One of the female staff in my office is 7,5 month pregnant. She is the secretary for administration department. Pretty soon she will deliver and we will need a temporary staff working for 3 months during my friend’s maternity leave.
pregnant, and working
We have received some applications and currently we have picked three female candidates to fill her spot. They all came from highly reputable university in Surabaya, and some of them are fresh graduates. Today, I have the privilege to watch all three of them doing an interview with my boss.
The first candidate, graduated from Airlangga University in International Studies, and continued management program at University of Surabaya, where she earn her post-graduate degree. She’s only 26 years old but already have an “M. M.” title behind her name. To complete our fascination, she also have a “3-point-something” GPA. But to my surprise, she showed up in something that I can’t understand, until my boss said, “her academic achievements does not match her appearance and working abilities.”
I thought to myself, “Girl, you might be smart, but you need to know that those outfit you wear, might be suitable for college, but not for work!“
The second candidate, just finished her final assignment in the faculty of Communication and Public Relation at Petra University. She looks nice, confident, and friendly. I thought my boss will choose her instantly, but I was wrong.
“She might came from a very expensive university and her major is communication but she have no idea how to be engaged in an English conversation…” said my boss.
What ??? Doesn’t know how to speak or write English?
The third candidate, currently a stay-at-home mommy who graduated from University of Airlangga, majoring in International Study. Two-point-something GPA, used to work as Guest Relation Officer in several hotels, good appearance, fluent in English, but… showed up late for more than an hour..
During her lateness, she vanished from the face of the earth, we were unable to contact her mobile phone and local number. She finally showed up, looking good and did well in the interview. But punctuality is something that my boss (and pretty sure all companies) consider very important.
So my boss is kinda angry and feel a bit disappointed today. For a position that is relatively simple, an administration staff to manage office expenses and e-mails, all three candidates doesn’t have the very basic skills we needed: (1) Good appearance, (2) English capabilities, and (3) Computer skills (Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and e-mailing).
Yet, let me remind you that all of them came from a very reputable universities, have high GPAs, and were pretty actively involved in their university organizations.
Another bitter reality for me, considering all of them have spent enormous amount of (their parents’) money but are not ready to make (money) on their own. This surely is a valuable lesson for me as a parent. And this is one fact that must be deeply, thoroughly, think about, for all of you studying in college right now.
Are you sure you’re going to get a job easily after you graduate, or are you just like most college graduates who does not have any idea on how to prepare yourself in order to be ready for work?
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{Wandering Ideas} 