Undreaded and dreaded folks, I have a question for the both of you

Well, ja, there is a history of politically charged music in the underground and independent music scenes ... Rage however, were not that either. They needed the big stage for their project, big resources that could only come from a major label ... the issue is that they had an unrealistic target, youthful arrogance and a guitarist that was just a bit older an experienced in music to make the rest of the band believe that they were in control ... they never were and sony used them just to the point that they actually became a systematic threat

The point ... big stage is not where that band belongs ... they cheated and cheaters never prosper ... gimmicks are not sustainable career options

D

 

Well this is exactly the kind of image environmentalists have been manipulating all along.

1. passion and credibility may overlap, but are completely different; passion overlaps with obsession and has a lot in common … there is a physiological component here that you dudes shouldn’t overlook

2. it’s not about sanity or insanity … it’s about compatibility … which is why all the leaders of state have a drink after a meeting

3. environmentalists range from campaigners all the way through to natural scientists … product designers to engineers … marketing experts to sales and recruitment staff … project managers, financial managers, legal advisers, etc … what they have in common is not their skill, but their perspective

4. therefore, the issue with the greens and working in a sector they don’t belong, is one of epistemology vs. ontology ie. The green perspective that unites an entire industry is based on X being caused by Y … where in actual fact, as proven more recently by objective scientists, X is being caused by Z

… now consider the consequences of an entire industry, existing tentatively in a sector where it does not belong, suddenly having it’s entire premise proven ‘false’

Zoning of workers is not a new phenomenon … and it has never had to do with emotions or whether one person loves their job or not; instead it has to do with a worker doing what is in context to their design.

Things like hairstyles and appearance, important as they are to younger people … are actually tell-tell signs to the older generations as to whether someone will actually fit into a particular sector or not.

So when a dude with dreads pitches up at the bank for an interview … no interviewer wastes time trying to figure out whether the clean cut dude is bluffing or not … instead they get straight down to the obvious eliminations … the dude with dreads, or any imgae not in context to a bank … like a bank dude going into a room full of punx asking for the job as the lead vocalist … the punx won’t give him the time of day

I won’t blab on, as the argument will become even more circular … but once I had an interview in a big US investment company based in London … I cleaned up proper, went in an bluffed my way all the way to the 3rd interview stage, of which I was the only person.

On the day that I went to the 3rd interview, I sat with a big boss, who said to me that either I am the right guy for the job, or I am good bullsh*tter to have got this far; in which case I would bluff him too.

He then told me i have the job, but first he wants me to answer one question to myself: if I look at the spot where I will be sitting and the staff that I will be working with, can I see myself sitting there in 10 years time, is it the kind of place that I will fit into in the long term and will I be happy going to that job every day … cause that is all that he is asking of any potential staff member ... not the 10 years specifically, but rather is this the right kind of place for me?

I phoned the agency that afternoon and said thanks, but no thanks; that big boss’s logic was sound and that brings me to the point.

When people are younger they think job and not career … they end up taking any job that comes there way, a necessary evil in the modern world, most of the time manipulating themselves and the interviewer to get it. Then the same people look back after 10 years of being in all sorts of jobs in sectors they never belonged in and wonder why they never got a break ... cause hey, they were working so hard all along … but working towards what; certainly not a career?

… and then at the average age of 30 people are already licking their wounds, dragging a jango coffin version of a cv around … jack of all trades, master of nothing.

At the same time, what about the people in that sector … managers and bosses spend a lot of time getting wound up over never finding the right staff, because every tom, dick and harry just need a job … the implication is that that organisation cannot function properly because of people that should not be there.

And this goes from everybody from the freaks to the straights …

1. know who you are, not the image you present … be honest with yourself … most younger people base their identity on external factors
2. specialise in what you are suited for in the complete sense, don’t just do something cause you think some aspects are cool … it has to be the whole package
3. don’t go knocking on doors to places you don’t belong … it only causes problems in the long term and runs down your own confidence levels

D

 

Yeah I can sort of relate, but I personally never had the 'take whatever job comes my way' attitude, in fact I've been overly focused on long-term career. The problem with that is with thinking 20 years into the future, who knows who you will be? Having dreads or any other look at 18 means nothing, that same person could be a drug dealer or a surgeon in another decade.

