There is a vast difference between the academic world and the corporate world.
When I began a fresh career for the first time, I felt excited and motivated to do my best. I wanted to learn new things; I wanted to become a master of my field before I started. My enthusiasm to learn and grow was the main reason the Partner of North America hired me.
Then a few months later, he tells me he detects a deflated spirit. 'Why?'
For the longest time, I was extremely annoyed with working at this company. I had an underlying aggression that my colleagues & seniors were purposely suppressing me by handing me trivial and redundantly mindless tasks. I wanted to work on tasks that had value and required intelligence. I would bicker on and on about the lack of responsibility I was given yet all they would say were something along the lines of "You have to pay your dues rookie" or "Every task you're doing you are gaining experience." There was no escape.
In college, professors and academia want you to take ownership of your goals and freely hand out opportunities for leadership role. In the workforce, you are set up to follow commands for the first few years of your life. In college, we were given assignments that would allow us to creatively express our thoughts and opinions. In the real world, someone has already made that decision and it's our job to follow through.
I felt myself losing my individual thought. I lost a sense of responsibility and ability to make my own decisions.
Why didn't college prepare us for the big let down?
No comments:
Post a Comment