One of the culture shocks I got on joining the corporate world (on transitioning from government) was that nobody tells you the truth about their jobs — especially in the US.
During my MBA, whenever I asked anyone about their jobs or summer internships, they would say, “It was amazing!”
Every job was amazing, awesome, or wonderful.
The lowest it got was, “It was a great learning experience,” which would roughly translate as, “It was a living nightmare.”
In fact, when I was figuring out what to do, I asked an MBA senior about his consulting internship. He said, “Every day, it was like insights would be pouring and light bulbs going off in your mind.” And after that, I joined consulting. 😊
I understand why people do this. After all, you don’t want to burn bridges. And nobody likes people who badmouth their previous employer.
But this implicit social contract has a cost. We collectively create a mass delusion where everybody denies the reality. That is why nobody calls out the problems of poor work culture, politics, or the sheer waste of corporate bureaucracy.
Initially, we are befuddled by this. Then we also join the crowd of N, making it N + 1.
And our collective delusion becomes even stronger.
– Rajan