After working for a number of years, I noticed a trend. People hardly get to utilise what they studied to their work. No doubt there are some who chose to do something totally different from their major, but those who went into the same industry as what they studied did not really get to utilise their knowledge fully.
Take me for example. I did law and I did education (more education than law). The law I did was only very basic, the tip of the iceberg. Of course my knowledge can never be compared to those with a full-fledged law degree. The law courses I studied were just basic definitions, a bit of case studies, legal research and some drafting.
There were some topics which I did better in, like Family Law, Criminal Law, Probate, Intellectual Property, Tort, Civil Litigation and Shipping Law, and there were some topics which I did badly in like Company Law, Property and Conveyancing, Contract and Commercial Law and Banking Law.
Ironically, when I started working in law firms, I had to do Company Law, Banking Law, Conveyancing and Contracts, with just a little Family Law, Probate and Intellectual Property. Whatever I am confident in is not put to use and whatever I am not confident in I have to struggle and re-learn everything again. But it is fine by me as I always believe there is still so much more to learn.
Even for my education course, whatever I majored in (English Literature, History and Music) was not utilised. I did modules on Primary Curriculum, but when I ended up teaching in a primary school, besides teaching English, Mathematics and Music, I had to teach Science, Social Studies, PE and Art, subjects which I had not done and which I was rather unfamiliar with (except for Social Studies as that is history- and geography-based, so I could still handle). I am not that proficient in Science (trust me, the concepts in the new primary science syllabus is HARD, due to all the creative thinking questions which even an adult can find it hard to answer), and I cannot draw to save my life.
Yet I always ended up with more Science and Art classes than Music classes. A lot of my ex-colleagues who were teaching music did not even have any music background, but they were asked to teach music, and they ended up teaching more music classes than me. Sometimes they asked me to help in reading the notes and positioning the hands on the keyboard. I always wondered if this was because of those backstabbers in my school, who, for some reason or the other, somehow managed to convince the Principal not to give me music classes, or a screw-up in the time-tabling, or I just happened to be unlucky.
A fine example of how employees are not being utilised to their fullest and the best of their abilities. If I ever go back to teaching, I will want to teach advanced level. That is where all the challenges are in terms of subject teaching, and with older and more sensible kids, whose parents have more or less let them go. Primary school kids (and the parents) can really be very sticky and a handful at times.
I have quite a few friends and relatives who ended up doing something totally different from their studies. I have a cousin who did Building and Estate Management, but is now doing Human Resource and Welfare at the Prison Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. My best friend and two of my ex-boyfriends all did something totally unrelated to what they studied.
Even my mum, who graduated with a Chemistry and Mathematics degree (that is why she can never understand why I can never do these two subjects and I am just as bewildered as her) ended up in Human Resource and Personnel at one of the statutory boards after graduation.
Sometimes it is not a matter of not getting the job, but not getting the job you like to do. I have a friend who was eyeing an industrial engineer post, but when she joined the company, she was given a project coordinator post instead. Why do companies not utilise fully who they hire? Will that not be unfair to the employee if he / she is made to do something he / she is unfamiliar with and has to start from scratch? The company will also not gain the best contribution from this employee as he / she is doing something totally new.
No doubt when we go out to work, we are doing jobs we do not like to do 80% of the time, but still, will it not be best if we can actually do a job where we can fully apply what we have learnt, whether or not we like the scope of the job? There is no harm in starting from scratch and learning from the beginning, but not many companies are willing to train the employees from the beginning. As a result, in most cases, it is on-the-job training. Most employees have to either do the job or die a painful death.
One does learn more by doing everything yourself, but in the beginning stages, it is very very hard to adjust. I had such a hard time trying to adjust in the first few months of teaching. It was a big culture shock for me as I was too used to a disciplined mission school’s culture and background and had no idea how messed-up the neighbourhood schools really are. It was either do or die for me and I had to really learn everything from scratch. The biggest challenge was how to cultivate an interest in studying and learning to kids who were unwilling and disinterested in attending school in the first place.
But I guess for working adults like us, most of the time we have to take the initiative to learn on our own. Our colleagues and peers are probably just as busy. Of course it is still best if they can take the time to train or supervise us, but generally, we have to learn how to do things by ourselves and ask questions when in doubt. And despite everything, it may be a better idea to work somewhere different from what we studied after all, then we can learn and be exposed to much more.
