Career Worth Living For!
Life perspective
What do you hate?
May 28th
A large part of my work involves giving career guidance to students.
And most students (99% of them) would come to me without any idea what they should do for work and for life. The other 1% would be very clear with what they want and mainly wants guidance on how to get there.
For the students in the 99% group, it is not a bad thing because they are at least aware of the situation and seeking help. It is those others who are completely clueless and absolutely unaware of it that I am worried about.
Quite obviously, for students in the 99% group, their answer to, “What do you want to do after graduation?” is invariably:
“I don’t know.”
“I have never thought of it.”
Or some variation of these.
And when asked why they are studying what they are studying, many would give me a blank stare or give an answer similar to:
“There’s good prospects… according to <some relative>.”
“I had no choice,” or “It’s not my first choice.”
“There’s big money.”
One interesting answer I got just this week was:
“Accountants look really cool.”
As a society, we have come to put a lot of trust in the education system. In fact, too much trust. A degree has been regarded by the recent past few generations to be the ticket for success and, eventually, happiness.
In fact, certain degrees are favoured over others. There is also a huge play of favouritism in the school system where the various subjects are classified in a hierarchy of importance.
Think about it. In your primary school and high school, which are the “important” subjects?
Math, science and language.
How about music, dance, art, history, religious knowledge, ethics and values? These are second-class citizens. Most schools classify these as “nice-to-haves” instead of “must-haves.”
And many parents would even say, “You cannot earn a living with these! There is no future studying these! Don’t waste your time!”
Why?
Because they were brought up in the industrial age in which the industrial revolution essentially requires people trained in the hard skills like mathematics and the Sciences so that they can work in factories and production lines.
Such an intentional and purposeful filtering of subjects in schools deprives young children of the valuable exposure they needed to discover their natural interests, talents and aptitudes.
What’s more is that these same children (that is, you and me) are being drilled day and night about the need to study hard (i.e. maths and the sciences) so that we can go to university, so that we can get a degree, so that we can get a good job, so that we can earn good money, so that we can have a good life, so that we can be successful and happy.
This is one big lie that we have been sold to consistently over the past few generations.
No wonder most of our youths and graduates today feel lost and have no idea what they should do!!
Now, there are many ways to determine what you should do in your life. If you don’t know what you want, here’s another approach:
Think about what you don’t want.
I mean think about the kind of work that you would absolutely hate to do on a day-to-day basis.
What kind of environment do you hate?
What kind of people would you hate to work with?
What would you dislike to deal with on a regular basis?
Look at what you hate and consider the opposite. You see, being clear about what you don’t want and dislike will also give you a good idea of what you want and what would work for you.
Your Interviewer is Sweating
Mar 16th
If you just received a call from a potential employer informing you of an interview next Monday, how would you be feeling?
Excited. Anxious.
Before long, as the day gets nearer, you will start to feel nervous, if you are like most people.
While you are busy feeling nervous and, hopefully, doing good research about the employer, the job, and the industry, how do you think the interviewer is feeling?
Let me be upfront: The interviewer or the hiring manager is sweating.
Yes, you are not the only one who is afraid and nervous.
The interviewer is nervous too.
The reasons for this are interesting:
1. The chances of finding a good employer through an interview is only 3% better than picking a name out of a hat;
2. If the interview was conducted by someone who would be working directly with the candidate, the success rate is 2% worse than that of picking a name out of hat;
3. If the interview was conducted by a human resources expert, the success rate plunged to 10% below that of picking a name out of a hat.
The fact remains that most interviewers have never been trained to properly select candidates through interviews. And they simply pretend that they do and make it as if what they are doing is scientific.
They also have work up to their eyeballs and spending time sorting through job candidates is something they are not hired to do. And so, they may well know that they are not very good at it.
Another fact of life: As humans, we make decisions emotionally, then justify them by logic.
