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.’