By Garri Saganenko
With my makeshift study guide in hand, my eyes strayed from the mishmash of fonts and bolded characters, to the vibrantly colored bulletin board on the second floor of Willard Hall. Fittingly, my eyes came to rest on the chic advertisement for a master’s degree program in journalism from Georgetown University. While pondering the prospects of my future, I reminded myself of the task at hand and began to review the definition of the word arduous: “Involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring.” I yawned in my thoughts and looked up at the bulletin board again. Among the claims for higher academic callings, were two mundane, identical postings advertising for “online work”.
The posting made utopian claims like “work can be done at your own pace, in your spare time…” and “no experience or contact required.” Both skeptical and hopeful, I ripped off one of the tabs and whipped out my iPod touch to check out www.page131.com, the website on the tab.
I thought the advertisement might be “too good to be true” as the adage goes, but I was wrong. The website took the idealistic claims beyond the realm of reality. Qualifications for the job include: “No Resume.”, “No interview.”, “No degree required.”, “No drug test.”,”No background check.”, and “No lie detector test.” Even still, the website said it would provide language translation if needed. I stared in astonishment. What was I doing in college?
Why was I wasting my time when there was money to be made? I felt foolish for equating “arduous” with work. Before me was a real life antonym. Coupled with sophisticated terms and phrases like “PayPal” and “Copyright on file with the United States Library of Congress”, I was sold until I read, “ There is a one time fee of $19.95 to set up your work listing site access…” I stared in devastation. I felt like a high school student exposed to communism for the first time, left to realize that history class and textbooks would not be free forever.
Was this actually a scam? I got confirmation of my belief from a quick Google search. Apparently someone encountered the same situation three years ago and sought Yahoo Answers for a solution. My short-lived dream of a job that paid dividends without credentials had ended, but I felt a sense of vindication in that fact. At first I let myself be led astray by my journalistic intuition, only to realize what I had suspiciously thought all along.
Work will always be something that is merit-based and requisite to life. Yes, some jobs will be easier than others, some jobs will require more work for less pay, and some jobs will require less work for more pay, but one thing is true, jobs are work. Work requires strenuous effort at some point and does not cater to every need. What we learn today are not meaningless figures and ideas, but qualifications. More often than not, qualifications are necessary to achieve our goals. With new insight and my makeshift study guide in hand, I put my head down and got back to work.