Wow. This post got... long. Hopefully it is redeemed by useful content.

Hah.

Quote:
...5 years, they can't even answer the question... so we changed it to where they see themselves in one year...


I don't think it's strictly rational, but for some reason this upsets me.

Not that they can't answer either question, but that the question was changed.

It seems there is this attitude from established professionals that in order to reach people you need to somehow change your approaches from the way you were taught.

How can anyone seriously expect to do anything but created half-formed tradespeople and professionals if everyone is trying to pass on a job description which wasn't what they learned? How can "accommodating" someone with methods and practices you're neither familiar nor comfortable with do anything but radically worsen the situation?

What exactly was gained from attempting this accommodation?

I don't know how common an issues this is, but in the library sciences, more and more our educators are professional educators, not professional librarians.

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All that said, if someone wanted an honest answer for where I see myself in five years- I really couldn't tell you. Matched up against the reality of my life experience, it sounds like insane off-your-medication talk. Not just "gee, that's a hard question," but "What? Why would you ask that? Oh my god, what's wrong with you?"

But I do have several permutations of answers I was taught to assemble on cue with conviction and enthusiasm. I'm really not sure what good those answers are to an interviewer or how fake they come off, but in general I'm a good liar and charismatic.

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I know lots of college-age people who couldn't feed themselves if McDonald's didn't cook their food for them. They don't know how to acquire foodstuffs, let alone assemble it into a meal. They complain about how they can't afford to eat better.

And they have iPhones.

I want to just hit them with a 2x4 labeled 'sudden enlightenment.' Or maybe a baguette. That might be more poetic.

"They have a peculiar sense of ownership, which enables them to view anything that is not nailed down as theirs,
and if they can pry it loose, it's not nailed down."

-the Flerian Race, author unknown