My advice to job seekers out there, don't wait until you get your dream job before you accepts, find something do no matter how small while you keep searching and never relent no matter how tough the circumstances. I was once a Jobless Graduate but today am doing fine..

Wow!!
This is an amazing piece..

Thanks very much for this!

You have to GAF dear.

Houseofglam7:

The problem most graduates have which has caged them in the shackles of poverty is ego. How can a graduate like me sell goods in the market with traders? how can a mechanical engineering graduate like me work as a mechanic? how can an electrical engineer like me work as a technician?
If we can hustle as if we ain't got any certificate, we will soar higher when we add to the field experience the touch of our knowledge. The day I told my girlfriend I want to go into farming, her first reaction was babe how could a graduate with masters like you think of this? Thank God I didn't listen to her when I acquired my korope shuttle bus. Now she's enjoying the returns and also have seen that it's more profitable than the so called white collar jobs she wanted me to go for.
What am I trying to say is don't wait for jobs when you have all it takes to create opportunities. You can start from little to grow to the big.

Nice write up for serious-minded youth.


There is really no competition in life as over 80% of the people out there do not know what they want.


Only less than 20% of the folks out there have goals and pursue same vigorously, patiently, with all sense of determination, crushing obstacles along the way.



One will always get what one wants if one believes in ones goal(s) and persists in running after same.

[s]

Sammy07:


100Km from work

[/s]

Nuttella:
It is not easy finding a job as a Nigerian graduate, I dont blame ladies that use marriage as an escape route after nysc.

lol, omo this one loud oooooooo !

CsRockefeller:
Tired of this job palava. I've decided to go into ICT sales.

All those Economics and Accounting theories have been kept one side for now.

Omo na so the thing go, e better make pesin learn skill combine am with business. You'd be better off in 5 years than looking for non existent jobs.

Nice thread

GOOD WRITE UP THE TAKE HOME IS LOOK FOR A NEED AND FILL WITH GOODS OR SERVICES AND SEEK DIVINE HELP

VBCampaign:
Surviving Nigeria as a Graduate Today

By: Deji Yesufu

Kunle Ojeleye told the story of how he left the shores of Nigeria as a young graduate back in 1989. He had sought the help of a number of people; people he felt would ordinarily help him. These people were friends to his parent but he was horribly disappointed. None of them came to his rescue. He eventually took the offer an uncle was providing him to leave the shores of Nigeria. Ojeleye’s story, which he relayed on his timeline on Facebook, is similar to what most Nigerian graduates experience from the mid-1980s, when Nigeria began to experience a downturn in her economic situation, to this moment.

When I left school in 2003 and had completed my NYSC, I spoke with one of my father’s friends on the matter of getting a job. He said: “Jobs are scarce in Nigeria… but if you will be patient, it will come. These things take time. The only thing is that no one knows how long…” I learnt of one man who graduated from the University of Ibadan and until his death, sometime in his early 50s, he was never gainfully employed. Those are the kinds of stories we hear about graduates and job hunt in Nigeria. In this article, I want to suggest a few ways Nigerian graduates can survive the harsh economic reality all around us today in this country.

The first admonition I want to give is that young Nigerians should have, develop and increase in their sense of responsibility – generally. A retired civil servant, who lives close to my house and sells provision, asked me to help his son get a job where I work. The first thing I asked him was this: “Baba, your son is looking for job but I have never seen him in this provision store selling for you.” If I had opportunity to recommend that boy for a job, I would not because he has clearly failed in my observation of him.

Our young people need to realize that the work that anyone will pay for must be a job that will add value to a system. Gone are the days in this country when free money roamed the streets of Lagos. Today, if you will earn a Naira, not steal, you would have to work for it. And since there are no jobs, the people who will earn these monies are people who have enough sense of responsibility to recognize needs in people’s lives and offer themselves to fill that need. But they must also realize that people grow in their sense of responsibility. A child that does not know how to offer a hand of help to his or her parent, under whose roof he lives, is not likely to know what to do when he or she is in the outside world.

