Like millions of engineers around the world, I was really happy having landed my dream job in one of the fortune 500 companies while still in college. My mom was really happy, she had struggled hard to pay my college tuition fees in the past. She probably was in tears on hearing this, finally, her sacrifices have paid off. I was in constant party mood for one week after that and probably didn’t touch any books for the next one month. After all getting job is what every student aims when they enter college, especially people from middle class. Time flies fast, I realized it during the last year of my college. I had been reading about corporate culture, reading reviews about the company I was about to join. There were some negative reviews too, but the optimist in me always focused on the good part of the reviews. There are two sides to everything, right?
My biggest mistake, I guess was thinking that I was ready for this corporate world. During the first one month, I was introduced to every aspect of the company I will be working with and was soon introduced to my manager who will be guiding my transition from college to corporate, from a student to a corporate stooge. The sweetest text I ever received was the notification of my first salary deposit. One week of dining out and parties continued. But as time passed by, I started feeling that I am not meant for this place. Here are the reasons why I felt so
My job was not intellectually satisfying
First of all, my job was not intellectually satisfying. I took this stream of engineering because I was really interested in learning stuff. That is what I was expecting at work too. Now there was a steep learning curve for the first few weeks and I enjoyed absorbing every new information that was thrown at me. But soon after that, there was just monotonous daily work which didn’t require any of the skills I learned while in college.
Secondly, I was not ready to work for someone and hear my boss order me doing mundane jobs daily. Another thing I noticed was petty politics at work. People at work were constantly trying to pull legs of their colleagues in an effort to bring them down.
Third, I noticed that people were not happy. Sometimes corporate start milking their employees so much that they lose all their sense of happiness and become belligerent in stress. I didn’t want to end up like everyone else.
So I started looking for ways out of this corporate world. When I mentioned it to my mom, she was unable to understand why would someone leave such a good job to continue their studies? After all, the purpose of getting a college degree is to get a job. After listening to my reasons, she said that she would support me no matter what. That gave me confidence. I have always wanted to become a scientist and use my knowledge to help society in any ways possible. I guess that was the main reason why I was unhappy at work. It was not what I always dreamt of. So I started applying for Ph.D. programs in the US and was finally lucky to get an admit.
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