Special Review | Rachel，The Ultimate Career Empowerment Story of Friends' Female Lead（Part 1）

Let's learn career tips from "Friends".

Rachel takes pride in graduating from NYU, even though her acceptance wasn't based on her academic merits. It doesn't seem to matter, as she had never intended to leverage her education to pursue a career. Instead, Rachel's original plan was to emulate her mother by marrying a doctor (or at least a dentist) and living a luxurious life as a wife, which was a common aspiration for many middle-class American women during the 1990s.

However, for some reason, Rachel ran out on her wedding and had to make a living on her own. To achieve independence, the initial step is to secure a "job". Rachel's first job was as a waitress at the neighboring Central Perk coffee shop. Unlike current baristas, there was no defined career progression for coffee shop servers. Having working there for almost two years, Rachel became anxious because she didn't excel at her work. Her boss reminded her of her initial training and this enraged Rachel to the point of quitting. She then took a leap of faith and decided to embark on a job hunt.

At the time, Rachel was a mess. She was scattered, directionless, and had no skills. There was even spelling error in her resume. However, sometimes opportunities come out of expectation. Joey's dad worked on a plumbing project at a fashion company that was hiring, and he passed on the information to Rachel.

After her interview, Rachel got the job as a personal buyer, which was probably because she was likeable. As a newbie to the workforce, her boss gave her nothing more than menial tasks like making coffee and organizing hangers. Fortunately, it didn't take her long to land a more serious job as an assistant buyer in the purchasing department of Bloomingdale's department store .

When it comes to the job she enjoys, Rachel is very diligent. She attends lectures, takes notes, and frequently works overtime (happily). As a result, Ross often complains about it.

She was really devoted to the job she enjoyed, attending lectures, taking notes and often working overtime (happily), which arosed Ross' frequent complaints about it.

Throughout Friends, Ross is portrayed as a generous, kind, and warm friend. For example, he gives Phoebe a bike to help her fulfill a childhood dream, and he steps in as a father figure at his ex-wife Carol's wedding to her girlfriend Susan when her parents refuse to accept their lesbian relationship. However, in a few episodes, the writers give him some somewhat annoying male traits, such as complaining about not spending enough time with Rachel and being jealous of her relationship with a male colleague.

Viewing it from a different perspective, it's like Rachel is starting out in her career and her boyfriend is holding her back. He insists on going to lectures with her, but then snores loudly and complains when she works overtime. He sends flowers, and stuffed animals and even invites a choir to her office to declare his dominance, which can be quite troubling for a woman in the workplace.

Rachel made a good point when she said that having her own life is a good thing. She loves Ross, but her job is her own, and she's independent and has invested in it. It can be scary at times, but she loves it because she earns it. Ross, on the other hand, doesn't agree with her. He wants his girlfriend's life to completely overlap with his as he believes that familiar and safe relationship are ideal.

They eventually break up, ostensibly because Ross cheated on her with the copy girl, but in retrospect, it was really because he couldn't accept that Rachel, who was once a pretty girl without much ambition, suddenly became involved in a new and colorful world full of temptations and opportunities. However, if Rachel had just given in, working as a waitress in a coffee shop and later marrying to Ross and having children, even if it was true love, it would have been almost a betrayal of her initial awakening if she didn't explore her own interests and pursue more life experiences.

The more Rachel feels Ross's pulling, the more she realizes that there is a problem in their relationship. I remember a scene where Ross casually talked about his vision for their future - having two children and moving to the suburbs (almost like Monica and Chandler's final choices). For Rachel, these plans for the future felt like shackles. These fears are not directly related to feminism, but they still show Rachel's emphasis on the freedom to choose her own life, especially since she almost fell into the trap of marriage at a very young age.

The Second part.