Ironically…
If being an overseas graduate means easily nailing a good job, then I’d say mine was a bit of an oddball kind. When I came back for good three years ago, it took me almost a year to get a job at a real corporate company, and a several agonizing months before that were filled with endlessly sending out job applications via e-mails or post.
You’d think that holding a Bachelor degree in Multimedia (Media Studies) would easily get me a job somewhere fancy like, ooh, I don’t know, a television station or something? What’s with my English-speaking fluency and all. Because there are more chance for an overseas graduate to nail a job rather than those who are locally graduated.
Right?
I swear to God, if I get to charge a dollar for each time someone says the same thing, I’d be the richest woman in the country (because if converted into Rupiah I could get a bowl of noodles with meatballs complete with a glass of hot tea).
Well, you’re in for a bit of a shock, intcha?
My working experiences since coming back three years ago were:
1. Being a fashion assistant at a Fashion House in Panglima Polim and got ‘let go’ - to put it mildly - after a mere three days. I think the designer found me too obnoxious for her liking.
2. An English teacher in Jakarta CBD area with very, very small income (hint: less than 2 million, and pay was not always on time). I felt sorry for my students because they paid so much and got so little since the other teachers were still confused to differentiate ’she’ from ‘he’ in between conversation practices.
3. A Packaging Development Officer at a Pharmaceutical company (say what?) - lasted 1,6 years and learned that the corporate world, as depicted marvelously in Dilbert, was full of lickarses and morons with cum-laude titles. The only good thing that place brought me was my beau.
When beau was about to resign, within a week he sent out applications and got accepted straight away into a multinational company with a very, very good salary. Mucho dinero than I would ever make.
Now this is my beau’s story; He was locally graduated, although from a very good university that actually got ranked at number four hundred something as one of the best universities in the world (and quite shockingly, mine was not even listed) as a chemical engineer, which he’d financed himself by working as a lab analyst by day and taking night classes.
And my story; studied overseas for six years and graduated with an overseas degree and various odd part-time work experiences overseas and locally. When I tried my luck in applying for another positions elsewhere, all I got was an interview from a futures exchange company that conned many people into investing millions and losing them all.
Go figure.
