Also written on that train, on Wednesday ten days ago:
Doing fieldwork is tough, especially under the circumstances when Elli and I did ours, but having gotten through it somewhat successfully can open certain very attractive doors. This is what the rest of the sessions were about: What can we do now? Do traineeships at NGOs, work at the UN, the EU and Swedish ministries, become development work consultants, volunteers or do research. We got tips on how to write CVs and how to behave at interviews, and in general how to survive in this highly competitive development industry. The qualifications required for some of the positions that were discussed were insane, and to get your foot in, so many unpaid hours are required.
And it was brought up by some of the participants by the end of the course, what a contradiction it all is. How competitive it is, how almost impossible it is to get a job in this area, when all we want to do is something good for the world. In order to be able to get in, we need to become totally fixated on ourselves and how to build the perfect CV. How sick that is, when you think about it.
And, of course, part of the problem is that there is too little money in these organizations. They can’t pay all the people who deserve to get payed, because the funding is too limited. But I also think that there is a more fundamental issue here. People who want to do good want to go into this field, because it’s in the UN or NGOs where they feel that they can achieve that. It’s the obvious place to go. However, there are other places to do good too, places that might do a much bigger difference. If you actually scrutinize the choices that the well-educated, young do-gooders have. Business investments might have a bigger impact on global development. Or different aspects of consumer power. Or national politics of rich countries, seemingly unrelated to the development of poor regions of the world. Influencing these might be a much more efficient way to make the world a better place. Or just simply to make a lot of money and donating it to good causes.
I’m questioning myself here too. The way that I am headed now, career-wise, is in a sense pointing straight into this development industry. And I’m not saying it is wrong. I just can’t say that it is right either. I can just say that many of the things that I think are wrong in the world stem from how we conduct ourselves here, in the rich part of the world. We need to change here. But that doesn’t mean that change can’t happen over there, in all the other, non-Western, less rich places too. I just don’t know who should be the instigator, facilitator and implementer of this change. And I certainly don’t know where I best fit in to all of this.
Oh, there are so many things to consider. I don’t know where to start.
Katja Malmborg 