Bogor-based IPB graduates can make it almost anywhere

Bogor-based IPB graduates can make it almost anywhere

JAKARTA (JP): If graduates of the Bogor Agricultural
University (IPB) don't exactly end up becoming farmers or
entrepreneurs, where do they head off to after they complete
their studies and enter the real world?

Mangiring L. Toroean, a 1967 graduate of IPB's school of
fisheries, ended up as vice president of Citibank. Rahmat
Mulianda, who graduated from the school of Agricultural
Technology in 1989, became an account officer at Bank Muamalat,
and Lita Ginting, who finished her studies at the school of
forestry in 1990, decided to work as a distribution manager at
McDonald's.

These are only three examples, but there are numerous others
working in insurance offices, in the mass media, in state banks
and in many other sectors where IPB graduates simply "should not
be."

Why the change of course?

"If you want to get a good job in Indonesia, it often means
you need to have top-notch connections. If you disagree with this
-- and many IPB graduates do -- you'll find yourself working
anywhere, and not necessarily in your field of expertise," says
Mangiring.

But "anywhere" doesn't mean just any other place: what's
important is that it must be a place where your logic and common
sense really counts, he added.

"From my experience and observation, people who don't work in
their field of expertise tend to be more serious in studying
their new fields. They are forced to be more innovative and
creative," he said.

Rahmat admits that deep down in his heart he had wanted to
work in his field of study. "I know the country needs more people
to develop agro-industry, but the system won't allow it... our
country's resources are simply not developed to head into that
direction."

"Agriculture should be a process of production, but from the
rate farmland surrenders to non-agricultural projects, I can see
how uncommitted policy makers are towards developing
agriculture," he added.

Lita admitted she spent six months applying to forestry
companies in a hope to work in her field. Failing to get a
positive response, however, "my idealism simply collapsed."

She considered that there is already an excess of forestry
school graduates who are prepared to fill managerial positions at
forestry companies. An established apprenticeship program is
necessary, "so students have more experience and graduates have a
surer place to go."

"Our studies at IPB are very general, so we can go anywhere,"
she pointed out.

But of course not all IPB graduates end up outside the
industry.

Just to name a few: Minister of Agriculture Sjarifudin
Baharsjah, Director General of Fisheries Muchtar Abdullah,
Director General of Forest Management Hendarsun Suryasanusiputra
and Deputy of the National Mapping and Surveying Coordination
Board and former Director General of Forest Protection and Nature
Preservation Rubini Atmawidjaja.

It may be a matter of choice or fate, but either way IPB
graduates continue to contribute to the increasingly tougher
competition in job-seeking nowadays.(pwn)