“Know what you want. After graduation, do not let yourself become a person who lost direction in walking,” Eka Kurniawan, Alumnus of Faculty of Philosophy Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), in front of 3,447 participants of Prospective Graduates Briefing of Undergraduate and Diploma Programs Period IV August 2017 in Grha Sabha Pramana, on Tuesday (22/8).
According to the man who was born in Pangandaran, West Java, there are still many scholars in Indonesia who are still confused to determine their way of life after graduation. Not a few also think to take any career path, as long as they get a position and enough material, but not necessarily in accordance with their passion. That’s what could be the cause of the lack of development of a person’s career; because they are wrong to set expectation plus the stress load due to the high work demand.
To anticipate such thing happened to UGM Alumni, Eka has three things that also become his principle in building a career.
“First, we must determine what our desires are. Then, set goals of what we want to achieve. Next, we develop strategies, including recognizing constraints and solving the problem,” he said.
That principle has delivered Eka Kurniawan to his current profession as a writer. Starting from his interest in reading a novel at the UGM library while studying in Philosophy, he is now known as a talented writer with the many works he has made. In fact, not a few of his works have received appreciation in the form of awards, both at the national and international levels.
A similar thing was also expressed by Stanislaus Tandelilin, Co-Founder of Salestocks Indonesia, who was presented as a speaker with Eka Kurniawan. According to the 2012 Alumnus of Faculty of Economics and Business UGM, the key to be successful in career is to dare to dream and dare to take risks.
In addition, unlimited creativity is also needed to take advantage of many open opportunities.
“I worked for three years in banking. Then looked at startup opportunities and competition that is currently profitable, I decided to go out and develop Salestocks,” he said.
Salestock has been established for three years now, his startup has now gained a place and is widely known in the society. In fact, Salestocks is one of the biggest startups in Indonesia. In terms of income, he now earned higher than when he was working in banking.
Surely all these successes can not be achieved in short time. Stanislaus also advised the UGM alumni to continue to strive in achieving their desired career.
“Do not stop learning, graduating from UGM can not be interpreted as the end of the fight, it is precisely the beginning to learn more, to solve real problems out there,” he said.