I don't buy the 'jack of all trades, master of none' talk either, the 19th and 20th centuries were overwhelmingly ones of overspecialization and people lost their humanity because of it. That's probably why Hitler liked to quote that line so often. People either did physical labor their whole lives and become mental vegetables, or read books all day with atrophied bodies. All focus on your small roles and none on the big picture. There's way too much focus on skills in today's populace. Forget the CV, in my opinion, the world has enough skilled people, now it needs better people.

 

HAHAHA, man i got too much time on my hands today, but i really don't want to hog the OP's spot.

That’s cool that we disagree, we are coming from different places.

Undoubtedly there are changes occurring in the world, impacting what we understand about life in the future. However, there are always changes in the world. Every time a new generation pops up, the previous one kinda gets it’s nose out of joint

… like all those wimps in my generation that wanted ink but never did because they measured life today on what was the status quo thinking back then.

… or people that suffered with illnesses that are easily curable today.

However, measuring all the ongoing changes can only tell you one thing, that change will continue.

Beneath all the inconsistencies from decade to decade, centaury to centaury, there is an underlying structure, some even go as far as to say that the structures have shadow governments … others, well, they reckon the structures are on automatic and humans are just the passengers

… whatever, the point is that if one works with the consistencies in the world as a starting point, one sees that very little has actually changed in a very long time. Work with what hasn’t changed, and you tend to accept things as they are … and of course a key indicator of the ‘no-change’ direction is the Class Structure

But anyway, blab, blab, blab … thanks for reading my nonesense

D

EDIT:

That is why it is so imporatnt to be honest with yourself ... no matter what sector/s that means you are suited for

D

 

Don, what if the reason managers can't find people, and that people can't find managers, in the long term, is because managers are too concerned with stupid crap like hair in the short term? If I have locks, in ten years I'll have a buzzed head and be working on my NEXT set of locks, I'll have different clothes, a different car, different bumper stickers, different whatever. But if the job fit me, and I was allowed to move up and grow with the job, the job will still fit me.

I think a lot of people put too much stock on "fitting in" in ways that don't really matter at all, and once you work somewhere with certain people for a while, they get over the fact that your hair doesn't look like they thought it would before they met you months or years ago.

I guess I'm saying follow your bliss. There are some combinations of lifestyle type that are incompatable, but really, not many. Just do what you do, be you, and be the best you possible. Life is short, there's no reason to settle.

 

You'll never find work. You'll be forever unemployed like me.

 

I managed to get a job on the biggest oil refinery in Europe. If I carry on studying I'll also be an engineer one day. My employers aren't to keen on the dreads and they've given hints off about cutting them. But my foot is in the door and they're staying!

 

Would I hire you at the place I work right now? No, but that's not my rules, that's corporate, trust me, I've tried a million times to find a way around the "professional hairstyle" clause in the handbook.

To be quite honest, it really would depend on the environment, the customer base, and if you were far enough along in the process that they could be tied back in a semi-professional manner. I like the way matured dreads look, but face it, you guys tend to look like total shit at first if you go the neglect way, and while that's fine for your personal life, you're not going to be well-received by older and more conservative customers. I can't say I wouldn't be a tad bit grossed out if someone with a wild rat's nest on their head was making my food. In a clothing store, a general store, a grocery store...anywhere where you're not directly involved with food preparation, I don't think it should be a problem at all. And once the dreads are matured enough to tie back out of your face, it shouldn't be a problem anywhere at all.

But that's just my personal opinion, I know for a fact with dreads here, you can only get a job at a gas station. No one else will hire you, not even for labor. If you wanted to drive the 45 mile commute to the mall, you could probably get a min. wage job at one of the less conservative stores like Hot Topic or Earthbound, or at a headshop in town, but you wouldn't make enough money for the gas, let alone to live off of. It's unfortunate and I hope that things aren't so conservative everywhere else.

 

I have locks and a job... I must be doing it wrong

 

Ah, but did you have locks when you were interviewed?

 

Or perhaps live in a fairly liberal area? A "city by the bay" kind of sounds like it. People aren't that accepting of things out of the norm a lot of places.

