First of all before you continue reading this post, I will have to warn you that at certain point you may find that this post will portray me as snobbish, or an elitist depending on how you want to to look at it, but I will write things as they are, and pretty sure a number of people may feel or or have the same thought.
I was in KLIA(Kuala Lumpur International Airport) a few weeks back, taking my flight from home back to Singapore. At the international departure hall, I saw there were a few groups of young people, around 20s, can't be more than 20. There were in a black suits, looking happy, and proud of themselves. They were surrounded by groups of families, their families. The time was about 7 or 8pm. I know those crowds, I know who they are, because I was one of them about 7 years ago.
Those kids were students under scholarship, waiting for their flight to a certain country, flying oversea to further their study. I still remember those moment. I was a proud young boy, and I was happy and ecstatic, and seeing my parents and family looking at me with contentment and pride at that time, that was definitely one of highlights in my life. I felt that that was the first step of me going to a very bright future. Again, as I told you this may sound snobbish and slightly cheesy. You have been warned. Considering Malaysia's status as a developing country, coming back home with a degree from a developed and considered as technologically most advanced country, I would come back as a golden boy waiting for opportunities to knock on my door and beg for me to pick it up. How naive I was. Sometimes I miss that boy, he didn't have to bother much about shits real world have to offer.
Well, I could write a lot of romantic stuffs about my moment on that day or my time when I was in Japan, but that would not be in this post. Skipping that to right after I graduated and got my degree. Needless to say, the reality was not as rosy, filled with butterflies and rainbow as I thought. My first job was not the most excellent job Malaysia has to offer, salary wise was not that great either, and the job that I was doing makes me feel horrible when I woke up in the morning knowing that I have to go to do some meaningless stuff.
The thing about when you studied abroad, you think that you went extra miles to get your degree. And with that extra miles, with that extra effort, you develop a feeling that you deserve more, and should get more. Hence the attitude that opportunities should just present itself to you. It would be unfair if I were to speak for all that studied abroad, but I know a few that had the same though like me. Hell, I hung out with a few after we graduated, and basically the subject of discussion was "how shit is not as great as we thought they would be" and "how unfair life is". But hey, don't start frowning upon your friend that studied abroad, they're probably as humble as a worm, and I am the one that was a pompous ass.
But if you look at another perspective, if you possess a degree from a local University, don't you think you are more deserving than someone without a tertiary education if you two were to compete for a job? If you have a certificate for a certain skill, don't you think you are more deserving than someone without? Like I said, when you went extra miles for something, you feel you should be prioritized. You think that you have a leverage which should give you an upper hand. When that did not go as you expected it to, you're left frustrated and devastated.
That is the reality of the mentality of people of our generation, we really believe in the power of paper and certificate. We totally neglected the aspect of attitude, aptitude, networks, communication skill, the power to convince people and so on. At least not until we face the real life, ie got the fuck out of the education system and earning our own money. We may have realized the reality after a while, but that idea has been stapled so hard in our mind that even in our career we are still hunting for some certs and papers, convincing ourselves that those papers will generate more income, better career progression and so on. Each career discipline has their own specialized certs, so you know what I am talking about.
This shitty system could've had worked like 20-30years ago, where the amount of people with degree, with certificates, and all those papers were just a few, where executives and professionals are direly needed, at least in Malaysia. But nowadays, those papers are being printed out like mad, with quotas to be met each year. Those Uni professors will be in deep shit if the didn't, and the more people applying and getting professional certs meaning more application and membership fees for those so called independent organisation. Today, If I threw a stone at a crowd of people in Malaysia, I can bet you my 10 year old cigar it will land on someone with an engineering degree. And their title at work will be at least "assistant manager". I will write more about that in the future.
When we were growing up, many of us don't have parents with tertiary education, most only studied till high school, and work with that. In those days, Our parents saw people with those fancy papers, how fast they climb the corporate ladder and excel through life with those things. That was the kind of stories that were told to us and motivated us to pursue those papers. We were told that with those papers, we can be anything and achieve anything. We believed in that.
I am not blaming the generation X for shaping us this way. This is just a generation gap kind of thing. And the world changes and evolves. They couldn't see this coming. They just wanted the best for their kids the way they perceive the World, at the time we were growing. We would do the same things to our kids if we were in their shoes. You young parents would understand better I suppose. Which leaves us with a question, what kind of future generations will we shape? When we keep telling them that degrees and papers are not everything, but attitude, hardwork, and other aspects of life are far more important. I guess we will find that one out in 20-30 years time. Perhaps that day I will be reading my kid's writing about how wrong the things I told him or her. That's gotta be suck
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