The first thing our young people must do is to quit social media, abandon the television and develop an attitude for work that is etched in a sense of responsibility. Today, first class or second class upper will not save anyone from unemployment. It is what you can do that will give you a job and you will not be able to do anything except you have built a work ethic etched in a thorough sense of responsibility.

The second thing that our young graduates must realize is that they are almost too late to the Nigerian labor market if the first time they ever worked was when they left the university. This is what happened to some of us and we paid dearly for it. I have promised myself that it will not happen to my children. I look back now and wonder what I did with those few months between primary and secondary school; what did I do with my long vacations in secondary school; what did I do with the almost 18 months strike between 1994/1995 in the university. I remember what I did with the latter of these situations: I learnt how to play chess and spent long hours playing the game. A game that add nothing to me today except recreation.

There is no reason why children, leaving primary school, and with a few months on their hands before proceeding to secondary school, cannot use such a period to learn a trade, or skill, or follow Daddy or Mummy to the office and learn the work of a personal assistant. The long vacations during secondary school can be used to learn some skill. The mechanic, Tunde Onokanya, here in Ibadan, offers to train secondary school children in auto-mechanic during their long vacations. I am thankful to my Dad who took my brothers and I to learn typing sometimes after my secondary school. All my essays today come from that skill. Our young people do not have to spend all their time with season movies or on the phone; those things are sure ways to poverty.

They must begin to work with their hands the moment they are out of primary school and are old enough to do some responsibilities. All of these things will key into a curriculum vitae and make them stand out from others in the future. Some others may never even write a CV because in the process of working, they would have discovered their niche and must have begun to produce something for the community they live in that will earn them a lot of money such that they might have even begun to make money long before they leave the university. Again, if the first time you are working is when you left the campus, you are already too late to the Nigerian labor market. Others would have gained a head-start that could take you years to catch up on.

Third: VOLUNTEER! I cannot say this enough and thus the reason why I must bold it at this point. Our young people must learn to volunteer; they must learn to work for free and while doing this, opportunities for jobs will open up to them. A heart for volunteer jobs exhumes from a mind that has a sense of responsibility. A lot of people are too suspicious of others and they think that everybody is out to use them. The truth of the matter is that in the early days of our work life, we would be used.

In fact I think the way the world works is that you do most of the hard labor of life in your younger days and earn little; and then you do less work in your older days and earn more. If a person despises work and does not have a sense of responsibility, that shows forth in volunteer jobs, that person will suffer for it in his older days – when he would need to work more and earn money to cater for the large responsibilities that adult life shores up.

Most things about this life are anchored on volunteering. Most of those who are earning big on a certain job today, first of all volunteered their time and effort to do those things for free once. Also, our parents must encourage our young people to volunteer themselves for work. During my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in Yola, Adamawa State, I worked briefly for the Deeper Life Headquarters Church in that town. Then I moved on to work for a construction company, while at the same time I lived in the Deeper Life Church apartment given to me.

The State Overseer, Pastor James Akpofure, and the person who was my first boss, has a son who had learnt computer hardware repairs as of the time he was just in his early secondary school. His father told him that he could repair people’s computers for them but he forbade him from collecting money for those services. The time will come for him to collect money but for not now, he was to volunteer his skills.

Everything that I am today came about by volunteering to serve other people. I remember working for a Church and publishing their quarterly magazine. I suffered doing that job; I could write a book about my experience there. It was a thankless work and I was often criticized for it. But I left that church with a reward; a reward that no man could give but only God. Even the whole blogging thing that I do today is volunteering to give people information – free of charge – and not getting anything in return. Most times what I get are insults; but we press on, knowing that one’s reward remains ahead. So, young man and woman, volunteer to work. Don’t complain. Just work and trust God for his own time to pay back.

Lastly, on this note of volunteering: I would implore parents to support their young people as they volunteer. Volunteering to work may not earn them a living wage but it would give the young person a lot of experience that could prove rewarding for another job. Parents would have to do what parents do while your child or ward does the volunteer work: you would have to support them and hopefully you would not have to do that for too long before they get a proper job.

