BY ANTONY, MY JOB GLASSES MENTOR AND GAME ARTIST SENIOR @ VOODOO
While, since early childhood, everything leads us to believe that the school theorem is the key to a full professional life, the equation quickly shatters: the professional world appears to be a geometric universe where the educational road does not run parallel to reality, making us turn in circles in this strange dimension where nothing is square. So, if “knowledge” does not rhyme with “power”, what can we do to achieve our goals and fulfill ourselves?
THE WORLD OF WORK: HOW TO MAKE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE?
We are all more or less grown-up children and we all wish, one day, to be able to make our dreams come true. Some seem attainable, others seem unattainable, but as Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams”.
This being said, in our social system, where the educational pathway holds a predominant place in our relationship with the world, dreams often seem to be covered with stains that are difficult to erase. It therefore seems legitimate to (wrongly) lower our ambitions in order to slip through the cracks. In this regard, a survey reveals the mind-boggling figure that enough one in two people are thinking of quitting their jobs, probably as a result of a poorly functioning school system.
The reality is quite different: School, high school, college, university and so on, are not meant to shape our hopes but to feed them. Whatever their ambitions, their specialities or their level, students too often find themselves totally helpless once they reach the threshold of professional life. Studies may provide us with a lot of valuable knowledge, but reality has no use for it. It can happen that the companies we were taught to idolise look down on us and that the doors of our dreams narrow, application after application, rejection after rejection…
CULTIVATE YOUR CURIOSITY, SHAPE YOUR REALITY
Is the formula “Knowledge + Ambition = Work” an aberration? Not really, we are simply missing a primordial value: curiosity, the very one that cannot be taught in books.
It is by cultivating one’s questioning that one transcends knowledge. Let’s make no mistake, what a recruiter is looking for in a candidate is not only knowledge, but also intellectual energy, the kind that will make the difference with the rest of the profiles pilling on on his desk.
In reality it is not our academic journey from point A to point B that counts, it is what we retain from the distance travelled. An art student who has simply taken his or her classes without taking the time to create a portfolio to share his or her work will be far less convincing than a self-taught person who has been proactive for years, just as a lawyer who does not keep up with the law is obsolete.
Once we have decided to base ourselves on the formula “Curiosity (Knowledge Ambition) = Work “ and we multiply our curiosity to all aspects of our life, our ambitious dreams take unexpected forms! Year after year, our personality and projects are refined: it is therefore necessary to give ourselves the right to change, even when these changes may seem a bit radical.
CHANGE YOUR PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION AND OPEN UP YOUR HORIZONS
For example, if you dream of being a lawyer and after a few experiences you discover that you don’t like the reality of the profession, don’t hesitate for a second to change everything ! Let’s not forget that the whole world rolls out its red carpet at our feet. It is up to us to find the courage to walk it.
The key to success therefore depends on our personality, our personal history, and our ability to put them to good use. Whether it is in a job search or in a career, the most important thing is to provide yourself with the means to achieve your expectations (you still need to to acquire the necessary maturity to define them correctly). It is important to realise that many jobs are unknown to us or do not yet exist, and curiosity can help us discover them and even invent new ones.
THE WORLD OF WORK: SUCCEEDING IN SPITE OF OTHERS?
Before concluding, one last point seems to me to be important with regard to the professional world that awaits us all: philanthropy. Indeed, a great career is nothing without the respect of your peers. We all, at least the majority of us, want to evolve in our present or future career, but always keep in mind that your neighbour is not so different from you, that he/she has expectations, dreams and human feelings.
The desire to overtake others to get to the top undoubtedly leads us into a malevolent spiral that only brings negativity and grief. Being magnanimous and not neglecting any encounter, however unpleasant, always pays off one day.
It is up to us to persevere in our studies, in our passions, in our dreams however crazy they may be, in order to prove our worth, first to ourselves, then to the world.
