It hurts to see able bodied young graduates ready and willing to work
even at less pay but still no job for them to engage themselves and
startup a decent life.
It hurts to see Nigerian graduates sit idly at home after spending
between 4 – 5 years in the higher institution, with an additional one
year compulsory service to the nation, and at the end of it all, there
is no job for these youths to earn a living after spending so much on
school fees, handouts, textbooks, extra moral classes, etc.
The dream of every youth is to secure a decent job after graduation,
but this dream usually becomes a mirage after passing out from NYSC
programme, as many graduates undergo series of job tests and interviews
to no avail, it hurts.
In the process, some give up their high dream of securing a job and
venture into entrepreneurship with little or no adequate startup
capital, which usually end up in a bad way after a year or two.
I am not here to whine about the government’s inability to provide
enabling environment that will drive in more foreign investors and
encourage local firms, which will in turn create jobs for the youths,
but I am here to give some solutions that will help any reader of this
article secure a job faster.
Please do note that I am not a Human Resources expert, neither am I
working with any company’s HR department to avoid people sending me
Private Messages for job assistance, I can only help inform you of
latest job opportunities based on information I get from my friends who
are HR experts and professionals, plus the ones I got reliably online.
Haven made that clear, let’s move on.
If you are a Nigerian graduate and you want to secure job fast, try the tips below:
1. Start your job hunting early:
Don’t wait to start sending out your CV and application (solicited
and unsolicited) after your passing out parade, start early; at least a
month to your passing out from NYSC.
2. Don’t rely on one job advert website:
Do you know that no one website publishes all the job opportunities available in the country?
Administrators of these job advert websites are also humans, so don’t
rely on one website because they do always omit some jobs either
because they were unaware or didn’t get the information on time.
Again, some websites maybe expert in publishing latest jobs for
engineering graduates, while another maybe a specialists in hospitality
jobs.
So to put yourself at a good chance, have at least 5 reliable job
advert website bookmarked on your phone and laptop browser which you
must visit once in a day.
Its not too much task to do because I am sure most job seekers in
Nigeria today don’t miss any Linda Ikeji blog post which hardly add
value to their life, but instead increases their anger and frustration
with life as they read about different celebrities flexing life while
they beg to get a 50k per month job to start life.
3. Follow job and career related Twitter handles:
Don’t just follow entertainment celebrities on Twitter, try and
follow career and Human Resources experts on Twitter, also follow
official company twitter handles.
I once got a firsthand job vacancy info via a company Twitter handle
last year, and one of my fans secured that job and wrote me to say thank
you.
4. Make sure your CV speaks well:
Many recruitment experts have discussed this very topic, so I am not
going to over flog issues, just try and give your CV to someone with
recruitment experience to review for you.
5. Have a good Linkedin profile:
Even though most Nigerian employers hardly hire through linkedin,
don’t ignore the possibilities of securing a job through linkedin.
At least, one of my fans did got a job with Jagal Group last year via linkedin.
6. Tell people about your employment status:
Fortunately or unfortunately, some youth graduates in their effort
not to appear jobless and broke, do lie about their employment status.
Some go as far as bragging about having a very lucrative job whereas they maybe jobless or underemployed.
Don’t tell people you work with Chevron when actually you work with
Ayodele Chicken Farms Otta, the implication is that they will assume you
have a good job and won’t inform you when there’s a job opening that
may suit your qualification.
Be honest in life, if you are unemployed, tell your friends and
family members and always remind them that you’re still job-hunting.
Being unemployed is not a crime, everyone in life must have been unemployed at some point.
Buhari once cried for loosing the presidential election and probably
thought he will never be the president again, but today he is the CinC.
7. Don’t rely on anybody:
While you tell family and friends about your unemployment status,
please don’t put all your hope of securing a job on one uncle working
with Shell, Mobil, NNPC, etc, believe in yourself that’s why you are a
graduate.
Do you know how many help-me-secure-a-job mails I receive on daily
basis (please I am not mocking those people sending me such mails, God
knows I do wish I could help them all)? It always weigh me down because I
usually wish I could give all of them good jobs, but then I can’t,
neither can Aliko Dangote nor President Buhari.
Why it is not advisable to rely on someone for job is because that
person may have more than 10 persons relying on him for job, so who will
he give, who will he ignore?
Just pray to God to send your helpers, that’s all you should do.
Always brush your brain up with GMAT, and other job aptitude test handbooks and online materials.
Don’t stop reading, not until you have secured your dream job at least.
8. Make friends of like-minds:
If you want to succeed in life, chose the right friends because friends shape our future more than siblings.
If your goal is to secure a job, stop mingling with motor park boys or students.
9. Your looks matters:
If you are a very pretty lady searching for a job, please you must be
careful with how you dress to avoid distracting the HR personnel’s
attention, which may hurt your chances of securing the job.
Don’t dress in a way the HR personnel will form a misconceived belief that all you can offer is your physical beauty.
If you are very tall as a lady going for an interview, don’t wear a highheel shoe, find a moderate heel.
Don’t fake your accent during interview, don’t use all those eye lashes and heavy makeup.
Dress moderate.
10. Send unsolicited applications:
Don’t only wait for companies to advertise, always research about
companies in your field of study and send well constructed unsolicited
application with your well-edited CV attached to it.
I personally have gotten 3 job offers in the past through unsolicited applications, so you too can try it.
11. Don’t wait for big pay jobs only:
Many young graduates out of their greed have turned down jobs of
small pay while waiting and praying for big pay jobs in big corporations
while their mates are taking up smaller pay jobs to secure work
experience and move up faster than they ever thought.
In case you don’t know, not many companies nowadays wants to hire
young graduates without relevant work experience because all
organisation are looking for ways to cut cost and maximise profit, and
training and re-training young graduates to fit into the job role isn’t
always an easy or cost-effective venture for companies.
So when next you get a job offer of 40k per month, don’t reject it if
it will allow you get experience in your field….believe me, from that
job, you will get a bigger offer with time.
I have many friends, relatives and fans who have moved up from their
30k per month jobs to 100k, 150k, 200k, 300k, 500k, etc jobs in less
than 4 years.
I will drop you guys here for today, see you again some other time.
I wish you all God’s divine favour in your search for job and better life.
