Armen Sargsyan, Yerevan
September has come again. “Knowledge Day” has passed. Excited school students (it can’t be said for sure that there were tears of joy in their eyes) have entered the “sanctuary” of science. Teachers have made some lengthy speeches and there has been some age-old advice,“Learn wisdom…[the first words of the famous saying by Mesrop Mashtots, who invented the Armenian alphabet], standing out on the school façade.
In soviet times we were encouraged to become ‘useful for the country, whereas now we are more often advised to find a good job.
So, what’s that ‘good job’ that is worth climbing the 12-year “stairs” of schooling, going through the travails of the BS program and plunging into the maelstrom of MA and PhD courses? However, even this may not be enough to get the world’s best job. Job ads don’t usually include a phrase like: ‘Specialists for the world’s best job needed.’ Though, this was once the case in 2009.
The corporation, Tourism Australia, launched the ‘Best Job in the World’ advertising campaign in Queensland, seeking a person to test and evaluate the entertainment activities offered in a 2,000 km tourist area.
The list of official duties were as follows: travelling on ship and by car, lying on the beach, ocean scuba diving, getting massage therapy, drinking cocktails, eating food in the best restaurants, visiting dance clubs, participating in various beach entertainment activities, taking photos and giving interviews and uploading them on social media, all over the course of 6 months. The company covered all the costs related to the aforesaid activities and also offered an employee a salary amounting to $105,000 AUD.
35,000 people from nearly 200 countries applied for the position. Englishman Ben Southall won the competition. Here are a couple of episodes from his hard workday routine.
A photo from Ben Southall’s website
Ben Southall has become an author of books and multimedia publications, and his website has turned into a place for entertainment.
It certainly was an odd job. After spending $7 million AUD the corporation got fully convinced that the beach was really good and it didn’t announce a new campaign. As expected, a good chance to get such a job befalls one only once in a lifetime and you shouldn’t spend years waiting for a second chance. You’d better start looking for some new in-demand and rare careers that only few people are specialized in…at least so far.
Besides common professions like being a doctor, journalist, engineer, chemist or software engineer, the leading higher education institutions are now offering specialties, the names of which alone will leave you perplexed. But that’s just at first glance.
The MA course, The Beatles, Popular Music and Society has been offered at Liverpool Hope University for 6 years already.
San Francisco State University has been offering an MA in Gender and Sexuality Studies for nearly 50 years, promising to ensure creative activity and a practical application of knowledge, methods and techniques.
The European Academy, which is located in northern Italy, offers an MS degree in Yeti studies. While some believe it’s just a myth to scare children, many others have been studying this legendary creature for years.
People want to study well to avoid becoming “packagers”, while the University of Michigan offers a doctoral degree in “packaging” science. It will take you 8 years of studies to get this degree.
Finally, if you haven’t yet made up your mind on what you want to become, whether you will work in this profession or that, why you want to work in this profession and if you even have a desire at all to work in it…or there are many other questions flying around in your head, then you can take a course at Indiana University, graduate the Faculty of Decision Sciences and get the accompanying PhD.
Then, it will probably be easier for you to set your sights and finally realize what made you first go to school on September 1, some 16 years ago, ‘to learn wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding’ [a saying by Mesrop Mashtots].
Published: 05.09.2016
