(Very late) Friday Five 19-May-2023
Wednesday, 24 May 2023 10:49![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elusivekI’ve been slack in updating, sorry! Here’s a backdate entry for last week’s Fives.
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thefridayfive
1.Besides work, what takes up the biggest portion of your day?
The dogs, I suppose. I schedule my life around the dogs. I usually avoid making overnight trips because the dogs need their dog walks. And dinners and drinks with friends too. If we ever do go out at night, I make sure I don't get home too late because I know I have to wake up early the next day for the morning dog walk too.
2. If you could do anything as a career, what would it be?
No-consequence type of dream job right? I don't know. Columnist? Author? Standup? My jokes are probably of the Dad-joke cold-ish category so I wouldn't be successful LOL, but this is a hypothetical question, so I have hypothetical answers.
3. Do you feel too much emphasis is placed on having a career?
Yes. People talk about dreaming of this, dreaming of that. And as kids too, we get asked "what do you want to be?" I never had a proper concrete answer. Yeah at one point in time I wanted to work in the air travel industry, I was told since I spoke 3 languages fluently and could manage a 4th, I'd be hot commodity in Airports. Would I have liked to have a career as an illustrator? Sure, I liked to doodle and draw when I was younger. Was I ever good enough for anything? I knew for a fact that I was not. Never came around to that. My career history was really a series of coincidences.
4. If you have a college/university degree, are you working in your field?
Nope and never did. I did have a stint in a travel agency in Lisbon (I have a Bachelor of Tourism Business Management) for my summer internship one year, the working culture was very different, but also wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
5. What would be the most boring job to have and why?
My first "proper" job ever was a data entry part time staff for an up and coming hotel-casino-resort. You know when you are in a restaurant, and after you place an order, they print out a paper from the POS (Point of Sales) machine with your order? Like if you order a "Steak with Fries" the paper shows an item like "St w/fries" thingamajig? My first job was to enter thousands of entries for this type of thing. The group that was hired was never briefed with what to do, there were 5 of us. So the others were just typing in the info from the age typed-from-a-typewriter stack of sheets with words; I was the only one who read through the whole line of "Frozen Sea Bass" and then referred to the samples provided and entered as "F FZN S BASS" (Fish, frozen sea bass).
What do you get if you do the job well? You get more work. I had to re-enter all the wrong entries from the other 4 *rolls eyes* I was young and green back then and didn't understand this fact of life.
F.riday5.com
Interesting that both sets of questions are somehow about the same-ish topic!
1. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to begin college?
Assuming College = University (or equivalent) in for this: It doesn't really matter what you study, maybe except for the science degrees I guess. That I know of, all my friends, most of them aren't really working in the field that they studied, except for: a friend that studied nutrition (science) and is now working as a food safety supervisor or something. A few scientists that obviously studied whatever sciences. Alright, the designers studied graphic design. But other than that, say, non of my classmates form the Tourism Business Management major are working in the tourism business.
2. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to enter the workforce?
I'll probably sound a bit old school here. It's the attitude that matters. You can learn from the job and gain experience, but you need a good attitude. I've been lucky all my life, so maybe I don't have the insight for really bad managers and poor management, but as long as I was willing to learn and try to do something, the superiors were happy enough.
3. What advice do you have for a high school grad who doesn’t know what’s next?
I don't really know. My life wasn't exactly planned out, but I never had the time to "wonder what's next." When I was in high school, my Sis was in Uni doing poorly. She went for graphic design, which was something I also wanted to do, but she did it so poorly, the school actually advised her not to pursue her Bachelors degree after she scrapped by for her Higher Diploma (Universities here are usually 3 years for higher diploma "Bacchelerato" and then the final year for the Bachelor "Licenciatura"). All through the while my Mom was complaining about the expensive materials (had to buy painting materials, had to buy a Single-lense reflect camera, had to develop black and white photos, which were really expensive back then.... and now...). And then, she had the audacity to decide to go to Austria (real reason was to "run away from Mom") and I was left to deal with Mom. Trying to avoid her "it's so expensive!" Complaints, I decided to forego Graphic Design. My High School had only the 5th Form (Grade 11?), and if I went to any other University, I would be required to complete the 6th Form (Grade 12?) elsewhere and also take a year of "pre-U" (pre-University), so, I took the jump and only applied to the Tourism School that said "as long as you graduated from High School, we'd take you." Amongst my circle of friends, I was one of those that got a job the soonest, because of that.
