Many many months have past and many things have happened. I was still an undergraduate student when the last blog entry was posted... and now? Graduated and unemployed. Haha. Such is the tragic outcome of poor planning skills and lack of foresight.
In retrospect, I have realized that 4 years of university studies did not prepare me for working life. There is no significant knowledge learnt from textbooks and lectures that can be applied in work. Yes, there are certain units such as programming and manufacturing that are related to the real world industrial applications. However, what we've (or I've) learnt from university is only a teeny-weeny little part of what is often required in jobs. Maybe it was because I've slept through 90% of the classes (true story) or maybe I've just forgotten everything right after exams (true story too).
Universities nowadays (Monash) are heavily geared towards academic research because of the lucrative returns of intellectual properties, research grants and last but not least, university rankings. How does it work? First, the university teaches units that are strongly academic based and can usually only be seen used in academic works (e.g. Lagrangian). Then, they promote research scholarships (while cutting down on other expenditures and increasing tuition fees) to students. With more research done, universities apply for research grants ($$$) and sells their intellectual properties (more $$$). On top of that, university rankings nowadays emphasize greatly on the research component of a university. Thus, with more research, the ranking of the university will climb and attract more and more students (even more $$$). Sometimes, I see the university more as a company/ corporation that only cares about making more money each year then a learning institute. Then again, I do not blame the university for doing so. After all, research is a very important process of understanding a new subject matter and without it, technology and human well being will not be as advance as it is today.
Also, I do not want to blame the university completely for not preparing me to be part of the labour force. This is because one can argue that the university do provide the necessary knowledge that required for jobs, and it is up to the individual to know how to apply it to be successfully employed or perform in their jobs. I agree to that. But how does one know how to apply those knowledge? Do they teach it in university? Not really. How an engineering students learn to join the jigsaw puzzle of academic knowledge and real world work is through industrial training which is provided by companies outside of university. To relate studies and work involves a lot of self learning (nobody is going to teach you everything), taking initiatives (asking for work when no work is given) and being an opportunist (um... writers block).
Having said all those, I do learn some very important skills throughout my university life. Much of it are interpersonal skills that are invaluable in working situations and normal day interactions. I have learnt to speak up more in a group, give constructive criticisms in an unoffensive way and learn how to influence people in a good way too. However, I must credit the book "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie for teaching me the fundamentals of people skills. It is the skills from that book that I have applied throughout my university life and I highly recommend anyone who have not read the book to read it.
Anyway, much of these ranting sprouted from my frustration of not being able to land a job that I want. Maybe I am just being too picky with the jobs that I apply for, or not taking enough initiatives, but I am trying. So... anyone wants to hire me?
One of my favourite picture from the Adelaide Trip 2011
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