Wind In My Head: Utterly useless
Wind In My Head
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Utterly useless
From the typical perspective of the kiasu, hung up on paper qualifications Singaporean, I'm very well educated. Some would say elite even. Unfortunately, it has dawned upon me that academic qualification means absolutely nothing. I am trained for nothing and qualified for nothing. Before anyone goes off consoling me and saying my job is a noble one, let me clarify.Yes, I do have a job. My job is to make sure that there are literate people in the world out there and it is somewhat important. But it does not shy away from the fact that my job is a very protected and sheltered one. Unless we're absolutely daft, miss classes, hit kids or worse still feel up kids, we're pretty much guaranteed a job.
The problem is when one who is trained to do such a job wants to break out of doing the noble thing or anything along those lines.
On Saturdays, I like looking at the Recruit section, just to get a sense of what is actually out there. Occasionally a job catches my eye. Like today- an ad for a visual merchandiser and sales executive for Banana Republic . It caught my eye for the stupidest and most shallow of reasons- I like clothes and I like Banana Republic clothes. I think I reacted the same way when Gap opened in Singapore. Being the supportive husband that he is, Packrat said I should apply. Unfortunately, I don't have any experience in the fashion field nor sales field. Fields that my parents would have frowned upon if I had chosen to go into because, they like the rest of Singapore are utter snots when it comes to education for their children. My father would have said something along the lines of "send you to school for so many years and that's all you could do?" with a great sense of disappointment and implied failure in his voice.
So, the fun things, the ditzy things that would be fun just to explore, are not open to me, all because I've very academically qualified and clever. A friend of mine still harbours hopes that I will eventually do my doctorate. Unfortunately for her, I've come to the conclusion that unless I want to spend the rest of my life in an ivory tower that is even more sheltered and cloistered than the one I am in now, there lies no reason for me to pursue it.
So, the long list of acronyms that follows my name officially are just that, a meaningless string of gooblygook that is pretty much utterly useless.
Technorati Tags: Singapore, academic qualifications
Ondine tossed this thought in at 10:34
4 thoughts...
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At 12:00 pm
potpourri said... Well said, well said.
And i believe, these are the words of someone's who been there and done that, and realised there's more to life than the Singapore paper chase.-
At 9:02 pm
xdd_rulz said...
heyhey.dun scold me for not readin the papers anymore..i read the news on elitism.wahaha..hehe..=P
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At 12:19 am
Spook said...
I have come to realize one thing about having all these letters behind one's name. I always thought that it only applied to the ivory tower but clearly it applies to teachers too. My take is that there are some chosen paths that are particularly hard and challenging because if it doesn't work out, there really isn't anything else you can do. This makes it simulataneously freaking scary and exciting at the same time. It's like skydiving with only one parachute. :-)
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At 3:22 am
I.V.Y. said...
Some prospective job employer took a look at my academic qualifications and asked me why I did not entertain the thought of teaching at a tertiary level.
Point is, kids/ teenagers or young adults, teaching is too sheltered an occupation (and I quote you for it). It's often more giving than learning from these people we interact with for 6 or more hours of our lives each day.
That's scary for me. I mean, even the most gifted of students still fall short of real life experiences and skills.
So there. I agree with the ivory tower trapping. I would go for an MBA next. Not a doctorate. =(
If you are really keen to switch profession, it's still possible. It's just how badly you want it.