Tuesday 30 April 2013

I give up - or do I?


You’re shown the bottomless canyon,
The other side to reach,
Your tools are ropes, planks, old oil cans and other aids,
To build a bridge to cross that breach.
A test of skill, creativity and imagination,
To complete the task new ideas you must tap,
Finding a way to reach safety and salvation,
Discovering innovative ways to bridge that gap.

And so it was with the university I worked for,
The task to get promotion,
Applying for jobs that seemed to fit,
But it seems I had a misplaced notion,
That transferable skills and applied knowledge might be valued more,
But it seems you can only have the job
If you've done the exact same one before.
I tried every way I could think of to get myself promoted,
CVs rewritten, advice taken, soundings and feedback taken,
I really became quite devoted,
To finding a way to move on up but in the end all was aborted,
I couldn’t find a way through the bureaucracy and fixed mind sets
My ambitions completely thwarted.

So sometimes you can’t cross the canyon, find a way across the abyss,
There just isn't a way to solve some problems,
Part of life is learning when to recognise this.
I don’t like to give up and walk away but I have no choice but to leave Higher Education,
I don’t think of it as a failure,
I call it ‘intelligent capitulation.’

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