Fourth: While waiting for that dream job, you could spend your time doing what you love doing. Now, loving to eat or watch TV or talk or keeping a girlfriend is not the kind of thing I have in mind here. There are hundreds of things people love doing that can prove rewarding in the days to come. I used to love writing and when there was no Facebook, I would write into notebooks and just store them away. What you love doing may be cooking or singing or writing or driving or helping others. God created every human being with something they can do and do without stress.

You must discover yours and learn to do that thing and do it well. It is something you will ordinarily do without pay; so hone that skill and someday it may become the means with which you can earn some extra cash for yourself. Again, this is premised on a sound sense of responsibility. With time you can take what you love doing very well, hone it into a workable skill and use it to produce something that people are ready to pay a lot of money for. Thus, I enjoin our young graduates to have useful hobbies and look out for making them into something that can bring money their way.

Fifth: I want to implore our young people to learn to do the right thing, always. This might sound moralistic in a way but the truth of the matter is that our worlds is not so depraved that people cannot recognize good and reward it. At each junction life, we would be tempted to cut corners and follow a short cut; our young people must desist from engaging in such acts. I finished with NYSC when I was 26. My name still appeared in the NYSC call-up system twice every year until I was 30. Throughout this period I had no job but I chose not to go for another NYSC because it was not the right thing to do. There are hundreds of other examples.

Somebody told me that his company received 6 Sure-P enrolments from the Federal Government recently. All of them called in and said they do not wish to work for him and are ready to part with ten thousand naira each, every month, if he would accept them and just sign their documents and pretend to government that they are working on his company. My friend wondered at the kind of youths our country was producing.

One would think that the rising religious fervor in our universities should instill some fear of God in our young people but this is not the case. Recently, I shared a two-apartment building with a young man for three years and I just wondered at how his mind worked. He did not work but was living in a three bedroom house. After a while, he could not pay for basic amenities like power. He was eventually evicted. One could never tell what he was doing to survive. Some people alleged it was yahoo-yahoo but since I never saw him in the act, I could not say so for sure. The earth is based on some laws and I think that those laws are premised on what we do in life. If we do good, we will reap good; if we do evil, we will reap that equally. Our young people should commit to doing what is right, no matter what and trust God for rewards.

As you do this, it is not wrong to apply to companies for jobs. You can also seek the favor of family members and friends. You should do everything and anything your friends and colleagues are doing, within the law, to get a job. But I am positive that the job that would come to you and be yours without your having to know anyone, or beg anyone for it, are the ones that come as a result of practicing and perfecting the five aforementioned qualities in this essay. I believe there are many other such qualities. While you endeavor to work and live responsibly, those qualities will come forth and you should increase more and more in them. It is possible that one can so develop oneself in these qualities that you end up not working for anybody at all and you would be earning good money at the same time.

One last thing: having done all and even as you do these things, our young people must learn to wait for their own rewards. They must eschew greed and the temptation for quick riches. While you volunteer, you must be patient for the job to come. While you serve a master, you must be content with a little pay. You should wait, wait and wait. Let me chip in a little religious admonition here: the Bible talks about God being the Father of all creation and as parents provide for their children, God provides for all his creation. There is a provision for every man. You would however come into it as you endeavor to do the right things. These will lead ultimately to your own good in life; such good that will bring fulfilment, joy and peace. There is no short cut to success; but there is a sure way to it. I believe this is the way Providence apportions good to all creation. And this is the way I believe that young graduates in Nigeria can survive the harsh economic climate that Nigeria has found itself in.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/surviving-nigeria-as-a-graduate-today/

