Is there a dream job? Why does the "several endings" style of creation attract young people?
In the past college entrance examination season and graduation season, a series of posts titled "Several Finales of ×× People" went viral on social media. They are like the text version of the "Sims Game", listing the life trajectories of "financial people", "law students", "normal students", "new media people" and other jobs.
For example, if you become a "financial person" after graduation, you may get a financial offer of your choice, and become an ecstatic "Fan Jin" who can't stand overtime and goes crazy; may become a "Xianglin sister-in-law" who sits at the counter in the bank and runs around at the end of the year to pull performance, repeating "I'm so stupid, really, I just know that I am very stable in the bank"; It may also stage a realistic version of "My Altay", inspired by nature to start a digital nomadic life, anxious but free...... The endings of each profession are different, but there is a common ending of "Nan Ke's dream": suddenly waking up and finding that everything is just a fantasy when filling in the college entrance examination or graduating from college.
The content of the post is playful and humorous, and with the blessing of the Internet "hot stalks", some professions are deconstructed, which hits the sore spot of many young people. Someone left a message: "I have a friend who gently broke the defense", and more netizens "went down" to pick up the stalk and continue to write the "several finales" of this major.
Why does the "several endings" style of creation attract young people? Behind the ridicule, what kind of perception and confusion do young people have in the face of career path choice?
"Which ending are you?"
Wen Yi, a first-year student majoring in finance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, first posted a post titled "The Nine Finales of Financial People" on a social platform account "Senglio and Wind" at the end of May this year, with 13,000 likes. Among the more than 2,000 comments at the bottom, some people wrote "Ben Fan Jin is going crazy", and some people @ companions came to discuss "What kind of ending are you".
"At that time, I was in the job search stage, and I was under a lot of pressure, and I wanted to complain and express myself. During the non-stop online application, written test, and interview, I was asked about career planning again and again, and there was a significant gap between the current job market environment and our expectations. Wen Yi told reporters that in the process of communicating with classmates and friends, she found that many career paths have the same destination, "I just want to summarize these commonalities, and I also hope to respond to confusion and meaninglessness in the form of creation."
"He was diagnosed as a normal student 'Fan Jin'." Chen Yawen, who has worked as a high school mathematics teacher for 3 years, was deeply touched by the "Nine Endings of Normal Students" circulating on the Internet. Initially, because she was "stable" as a teacher, she chose a normal major under the guidance of her parents, and successfully "landed" a middle school in her hometown after graduation. "I have to say that in Shandong, a province with a large population, being admitted to the teacher editor is really as happy as 'Fan Jinzhongju'."
But the fatigue of work gradually diluted the joy of being admitted to the establishment. Chen Yawen found that the pressure faced by young high school teachers and the high-intensity teaching were about to overwhelm her. In the first year of work, Chen Yawen was often so tired that she collapsed on the sofa and didn't want to move as soon as she got home, and even burned out of the job. "At that time, I hoped that I was the ninth 'Nanke A Dream', and I woke up and returned to the college entrance examination before filling in the volunteers."
Huang Xiaomin, who has worked in the bank for 5 years, claimed to be a "financial sister-in-law". As a foreign language graduate who joined the bank by accident, she did not expect that she would have to rotate in a bank teller position for two years, and the repetitive and monotonous work made her want to leave her job for a while, "It really confirmed the sentence 'I'm so stupid, really, I just know that I am very stable in the bank'." Fortunately, after the rotation ended, she successfully applied for a transfer, and finally stayed in the business position that she liked and could give full play to her language advantages.
Some netizens concluded that the "Fan Jin" ending contains the joy of getting an ideal offer, and the self-deprecation of "can't stand overtime and goes crazy" hides worries about workplace pressure; The "Xianglin sister-in-law" ending of "I'm so stupid" is constantly repeated, showing the conflict between "stable" work and personal career planning; The "leap earth" ending with his childhood friend "is finally separated by a sad thick barrier" implies unspeakable helplessness.
Fan Jin, Kong Yiji, Xianglin's sister-in-law, Runtu...... In Wen Yi's view, the current young people and the characters in these textbooks have similar confusion, dilemma and pain, and there are similarities and commonalities across time and space in terms of life conditions, which can resonate with everyone; The content that fits the public's self-deprecating psychology and concise and interesting expressions have also accelerated its spread and breakthrough. "Everyone is also playing memes or rewriting in the comment area."
Learn to "disenchant" your ideal profession
According to Gao Yan, an associate professor at Beijing Normal University's Zhuhai campus, the so-called "several endings" reflect the jokes of young people about the future prospects of their chosen majors or careers, and they are also ridiculed that reality and ideals do not fully match.
"The 'several endings' style expression is one of the ways for young people to ridicule, and this kind of ridicule is positive and can push everyone to think about the deeper issues behind it." Gao Yan said.
