Divergent and the Job Search!

Divergent recently came out on DVD and I have watched it several times already. I loved it! But I generally love Sci-fi/fantasy movies, so I expected I would like it. What I didn’t expect were some of things I took away from the movie. Since I just finished the training on my new job I figured now is a good time to share some of my thoughts.

To give you a rough overview, Divergent is the story of a post-apocalyptic society divided into groups or factions. The division of society was to ensure governmental control, and is based on a test given to each person. The test places a person in a situation that causes fear and then evaluates that person’s response to the situation.  How each person responds to the different scenarios presented suggests his or her natural strengths. This, in turn suggests the faction a person should join. The factions are:

·      Dauntless – They are known for their courage and bravery and are relied upon to guard and protect.

·      Abnegation – They are selfless and guard against vanity, greed and envy.

·      Candor – They always tell the truth.

·      Amity – They live in peace and avoid aggression.

·      Erudite – They constantly pursue knowledge.

 In the Divergent story’s society, the kids are raised in their parents’ chosen faction until it is time for them to be tested (testing happens in their late teen years). After that, they either stay with the faction they grew up in or choose a different faction. If they choose a new faction, there is an initiation and training process that they go through. If they don’t make it through initiation, they are factionless. That means they do the worst jobs in society and don’t have enough food or clothing. Sound familiar?

I have been searching for a job. In the process of searching for a job, I have submitted more than a hundred résumés and job applications for many different kinds of jobs and I would guess that at least one application in ten has required me to participate in a personality or job assessment. What would I do if a customer left their credit card at the front desk? How would I handle being interrupted while working on a project? What if a co-worker needed help? And on and on… So decisions are made about me and assessments are made about my personality before I’ve met or talked to anyone. Why? Because before they, the human resource departments of these various companies, bring me in for an interview, they want to find out if I am part of the Customer Service faction, or the Hospitality faction, or the Sales faction, or the Administrative faction… You get the idea.

There is another group in the Divergent story’s society. They are called Divergent. They do not fit in any of the factions. They are unpredictable and non-conformist. The government tries to suppress them by killing them because they cannot be manipulated. The protagonists of the movie fall under this category. They successfully take on the some of the corrupt governmental leaders in order to protect innocent factions.

So how does Divergent relate to my job search? I have discovered that I do not really fit in any of the prescribed job factions, which makes me Divergent. I have pieces of all of the jobs I have applied to, but don’t exactly fit in any category  - my strengths do not fit with societal norms. I could be upset about this.

Why am I not upset?

Because being upset about it would mean being upset about who I am. I like being different. I like that my strengths are different. Instead of being upset about not fitting in, I choose to embrace how God made me. If I were upset with my strengths, it would be like telling God He made a mistake in making me the way I am. I’m not upset because I aspire—like Tris, and Katniss, and Eowyn, and other strong women of fiction; and like Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, and Rosa Parks and other real life women—to be a catalyst, a force for change in my world.

And lets face it—you can’t change world when you are happy being like everyone else.