My streetsmart brother

“What would you do, if there is a swarm of bees during the opening hours, when customers are shopping?” my brother (#4) M asked while we were having some tea in the kitchen some time ago. (Note: ‘some time ago’ is and will continue to be a commonly-used phrase in this blog). M is working in the management team of a departmental store.

“Hmm.. what about using honey to attract and drive them away? Hahaha,” I ventured a not-too-intelligent guess. (What do I think this is, The Bee Movie?)
“Well, we used a bright pendafluor lamp covered in blue plastic to attract them, and then trap them using a mosquito trap device,” M said.
“And it worked?”
“Yes.”
“And the light was your idea?”
“Yes.”
I was pretty impressed.

In fact, I’ve been impressed with M in quite a number of occasions before. He is one of those who are not booksmart, but is really streetsmart. He struggled to get good grades in school, but he’s always been handy and always found it easy to do ‘real’ things. He’s really good with hands-on things, problem solving, and dealing with people. But you ask him to study or write a report, he might not impress you much. And yet, I think he’s the kind of employee that many employers would covet for. He gets things done. That’s why his employer raised his salary when he told his boss he wants to quit. (I think his salary is still low compared to the hours he put in, though. I wish he could get a better job elsewhere.) Some of the things he has dealt before at work in this past one year include ‘gangguan makhlus halus’, stolen goods, and credit card fraud with insider accomplice.

How would an employer know whether this straight-As grads can ‘get things done’? Streetsmart as well as booksmart? Interviews nowadays usually include a simulation session where the candidate would be required to perform a task similar to that he would be doing for the job. But it is still a controlled environment. It is still an assignment. How would an employer know whether this candidate whose paper may not look as good, but will flourish in the field? I guess they have trained observation, and combined with their experiences. I do hope that candidates like my brother M, who belongs to this category, will get their chances to prove their talent. That their resume won’t just get chucked in the bin just because there’s not enough As or points.

Me? I think I’m more of a booksmart rather than streetsmart, unfortunately. (Wouldn’t it be great to be both?) That’s why I’m more harmonious with my current job, doing analysis, telling my boss why the profit last month was not high enough, rather than my previous job, managing engineering projects, when I have to worry if there is going be any safety incidents if I vent out flammable gaseous when there’s a ship discharging nearby. It’s less stressful to worry about profit than it is to worry about the possibility of hurting anyone, or disrupting operation. Hahaha.. I’m such a ‘chicken’, I know.

Talking about job fit, I am reminded of a folk story I read when I was small, in a ‘koleksi cerita rakyat’ or some sort if I’m not mistaken. Perhaps you have read it too.

One day (retold in my own words), a king was travelling in a boat with his advisor shaded under the roof. He overheard the boat rower complaining to his fellow boat rower. “It’s so unfair. Why are we doing the hard work rowing the boat under the hot sun, and the advisor gets to relax with the king under the shade?”

When the king gets to his palace, he called the rower and asked, “I heard some noises. Can you find out for me what caused it?”
The rower left to investigate and came back. “It was a litter of kittens, my lord.”
The king asked, “Oh. And how many are there?”
The rower left again and returned. “There were 5 kittens, my lord.”
“And were they males or females?” the king asked further.
The rower left again and returned again. “3 were males and 2 were females, my lord.”
The king asked, “And why were they making so much noise?”
The rower left again and returned. “I don’t know, my lord. Maybe because their mother was not there.”

And then the king called his advisor (who wasn’t present earlier) and asked the same question. “I heard some noises. Can you find out for me what caused it?”
The advisor left to investigate and came back shortly. “It was a litter of kittens, my lord.”
The king asked, “Oh. And how many are there?”
“There were 5 kittens, my lord.”
“And were they males or females?”
“3 were males and 2 were females, my lord.”
“And why were they making so much noise?”
“They were hungry, my lord. So I got some milk from the kitchen and gave it to them, and now they have stopped crying.”

The king looked at the rower and said “Now you know why you’re my boat rower and he is my advisor.”

Of course, you can argue that the advisor is trained from his experience for the ‘test task’ set by the king, but let’s not make matters complicated, shall we? Oh, and the last part about the advisor giving milk to stop the kittens crying was added by me, just to exaggerate further the ‘quality’ of the advisor, hehe. Well, I hope I will be good in the things I choose to do. And the wish goes to you too!