PRELIMINARY 2
As a promising engineering student on the precipice of graduation, Smith had survived the trials and tribulations that culminated in the Corporate Placement Fair. It wasn't much more than a scaled up, glorified science fair from the days of old but it meant the world (and sometimes beyond) to the graduates, plotting a course for the rest of their lives.
Smith's humble table consisted of nothing more than a thin electronic tablet displaying computer code he had laboriously written which made anything using an electronic servo or actuator 1% more more power efficient, something anyone well versed in his field would hail as an impressive achievement. Unfortunately he sat idly the entirety of the fair as he watched the corporate suits flock to the loud and flashy presentations of his peers. They promised unprecedented advertisement targeting, clandestine company espionage tools, and marketing software claiming to rake in zillions in profits. Smith knew his colleagues were full of hot air, and that their claims were entirely hypothetical without any programing or a lick of actual coding to back them up. Their answers to the inquiries of their prospective employers were chock full of buzzwords and catchy phrases that hardly made sense. This was outrageous! He watched as MaxiCorp, MonoCorp and Opaque Technologies scooped up the most average of student grads and recruited incompetent young engineers right on the spot. As the last remaining available body, he was offered an off-world intern position by loathsome MegaCorp.
After the event, Smith caught up with a robotics classmate asking how such a sham could possibly have unfolded, lamenting the months of time and effort he had poured into his real, working power efficiency matrix. The other student just shrugged in return,
"Everyone knows what the suits want to hear, you just have to Fake It 'Til You Make It."
Though Smith remained a hardworking engineer, dedicated to his craft, something died inside him that day when the business world showed him a skill more powerful than any textbook or professor could.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:22, Sat 31 July 2021.