What Really Happens After Graduation

First of all, I'd like to say my congratulations to all the iskolars ng bayan who graduated yesterday. I know how it's like standing at the Amphitheater with the sun scorching its way to your very flesh and yet still feeling light and happy at the same time. That's graduation in UP Diliman. But what happens now? Where do you go from here?

From the back of Quezon Hall to the freshly mowed grass of the Amphitheater, everything was ceremonial the day I graduated.

I graduated exactly around this time one year ago. Wide-eyed and brimming with optimism, I was like any of the young, idealistic fresh grads from UP. I fought my way till the very end of my Terminal year and as I turned my sablay to the opposite direction, I thought I was armed and ready for the real world.

I thought I could get any job I wanted, so long as the other applicants aren't my own classmates. I thought the job I would get would be mentally challenging and professional. I thought I would end up with the kind of work that will give me opportunities for professional growth, economic stability and personal satisfaction.

Yet it wasn't like that. Not at all.

I was called an Associate on my first job. By description, I was supposed to make financial models and do valuations. I was given a 2-hour long problem asking me to come up with pro-forma financial statements and their analysis. I had four sets of interviews and the guess what, the only other applicants they considered were my own classmates. I had so much respect for the company as it has maintained a very good reputation in our college. In fact, most of the people who work there came from the same university as I did, which was all the more reason why I was so disappointed when it turned out that the job I had was never what I bargained for. To cut the long story short, I was never given any opportunity for professional growth. So I resigned.

Thinking back at it now, if there were certain things I should have done before accepting the job, I'd say I should have had every single task I would be asked to do enumerated in my employment contract before signing it. The fact that it says "The company reserves the right to require you to perform such other tasks and assignments, apart from those enumerated thereon, and to transfer or deputize you to the Company's other branches/offices, affiliates or to other available positions, as business exigencies dictate" is just not justified when all you actually do are just the other tasks and assignments.

I should have listened to Professor Terry Agustin when she told our class to pick the work that would provide us formal training. She said if you had training in a reputable company and if you were given the chance to better your profession, then you will be an indispensable asset in which ever firm you will go. And when you become indispensable, that's when the money will roll in. I now completelyI agree with her.

Of course, there's no sure way of landing the best job on your first attempt. In my case, I talked to some accounting professors in my college, talked to the other employees who also graduated from my school and I asked serious questions. I did everything except the two things I enumerated above. Yet obviously, I still ended up with a work I didn't like.

But all these are in the past now. What happened happened and whatever the future may bring, I will continue to stand on my principles. Even if the job pays well if it cannot give any form of professional growth and personal satisfaction then it's just not worth it. The thing employers should understand is the motive why job applicants seek the position they are applying for. Never mind the lack of overtime pay. Never mind the unexpected cultural barrier. Never mind the emails I have to answer at home during one in the morning. All I was really after was a work that would respect the soft, grey matter wrapped inside my skull.