropes because most firms do not have a structured internship program.

Both firms wanted me to be an intern again and my face totally switched its colour in an instant. I was at a point when I felt discouraged to stay in the media industry. I would rather work in a less preferred company or industry, wherever an opportunity is given for me to prove myself. My short-term goal is just to pay for my degree and earn some life savings before I graduate.

The job climate in Singapore shows a certain bias against diploma graduates by labelling them not qualified enough for an entry-level job. In the present state of the economy, employers would rather hire degree holders and pay them salaries less than the usual rate, blaming the financial crisis.

People will tell you that in certain industries, the subject of your degree is not important. I have seen a colleague in advertising with a degree in music and a colleague in a public relations firm with an accounting degree.

Which brings me to the question - how can it be that a degree-holder in music is considered more qualified than a diploma-holder in mass communications when it comes to doing an advertising executive's job well?

The employers readily give job vacancies to degree-holders but think nothing of a diploma-holder who has a relevant diploma and is furthering his studies in a relevant degree. Being keen, diligent and having a good attitude earns you no points in this area.

I understand now why people say that opportunities are hard to come by. Or why it is crucial to have a wide network of useful contacts. I have come to realise that what separates industry leaders from undiscovered talents is opportunity. Without a window of opportunity, a diamond in the rough stays rough, never to accomplish its true purpose and potential.

Meritocracy and equality are unfulfilled ideals of even the most supportive society. How can a society can be meritocratic when not everyone is qualified or can afford to go to university? With the high barriers to entry in the job market, how does one break through the wall of excuses built up by unscrupulous corporate hypocrites?

How does one gain relevant industry experience when he is not even given an opportunity to be in an entry-level position? I just hate listening to obvious lies about the lack of experience to exploit the young and ambitious to undertake infinite internships.

But I have been very lucky and grateful to have been offered a two-month temporary contract as an entry-level employee (PR Coordinator) by my current firm. The managing director and other colleagues were very kind to even offer me the job, considering the varying instances of bull they could have shoved in my face. And they said they would consider hiring me full-time if the economy takes a turn for the better and new businesses accounts are won.

I am so happy that I have a job title now. At least it will look good on my resume and make it easier for me to put up a smokescreen during job interviews. And for the first time, I know I am worth a salary, however meagre it may seem to others.


Living In Boxes

It was with these congruent thoughts that I became enlightened about the state of our uncreative minds. People say that Singaporeans cannot think out of the box but they have never found out the reasons why we seemed trapped like Jack-In-The-Box all our lives.

Do you know why Singaporeans never seem to be able to think out of the box? This is because all our lives, we are being put into boxes. Since young, we have been inculcated with the notion that success is all-important and that it comes by one way, and one way only - education.

We never had to think for ourselves or question the established order. We were told to trust and do whatever is said by whomever mattered in society. We never had to make difficult personal choices or take risks.

We were told to pursue the path of least resistance and to climb the corporate ladder swiftly. Purchasing our children's future by getting them into a good primary school and asking them to aim for the best secondary schools and junior colleges. Telling them to get a prestigious degree and become a doctor, lawyer, banker or CEO no matter whether that is what they want to do in life or not.

We undermine the importance of often understated skills, hobbies and interests in living a fulfilling life and perhaps, even carving out a career path. We are shallow 'textbook' people, putting in the bare minimum input to try to achieve maximum potential output.

How many of us truly went against the flow of most resistance and read beyond the recommended text? Walked the path least travelled and fought the uphill battle? Have you ever done anything that was not tried and tested to achieve a future that empirically does not add up? I personally have never persisted in something I did not find myself good at.

And we ask why citizens prefer to work and live overseas. We are among the smartest people in the world but we are treated like fools in our own country. Look at Americans in 'Who's Smarter Than A Fifth-Grader?' who do not know if there will be a remainder when 30 is divided by four. There was even a woman who did not know the radius of a circle if its diameter is 20cm. The video below proves my point. (Honestly, I did not mean to be so blunt and I have nothing against Americans at all)

I have decided to stop being square and fight the box face-to-face, now that I know what it looks like and how it works. The only box they will successfully place me in is the coffin I will lie in, against my will and over my dead body. And just to make a statement, my last wishes for my family would be to cremate me and scatter my ashes in the wind upon the highest mountaintop they can ascend.

While I was alive, people tried to place me in boxes. When I am dead, they shall by no means succeed.

Spoon-fed and underexposed, young people do not know what direction to take or even what to do with their lives. They followed the 'game plan' faithfully but all they are being told is that they are not qualified to do this and that.

The tears I shed are not for me; they are for my generation. One that is afraid to love, afraid to live and afraid to make choices for themselves. Sheltered, robbed of confidence and pushed to their limits in an overcompetitive realm with little barriers to foreign entry. They were born free in this country but made to live as a slave to its economy.

I can hear their desperate cries for a deeper meaning amidst all the confusion. And the fine dining, fashion and clubbing they are indulging in cannot quite seem to fill the holes in their souls or answer the questions in their hearts.

Are Singaporeans born to die in the land they call home? To lead a corporate life of economic prosperity but a personal life of hopelessness, lifelessness and futility. Being afraid to explore, venture and fail, they end up not trying anything at all.

Be Not Afraid

Tap on the frosted windows

Knock on the closed doors

Peddle your goods

To the kind souls

Doors might stay shut and they might swing open

Stay a while; you never know which might happen

Enter the house which welcomes you

Move on from the ones that do not

Bored of staying in
Afraid of venturing out
Trapped in endless mental struggles

And a flurry sea of blurry thoughts

Here comes rejection

The heart is shaken

A resounding 'No'

Another young spirit crushed

- James Lin -