Neverending need for improvement
When you are looking for a job, there are many things you should consider. I’ll list a few of them — write an efficient CV, find the best web platforms for job seekers such as Glassdoor, and send your CV to any job openings that align with your *knowledge*.
*Do you think that knowledge goes hand in hand with experience? I’ll let you contemplate on this issue.*
In your mind, it might seem legitimate that recruiters will notify you if you’re suitable for the job. But, it doesn’t happen.
You can send your CV to dozens of companies and what you hear from them is bare silence.
My friends from college went through hell while trying to apply for IT-related job openings. Nowadays, in order to work at an IT company you must have a degree and a vast experience behind your back, once there’s no experience there’s the smallest chance that a recruiter will ever contact you.
If you’re lucky and you’re contacted for several job openings — which can happen, just like magic, just like winning a lottery.
Once you’re contacted then you begin an endless interviews session along with endless exams to test your abilities for the job. The interviews session can take up to 2 months, while you’re given hope that there’s a huge chance for you to get the job.
The recruiters might tell you that all that is left is to sign the contract with the HR, and then, out of the blue you’re told — “sorry, we’ve found a better candidate”. The frustration that is built up in your chest is enormous, and you start doubting your capabilities and judge your every move.
On the other hand, if you’re a self-taught programmer with an epic CV, you don’t need a degree, your skill set is enough for you to land any job you want. But the problem begins and ends when you realize that you are not as sharp and smart as the self-taught programmers. Then, a sense of shame begins to bother you — why can’t I just write good code? You feel like you have to code in order to succeed and progress.
So what is a success, and what is progress? Who gets to define what a success is? What kind of success are you looking for?
We always tend to compare our accomplishment with others’ accomplishments. We severely judge ourselves for not being good enough for the job. Why do we always tend to enter this pit of darkness?
As human beings, we will keep this comparisons’ game — until we are all broken inside and will be ready — like the Phoenix — to rise from our own tragedy ashes.
Once we rise again, we begin the same journey, hoping that this time it’ll get better. But you know deep inside that it won’t change anything.
You must change the way you define a success when it comes to work and your life. Success could be when you overcome a problem with the help of others, or when you manage to do something you could not do before — it doesn’t, however, matter how long it took you to get it done.
Let’s face the real world realms — in our fast-paced growing world, what is dearly appreciated is a sharp mind and quick responsiveness — you’re expected to work as fast as AI bots.
Once you’re not as sharp and it takes you awhile to finish an assignment and when it takes you a bit longer to respond — you’re doomed, you’re categorised immediately as not that bright — and that’s when you begin judging yourself all over again.
In today’s fast-paced digital age, it’s well appreciated when all the procedures are efficient. like the apps that you use on your smartphones — you expect them to work a certain way — and when an app becomes sluggish you delete it and write a bad review on the app store — hoping to get a better version in the future. That’s the same with people — employers expect that employees will grasp ideas fast and will always be efficient.
But we are not machines, and we’re not programmed beings. We can’t be our better version all the time.
We can improve ourselves over time. we need to consider the fact that ‘we learn at a different pace’, someone’s evolving might take only a month, while someone else’s might take 3 months. therefore, others must be patient and accept our hard work and persistence.
People are different. There’s a mystic and mysterious beauty behind it, but also some kind of eternal tragedy — as the beauty of being different can make us feel miserable, and that society will never cease to remind us that we’re not the same.
We should not judge ourselves harshly nor do we have to align ourselves with others’ ideas of success. We’re all successful in our own way, as long we persist in our journey and don’t compare our accomplishments with others’.