Gao Yan found that many young people chose a certain major with expectations when they first filled in the college entrance examination, but only found that this was not the case after they actually entered the university. The same is true for job hunting after graduation, where some people make decisions in a hurry without gathering enough information.
The difference between perception and reality, the gap between the classroom and the industry, and the changing job market are important reasons for the "mismatch of employment outcomes with expectations".
"People will only advertise the establishment of teachers and winter and summer vacations, but they will not specifically talk about the working hours of teachers. I need to go out early and return late every day, and as a class teacher, I have to deal with trivial matters between students, and I am angry and crying by naughty students. After 3 years as a teacher, Chen Yawen has a more comprehensive understanding of the teaching profession, "Don't over-beautify your profession, think about whether you can accept it before choosing."
As a junior majoring in software engineering, Li Junxi is shrouded in all kinds of job search information, and has also brushed up on the "Top Ten Endings of Programmers". At the beginning of the college entrance examination, my parents suggested that "the software engineering major is very popular, and I will earn more money as a programmer in the future".
"Reality tells us that the premise of making more money is to go to a large factory as a programmer and engineer, but when you enter a large factory, you have to face the anxiety of being optimized in middle age. Now that AI technology is getting more and more powerful, there is no shortage of code farmers in the industry. After in-depth study of this major and internship in the industry, Li Junxi learned about the current situation of the industry, "There is a professional teacher who has been programming for half a lifetime, and he also advises us to choose programming carefully."
In the process of trial and error in the internship, Li Junxi gradually found his own position - not to become a "code farmer" in the traditional sense, but to choose the direction of software maintenance. "Seeing through the so-called 'career ending' and 'disenchanting' of certain industries, the future direction will be much more transparent."
"When it comes to choosing a profession and a career, people tend to focus on their glamorous side. For example, when it comes to teachers, we think of winter and summer vacations and stability, and when we think of finance, we think of 'more money', but we often ignore the other side of the profession - for example, teachers also need to train and hold meetings during the holidays, and the higher the position, the greater the responsibility. In Gao Yan's view, every industry has its "pain points", and it is more important to adjust the expectations of the profession.
"Graduates should not have high expectations for certain majors or beautify the prospects of their majors with imagination, they need to learn to accept the life of an ordinary person, accept the imperfections of their careers, and find the most suitable job for themselves." Gao Yan said.
Jump out of the "ending" and explore the heart's desire
After a chaotic job hunting season, Liu Chang, a graduate of the class of 2024 "New Biography Master's Degree", also released his understanding of the "Nine Finales of the New Biography (Playing Terrier Version)": "Fan Jin" who was ecstatic in the highly competitive "New Biography" graduate school entrance examination, but stayed up late to write papers and "went crazy"; Become a "cow and horse" in the film and television industry, moving bricks day and night; resigned and returned to Dali, bravely entered the media, and looked for the "Altay" in his heart......
"I wrote it with a lot of self-deprecation, but I actually liked the major." Liu Chang said, "When I was looking for a job, I was also confused and anxious. But anxiety is only temporary, and by fully understanding and identifying our choices, we can also jump beyond the 'ending'. ”
In Liu Chang's view, there is no perfect job in the world, and don't beautify a specific career, the important thing is to do what you want to do and choose a life and work model that you can accept.
How can young people who are about to graduate and find a job better choose their career path and reduce job search anxiety?
"First of all, you need to maximize the internship opportunities and internship experience during your university years, and you need to have real exposure to them in order to have an understanding of the reality of the profession, rather than 'shattering your dreams' after actually working." Gao Yan shared that she once knew a student majoring in human resources who longed for "headhunting" in the classroom, but after the actual internship, she found that "headhunting" not only requires professional knowledge related to human resources, but also has the attributes of sales. "She found that this was not what she really wanted, and when she officially applied for a job, she avoided this direction and chose other directions such as education."
"In addition to having a full understanding of the major when choosing a major in college and doing more internships during the university, we also need to accept external changes." Gao Yan said that the ebb and flow of the industry is a normal phenomenon, and it is difficult to have a career that can fit perfectly with the ideal, and what young people need to do more is to increase their adaptability.
"Recognize the truth and still love life." In Gao Yan's view, this may be one of the more suitable ways to alleviate job search anxiety. "When we set goals in life or define our professional values, we usually pursue two things. One is the external pursuit, such as money, position, etc., and the other is the internal demand, such as self-growth, the pursuit of beauty, altruism, etc. ”
Gao Yan said that psychological research shows that external goals are often positively correlated with people's anxiety and pain, while internal needs are positively correlated with growth and adaptability. Excessive pursuit of external goals is easy to fall into the "pendulum life" proposed by Schopenhauer—not pursuing pain at the time, and boredom after pursuit, and life swings repeatedly in pain and boredom.
"At this time, ask yourself about your true ideals and aspirations, your true inner aspirations, and have a stable spiritual core in order to resist the invasion of social storms." Gao Yan said.
Source: CCTV