an atenean's view on working, the so-called edge and more

we often hear from other people how the battle for jobs are only limited to the graudates of the good, prestigious schools. that the only people who get jobs are the ones who graduate from either of the top 3 or sometimes 4. that those who dont belong to any of the four would either end up struggling in finding a job or would not find one at all. i used to agree with those people. until i reached almost the same situation of looking for a place to have my internship almost one year ago. i realized the restriction is far much tighter. yeah, i come from the ateneo. but it's obvious that i'm not the only one. there are about 130 more from my course and about double that number from the other courses. all battling for a very limited number of slots. disregarding my tendencies for screwing up in interviews, the battle is just fierce. and as i struggled to find a place for my internship, it was that moment when i came to this realization- that although being an atenean already gives you the edge over many others, the tough battle will begin as soon as you find the need to outwit and rise above everybody else [ateneans]. knowing that there is but a very limited number of slots for many of you, your task now is to prove your worth to the company. and to prove that you deserve to be there more than anybody else.

it becomes harder for someone who's very picky and has many concerns that must be dealt with first before accepting a job. just like... me. i'm certainly not on the top of my batch, not even of my school or my course. and yet my degree of pickiness is just terrible. so is my perceived worth. kapal e noh. but perhaps it's one thing i have become being in the ateneo for 4 years. one of the few bad things, i must say. arrogant. i grew arrogance in myself. just as one of my friends said about ateneo education in one of our past classes, it's substantiated arrogance. very much so. and it's very difficult to refrain from being like that, much so to be completely free from arrogance. but i think it's something most of us have become. and it would actually be the main cause of our very own frustration once we find ourselves jobless or not being in the job that we like- and that is, like in terms of what must be done or like in terms of the pay. it's like, this is not where we're supposed to be. or this isn't how our life must go. things seem to be going the wrong way.

my recently discovered inclination towards being on my own, instead of working for some company out there, i realized, may have simply been a defense mechanism, a way to defend myself from the gradually becoming frustrating situation. but then, i'm not giving up. it's not yet even graduation. the best time perhaps to feel this way is a month or two after graduation and still no offers, no calls whatsoever. and if things become too desperate for me, i might just accept those which i never considered before, i.e, those i'm not considering now.