Marmaland Blog

Thinking Out Loud

“A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.“

A lot of young folks receive this notice lately: “We are sorry to inform you that unfortunately, we cannot continue with your application process”. Rejections from many, many, maaaaany job applications. It’s not like they do not want to work, I mean, maybe some of them do not want to and are fine with prostrating their lazy butt in the couch all day –we’re now going to ignore the lazy butts completely.

But there also exists this other group of young people, the other side of the coin: the ones who want to work, the ones who want to be able to move on with their lives and have some future.

Yes, you are right, there are a lot of us.
Holy canoly, a LOT!

A lot of young people with illusions, with expectations, with enthusiasm, with curiosity to start something new or to start a new chapter in their lives. With HOPE.

How lovely.
You little rebels.

What do you do when you want to work but you can’t? Not because you are not qualified but because there’s too much demand for very few open positions…few, few, few…

Nowadays you can hear some things like:

1)      “If you can’t find a job, create your own startup company”.

Just like that, you create it and you succeed. Happiness come to me, millions come to me.
Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope and more Nope.

In order to be an entrepreneur you really have to have it in your bloody system.  A simple idea –even if it is the start of any project– is not enough if you are not really aware of where you are getting into. Being an entrepreneur requires a lot of time, effort, willingness and commitment (which is great! I love entrepreneurs). If you think you can be one of them I encourage you to seriously go for it, but also pay attention to small details like financing, to have an excellent advisor and a structured business plan…–yes the “small detail” part was a joke, all the aforementioned are BIG ISSUES. Notwithstanding all this, I think a good idea is worth fighting for, don’t you?

For the rest of us, you can hear quote nº 2.

2)      “Pack your things and leave to the Promised Land. Things are better there.”

Grab your sexy underwear, a book, your University Degree, master’s degree –if you have one–, your resume and a pair of shoes and put it all in your trolley, grab the WORLD MAP and “randomly” pick another city –not one with an ongoing civil war please, that country won’t work for your purposes.

So! we have you with your trolley, considering the fact of leaving your country because there’s nothing good here and the other one might have better options –you know, a more democratic society, with equal opportunities, better wages, one that will really see your talent AND with easy entry access isn’t it? Muahahaha…ha…ha. Where did you say you wanted to go again? I want to go too.

– Notice that if you are going to a different country because you want to study abroad does not count because you have to pay the equivalent of a kidney and part of your healthy organs in exchange and because in this post we are talking about working opportunities. –

Please don’t get me wrong, but after roughly three years I’ve come to know many stories about friends of mine, and friends of friends of mine, and friends of friends of friends of mine about how they decided to “pack everything and go” (UK, Germany, France, South America, USA,…) and they are – attention please– SERVING COFFES, CLEANING hotels, apartments, random premises, BABYSITTING…but hey, learning English, German, French or Gambian, whatever.

I say this with all due respect for these jobs, but I hope you are with me when I say that after years of study to get a university degree or a master’s degree what you hope is for you to work in the field you supposedly like. You deserve it. This young folks friends of mine (and friends of friends of…hehe) are very smart, and capable and talented. We all have studied thinking that this would allow us to have a better future, better options. And after many rejections, your hopes, illusions and strength might get a little affected. And you might hit the ground pretty hard.

Brain Drain in your respective countries so you can go do the jobs no one wants to do in the Promised Land.

Very “Promising”.

“Study, study and get good grades –they said–, this will make the difference”. Yeah, the difference for some corrupted pockets out there since you have to pay with sweat and tears and mortgage your future for it –you might notice that we have already exchanged our sweat, our tears, one kidney and part of our healthy organs…quite nothing.

The process of learning should not be a business in order to really form decent human beings.

I know, I’m being SUPER encouraging!

Going abroad is the greatest thing that has happened to me, I encourage everyone to do it. Seriously. You get a better picture of how the world works, it opens your mind, you become more tolerant, you learn to embrace different cultures, you see that there are plenty of different ways of thinking and of facing life experiences, and you experience how it is to feel an “outsider” which makes you be less racist if you happened to be a tiny bit –I seriously hope you were not, not even a tiny bit. No.

But I also think that to get the most of it, you should not feel that you are going abroad because “you have no choice but to grab your trolley”. I really think is a great experience when you leave because you want to and not mourning because you feel that you are leaving your family, friends and roots because of the bad shape of the country.

Of course, if you have no choice, you better go ahead and do it and try to make the most of it. There are always good things that come out of changes. This is a fact.

All I’m trying to say is that we are constrained and primarily affected for this fallacy of the educational system and the labor market. We are born with this anxiety of having to earn a living, losing sight of why we are here, thinking that if we cannot find a job maybe we are not as good as we thought, or maybe we are not fighting enough.

You are good. Very good. And smart. And talented. And capable.

And you are trying, which is more than what other young people is doing and, unfortunately, it seems that they get more attention –the ones in the couch, remember? – than the ones who grab the trolley.

I’ll say keep up the good work, keep trying, serve coffees or learn a new language BUT in order to feel good about yourself or because you have plans in mind.

Not for the system and society in general.

If we don’t like how things work, we should be brave enough to rise up our voices and act differently. Life is complicated, we are going to end up disappointed anyway, somehow, someday, so we better do what we like and the obstacles will seem easier to overcome.

It’s up to you.