I always feel sad of how naive I was when I was studying International Studies back in college. Back then, I did not really pay full attention as to what kind of career awaits me after I graduate from this course. Besides, the topic of job hunting and resume building was almost always a topic that my teachers avoided to discuss to us. And whenever we hear an IS graduate that became a flight attendant or a call center agent, many of my teachers had an indescribable contempt for that person that they some foul language and curse is being hurled at without that person even knowing it.
Here are some of the most memorable reactions:
"Kung magiging stewardess lang naman kayo pagka-graduate ninyo, eh wag na kayong magpakita dito kahit kelan..."
(If you will only end up as flight attendants or call center agents, never ever come back and show your face here ever again.)
"P*t*ng *n*! IS pa naman sya! Bakit sya sa call center, sayang lang pinag-aralan nya!!!"
(Son of a b*tch! He was an IS student, how the hell did he end up like that! All his studies were for nothing!!!)
I personally feel these reactions are uncalled for, overly reactive and suspicious at best.
These reactions probably explain why so many IS graduates never come back to tell their experiences about job hunting and the type of careers they end up getting into.
What is the motivation or reasoning behind these reactions?
These reactions are a subtle way of preventing these IS graduates from informing the current IS students about how hard it is to find a job as a graduate of this course. This is like 'damage control' in its subtlest. If these graduates came back to tell horror stories of their job hunting, I doubt if there will still be many students that will stay with, or take up the International Studies course.
Poor students, they will never be even warned of the danger down ahead after they graduate. They are so naive. It is like a fool walking blindly towards the end of a cliff. (Hence the image above).
I remember myself being like this so vividly. I almost always never paid attention to the career I will be getting after graduation because we were always immersed in total academics and the topic of jobs seldom came up for discussion in class. It is like our attention was being diverted from these things so that we would not even notice the trouble that lies ahead of us. Imagine, how you would feel that after working your ass to study hard and spending lots of time and money, you will only find out that there isn't a bright future ahead of you after the journey.
I do not remember any in depth discussion of job hunting and career opportunities being discussed by my teachers. Come to think of it, during the job fair for our department, all we had was a lonely speaker that talked about how she went to a career that was totally different from her course. Other departments, like the Business Administration and Accounting Departments, had job fairs where the students were able to submit their resumes to the companies who visited our school.
Speaking of resume, I do not remember us being taught how to create a resume!!! Imagine that. I was job hunting without even knowing how to create a proper resume!!!
So, to anyone who will be reading this blog: you have been forewarned! Tread carefully now. It is up to you to change the way things are before they are too late.
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