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“Where do you see yourself 10 years down the lane?”
I had answered this question a dozen times before and without any hesitation, I repeated it to my new recruiter;
“I see myself working at a respectable position for a reputable organization like yours!”
And like the dozen times before, my heart sank again.
If only you knew. If only you could peep inside and realize with what a heavy heart I had answered that question of yours. But maybe you understood. Because there, in that interviewer seat you had interviewed a 100 candidates throughout your professional life.
Maybe you knew.
Because I am not the only fresh graduate who had painfully lied to your said question.
Because long time back you might have also sat in my position and lied just as clearly to your recruiter as I did now.
And like the dozen times before, I recounted why I had lied again as an answer to this question.
No Mister, I don’t see myself working for a reputable organization like yours with my greying hair strands and wrinkled skin. In fact, I don’t see myself working for any organization fast forwarded to after a decade from now on. Because presently, I am at a point where I don’t even know where the next 10 minutes of my life will take me, let alone 10 years down the lane.
I just stepped out from my university joggers, out from a dream of tea and books. I just stepped out from a life of written tests, vivas and projects, where the only anxiety was to get good grades. I just stepped out from a garden where trees were full of dad’s bucks and my only worry every morning was how to overcome my short attendance. I just stepped out from a laughter bag of joy and care-free times and everything in my life that was golden and made me a kid with a back-pack.
You must realize what I am going through.
Sitting through numerous pre-employment tests, literally racing through every part of the city for job interviews and updating my CV was not what I dreamt of while tossing that graduation cap in air. I never dreamt of trading salary for experience or waking up every morning with the tagline, ‘Graduated but Unemployed!’ I never dreamt of avoiding parties in order to avoid people’s curiosity on ‘What’s next?’ or coming to that saturation point where, frustratingly, the inner voice would say ‘Any job will do as long as it’s a job!‘ And above all, I never dreamt of a time where I would ponder whether I had invested the long, hard four years of my life in the right degree or not.
Yes sir! When I am going through such a tornado of emotions, how can I decide about the next 10 years of my life? When rejections from reputable companies like yours take me four years back to justify my decision of my major.
10 years down the lane is a long time even professionally.
And for fresh graduates like me who still enjoy having graduation pictures as their profile pictures, 10 years is unfathomable.
Because currently, we enjoy the luxury of being free. Free from any corporate slavery. Free from any employment bonds.
But sadly, I am a new player of this job hunt game. And like all games, rules should be followed. So if this is the answer you expect from me for your question then I will repeat it for the dozen time;
“I see myself working at a respectable position for a reputable organization like yours 10 years down the lane!“
Yes sir, it is a white lie. But then all is fair in love, war and job hunt!
Source: Tumblr
Source: tumblr
