Just a few weeks shy of graduating and I’m not ready to
become CEO of a multimillion dollar company –surprise, surprise…
All throughout university and even through high school, as
students, we were always told we were in the process of getting groomed for
“The Real World”. There would be expectations
set upon all of us and we were measured by a set of learned standards which we’re
to uphold once we arrive in “The Real World”.
A part of the journey to “The Real World” is viewing rubric
after rubric which benchmarks our performance semester after semester, in the
hopes to refine skills which we’ve developed in high school. These rubrics explicitly
hint to us what’s expected of our output in the land of “The Real Word”, while
we’re under the assumption that everyone in the workplace are all on par with
the requirements of these rubrics.
“The Real
World” is also apparently a place where there’s a lot more at stake and don’t
forget the work rush and harsh climate conditions – is it just me or is the
office aircond, much like the Robertson Library, always set to freezing?
What I have learned and experienced, within the five short months
of being part of a truly hard working organisation, is a personally and
professionally fresh outlook to take away and apply in the future, including a more
original take on “The Real World”.
I would like to happily share with you all –and here comes
the kicker - that there really is no such thing as “The Real World”. And I’d also be happy to break to you that
we’re already living and breathing in “The Real World”, the only world that
ever existed, really.
What’s not real about the world we’re currently operating
in? We, as people, have endured quite mature commitments thus far; we’ve committed
to a four year degree, a double one at that, for some, watched Jaimie’s shows
for better health, work part-time, full-time, all-the-time to fund our lives,
meet deadlines for bills, assessments and yes, even for fines, we go on road
trips for Mum’s day, Dad’s Day, cousin’s weddings, holidays, and the list goes
on. What’s not real about all of that?
The workplace, as I have gathered, is a spatial area in
which workers gather to develop new skills and refine our strengths with the
hopes to stealth our weaknesses- the ones we hadn’t exterminated at university. At times, it can also be a place where individual’s
personal and professional weaknesses and strengths come into play to achieve
organisational goals. You can say it’s a
little like unit group assignments, with more at stake, of course. And the big Board Room– you really ought to
negotiate and pre-book for available times- much like the Robertson Library
meeting rooms, much like the Abacus Sun Room and any other meeting rooms we’ve
encountered on campus. Meetings in the
big Board Rooms, I’ve experienced , is an opportunity to collectively share
ideas, feedback, concerns and works; keeping much of the same essence with the meetings
we’ve held on campus.
We worry and brag that we haven’t been taught ‘this’ or
‘that’ at university and for good reason; if we had been taught everything we
needed to know, we’d have to take up that position as CEO; the one with gigantic
and unimaginable things at stake. If
that’s got you wide-eyed, like me, I’m sure you’d be more comfortable and ready
to continue to apply ourselves the best we know how and to continuously learn
then best way we can.
Mila
