Placements is a season which brings along all colours in the human psychology - happiness, sorrow, hatred, frustration, anger, pity, gossiping, satisfaction etc.... there are hundreds of such words - each one itself can be a topic of a new blog.
What am goona talk about in this blog - specifically is the relative comparison which one makes with others.
Put in very simple words, questions which come in our mind during & after placement season--
How can he/she get through such an such job ?? - I am much better than him/her...
Why is my package lesser than his/her ?? - This is injustice..
These are just few examples of the hundreds of comparative questions which one tries to find answers for.
When I entered NITIE, I was introduced with two phrases "the" placement & "a" placement. It was really fascinating to understand the meaning of the two phrases. "the" placement in essence suggested a placement, profile & most importantly package which is a cut above the rest of the peers competing with you. "a" placement in contrast led to a indication of a placement which every tom, dick & harry can achieve, nothing to be proud about.
Now lets take an exercise..
Suppose God becomes very happy with you & comes down to the earth & gives you two options to choose from...
Option 1:- Jobs with US$ 75,000 dollar salary for you & two of your best friends in USA
Option 2:- Job with US$ 50,000 salary for you, & US $25000 salary for two of your best friends (All in USA)
Which option will you choose ?? Option 1 where all can be happy at the same salary or Option 2 where you are at an advantage over your friends.
Take your pick.. I dont want to get your answers on this... just asked your choice to stimulate thought process.
If you remember the film "3 idiots" - it had a scene which actually describes peer pressure - Dost fail ho jaye to dukh hota hai, lekin dost 1st aajaye to jyada dukh hota hai.. :)
Believe me, the plight of being recognized as a person with "a" placement can be really really painful, especially if most of your peers has secured "the" placement. You suddenly fall off the cliff; cliff which is built on confidence, belief in one's ability & most importantly knowledge. Life seems to be useless, one feels quite a loser which has lost a big race on the back of high expectations. Frustration creeps in to the system which further detoriates once performance. Its a viscous circle, one circle which is difficult to break if one goes the wrong way.
On the other side of the coin, the person with "the" placement starts oneself on a streak of spirutality - where he/she tries to pacify each of the people who have secured "a" placement. He/She will try to decorate "a" placement such that it should look like "the" placement. He/She will become very humble & try to make you understand that all is not lost.. & its just a bad phase in the life.
Its all human behavior friends, i am sure all of you have experienced these situations & emotions, may be not in your life but in lives of others. The point of the matter in this discussion is the pressure one feels after securing "a" placement. No matter how many sugar-coated words are supplied to the bitter heart of a person with "a" placement, it will leave behind the scars may be small, but will be there.
Now the big question which arises how can one use these scars to its advantage.
One very simple solution - become a monk - become free from love of wordly things, it will make you a person who doesnt care of the peers. He is satisfied with what he has. I surely think most of the people in the present age.. will try this thing but will end up fooling oneself. Therefore instead of fooling oneself why not become bold & accept that greedy feeling inside & make it a point to score a cut above the rest.
This leads to the second option, use the scars as a burning fuel & catalyst to future growth. Learn from mistakes & improve on them, competition always brings out the best in a person. Satisfaction will inturn stop creativity & would create roadblocks for innovation. This type of gyaan can go on & on, but my feeling is you have already understood what i am trying to convey, so i would not waste my energy & bombard you with great statements which you will skip anyway :P
In this blog, i have said nothing new, everything was known implictly to most of you, but i felt its necessary to make it explicit once in a while. Would love to hear your comments on this topic... thanks for patient reading.. :)