Take me for example. I did law and I did education (more education than law). The law I did was only very basic, the tip of the iceberg. Of course my knowledge can never be compared to those with a full-fledged law degree. The law courses I studied were just basic definitions, a bit of case studies, legal research and some drafting.
There were some topics which I did better in, like Family Law, Criminal Law, Probate, Intellectual Property, Tort, Civil Litigation and Shipping Law, and there were some topics which I did badly in like Company Law, Property and Conveyancing, Contract and Commercial Law and Banking Law.
Ironically, when I started working in law firms, I had to do Company Law, Banking Law, Conveyancing and Contracts, with just a little Family Law, Probate and Intellectual Property. Whatever I am confident in is not put to use and whatever I am not confident in I have to struggle and re-learn everything again. But it is fine by me as I always believe there is still so much more to learn.
Even for my education course, whatever I majored in (English Literature, History and Music) was not utilised. I did modules on Primary Curriculum, but when I ended up teaching in a primary school, besides teaching English, Mathematics and Music, I had to teach Science, Social Studies, PE and Art, subjects which I had not done and which I was rather unfamiliar with (except for Social Studies as that is history- and geography-based, so I could still handle). I am not that proficient in Science (trust me, the concepts in the new primary science syllabus is HARD, due to all the creative thinking questions which even an adult can find it hard to answer), and I cannot draw to save my life.
Yet I always ended up with more Science and Art classes than Music classes. A lot of my ex-colleagues who were teaching music did not even have any music background, but they were asked to teach music, and they ended up teaching more music classes than me. Sometimes they asked me to help in reading the notes and positioning the hands on the keyboard. I always wondered if this was because of those backstabbers in my school, who, for some reason or the other, somehow managed to convince the Principal not to give me music classes, or a screw-up in the time-tabling, or I just happened to be unlucky.
A fine example of how employees are not being utilised to their fullest and the best of their abilities. If I ever go back to teaching, I will want to teach advanced level. That is where all the challenges are in terms of subject teaching, and with older and more sensible kids, whose parents have more or less let them go. Primary school kids (and the parents) can really be very sticky and a handful at times.
I have quite a few friends and relatives who ended up doing something totally different from their studies. I have a cousin who did Building and Estate Management, but is now doing Human Resource and Welfare at the Prison Department of the Ministry of Home Affairs. My best friend and two of my ex-boyfriends all did something totally unrelated to what they studied.
Even my mum, who graduated with a Chemistry and Mathematics degree (that is why she can never understand why I can never do these two subjects and I am just as bewildered as her) ended up in Human Resource and Personnel at one of the statutory boards after graduation.
Sometimes it is not a matter of not getting the job, but not getting the job you like to do. I have a friend who was eyeing an industrial engineer post, but when she joined the company, she was given a project coordinator post instead. Why do companies not utilise fully who they hire? Will that not be unfair to the employee if he / she is made to do something he / she is unfamiliar with and has to start from scratch? The company will also not gain the best contribution from this employee as he / she is doing something totally new.
No doubt when we go out to work, we are doing jobs we do not like to do 80% of the time, but still, will it not be best if we can actually do a job where we can fully apply what we have learnt, whether or not we like the scope of the job? There is no harm in starting from scratch and learning from the beginning, but not many companies are willing to train the employees from the beginning. As a result, in most cases, it is on-the-job training. Most employees have to either do the job or die a painful death.
One does learn more by doing everything yourself, but in the beginning stages, it is very very hard to adjust. I had such a hard time trying to adjust in the first few months of teaching. It was a big culture shock for me as I was too used to a disciplined mission school’s culture and background and had no idea how messed-up the neighbourhood schools really are. It was either do or die for me and I had to really learn everything from scratch. The biggest challenge was how to cultivate an interest in studying and learning to kids who were unwilling and disinterested in attending school in the first place.
But I guess for working adults like us, most of the time we have to take the initiative to learn on our own. Our colleagues and peers are probably just as busy. Of course it is still best if they can take the time to train or supervise us, but generally, we have to learn how to do things by ourselves and ask questions when in doubt. And despite everything, it may be a better idea to work somewhere different from what we studied after all, then we can learn and be exposed to much more.
2 comments:
What's the point of studying those specialised subjects then?
(Although I know what you mean. I am an Engineer that has never done any engineering work.)
Sometimes I wonder what's the use of studying so much also if in the end it's not going to be useful.
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