4. What advice do you have for a high school grad whose high school years were disappointing?
Depends on which aspect of it was disappointing. If it was about your social life, friends and stuff, well, suck it up, go to Uni, you're bound to see new people there anyway. Might get better, might get worse, but you're aiming for an education here, right?
And if it were because you don't like the academia, then that's fine too, then find a field you like to work in, and focus on the skills development of those.
5. What do you remember about your own graduation from high school?
High school, right? This is a funny one. So I was on the graduating year of 1999-2000 (school year was September through June/July). The "graduation trips" are usually held over Christmas. Which is ironic. How would you know in December if you were graduating in June? Now. Because of the Y2K scare back then, our school principal disallowed our graduation trip to be anywhere that you had to take a plane to. Because, Y2K. *rolls eyes*. So we had the most boring trip to some nearby province in China, probably Shenzhen or somewhere not far, because we were only allowed to go somewhere reachable by bus. Understand this, back then, China was not yet developed and advanced, or at least, Southern China wasn't yet, so it felt like we got a super downgrade for our graduation trip (the years before went to Japan, Korea, etc).
That was also the first year that I helped Dad with his Christmas cookies. Our form teacher was a nun, Sister Mary-Keely (I think she was English), and I remember taking out a box of Gingerbread deers and she was happy to take one. Maybe because back then, proper German/European Gingerbread cookies were non-existent in that part of the world. Yeah on the bus there was a discussion of whether I'd turn out to be a baker or patissiere later in life. Of course that didn't happen LOL. I'm just a hobby baker.
thefridayfive 1.Besides work, what takes up the biggest portion of your day?
The dogs, I suppose. I schedule my life around the dogs. I usually avoid making overnight trips because the dogs need their dog walks. And dinners and drinks with friends too. If we ever do go out at night, I make sure I don't get home too late because I know I have to wake up early the next day for the morning dog walk too.
2. If you could do anything as a career, what would it be?
No-consequence type of dream job right? I don't know. Columnist? Author? Standup? My jokes are probably of the Dad-joke cold-ish category so I wouldn't be successful LOL, but this is a hypothetical question, so I have hypothetical answers.
3. Do you feel too much emphasis is placed on having a career?
Yes. People talk about dreaming of this, dreaming of that. And as kids too, we get asked "what do you want to be?" I never had a proper concrete answer. Yeah at one point in time I wanted to work in the air travel industry, I was told since I spoke 3 languages fluently and could manage a 4th, I'd be hot commodity in Airports. Would I have liked to have a career as an illustrator? Sure, I liked to doodle and draw when I was younger. Was I ever good enough for anything? I knew for a fact that I was not. Never came around to that. My career history was really a series of coincidences.
4. If you have a college/university degree, are you working in your field?
Nope and never did. I did have a stint in a travel agency in Lisbon (I have a Bachelor of Tourism Business Management) for my summer internship one year, the working culture was very different, but also wasn't exactly my cup of tea.
5. What would be the most boring job to have and why?
My first "proper" job ever was a data entry part time staff for an up and coming hotel-casino-resort. You know when you are in a restaurant, and after you place an order, they print out a paper from the POS (Point of Sales) machine with your order? Like if you order a "Steak with Fries" the paper shows an item like "St w/fries" thingamajig? My first job was to enter thousands of entries for this type of thing. The group that was hired was never briefed with what to do, there were 5 of us. So the others were just typing in the info from the age typed-from-a-typewriter stack of sheets with words; I was the only one who read through the whole line of "Frozen Sea Bass" and then referred to the samples provided and entered as "F FZN S BASS" (Fish, frozen sea bass).