I would really appreciate this piece if it was said in year 2000 but in 2020 The Nigerian educational system needs reformation and re-evaluation, change of curriculum is very necessary cos we are still in Stone Age educationally. Youths should be trained in schools in such a way that their minds should be conditioned for being job creators, entrepreneurs and innovators.
I totally agree on the character type, we definitely need it but coming online after you ran to a foreign country to tell Nigerian youths to behave nicely so that they can get a job and be paid peanuts that can barely cater for ones need in today’s Nigerian is something I don’t buy.
Dear Nigerian youths, please work hard and work smart, make financial decisions that at least 2 generations in your linage to come will enjoy and bless your soul. If you must get a job, ensure you give yourself timing at it, save up money and invest in your life dream business and nurture it to success. Nigerian government have enslaved the average Nigerian students with the job search mentality. Please rid yourself of this and you will be glad you did. If Dangote , Tony Elumelu etc can build from the scratch to become employers of labor, then we all can. Peace

What no one mentioned is the anaemic economic growth rate Nigeria has had over the past five years - less than 3% for a country with population growth rate of above 4%. There is a limit to whatsoever development you want people to undergo.

You just summarized life in general.

If we apply this, the world would be such a better place.

I have always thought about this.... The time most of us used to watch season movies - season 1 -10, prison break, 24, lost and a whole lot of them...

Zuckerberg and the rest were busy sweating it out... Today, they are billionaires and have time for those things.. Majority that wasted their youth on such irrelevant things back then, may not even be able to avoid a television set!!!

pocohantas:
All those uncles that told us to bring our CVs...

How far?

Lol

Eseun sir

Echoes of hard times.

VBCampaign:
Surviving Nigeria as a Graduate Today

By: Deji Yesufu

Kunle Ojeleye told the story of how he left the shores of Nigeria as a young graduate back in 1989. He had sought the help of a number of people; people he felt would ordinarily help him. These people were friends to his parent but he was horribly disappointed. None of them came to his rescue. He eventually took the offer an uncle was providing him to leave the shores of Nigeria. Ojeleye’s story, which he relayed on his timeline on Facebook, is similar to what most Nigerian graduates experience from the mid-1980s, when Nigeria began to experience a downturn in her economic situation, to this moment.

When I left school in 2003 and had completed my NYSC, I spoke with one of my father’s friends on the matter of getting a job. He said: “Jobs are scarce in Nigeria… but if you will be patient, it will come. These things take time. The only thing is that no one knows how long…” I learnt of one man who graduated from the University of Ibadan and until his death, sometime in his early 50s, he was never gainfully employed. Those are the kinds of stories we hear about graduates and job hunt in Nigeria. In this article, I want to suggest a few ways Nigerian graduates can survive the harsh economic reality all around us today in this country.

The first admonition I want to give is that young Nigerians should have, develop and increase in their sense of responsibility – generally. A retired civil servant, who lives close to my house and sells provision, asked me to help his son get a job where I work. The first thing I asked him was this: “Baba, your son is looking for job but I have never seen him in this provision store selling for you.” If I had opportunity to recommend that boy for a job, I would not because he has clearly failed in my observation of him.

Our young people need to realize that the work that anyone will pay for must be a job that will add value to a system. Gone are the days in this country when free money roamed the streets of Lagos. Today, if you will earn a Naira, not steal, you would have to work for it. And since there are no jobs, the people who will earn these monies are people who have enough sense of responsibility to recognize needs in people’s lives and offer themselves to fill that need. But they must also realize that people grow in their sense of responsibility. A child that does not know how to offer a hand of help to his or her parent, under whose roof he lives, is not likely to know what to do when he or she is in the outside world.

The first thing our young people must do is to quit social media, abandon the television and develop an attitude for work that is etched in a sense of responsibility. Today, first class or second class upper will not save anyone from unemployment. It is what you can do that will give you a job and you will not be able to do anything except you have built a work ethic etched in a thorough sense of responsibility.

The second thing that our young graduates must realize is that they are almost too late to the Nigerian labor market if the first time they ever worked was when they left the university. This is what happened to some of us and we paid dearly for it. I have promised myself that it will not happen to my children. I look back now and wonder what I did with those few months between primary and secondary school; what did I do with my long vacations in secondary school; what did I do with the almost 18 months strike between 1994/1995 in the university. I remember what I did with the latter of these situations: I learnt how to play chess and spent long hours playing the game. A game that add nothing to me today except recreation.

