You Might Be Purged By Something (That You Think Is) Cool
This is why you shouldn’t consider a particular career as ‘cool’
“Man wasn’t designed to be polite. Man was designed to survive.” — The Purge, S01
I just finished watching “The Purge” Season 1. The series mainly told about how people could be legal to kill (or purge) anyone they wanted to, during 12 hours, once in a year. There were 4 kinds of people: those who purged, those who tried to survive, those who were purged, and those who survived.
The series made me contemplate about the basal need of a mankind: survival. So, let’s get back to what this writing‘s main topic: career.
What’s the main purpose of having a career? To earn money, besides learnings (don’t be naive, no matter how much you love your company or learn much from your tasks, you wouldn’t reject a hijack offer valued twice or even thrice of your current salary, would you? LOL). What is money for? To survive — pay anything charged to us due to fulfilling our living needs. Why must we survive? Because we must maintain our existence on earth, until God sets us to death.
Ok, so, is earning money the only thing about surviving? However, the answer is no. Money is just a tool to keep us alive, as long as we can be. The journey in gaining money through a career, itself, is what determines us whether we‘re able to survive or not.
I see ‘survive’ and ‘alive’ as different things. To be alive, we don’t have to make others dead. However, to survive, we should beat someone or something.
Back again to “The Purge”, those who survived were ones who could avoid being purged or who could beat people trying to purge them. So, we can spot 2 kinds of efforts based on the story: avoiding and beating. And the one which has the closest correlation to career, is beating.
Jobseeking is a competition, and will always be. As the one who is currently a part of hiring team for my department, I can’t deny that if I decide to proceed someone to the next step, there will always be the ones who are turned down. Acceptance and rejection always come along in the same scheme, but they are destined to different people.
Surviving requires winning in a competition. We should stand out among other candidates in order to grab attention, then beat others. What makes us stand out? A difference. What kind of difference? A remarkable approach to what we’re fighting for.
In order to create a remarkable approach, first we should strengthen our purpose in striving for a particular career. At the end of the day, it’s all about purpose.
We have to ask ourselves before starting anything,
“Is it what I really want to do for at least the next 10 years in my life? Am I ready to invest much time, money, and perspiration to improve myself? Or am I interested because it looks cool, it’s currently in high demand due to digital economic growth, many people like me are into it, and I think I can ace it as previously I had little exposure to the basic skill required in this field?“
If you answer yes to the last question, then beware. You might be purged in every candidacy.
Cool is the most disgusting word I’ve heard from a candidate. ‘Cool’ is goddamn temporary and relative. For you it’s cool, but it might be not for others — as simple as that. In 2007, wearing hijab but showing your bangs was cool (yeah we called it jipon — jilbab poni), but now, do you, or any of your high school friends, still do the same thing? Dude, ‘cool’ would never be measurable and would never be a strong reason to do something.
I can’t deny that UX, especially UX writing, is currently a thing that many people are into it, due to digitalization era. Even more, writing only needs typing, and typing can be done anywhere without hard-to-use tools.
It might sound rude, but the demand law works well in this case: more commodities, less price. The more people are into it, the less someone’s value is. The more people having the same skillset to us, the less our chance to stand out is. The less our chance to stand out is, the harder we’ll get the job.
So, is it acceptable to be proud of something that you think is cool? Is it wise to jump into something only because it’s popular?
So, how to get a job? Back again to what I mentioned before — stand out among others. How to stand out? Be different. How to be different? Create a remarkable approach to what you’re fighting for. How to create a remarkable one?
Invest your time, money, and perspiration for the sake of your improvement in a career you’re pursuing.
How to do so? Find, then strengthen your purpose. Please ensure that a career you choose is what you really want to pursue, whatever it takes. Please ensure that you’re ready for unexpected things coming along your career life that force you to go extra miles and learn many supporting skills besides your main skills. Verily, strong purpose will lead you to perseverance— the only thing you do is improving, no matter how many times you fall into failure.
Back again to “The Purge” story — it might be a spoiler. The ones who survived after the Purge Night were those who had unshakeable will: Miguel in finding his sister, Penelope, and saving her from the cult which had brainwashed her to surrender herself to be purged. Jenna, in protecting her family (including her baby) from alliance with NFFA.
Don’t ever jump into something only for the sake of trends and feeling cool — or you’ll be purged.
At the end of the day, not only man, but companies were also designed to survive. Companies weren’t designed to be polite at all. They should stand out among competitors, then to achieve it, they should hire the best talents to support their mission — or they will be purged by market competition.
