feet on ground while eye on stars (last blog by Sam)

First allow me to explain my recent update on second semester of APLP. Yes I am no longer in Bangladesh. Starting from February Bangladesh has been facing an unprecedented violent uprising sparked by the tribunal of war criminals in 1971. In consideration of my safety and my family’s anxiety, I returned to Hong Kong in early March.

Throughout this period, I finished an internship with Grameen Bank. That I have already explained in my previous posts. What I failed to start is an internship with Yunus Center, an organization that focuses on the development of Social Business. After returning to Hong Kong, I have thought of starting another internship in some other places, but something happened to force me rethink about my appropriate future.

I have received a rejection letter from the Government. Failing to pass the written test of Joint Recruitment Exam of Hong Kong Government, this has concluded my hamlet saga of getting into the Civil Service. That means I will have to wait until the end of this year before I get another chance of getting into the Government. And by the time I do that it would be my third time attempting to get into Public Service. At a moment like this, a more realistic option for me would definitely be to find another job instead. March is a big month for job application, and that’s why I chose to stay in Hong Kong.

APLP taught us planning for success, but it didn’t spend much of its syllabus to teach us the equally important technique: plan B after failure. Much of my P4S was written to depict my ambitions: to understand Public Service from practicing it, to enter Politics with my extensive knowledge on Public Service, to serve as a leader by enrolling into politics……..but in most of the times in Hawaii I didn’t answer the question: what if my so-called plan fails at the embryo stage – if I cannot even pass the written test?

That is why I have decided to take the other route. It is time for me to concentrate on the issue of job applications. Not internships. Not part-time. Permanent jobs. And I am already working on it. Gradually I found it particularly difficult for a fresh-graduate like me to transit from a leader-to-be to a humble job-seeker.

When I was in Hawaii my fellows treated me well, a bit too well that I was actually a little spoiled in the positive atmosphere we created. The feeling was further manifested when I arrived at Dhaka, when people at there were amazed by my global knowledge (freshly obtained from APLP) and my aggressiveness to learn and improve. (Attitudes learnt from APLP fellows) When I receive the praise from the readers who read my articles about Bangladesh, I thought my career was going to be bright. I thought I was ready to make impacts to the society. I thought I was ready to become a leader-to-be.  

And all of a sudden my return to Hong Kong dethroned my craze. I learnt that I am jobless. Unfortunately, jobs and opportunities are not coming to me out of a few articles I have written. The most inconvenient truth, to me, is that there are no casual relation between my amazing journeys and job hunting. This is especially true when it comes to job hunting of fresh graduates. When I started to realize this fact on the first few days in Hong Kong, I could not say I was not disappointed.

To get a resounding career start, I have to go through a series of standard procedures: written test, aptitude test, group interview, panel interview….and beat the majority of candidates. There might be differences between me and other candidates, yet those differentials are not enough for me to stand out clearly among others. After all, from a recruitment perspective, it is very difficult for fresh graduates to distinguish themselves from each others simply from their past experiences. Work experiences matter, and that is what I am lacking of while everyone I met in Hawaii possess. That means I have to be more job-application oriented. That means I have to return to the basics.

The only good news is that I am starting to get used to all these cruelty in life. As a lot of people told me, I am still young. For a young fellow like me, time is always not a problem. That is why I am now devoting some time in working on my grammar, speaking, mathematics and logic principles. These things may not be as fruitful as the international exposures that greatly opened up my vault. Yet to get past of the very initial obstacle of my career, I have to do some hard work.

Asia Pacific Leadership Program has given me a lot. I made incredible friends, learnt invaluable knowledge and even have some exclusive experiences that I may never able to do it again in my life. I am more than grateful of that. As a lot of people pointed out, I may have a bright future. The only issue is that I have to take my own initiative to correct my weaknesses, to return to fundamentals and to remain positive in the long application process.

A great politician once said: "Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground." I believe, by keeping this in mind, one day I will be able to catch up you guys in the field of leadership.