What do you get if you do the job well? You get more work. I had to re-enter all the wrong entries from the other 4 *rolls eyes* I was young and green back then and didn't understand this fact of life.
F.riday5.com
Interesting that both sets of questions are somehow about the same-ish topic!
1. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to begin college?
Assuming College = University (or equivalent) in for this: It doesn't really matter what you study, maybe except for the science degrees I guess. That I know of, all my friends, most of them aren't really working in the field that they studied, except for: a friend that studied nutrition (science) and is now working as a food safety supervisor or something. A few scientists that obviously studied whatever sciences. Alright, the designers studied graphic design. But other than that, say, non of my classmates form the Tourism Business Management major are working in the tourism business.
2. What advice do you have for a high school grad getting ready to enter the workforce?
I'll probably sound a bit old school here. It's the attitude that matters. You can learn from the job and gain experience, but you need a good attitude. I've been lucky all my life, so maybe I don't have the insight for really bad managers and poor management, but as long as I was willing to learn and try to do something, the superiors were happy enough.
3. What advice do you have for a high school grad who doesn’t know what’s next?
I don't really know. My life wasn't exactly planned out, but I never had the time to "wonder what's next." When I was in high school, my Sis was in Uni doing poorly. She went for graphic design, which was something I also wanted to do, but she did it so poorly, the school actually advised her not to pursue her Bachelors degree after she scrapped by for her Higher Diploma (Universities here are usually 3 years for higher diploma "Bacchelerato" and then the final year for the Bachelor "Licenciatura"). All through the while my Mom was complaining about the expensive materials (had to buy painting materials, had to buy a Single-lense reflect camera, had to develop black and white photos, which were really expensive back then.... and now...). And then, she had the audacity to decide to go to Austria (real reason was to "run away from Mom") and I was left to deal with Mom. Trying to avoid her "it's so expensive!" Complaints, I decided to forego Graphic Design. My High School had only the 5th Form (Grade 11?), and if I went to any other University, I would be required to complete the 6th Form (Grade 12?) elsewhere and also take a year of "pre-U" (pre-University), so, I took the jump and only applied to the Tourism School that said "as long as you graduated from High School, we'd take you." Amongst my circle of friends, I was one of those that got a job the soonest, because of that.
4. What advice do you have for a high school grad whose high school years were disappointing?
Depends on which aspect of it was disappointing. If it was about your social life, friends and stuff, well, suck it up, go to Uni, you're bound to see new people there anyway. Might get better, might get worse, but you're aiming for an education here, right?
And if it were because you don't like the academia, then that's fine too, then find a field you like to work in, and focus on the skills development of those.
5. What do you remember about your own graduation from high school?
High school, right? This is a funny one. So I was on the graduating year of 1999-2000 (school year was September through June/July). The "graduation trips" are usually held over Christmas. Which is ironic. How would you know in December if you were graduating in June? Now. Because of the Y2K scare back then, our school principal disallowed our graduation trip to be anywhere that you had to take a plane to. Because, Y2K. *rolls eyes*. So we had the most boring trip to some nearby province in China, probably Shenzhen or somewhere not far, because we were only allowed to go somewhere reachable by bus. Understand this, back then, China was not yet developed and advanced, or at least, Southern China wasn't yet, so it felt like we got a super downgrade for our graduation trip (the years before went to Japan, Korea, etc).
That was also the first year that I helped Dad with his Christmas cookies. Our form teacher was a nun, Sister Mary-Keely (I think she was English), and I remember taking out a box of Gingerbread deers and she was happy to take one. Maybe because back then, proper German/European Gingerbread cookies were non-existent in that part of the world. Yeah on the bus there was a discussion of whether I'd turn out to be a baker or patissiere later in life. Of course that didn't happen LOL. I'm just a hobby baker.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-24 12:07 (UTC)Though I've always sort of thought it, more and more it seems to me that college (university) is pretty useless unless you're going into a science. I remember our company going from having managers come up through the ranks to hiring people who happen to have degrees. Didn't matter in what. Talk about a fiasco.