The Long Road To Getting A Job After School
In Nigeria, getting a job after school without anyone pulling strings for you is always a daunting task. It, however, becomes worse when applying for jobs during your post-nysc depression moments. During this period, the get-a-job-at-all-cost desperation makes you apply for ‘any’ role whose advertisement you come across.
One of the known reasons for this heightened pressure is that…
At this point, cash support from the home-front had already stopped the moment you’re paid your first NYSC allawee. Now, passing out of the service scheme without a job means you have lost all your streams of income and this can only mean one thing — TROUBLE.
In a bid to wriggle out of this situation,
you begin to apply for jobs just to make a living without any direction. Referencing Dr. Myles Munroe’s quote that ‘if the purpose of a thing is unknown, abuse is inevitable,’ a job seeker who is unclear of what kinds of jobs they need and whether such jobs match their skillset will settle for any job, whether dignifying or not.
And what happens once this becomes the situation?
You either end up being unaccomplished because your sole aim for applying for jobs was to survive or you become underemployed because the desperation that pushed you into getting a job at all cost didn’t allow you to think things through.
Oh, I see this is hitting close to home, isn’t it?
You see, quite a handful of us have been in this very situation at a point in our lives. While no two persons’ experiences can be the same, what everyone experienced during their own moment will forever remain indelible.
What then can the persons who haven’t yet gotten to this stage do to avoid being in this situation?
Networking: Though the cliché ‘your network determines your networth’ has become a buzz-expression amongst the aspire-to-acquire motivational speakers, there’s no gainsaying the
fact that you are mostly going to get a job from referrals from people in your circle. Therefore, invest more in your network and connect more with new people. You never can tell who is who.
Applying for Internships:
Because many Nigerian institutions are fast becoming obsolete, the year-in-year-out graduates they churn out cannot favourably compete with their peers from institutions who are in touch with modern realities. That is why many recent Nigerian graduates are considered unemployable.
However, many companies and firms offer fresh graduates internship positions where they will be brushed up and trained anew. After their internships, they are either offered a job or allowed to leave. This is a win-win, because the intern had already acquired more knowledge and skills that can fetch him or her a job anywhere.
Volunteer Programmes:
You can join a volunteer group to address socio-cultural issues in your locality. That way, even though you have not landed a job, you aren’t idle but making an impact — while also honing your skills.
