People don’t always get what they deserve in this world.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book
I still remembered in the past, my first job that I have ever had was something that I did not even expect that I am qualified for. Everything begun with a simple search. As the quotes mentioned that almost 80 ~ 90% of the time, what we are hoping for to happen will not happen and we will not get what we want and deserve. The good news is sometimes what we get that may or may not be what we want, can turn to be a better one if we see the good thing inside of it.
As long as I remember correctly, this thing happened a lot in my life. For instance, my first part time job that I applied was not the one that I wanted but inspired me forever. At that time, I was applying for two positions in the university; the first one was a part time computer and network engineer and the second one was a part time librarian. As you can imagine that as an Electrical and Electronic Engineering student, the job at the computer center would be the best suitable position for me. However, I was not lucky enough to be selected. I was very disappointed since I wanted to gain some experience in my field of expertise. Not long after that, I received a call from the library of my former university, Petra Christian University. I was invited for an interview. I was quite surprise since I didn’t expect to get the part time job as a librarian. Since I had some free time during my day-to-day life as a college student and didn’t get a job in the computer center, I said to myself, why not, let’s go for an interview. Since there is nothing to lose and I can turn my free time into more productive time, I decided to go for an interview. Since this was my first interview, I had to prepare something beforehand.
“Everything you want is out there waiting for you to ask. Everything you want also wants you. But you have to take action to get it.” ― Jack Canfield
What I did was, I did some studies about what makes you as an ideal librarian. I read some books about how to succeed in a job interview. I also went to the library to spend some time and feel the environment. I imagined myself as if I got the job. What can I gain out of this part time job in the library? Many people sometimes do not consider and imagine themselves as if they get the job. As a result, once they get the job, they hate it.
As the time passed by, I did my interview very well with the head of the library of my former university. I was not really expecting that the interview would be very short and sweet. Probably, since the position that I applied was a part time position, the interview process was really straight forward. In the nutshell, I got the job.
Finally, I have to start my first part time job in the library. I felt so excited. I went to the library with full of energy and motivation. My first day was great. Tidying up the book shelves and flowing the books were my daily tasks as a librarian. A few weeks afterwards, I tried to read some books that I found while I am working as a librarian. To be honest, I did not like to read books. Since I found some interesting books in the library, I started to read some of them after works. The good news as a library, I can borrow more books than the normal college students. Normally, most of the college students can only borrow up to 3 books for a month. Instead, as a librarian, I can borrow up to 7 books for a month. This really motivated me to bring more books home and read them. The time passed by very quickly, I made good connection with several professors by helping them to find books and reserve it in advance for the lectures. I also had great connection with several staffs in the library until I met the IT staff of library. I discussed several things related to IT. This makes me understand more about what is IT, why do we need IT, how was the day-to-day job as an IT guy, etc. All in all, I gained more experience that I might have had if I just got a job in computer center in the first place.
The lessons that I learned from my past experience was “Never say no to any job opportunities even if that might seems beyond your expectation. But you would rather consider taking the job that you don’t even think that you want it in the first place. Believe me, you will be amazed on what you will get in return.”