Quarter Life Crisis

Just saw this heading on my fren's MSN...then it hit me...I'm going through that too.
I vaguely remembered reading in on CLEO magazine very very long ago...Way before I hit "quarter life". Here's an article I got on the NET...

This article first appeared in ST Recruit on 19 Sep 2003.

Young and restless
First there was the "mid-life crisis". Now, it's the "quarter-life crisis", and it's hitting young working adults.

When some of Ms Ruby Chen's friends started getting worried about their children - university graduates in their 20s - wanting a career switch early in their work life, they asked the career coach to speak to them.

Mostly professionals, the 20-somethings were in fact facing what the trained psychologist and managing director of Right Management Consultants calls a "quarter-life crisis". Ms Chen said it usually hits young working adults who have worked for two to three years.

"(It happens) when you get up in the morning and do not want to go to work. When you no longer enjoy what you are doing and you drag your feet to work. These are people who are probably very good in what they are doing," she told Recruit.
(Woah-ho...I'm feeling that EVERYDAY...)

And parents get upset because they do not understand why these high-fliers "want to throw away their status and be beach bums", she explained. She added that some of the people she counsels actually cry because of the negativity they face at home.
(I like being a beach bum...hehe...But I'm fortunate...my parent don't really get upset when I bumming around...just alittle naggy that's all)

As part of a community project that started in July 2001, Ms Chen has counselled over 10 such people so far.

These young adults - more than half of whom are lawyers and the rest, doctors and engineers - were referred to her through word of mouth.
"They are bright kids. A lot of them are carrying out someone else's wishes," she said.
(Yup...totally agree with "carrying out someone else's wishes", shouldn't have gave in to my mum to choose IT...should have taken Business course...sigh)

She added that symptoms of an itch for a career change include getting bored with work, feeling like you are not being stretched enough or that you are getting too good at what you do.

She feels a large part of a quarter-lifer's dilemma is a result of the affluence of today's society. As 20-somethings nowadays do not have huge financial burdens imposed by their families, they can afford to make choices in their career lives.

She is not the only one who has coined the term "quarter-life crisis". In 2001, a book titled just that was written by two American 20-somethings.

Authors Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner interviewed more than 100 people in their 20s to nail down that aimlessness that so many felt after graduation, but were just too afraid to voice because they thought something was wrong with them.

The duo wrote: "The extreme uncertainty that twenty-somethings experience after graduation occurs because what was once a solid line that they could follow throughout their series of educational institutions has now disintegrated into millions of different options."

They added: "Twenty-somethings frequently have the unshakable belief that this is the time during which they have to nail down the meaning in their lives, which explains why they often experience a nagging feeling that somehow they need to make their lives more fulfilling. This is why there are so many drastic life changes at this point in life".

Entrepreneur Dawn Teo, 24, acknowledged that the working world does open up boundless opportunities that school life on this tiny island never gives a hint of.

She said: "Life in Singapore is very predictable - you go from primary school to secondary school to junior college. It is a fixed path. You have options, but within a finite scope. When you start work, you are thrown into this pool where everything is possible. It is entirely up to you to make what you want out of it."