Very seldom do we actually decide using logic to make decisions (Yes, management and business schools will teach you the logical evaluation tools to use for decision-making… but that’s not real world.)
This is the reason why the first impression you give the interviewer within the first 3 – 5 seconds matters the most!
Now, why is it that they don’t seem nervous?
Well, because you are too focused on yourself (and your fears) to notice their nervousness. And of course, they have learned to hide their fears from years of practice.
Now, what is the interviewer afraid of?
Here a list:
1. You won’t do the job well because you lack the needed skills or experience.
2. You won’t put in a full day’s work regularly.
3. You will be sick often.
4. You will quit within a few weeks or months.
5. You will take too long to master a job.
6. You won’t get along with others in the team.
7. You have to be held by the hand to get the job done for too long.
8. You will simply do the minimum required.
9. You have a work-disrupting character flaw.
So, in actuality, we have 2 very nervous people sitting across the table in an interview.
Think about it: How difficult is it to convince a nervous person who really is not sure how to do a good job at selecting a candidate?
The game is simple: The more sure, definite and certain you are, the more convincing you will be.
Monday Blues
Feb 8th
Is it Monday already? How did the weekend fly by so quickly?
Well, they say that “time flies when you are having fun” and this, according to nuclear scientists, is actually a literal phenomenon.
Whether you are a working professional or studying student, you would have felt that a typical weekday can be such a drag while the weekend, especially when you are enjoying yourself, just zips past in a blink.
And you would have heard of the term “Monday blues” which is commonly used amongst working adults to describe their lousy mood on Mondays. It is a kind of sadness, lethargy, and even slight depression. In fact, “Monday blues” often starts building on Sunday afternoons when the thought of the next day being a workday after a good weekend creeps into one’s consciousness. In fact, there are people who start to feel a sickness coming on on Sundays and by Monday morning, they’ll feel a strong urge to see a doctor. Ask any doctor who runs a clinic and they’ll tell you that Mondays are their busiest day of each week.
And ask any retail business and they’ll tell you that Mondays (and Tuesdays, for some) are the days of the week with the lowest sales. People are simply not in the mood.
How about this: Across the globe, more people die on Mondays than any other days of the week!
So, what’s the problem with Mondays?
Or does the problem really lie with our interpretation of what Monday means?
I think the answer is obvious. You see, if the problem is with Mondays, than animals and other living things would be affected in a similar way.
In other words, time does not exist except in our minds. And our minds play tricks on us if we are not conscious of them.
Here’s further evidence: Research has shown that there exists a strong link between heart disease (one of the major killers in modern society) with, get this, JOB SATISFACTION and SELF HAPPINESS (i.e they rate themselves as happy people).
More specifically, the most interesting finding from this research is that:
1. People with who displays all the risk factors of heart disease such as being over-weight, having high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels AND low job satisfaction and low happiness will usually develop a heart attack sooner and later.
However…
2. People with the same risk factors and HIGH job satisfaction and HIGH happiness will usually NOT have any heart attack nor other forms of heart disease.
Of course, this is understandable. A full-time job takes up at least 1/3 of our lives and if you spend 40 hours every week in a job that you dislike and see no future in, then that translate into mood issues (read “Monday blues”), low productivity, poor health and falling ill often, poor relationships, slow income growth, and eventually, premature death.
It’s time to make an informed choice on what an ideal career and life should be for you. Don’t wait till it’s too late.
Why Did They Teach That In School?
Jan 28th
Did you ever have this thought in mind while going through school:
WHY ARE THEY TEACHING THIS?
Well, perhaps at that moment, you didn’t think of this question since school is *supposed to be* a place where you do what you are told. Well, at least in primary school. Then, in high school, you were taught more complex and advanced stuff that it made your head spin. From this point on, you would have started to realize that much of the stuff taught in school will never ever be used in your entire life.
For me, those “stuff” will be calculus (yes, simultaneous equations, differentiation, integration, and the like), technical work (as in, metal work, wood work, handling tools, etc.), and chemistry.
