Your career as a human being in the real world

On a Saturday afternoon, I got three whole 'likes.' Offline at a soiree on a farm in Muscat, that is, not as reactions to some unpolished post on my low-follower private Instagram account. (Mind you, some genius experts now see modest online engagement and a small audience as a possible result of more real-world socialising due to less staring at devices.)
Standing at one of the many canapé tables, I was about to take some cheese from a fancy tray of bite-sized amuse-bouches, although I am lactose intolerant and it triggers an autoimmune reaction, when two young Omanis with gorgeous, familiar faces joined me.
We had to speak a bit loudly because, from across the giant living room, someone was playing piano interpretations of songs from the 1990s. Their repertoire included 'Heal the World,' which had prompted a few people to sing along into a mic, given that Michael Jackson has been making a well-deserved comeback these days.
I had first met the two siblings years ago when they were still in school and needed guidance to make more well-informed higher education choices. At the time, I was working behind the scenes at what is now the Ministry of Education, but had somehow become one of the go-to people for advice on the study abroad scholarship application process.
In contrast to some of the false rumours out there, none of us at the ministry was able to make that process less competitive, as that would have been unfair and unethical.
However, someone like me could support students in approaching it more realistically, since their first choice of what and where they wanted to study was never guaranteed, and it was important for them to keep their options open.
“Never put all your eggs in one basket,” we used to tell Omani school students.
Perhaps more importantly, both students were among the many who were about to benefit from structural changes in the scholarship framework we had (coincidentally) introduced during their final school years, including the Direct Entry Scholarship.
Now, years later, these two young people standing at the table were examples of Omani graduates navigating the world of work. They were now doing something either directly or indirectly related to what they had wanted to study on a scholarship while giving back to their country.
As we were once again chatting about their dreams and even some of the challenges they were facing, someone, in slightly Oxbridge-accented English, suddenly said, “We cannot thank you enough!”
It turned out to be their baba (father), who caught me a bit by surprise as he approached us from behind. If he had not been such a typical Omani gentleman, with a perfectly trimmed beard that reminded me of the late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, he probably would have given me an affectionate fatherly pat on the shoulder.
The entire rendezvous with these two young Omanis and their dad made me think of a workshop I recently had to organise for the entity where I now work, where I currently mostly observe and write about the impact made by others.
The workshop was partly about civil servants aligning their personal and professional purpose (to make a difference). It looked at how what you do as a civil servant can have an (indirect) impact on society at large, even if you think your contribution is “small” because you are not “a doctor or a scientist,” while working mostly or solely from behind the scenes, with no spotlights and no travel.
Key takeaway: Just because you cannot immediately see or feel it, this does not mean your work has no real-world impact on others.
The encounter also confirmed that receiving offline likes means you are still cool (both Betty the Chatbot and the younger generation confirmed that it is, in fact, still cool to say “cool”).
Yes, I love, love the three real-world likes that I received that day, as I am running a niche audience-and-engagement operation over here while focusing on my career as a human being, without feeling the pressure of having to perfect my performance on social media.

Bregje van Baaren The writer is a freelance contributor