There is no reason why children, leaving primary school, and with a few months on their hands before proceeding to secondary school, cannot use such a period to learn a trade, or skill, or follow Daddy or Mummy to the office and learn the work of a personal assistant. The long vacations during secondary school can be used to learn some skill. The mechanic, Tunde Onokanya, here in Ibadan, offers to train secondary school children in auto-mechanic during their long vacations. I am thankful to my Dad who took my brothers and I to learn typing sometimes after my secondary school. All my essays today come from that skill. Our young people do not have to spend all their time with season movies or on the phone; those things are sure ways to poverty.

They must begin to work with their hands the moment they are out of primary school and are old enough to do some responsibilities. All of these things will key into a curriculum vitae and make them stand out from others in the future. Some others may never even write a CV because in the process of working, they would have discovered their niche and must have begun to produce something for the community they live in that will earn them a lot of money such that they might have even begun to make money long before they leave the university. Again, if the first time you are working is when you left the campus, you are already too late to the Nigerian labor market. Others would have gained a head-start that could take you years to catch up on.

Third: VOLUNTEER! I cannot say this enough and thus the reason why I must bold it at this point. Our young people must learn to volunteer; they must learn to work for free and while doing this, opportunities for jobs will open up to them. A heart for volunteer jobs exhumes from a mind that has a sense of responsibility. A lot of people are too suspicious of others and they think that everybody is out to use them. The truth of the matter is that in the early days of our work life, we would be used.

In fact I think the way the world works is that you do most of the hard labor of life in your younger days and earn little; and then you do less work in your older days and earn more. If a person despises work and does not have a sense of responsibility, that shows forth in volunteer jobs, that person will suffer for it in his older days – when he would need to work more and earn money to cater for the large responsibilities that adult life shores up.

Most things about this life are anchored on volunteering. Most of those who are earning big on a certain job today, first of all volunteered their time and effort to do those things for free once. Also, our parents must encourage our young people to volunteer themselves for work. During my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in Yola, Adamawa State, I worked briefly for the Deeper Life Headquarters Church in that town. Then I moved on to work for a construction company, while at the same time I lived in the Deeper Life Church apartment given to me.

The State Overseer, Pastor James Akpofure, and the person who was my first boss, has a son who had learnt computer hardware repairs as of the time he was just in his early secondary school. His father told him that he could repair people’s computers for them but he forbade him from collecting money for those services. The time will come for him to collect money but for not now, he was to volunteer his skills.

Everything that I am today came about by volunteering to serve other people. I remember working for a Church and publishing their quarterly magazine. I suffered doing that job; I could write a book about my experience there. It was a thankless work and I was often criticized for it. But I left that church with a reward; a reward that no man could give but only God. Even the whole blogging thing that I do today is volunteering to give people information – free of charge – and not getting anything in return. Most times what I get are insults; but we press on, knowing that one’s reward remains ahead. So, young man and woman, volunteer to work. Don’t complain. Just work and trust God for his own time to pay back.

Lastly, on this note of volunteering: I would implore parents to support their young people as they volunteer. Volunteering to work may not earn them a living wage but it would give the young person a lot of experience that could prove rewarding for another job. Parents would have to do what parents do while your child or ward does the volunteer work: you would have to support them and hopefully you would not have to do that for too long before they get a proper job.

Fourth: While waiting for that dream job, you could spend your time doing what you love doing. Now, loving to eat or watch TV or talk or keeping a girlfriend is not the kind of thing I have in mind here. There are hundreds of things people love doing that can prove rewarding in the days to come. I used to love writing and when there was no Facebook, I would write into notebooks and just store them away. What you love doing may be cooking or singing or writing or driving or helping others. God created every human being with something they can do and do without stress.

You must discover yours and learn to do that thing and do it well. It is something you will ordinarily do without pay; so hone that skill and someday it may become the means with which you can earn some extra cash for yourself. Again, this is premised on a sound sense of responsibility. With time you can take what you love doing very well, hone it into a workable skill and use it to produce something that people are ready to pay a lot of money for. Thus, I enjoin our young graduates to have useful hobbies and look out for making them into something that can bring money their way.

