Maybe if I were to start life afresh I would be tagged naughty, stubborn or whatsoever name fits that category. The evolving nature of our society at large is a clear indication of abandoned rules yet few seem to realize. When I say starting life afresh what I mean is beginning from my nursery school days to the tertiary level. This period in every man's life holds a lot and reveals a lot in the near future. The idea of go to school, get good grades, get a better job is what sometimes I tend to see as deceit in this modern society.
Don't know how many of us are fans of the movie Transformers, well I have been watching it since I was a kid. You should know our famous hero, yeah him or should I say it; Optimus Prime. Just trying to use one of his quotes in Transformers: Age of extinction to portray facts here. When humans turned against Prime he called all Autobots and said "Humans have asked us to play by their rules. Well, the rules have just changed"
Only if we could think like Optimus Prime, knowing the need to change rules to fit situations. We individually spend more than two decades in the schooling system, ignoring every fact and opportunity around us with the belief of getting a better job (playing by human rules).
Where is the better job? and what probability do you have to secure the better job. Let's draw a sample space of 200 pilot trainees undergoing tuition for over six years for sample size n= 10(needed number of trainees to be employed after tuition) which equals the available vacancy. After the six years, what happens to the remaining 190. Am I against education?, not at all. All I'm saying is that education should be to acquire universal knowledge and life needed skills, not as schooling; a process where all effort is concentrated to one field which mostly yields no result.
We have left the machine era when employers were looking for employees and such times, if you could just read and write a job was secured, everyone saw this and pushed through this process till it reached its maximum and a decline followed. Adding to that the introduction of computer and advanced tech in this modern era adds to make securing a job more challenging as it is much easier to deploy a machine to solve problems that employ many hands. Currently employees are looking for employers yet humans are still playing by their old rules.
The rich play against the rule
The wealthy know this rule is fake, so they create their rules. Here, you decide what you need and go after it. If you can't get a job why not create one. This era I must say works mostly to the favor of entrepreneurs who take advantage of the mass unemployment to fish suited employees. Here employees may have to work more for less or face the penalty of being fired and replaced by a new staff. They also leverage technology to secure more compounding returns on investment rather than pile an organization up with many staff and face the pressure of monthly payment.
It is a rule not a law
Yes, you are free to break out of it. Even laws are broken when it seems burdensome. Change the rules. Leverage every opportunity. There is no safe and secure job out there. As you are going through studies, have a side hustle it can even be your future. I have read many stories of great men who rose from the street. Life is about what you need, not what you've been told or presented. Leverage the internet, acquire extra skills, improve. There is a saying, it is good to hold on to one and not let go of the other. If your papers work for you, fine; if it doesn't then your acquired skills/side hustle can be the alternative. Putting all eggs in one basket is already a risky thing. Change the rules, it will go a long way in the future. If we can raise many entrepreneurs or self employed personnel it would help balance the employer employee scale.
To wrap it up I will add, the old saying of focusing on a particular career is just humans telling you to play by their rules. Until you change the rules you will end up in a trap. As you are pursuing you academic career just be certain of this, that single job you are trying to secure is already crowded by competitors. It would be much better if you pursue with a backup plan and this can only be achieved if you change the rules.