The moment of transition from studies to that of work is very complex e hard to handle. Today, among other things, it is increasingly assuming a more extended temporal dimension, to the point of becoming a real more or less long phase in which we find ourselves having to construct one of the delicate and decisive passages of life.
In a nice speech in Corriere della Sera, Pier Luigi Celli wrote that when you are in this period, young people, on closer inspection, are as if they were "on the border", where "many certainties get confused" and the first ones are experienced. frustrations. This step, continues Celli, is “like entering a foreign land”.
The image is very effective because it is able to communicate the state of profound loneliness in which the young person can find himself in this transition. Hence the multiplicity and variety of behaviors that can be assumed; there are those who get too excited, for example, by putting on interviews after interviews, letting themselves be taken by this communicational vortex and by the anxiety of reaching the goal.
Others move from one internship to another wondering if all these "bits" of organizational knowledge will really be useful. Many, on the other hand, rely on chance and, in silence, vanish on the first occasion that happens to them, perhaps inconsistent with their expectations, but capable of "unmasking" the problem and putting an end to the questions or anxious or curious looks of parents, relatives and friends.
Unfortunately, others lose the "thread" and begin to think that the problem belongs to others and that this situation will have to be unraveled by someone else; but who could do it?
The truth is that in this crucial passage from school to work, new reading grids are needed to be able to "read" organizational contexts, markets, ambitions and "times".
It is really difficult to manage this transition alone and a good training investment, of great social utility, would really be to increase the collaboration initiatives between universities and companies to find forms of coaching for young people "on the border" by women and men of experience that they become their new "masters".
However, particular skills are needed such as passion and motivation to mix with these young people, to question oneself by “opening up” their personal stories made up of successes and failures, of virtues and human miseries.
Support for young people in the phase of entering the world of work is a central dimension in which we can concretely exercise that "generosity" which we often lack in many areas and also in the world of work.
This last reflection, then, allows us to place the value of experience and of the person in their concreteness, uniqueness and availability with arrogance at the center of attention, relativizing that of organizations. It also means that concrete support for young people in this difficult transition can only be nourished - as well as by trust and experiences, as Gian Vittorio Caparra reminds us [Modern themes, Giunti, Florence, 2003] - first of all by commitment and individual responsibilities rather than formulas and programs, even if these are also important.
In this perspective, I fully share what a successful manager, Andrea Guerra, former CEO of the Luxottica Group, suggested to young people
"... do not choose the paths as much as the teachers, choose the leaders instead of the job, the teachers instead of the schools, the people instead of the contexts".