Fifth: I want to implore our young people to learn to do the right thing, always. This might sound moralistic in a way but the truth of the matter is that our worlds is not so depraved that people cannot recognize good and reward it. At each junction life, we would be tempted to cut corners and follow a short cut; our young people must desist from engaging in such acts. I finished with NYSC when I was 26. My name still appeared in the NYSC call-up system twice every year until I was 30. Throughout this period I had no job but I chose not to go for another NYSC because it was not the right thing to do. There are hundreds of other examples.

Somebody told me that his company received 6 Sure-P enrolments from the Federal Government recently. All of them called in and said they do not wish to work for him and are ready to part with ten thousand naira each, every month, if he would accept them and just sign their documents and pretend to government that they are working on his company. My friend wondered at the kind of youths our country was producing.

One would think that the rising religious fervor in our universities should instill some fear of God in our young people but this is not the case. Recently, I shared a two-apartment building with a young man for three years and I just wondered at how his mind worked. He did not work but was living in a three bedroom house. After a while, he could not pay for basic amenities like power. He was eventually evicted. One could never tell what he was doing to survive. Some people alleged it was yahoo-yahoo but since I never saw him in the act, I could not say so for sure. The earth is based on some laws and I think that those laws are premised on what we do in life. If we do good, we will reap good; if we do evil, we will reap that equally. Our young people should commit to doing what is right, no matter what and trust God for rewards.

As you do this, it is not wrong to apply to companies for jobs. You can also seek the favor of family members and friends. You should do everything and anything your friends and colleagues are doing, within the law, to get a job. But I am positive that the job that would come to you and be yours without your having to know anyone, or beg anyone for it, are the ones that come as a result of practicing and perfecting the five aforementioned qualities in this essay. I believe there are many other such qualities. While you endeavor to work and live responsibly, those qualities will come forth and you should increase more and more in them. It is possible that one can so develop oneself in these qualities that you end up not working for anybody at all and you would be earning good money at the same time.

One last thing: having done all and even as you do these things, our young people must learn to wait for their own rewards. They must eschew greed and the temptation for quick riches. While you volunteer, you must be patient for the job to come. While you serve a master, you must be content with a little pay. You should wait, wait and wait. Let me chip in a little religious admonition here: the Bible talks about God being the Father of all creation and as parents provide for their children, God provides for all his creation. There is a provision for every man. You would however come into it as you endeavor to do the right things. These will lead ultimately to your own good in life; such good that will bring fulfilment, joy and peace. There is no short cut to success; but there is a sure way to it. I believe this is the way Providence apportions good to all creation. And this is the way I believe that young graduates in Nigeria can survive the harsh economic climate that Nigeria has found itself in.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/surviving-nigeria-as-a-graduate-today/

I must admit that after reading this piece I am even motivated the more to drop my CV unfailingly by tomorrow for a volunteer job I had in mind and pleased with the Lord's doings for it was like he led you to me so thank you so much for your time.. God bless

GEEBITE:
You have to GAF dear.

Go back to bed

Interesting ideas - definitely. Thanks for sharing!

You will have to rock me to sleep then.

Houseofglam7:



Go back to bed

VBCampaign:
Surviving Nigeria as a Graduate Today

By: Deji Yesufu

Kunle Ojeleye told the story of how he left the shores of Nigeria as a young graduate back in 1989. He had sought the help of a number of people; people he felt would ordinarily help him. These people were friends to his parent but he was horribly disappointed. None of them came to his rescue. He eventually took the offer an uncle was providing him to leave the shores of Nigeria. Ojeleye’s story, which he relayed on his timeline on Facebook, is similar to what most Nigerian graduates experience from the mid-1980s, when Nigeria began to experience a downturn in her economic situation, to this moment.

