Kent Otto

Life is a series of ups and downs, a continuous loop of building and re-building.

I recently gathered with a group of fellow graduates at a wedding in St. Louis. While it was great to be back in the Midwest – if only for a few days – it was even better to see the familiar faces I spent a good portion of the last five years with. In some ways, it felt that we had never really separated — almost as if we had just been away for the summer. But once we all began to speak about current life events, it was more than evident that we were certainly not in college anymore. Discussions that would otherwise revolve around the last (and next) night of partying now focus on health insurance and 401(k) plans. We compare amounts we pay for rent and gas, complain about the number of vacation days we get each year and boast about how long or short our commute to the office might be.

Yes, things have certainly changed. Discussing our career choices was also a hot topic –and not necessarily an encouraging one. We all hear the “doom and gloom” news of the state of the American economy, the job market and the risk of layoffs. Yet, we’re less concerned with those issues than we are about the concept of working in general. It’s almost as if our college experiences built us up for a big letdown. While we all were part of many different campus groups, the SIFE team enabled us to be leaders in a high-profile organization, whose work truly helped individuals in communities around the globe on a daily basis. We traveled to far off lands to conduct projects, worked to better our local communities and felt a part of something truly impactful — something that was obviously larger than ourselves. We mourned our failures and celebrated our successes (often in the same way). Together, we made a difference.

Shifting focus to a few months later, our “stories” have changed. Many of us work rather simplistic jobs that are just one piece of a puzzle that spans farther than we can imagine. We don’t easily see the direct impact of our work, our tasks seems menial, and the corporate red tape is deeper and stronger than we had thought possible.

While I feel slightly more satisfied with my current career path than some others, there are certainly good and bad days. The corporate world is complicated, confusing and frustrating at times. The same tasks that would have taken a few hours to complete now take months to complete, thanks to extensive review and approval processes. Directions are unclear but expectations are precise. Procedures apparently supersede common sense. And yet, somehow, seemingly incompetent coworkers are allowed to remain in positions they shouldn’t. I often wonder if it’s they that were originally incompetent or has the corporate system killed their spirit so much that they just don’t care anymore?

On the other hand, the corporate environment provides one with resources not available in smaller business, unparalleled exposure and promises of career pathing that will some day bring great rewards.

There’s hope – and proof – that things can get better from here. Just as we begin high school at the bottom and work our way up, just as we begin college with nothing and graduate with everything, we are again at the beginning of another cycle. Granted, this cycle is a bit more drawn out than the previous, but there is no shortage of opportunity to succeed. We just have to adjust the way we see things. We must be patient. We must pay due diligence. And we must work harder than before to get where we want to be.