The Ivy League Myth

from jimmy akin's blog

i agree, graduating from an ivy league institute doesn't guarantee a bright future ahead of you.

i know of a product of the philippine equivalent of ivy league schools who, for almost 2 years, still remain unemployed, although he's currently dabbling in a web based service that he developed a few months ago. so anyway, he still carries on with his job hunting, which up to now, produced no successful results.

i'm not sure if it's caused by his personal inadequacies (since he has been employed when he was still studying), or if there are indeed "problems" with the recruitment system we have in the country. biased as it may sound, i believe the latter is more evident.

i've been to many employment tests and interviews where the applicant is "ill-treated" by the HR staff. politeness and punctuality doesn't cross the mind of these people, but they do expect it from their applicants. i don't know, perhaps i'm just too punctual and sensitive.

i've also encountered people who, although coming from ivy league schools, don't even know how to make a decent MS Word document, yet manages to get a good job. and there are people i know who are frighteningly intelligent yet doing menial jobs.

thus, the element of luck occurs to me as the central deciding point in this issue. one can't just be good at what he/she could or can do, one has to be in the right place at the right time.