When I left school in 2003 and had completed my NYSC, I spoke with one of my father’s friends on the matter of getting a job. He said: “Jobs are scarce in Nigeria… but if you will be patient, it will come. These things take time. The only thing is that no one knows how long…” I learnt of one man who graduated from the University of Ibadan and until his death, sometime in his early 50s, he was never gainfully employed. Those are the kinds of stories we hear about graduates and job hunt in Nigeria. In this article, I want to suggest a few ways Nigerian graduates can survive the harsh economic reality all around us today in this country.

The first admonition I want to give is that young Nigerians should have, develop and increase in their sense of responsibility – generally. A retired civil servant, who lives close to my house and sells provision, asked me to help his son get a job where I work. The first thing I asked him was this: “Baba, your son is looking for job but I have never seen him in this provision store selling for you.” If I had opportunity to recommend that boy for a job, I would not because he has clearly failed in my observation of him.

Our young people need to realize that the work that anyone will pay for must be a job that will add value to a system. Gone are the days in this country when free money roamed the streets of Lagos. Today, if you will earn a Naira, not steal, you would have to work for it. And since there are no jobs, the people who will earn these monies are people who have enough sense of responsibility to recognize needs in people’s lives and offer themselves to fill that need. But they must also realize that people grow in their sense of responsibility. A child that does not know how to offer a hand of help to his or her parent, under whose roof he lives, is not likely to know what to do when he or she is in the outside world.

The first thing our young people must do is to quit social media, abandon the television and develop an attitude for work that is etched in a sense of responsibility. Today, first class or second class upper will not save anyone from unemployment. It is what you can do that will give you a job and you will not be able to do anything except you have built a work ethic etched in a thorough sense of responsibility.

The second thing that our young graduates must realize is that they are almost too late to the Nigerian labor market if the first time they ever worked was when they left the university. This is what happened to some of us and we paid dearly for it. I have promised myself that it will not happen to my children. I look back now and wonder what I did with those few months between primary and secondary school; what did I do with my long vacations in secondary school; what did I do with the almost 18 months strike between 1994/1995 in the university. I remember what I did with the latter of these situations: I learnt how to play chess and spent long hours playing the game. A game that add nothing to me today except recreation.

There is no reason why children, leaving primary school, and with a few months on their hands before proceeding to secondary school, cannot use such a period to learn a trade, or skill, or follow Daddy or Mummy to the office and learn the work of a personal assistant. The long vacations during secondary school can be used to learn some skill. The mechanic, Tunde Onokanya, here in Ibadan, offers to train secondary school children in auto-mechanic during their long vacations. I am thankful to my Dad who took my brothers and I to learn typing sometimes after my secondary school. All my essays today come from that skill. Our young people do not have to spend all their time with season movies or on the phone; those things are sure ways to poverty.

They must begin to work with their hands the moment they are out of primary school and are old enough to do some responsibilities. All of these things will key into a curriculum vitae and make them stand out from others in the future. Some others may never even write a CV because in the process of working, they would have discovered their niche and must have begun to produce something for the community they live in that will earn them a lot of money such that they might have even begun to make money long before they leave the university. Again, if the first time you are working is when you left the campus, you are already too late to the Nigerian labor market. Others would have gained a head-start that could take you years to catch up on.

Third: VOLUNTEER! I cannot say this enough and thus the reason why I must bold it at this point. Our young people must learn to volunteer; they must learn to work for free and while doing this, opportunities for jobs will open up to them. A heart for volunteer jobs exhumes from a mind that has a sense of responsibility. A lot of people are too suspicious of others and they think that everybody is out to use them. The truth of the matter is that in the early days of our work life, we would be used.

In fact I think the way the world works is that you do most of the hard labor of life in your younger days and earn little; and then you do less work in your older days and earn more. If a person despises work and does not have a sense of responsibility, that shows forth in volunteer jobs, that person will suffer for it in his older days – when he would need to work more and earn money to cater for the large responsibilities that adult life shores up.

Most things about this life are anchored on volunteering. Most of those who are earning big on a certain job today, first of all volunteered their time and effort to do those things for free once. Also, our parents must encourage our young people to volunteer themselves for work. During my National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) in Yola, Adamawa State, I worked briefly for the Deeper Life Headquarters Church in that town. Then I moved on to work for a construction company, while at the same time I lived in the Deeper Life Church apartment given to me.

