For simplicity, I will be referring to the author of the last post as Z (I'm sorry I wasn't able to come up with anything more clever than that).
The hardest part about writing this response, is even though Z's post was very cynical and presented a very gloomy image for the future of our generation, I don't completely disagree. There is one glaring difference, and while I maintain Z's notion that we're left unprepared for the future after graduation, I disagree that our generation is lazy, and unambitious.
I'll start with the first part, the part that I agree with. It was right around the middle of March 2009, a month before graduation, when I started to get the feeling that I wasn't ready to leave the bubble that school had created for me. I started to apply for 'real jobs' (still haven't really come to a constant definition for that term, so excuse the changing use of it), and I started to realize that my rock solid education, and the piece paper that I was about to receive, which proved my intelligence, wasn't going to cut it. All of a sudden, a number of people in my graduating year, including myself, found ourselves in a grey area between school and our future careers. I have to admit, looking back, I was probably a little more anxious than I reasonably should have been (which I'll touch on later), but I remember talking to Engineers (who really expected great jobs out of the gate) who were still unemployed 4-5 months after graduation. We worked (what we thought was) very hard, to get great marks and were still left with few options after graduation. I'm not suggesting that I have a more effective way of preparing graduates of what to expect, but I agree with Z that what we expected and the reality we faced, were miles apart.
I do, however, think that there is a double effect of these expectations, regardless of whom implanted them in our minds. As I mentioned, I was probably much more anxious and nervous right before graduation, because I was expecting to have a nice, well paying job lined up. The problem is that while we have these expectations, there are also these expectations put on us. The truth of the matter is, I was so stressed out because I didn't have that job, that I felt that I was letting down people who pushed the hard work
good grades school good job model. This was the model that had worked for so many people before me, so why wasn't it working for me?We are an interesting generation; a generation that really began the transition to the Internet, and being connected. Not that this is really relevant, but I remember growing up, typing in the address to a web page, leaving the room for 4-6 minutes, and coming back to it being half loaded. Now, we get upset if it takes more than 7 seconds. I disagree with Z's statement that we are ignorant and lazy. I believe that we quickly get complacent with whatever we are doing, and there is a looming sense of anxiousness and anxiety that follows. We have been taught to not wait for things, to have a killer instinct, and to expect the best and only the best. Now obviously, my argument, and Z's argument have major exceptions, and clearly do not speak for everyone in the generation, but I argue that the reason we possess a sense of entitlement is because we have been taught to expect it. Similar to how we get frustrated waiting a whole seven seconds for a web page to load, we are defeated if success doesn't come quickly and easily. We lack the ability to deal with failure. This deficiency, I believe, is due to everything happening at warp speed compared to the way it did two + decades ago.
good job model has so many more stages and stops along the way than it did for previous generations. Therefore, it's unfair to compare our model to the one of the past. The formula for success is constantly changing (fundamentally, on the changing definition of success, relative to past generations). There is a whole new set of standards expected of us, and a whole new set of standards we are taught to expect of ourselves. Wrapping up, it's the fact that we have been trained to expect success without hitting any obstacles, combined with our generations transition to rapid speed, that presents the image of ignorance. Instead, I think we're just trying to find stability, in a previously uncharted present and future. First, we'll have to learn how to deal with delays and obstacles on the road to success, and also realize that success doesn't come at the drop of a hat or possibly even when we believe we have earned it. Once we learn to scrap the standards of past generations and learn how to integrate a new set of standards, to this period of innovation and speed, we'll be able to re-write the formula for success. I believe, that once we learn this, the gap between our expectations and our reality will cease to exist. At this rapid speed, it's possible that all we really need is a montage and not the whole movie.
-Rob Baral
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