Jabosca International, a
multi-billion dollar company spread across all continents and located in over
52 countries plans on establishing its regional base in West Africa with
Nigeria to serve as its regional headquarter, requires the services of
qualified hardworking Nigerian graduates in diverse disciplines to fill the
following positions…..
Hold it right there and try not to
hiss or close this page for this is not a job advert, it just resembles one of
those many things that millions of Nigerian unemployed graduates are
ceaselessly hoping and praying for. Some have been at it for years, others for
months, others for weeks – like myself -
while for some, they’re just starting; this post might even be their
first attempt.
In any case, from my resume above,
I appear not to be adequately experienced in the ‘hustling game’ to be talking
to the pro’s, but something struck me like an epiphany and I felt that
necessity to share.
In those days, (speaking about the
mid 70’s) we hear stories of how securing a job in our dear nation was more of
‘posting’ than ‘application’. That is to say after your youth service, you
don’t just get to collect your discharge certificate alone but with your
appointment letter as well asking you to report to duty with immediate effect. The
story is all different now……why?
Dealing with the negative trend or
x-raying the ambiguity associated with securing a job is not my priority here
but showing you the right boat you need to surf the current tide in is.
You may think or say you do not
have a job. I say you’re wrong; you already have a job! Yes, you already have a
job only that you did not receive an appointment letter to get it or a monthly
pay check assurance. You’re busy searching the tree and neglecting the bird in
your hands! Let me elucidate…
After applying for over twenty jobs
online, the first response I ever got was a scam, thanks to nairaland for the
enlightenment, and this led me to hard thinking; I longed to receive an
appointment letter with a sizeable monthly pay check attached, wanted to live
in my own house, drive my own car, get married pretty soon…..all these and many
more were responsible for sending me to overdrive on the job hunt until I
finally realized that I was wasting my time.
I had some skills/talents idling
away which were worth billions and I was busy searching for jobs online, jobs
that may not even be existing (scams if I may put it that way), jobs that even
if I did get might make me feel worse, jobs that required the services of only
the experienced/experts in my field. The issue I was now having was converting
these skills into its monetary equivalent which I think is your problem too.
Think about it, were you created as
an empty vessel with the ability to do nothing? If you’re not catching my drift
let me give you a clue. Pick up your CV and go to the hobbies section and
bingo! There you have some of it…Yes your hobby…. that is if they’re truly
yours.
Those things you have a natural
liking for are more or less your ‘appointment letter bearers’. The beautiful
part of these hobbies is that we experience intense joy and happiness anytime
we do them. Remember that jobs are not all about the amount of money we are
been paid to do them, but the comfort and happiness, that sense of contribution
we derive while doing them is what really matters.
How can you enjoy cooking and be
applying for a banking job? You know how to make hair but submit countless CV’s
in marketing firms. Because an ostrich and a dove are both birds doesn’t entail
that they can both fly. Look for a credible and experienced counselor/friend to
enlighten you on how to channel your skills and talents into a means of
livelihood and see the impact it will have in your life. Yes, enough time has
been wasted, but enough of the hurry.
I’m in no way implying that you
stop applying for jobs, pls do, for myself is still on the lookout, but focus
more on improving these skills/talents of yours which can tremendously fast
track your hunt or evolve into a cool business. Think about the time you’ve
spent surfing the web for a job opening and the money you spent moving from
office to office with your brown file. If you had invested these on yourself,
where would you have been by now? Once your skill has been harnessed maximally,
it sends out a message and before you know it, you will be sought after.
For our upcoming generation, the
root cause of this bedeviling phenomenon ought to be curbed from the roots,
which I place some of the blame on the guidance and counseling unit department
in our secondary schools. These counselors are meant to be expert career guides
who are supposed to aid students in linking their skills/abilities to suit their
career pursuit, but no; this sensitive duty is being left in the hands of the
inexperienced students to make themselves or by some unenlightened parent. Some
students spend six years in school and cannot tell you the meaning or
significance of G&C.
Next is our tertiary institutions
where a medicine candidate seeking admission is transferred to chemistry
department, or someone seeking architecture is made to study fishery…destiny
manipulators…. In some cases, candidates thwart their own destinies themselves
by applying for less competitive courses all in the bid for securing admission,
“na the kpali matter” they say to themselves or by others to them.
Let
the guidance and counseling units in our schools be revived, and let our
tertiary institutions respect the choices of candidates seeking admission.
Changing departments for candidates in the name of ‘helping them’ is not the
best of decisions. Let our talents be harnessed in every ramification of our
lives and let us witness a tremendous improvement in productivity and decline
in redundancy in our nation. God bless Nigeria.
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