Does getting a job means you have to betray your ideals?
Job = betraying ideals? Hell no! NEVER! …. At least that would have been my answer half a year ago. Now, I’m not so sure anymore! uhh… What a turn down you think? Well, I’ll explain myself - but in order to do so, I have to take a litte detour. I live in Germany, and even though I regard myself to be very open minded and unprejudiced, recent developments in Germany (e.g. Pegida, rise of a nationalist right wing within AfD, anti asylum seeker campaigns and opposition against gay marriage) have let me to doubt my conviction about the majority of people sharing my ideals. But how is this relevant to my search for the perfect job? Well, in Germany, we have certain very antiquated application traditions. One of them is the candidate photo. This is a really bad thing, since there are numerous studies proving that a picture increases the chance of racial discrimination during the application process. And even though German Law now officially forbids that companies ask for candidate pictures, human resource employees publicly state commonly that they still regard them essential! SERIOUSLY? The personal impression becomes important at the personal interview anyway. And in contrast to a picture, there one has to chance to actually score with one’s personality and actually relevant qualifications, not with just looks! Or do we really want the recruitment process of companies to be a corporate copy of Tinder? „I’m in a bad mood - Left - Left - Left - Left - oh cute smile - Right and HIRED - Left - Left - …. Now, let’s get to the point where this concerns me. I have many foreign friends, I have German friends with a foreign name and I have friends who just don’t fulfill the aryan beauty ideals - all looking for a job in Germany. And I know that they are equally or even more qualified than I am. Therefore, I don’t want to have any advantages, just because I look cute - or simply normal. I want to be hired because of my skills and personality - and not anything else! I strongly oppose pictures in applications - and so I did send out my first applications without a photo. As it turned out, I was not really successful with that: 100% rejection! So I gave up my convictions and added a photo. And since then, I get invitations to job interviews! Surely, all companies will deny that my picture played any role, but my experience tells another story. I regard this a scandal - but now I’m playing by their rules, simply because fighting the righteous fight would mean to delay employment. And in fact, at some point I really need the money. However, it worries me that already getting a job makes you give up on some of your ideals! Is this just the start and corporate life just makes you sell out more and more? Is my journey becoming Luck Lucky Lukas actually already turning out to head towards Luck not so Lucky bad Lukas? I hope not… But I guess sooner or later I gonna find out!