Schools want to be sure that they covered all grounds (but according to who?). This type of education is “just-in-case” education.
What a grand waste of youth!
Now, on hindsight, I’d have preferred lessons on:
- Relationships (how to find my life partner, how to deal with people)
- Finance (i.e. how to earn, manage, and grow my money)
- Making good decisions and choices (i.e. how to think)
- Health and Fitness (living with energy and free from illnesses)
- Career and jobs (finding them and doing well in them)
- Emotions (how to manage them)
- How to care for and bring up children (yes, most people do want to be parents eventually)
- Sex (what to do and how to do them)
Aren’t these what we need on a daily basis as human beings?
Aren’t these more important than mathematics, history and chemistry?
Yet, why is it that school don’t teach such things at all?? And they simply leave us to figure them out ourselves by trial and error. They assume that because you have completed secondary education or tertiary education, you’d have no problems with these areas in life. Why is it that such vital life issues are treated as trivial matters by our society?
How’s Your GPA?
Jan 18th
Most university students I know are very concerned with their GPA. In fact, ultra concerned. To the motivated student, and especially for those who plan to further their education, the Grade Point Average is the holy grail which needs to be upheld at all costs.
However, does the GPA really say anything about a student’s academic abilities?
Let’s take a look.
In the tertiary education world, there are general 2 types of universities. One type grades students based on their academic performance according to a well defined set of performance criteria. For example, “a student will be granted an ‘A’ if the student demonstrates outstanding understanding and application of the concepts within this course. The student’s score should typically fall within the range of 85 and above.”
In simple terms, here are the standards for this course, and your grades depends on your achieving the standards. Your grades are criterion-referenced, so to speak.
The other type of university grades students based on their relative performance within the cohort. This means that there are no standards drawn out for the grading but an arbitrary bell-curve (i.e. statistical normal distribution) percentage is used.
In simple terms, a certain percentage of the cohort of students taking a course is allocated for each grade. Example, the top 10% will be given an “A”, the next 40% a “B”, the next 20% a “C”, the next 20% a “D”, and the remaining will be given an “F”.
With such a relative grading scheme, you may still get an “A” even if you scored 60/100 overall as long as your score is within the top 10% of your class. This means that your grade is given to you IN COMPARISON to your classmates. It effectively does not care about what you are really capable of since there is no independent standard drawn out. In other words, your grades are curve-referenced.
In the current tertiary education world, there are VERY FEW universities progressive enough to be criterion-referenced. Most universities are curve-referenced.
What does this mean, then?
It means that the GPA you scored in a curve-referenced university has no bearing whatsoever on your actual performance as it indicates only how you performed compared to your classmates. Simply put, you may score an “A” (i.e. GPA 4.0) but all that means is that you scored better than 90% of your class. It does not say, at all, how well you have achieved the learning objectives of the course.
Curve-reference exhibits the big-fish-in-small-pond phenomenon. It’s just like me owning a motorbike in a village where most others are using bicycles and that makes me rich.
So, my point is this: GPA in a curve-reference university doesn’t really mean much. This is why although the same term (i.e. GPA) is used throughout the world, they are not equal.
The next time you apply for university, make sure you check whether their grading system is criterion-referenced or curve-referenced.
10K in 5 minutes
Jan 4th
If you know the story of Fedex, they operate on a hub-and-spoke operations and their hub is located at Memphis. What this means is that all Fedex packages, large or small, in the US are shipped to this centre in Memphis first before going on to their destination location.
You can imagine the amount of packages that are handled on a daily basis at this distribution centre. And to handle such an amount, the technologies involved are also mind-boggling.
One morning, EVERYTHING stopped working.
There was electricity at the centre because the lights and computers in the office still worked. However, all the machinery that processed the packages simply refused to function.
The pressure is on and every minute that passed by implied ten of thousands of dollars lost.
The centre manager was almost in a state of panic and called the repairman again.
