In JC, I was caught “beating my aeroplane” in the school library. I graduated with straight As for my Alevels but the recommendation letter from my JC was quite bad (for obvious reasons) so I got multiple rejections and ended up in NUS CS.
Advertisements
How long will the library incident affect my my reputation? It is already several years now, but I often overhear unkind comments and it is difficult to find groupmates who are willing to work with me on projects. It really seems quite unfair and I am considering emigrating overseas just to avoid the unfair discrimination.
Do you have any career advice for someone in my situation? I have no evidence but it feels like I am missing out on career opportunities because of this “black mark” on my record.
Here are what netizens think:
- Just focus on learning what you need to learn and don’t worry too much. While software engineering is a team sport, individual skill is critical to your career success. I suspect most people don’t know/don’t care. Most of your fears are likely only in your head. We have had people do worse things than what you did (in JC), got retained (in JC), and they are doing well in their careers today.
- You took one shot. Should have aim higher. Might be a different story today.
- How is it unfair discrimination if it was you that committed the offence?
- Do you need to show the recommendation letter when your results are straight A? Strange. Good thing I never ended up in CS. From so many post here, I kept getting this vibe that CS is a dumping ground for all kinds of bad stuffs.
- Achieve something greater such that any history becomes proportionally smaller
- Well, you would’ve been a legend if you finished even after getting caught and staring into the windows of the soul of the person catching you in the act with a slight grin.