Losing the graduate edge

With their textbook evaluation methods, Gantt chart project management techniques and deeply philosophical ideals, graduates are often the object of suspicion and established professionals groan at their naïvité. Like teenagers before the harsh lessons of love, they start off believing in the power to conquer all but are soon knocked down by bureaucracy. In short they lose the graduate edge.

A year ago that was me. I simply could not understand why arts organisations designed their projects to fit the funding criteria and then produced evaluation reports illustrating the benefits of the arts. The real intentions of the projects seemed to get lost in meeting the criteria and then in proving they had been worth while. Evaluation reports did not convey learning points for improvement, only good news to please the funders. I suspected all arts organisations of the same crime. In my eyes the solution was simple.

I spoke up at a public discussion with all the big names in attendance. I dared to ask about the futility of making arts organisations prove something entirely subjective. The response was a polite deflection. Speaking to the panel of arts managers afterwards I was left with no hope for the state of the sector’s evaluation reports.

A year on from this and I am no longer concerned with the injustice of shimmering evaluation reports. As I look around I am yet another person in the system trying to use funding for the greater good. In my case, the funding criteria happened to fit my project plan.

At this mid-point between graduate and young professional, I find myself looking to my superiors with great respect and awe. So be kind to your graduates: if you can keep them on side as they take the bitter pill, you might find a great union.