I am about to commence the fourth year of my undergraduate life, and this issue seems especially pertinent right now. I have heard too many tales of seniors who stress themselves out about what they are supposed to do, and obsess to join the statistics of over achievers who land cushy jobs even before they graduate. And of course, follow our poster boy and earn $10k a month.

Here is an interesting read that I found while trawling through the web. And I’d like to share it. Suffice to say, this is my personal favourite portion of the article.

What’s the biggest myth about the post-graduation search for a job that you would like to dispel?

That you need to have a carefully articulated plan. Too many people make career decisions for instrumental reasons — because they think what they’re doing will lead to something else. Not enough people make decisions for fundamental reasons — because of the value of the activity itself.

The dirty little secret is that instrumental reasons don’t work. It’s way too tumultuous out there. The people who really flourish are those who make decisions for fundamental reasons. They have to live with a certain amount of ambiguity about not knowing what’s going to happen next. But that keeps them alert to unexpected opportunities and the serendipity you talked about earlier.

I like how in Today, they talk about the pragmatic generation of young Singaporeans. I also like how they allude to the fact that we might be churning out an entire generation of Superbrats. So they say pragmatism and dreams are somewhat like oil and water. I wonder, who said that they were mutually exclusive?
Rationality can be balanced with knowing who you are, and how you can get the best out of yourself.

Who/what are you fundamentally?

Tags: life, choices, graduation, university, instrumental, fundamental