 

Liberal? The Bay? Naaaaaah :ssmokeit:

 

Here we go again … blab, blab … sorry OP

RR, that is not actually the reason at all ... managers (and wow is that a wide term) take orders, bosses take orders, everyone is following orders, which are based on the norm of human society ... managers like everyone else, are pieces on the same board game.

If blissing through life is in context to the norm, then blissing isn't a bad thing, for sure. However, if you are going against the grain (as in: 'it's best to know your place'), blissing is not gonna have the nicest of endings

example - Rancid, greatest (purely on the basis of success) Punk band ever; why ... because they know their place in society and there never was a need to go test other waters. They are happy cause of where they are ... and of course, the 'system' is happy because they are where they should be ... Everyone's happy.

Had they done anything else in their lives, even as musicians, they would all be dead-beats today (guaranteed, because they say the same thing) ... why, because they are only the best at what they are the best at

... and of course, why would anyone want to be in a place in life where they can't be the best ... right? But, being the best you can be means something different to all sorts of different people ... ?

So to (best) avoid confusion, the structures of society have evolved on the bases of grouping people according to universal qualities ... so like when you are a kid at school and you have to do dumb tests to establish your IQ and career choice (which is another way of saying' to establish your place in society'), well that's one of the starting points of being categorised

*Remember, what is referred to as ‘modern man’, is actually a wide category with brain sizes ranging between 800cc and 2000cc ... which is just a single issue realating to difference*

So the issue isn’t really about being too concerned about ‘fitting in’ … because the order of things has already handled that aspect.

… instead, the issue is really about being too concerned about individuality, and while this may seem important to many people when they are younger, it becomes less and less relevant as one grows older.

another example – this is a forum for dread-heads, as a whole we make up a ‘group’. With this group comes a group perspective. And what comes with the group’s perspective is it’s ability to discriminate independent of any particular individual in the group. Very few here have met, but at the same time we don’t have to … it is our universal quality that is the central point.

When people join the forum, it is the group perspective that determines if that person is suitable for the group … it’s not about which veteran is on duty that night ))

… and anybody that comes with notions of ‘making’ dreads or using products and mechanisms that do not fit into the group perspective, get told to f*ck off … even those that then conform to the group thinking, have to forever dance on eggshells, because the group will never forget the crap that was first posted.

Now look again at how groups within the world of employment operate … yup, on the same basis … if all the people in the banking sector, for centauries, have been functioning on the basis of a group perspective, what’s gonna happen if someone with dreads pitches up for an interview?

Well … yup, s/he is gonna get flamed for not reading the “**Read this BEFORE POSTING or risk being flamed!**”

So … all I’m saying when it comes to this topic on this forum, is that if one really, really like being dread … find a suitable sector to work in and get going.

But … if this is just a growing up phase, you are playing a dangerous game with the time that you have to make (or) break in life

DON’T FUCK AROUND!

The one thing that isn’t changing in this world is that the global population is growing at an incredibly faster rate than available jobs … maybe people from previous generations had the option of experimenting and living free when they were young, but that is not the reality today, nor will it be tomorrow.

D

 

DonBK, maybe the people on this forum just aren't concerned with the accumulation of goods as a life goal. Moving up in the rat race for the sake of moving up or the completely abitrary 'success' isn't appealing to everyone in the world you know.

 

LOL, accumulation of goods is such a simple-man's measure of success ... I've been referring to the OP's issue all along ... employment and dreads. At the same time no one can profess to know what each individual in a group of strangers wants; and we are only grouped by hairstyle as it is:

Hey, man, I said it already … one can hear what a grumpy, middle-aged old fart has to share from his experiences, (or) lift that carpet and chuck it under there

D

 

tl;dr
I measure success by my happiness.

 

Don, I don't see why you keep appearing to try to connect brains (even, most recently, LITERALLY) and appearence, etc.

If I do my job well, that's knowing my place. My place has nothing to do with my hair, and my hair has nothing to do with a lazy pot-smoking lifestyle. There are norms against some things, and rules are made to be broken.

 

Right, and your answer is 'know your place or else you ain't gonna move up in the world'. And then you tell us the way to 'know your place' is by grouping yourself by what hairstyle you have and follow whatever that group is doing.

 

Don, have you seen this thread? Your pessimism is refreshing.

 

I don't even know what's going on in this thread anymore.