Who Sets The Bar?

I was riffling through the pupillage gateway (the online application system for potential barristers), taking a look at prospective applications and lo and behold, I spot an application listed for 12months that pays nothing. You heard me. Not a single penny. This thought has been abrew a while, but I held it at bay for the criticism it is bound to churn up. This is NOT a stab at the Bar, but at the access to professions which I have critiqued once before. This is not a memo of an aggrieved non-pupil. This is not the musings of a disgruntled Bar student. No, these are the words of a common graduate. A graduate tossed into the jungle that is the current job market. This is not just one voice, but a flock-full of peers whose expectations of conquering the world have been shattered by the harsh reality that its out of their control.

Top : Allders | Disco Pants : American Apparel | Patent Loafers : Dorothy Perkins

This is understandable; the world would not be at its safest in the hands of inexperienced 20-somethings, but DANG! Give us a shot from that barrel before shutting us down! "You're not experienced enough" is a term graduates will be all too familiar with. How about you give me a chance to gain that experience at your entry level role? No? Oh right....so here we go collecting more certificates and accolades to validate ourselves rather than waste our time trawling sites and recuitment-office hopping. Except, what you don't tell us is that when we finally do emerge victorious from the clasps of higher and further education, we will be paid NOTHING, running on the ideology that we are 'working our way up'. *spits out in disgust*

Hat : Forever 21 | Necklace : Primark | Studs : Matalan

We made down-payments on cars worth of money to fund our way through education. We slaved nights over countless literature or wiped beads of stressful sweat off our foreheads in a plight to finally have those worthy letters beside our name and you're telling me we'll be paid less than McDonald workers? Less than sweatshop employees whom everyone bawls over in pity for? Yet the government and powers that be wonder why there's so much social uprising or why this dependency culture seems impenetrable? The proof is in the pudding. We are creating an army of disgruntled people. A community that will suffer the same disease of status frustration.  This position is worsened by the increasingly aesthetic society we live in, where one's success is measured by his wealth. This wealth apparently, seems to afford dear old Richard the opportunity to take on unpaid roles because dear old Father Gregory III will pay him his monthly allowance and rent and basic amenities...so whats the fuss?

The fuss is that we are all being sold a pie of dreams. Diversity programs aim to enlighten the minority claiming that we are ill-informed from the get-go. There is some truth in that, but who is denying us this knowledge? The institutions? The government? Our parents? I'm not one for conspiracy theories, so I will let sleeping dogs lie and go about my rise up the career ladder with peace in the knowledge that I am not climbing blindly. I am aware that there are stumps missing on my way up. I am aware that slabs are being pulled from beneath me on my plight for higher ground, but I wont stop just because I'm nearing the Buddhist finite of enlightenment. I wont quit because I've seen the professions for what they truly are. A ruse. A pie of dreams sold to rob the poor of what they don't yet have, and enrich the already affluent because well...it wont hurt to keep the status quo. Right?

Onyxsta says...BLEURGH!! Its clear the bar at this limbo is firmly set in place, and only those with financial flexibility will be successfully clear at the other end. Xisses