“I’m just 5 minutes away,” the repairman said.
Once the repairman arrived at the centre, he surveyed the conveyor belts and machinery.
Within a few moments, he walked over an electrical junction box in the middle of the centre, opened it, took out a screw driver from his toolbox, and turned a screw in the electrical junction box a quarter of an inch.
Immediately, everything started working again.
“Wow, you saved my life!” the centre manager said. “How much do I owe you?”
The repairman said, “Ten thousand dollars.” (US$, mind you)
“What??! You were barely here for 5 minutes and it costs US$10,000??”, the centre manager exclaimed.
“OK, please give me an itemized bill so that I know the breakdown of the US$10,000,” he continued.
“Sure,” the repairman said, took out a pen and a piece of paper, wrote on it and gave it to the centre manager.
The centre manager looked at the note, smiled, walked into his office and brought back US$10,000 in cash and paid the repairman.
In the note, it says:
“Turning screw: US$1″
“Knowing which screw to turn: US$9,999.”
A lot of times, we look at successful people and high achievers and think that they are just lucky. Sometimes, we even think that their jobs are so simple and easy that we can do them for just half their pay.
Just like the US$10,000 that the repairman charged, turning the screw is the act that most people see and, indeed, it is a simple thing to do and you don’t need a degree to do it.
However, to know which screw to turn within a short period of time that will solve the problem, the repairman would have taken years of discipline, training, practice, mistakes, errors and more importantly, learning and improving.These are the effort and experience that people cannot see. Yet, without them, the problem cannot never be solved.
We will be successful only if we learn all the time – when we do things well AND when we make mistakes.
In this new year, make a fresh start by always daring to try new things and learn from them. Never be afraid to make mistakes or be concerned with what other people may say or think.
They are not living your life. You are.
Are You Dying?
Aug 17th
This is not a health question but I hear some of you saying, “Of
course not!”
Really?
Actually, we are all dying. It is only a matter of time. The
question is “when will we be dead” and not “whether we will die.”
In fact, everyday we are getting closer to our graves…not
something we like to think about much.
So, if we are all going to die one day, the next question I will
ask is this: What am I here for?
In the greater scheme of things, my life is just a parenthesis ()
in eternity. Was I born just so I will die one day? If so, it
doesn’t make any sense at all and certainly makes life meaningless.
If life is meaningless, then what does it matter whether we live or
die, successful or not, rich or not, promoted or not, healthy or
not…?
My own conclusion, after all these time of searching, is this: Life
is meaningful. It is meaningful because I have a purpose on Earth
and I am here with a mission. So are you.
What’s your life purpose? Mission?
Allow me to encourage you to seek your own unique life purpose.
When you are serving your life purpose, it’ll be like how your hand
fits into a glove perfectly.And you would have found the
motivation, life force and source of energy for the work that you
do.
There are many ways to find your life purpose. Here’s one:
1. Which two of your qualities which, when you are expressing them,
uniquely make you feel that you are most being yourself? E.g. love,
joy, justice, freedom, power, strength, peace, serenity, courage,
etc.
2. List two ways (verbs) you most enjoy expressing your unique
qualities above.
E.g. inspiring people, empowering people, playing basketball,
dancing, parenting, singing, dancing, painting, etc.
3. Assume the world is perfect now (according to the way you see it
as perfect), how would it be? E.g. The world is perfect if everyone
was pursuing their goals; if everyone will get along peacefully; if
the ecology is not being damaged; if everyone is living their
vision, if everyone is happy, etc.
4. Combine all the above into one statement and see what unfolds
from it.
E.g. If my two unique qualities are: love and joy; The two ways I
most enjoy expressing the two qualities are: inspiring and
empowering people; If the world is perfect to me, everyone will be
living their highest vision;
Then, my purpose statement is: Inspiring and empowering people to
live their highest vision in the context of love and joy.
Get it? So, what’s yours?
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