The State Overseer, Pastor James Akpofure, and the person who was my first boss, has a son who had learnt computer hardware repairs as of the time he was just in his early secondary school. His father told him that he could repair people’s computers for them but he forbade him from collecting money for those services. The time will come for him to collect money but for not now, he was to volunteer his skills.

Everything that I am today came about by volunteering to serve other people. I remember working for a Church and publishing their quarterly magazine. I suffered doing that job; I could write a book about my experience there. It was a thankless work and I was often criticized for it. But I left that church with a reward; a reward that no man could give but only God. Even the whole blogging thing that I do today is volunteering to give people information – free of charge – and not getting anything in return. Most times what I get are insults; but we press on, knowing that one’s reward remains ahead. So, young man and woman, volunteer to work. Don’t complain. Just work and trust God for his own time to pay back.

Lastly, on this note of volunteering: I would implore parents to support their young people as they volunteer. Volunteering to work may not earn them a living wage but it would give the young person a lot of experience that could prove rewarding for another job. Parents would have to do what parents do while your child or ward does the volunteer work: you would have to support them and hopefully you would not have to do that for too long before they get a proper job.

Fourth: While waiting for that dream job, you could spend your time doing what you love doing. Now, loving to eat or watch TV or talk or keeping a girlfriend is not the kind of thing I have in mind here. There are hundreds of things people love doing that can prove rewarding in the days to come. I used to love writing and when there was no Facebook, I would write into notebooks and just store them away. What you love doing may be cooking or singing or writing or driving or helping others. God created every human being with something they can do and do without stress.

You must discover yours and learn to do that thing and do it well. It is something you will ordinarily do without pay; so hone that skill and someday it may become the means with which you can earn some extra cash for yourself. Again, this is premised on a sound sense of responsibility. With time you can take what you love doing very well, hone it into a workable skill and use it to produce something that people are ready to pay a lot of money for. Thus, I enjoin our young graduates to have useful hobbies and look out for making them into something that can bring money their way.

Fifth: I want to implore our young people to learn to do the right thing, always. This might sound moralistic in a way but the truth of the matter is that our worlds is not so depraved that people cannot recognize good and reward it. At each junction life, we would be tempted to cut corners and follow a short cut; our young people must desist from engaging in such acts. I finished with NYSC when I was 26. My name still appeared in the NYSC call-up system twice every year until I was 30. Throughout this period I had no job but I chose not to go for another NYSC because it was not the right thing to do. There are hundreds of other examples.

Somebody told me that his company received 6 Sure-P enrolments from the Federal Government recently. All of them called in and said they do not wish to work for him and are ready to part with ten thousand naira each, every month, if he would accept them and just sign their documents and pretend to government that they are working on his company. My friend wondered at the kind of youths our country was producing.

One would think that the rising religious fervor in our universities should instill some fear of God in our young people but this is not the case. Recently, I shared a two-apartment building with a young man for three years and I just wondered at how his mind worked. He did not work but was living in a three bedroom house. After a while, he could not pay for basic amenities like power. He was eventually evicted. One could never tell what he was doing to survive. Some people alleged it was yahoo-yahoo but since I never saw him in the act, I could not say so for sure. The earth is based on some laws and I think that those laws are premised on what we do in life. If we do good, we will reap good; if we do evil, we will reap that equally. Our young people should commit to doing what is right, no matter what and trust God for rewards.

As you do this, it is not wrong to apply to companies for jobs. You can also seek the favor of family members and friends. You should do everything and anything your friends and colleagues are doing, within the law, to get a job. But I am positive that the job that would come to you and be yours without your having to know anyone, or beg anyone for it, are the ones that come as a result of practicing and perfecting the five aforementioned qualities in this essay. I believe there are many other such qualities. While you endeavor to work and live responsibly, those qualities will come forth and you should increase more and more in them. It is possible that one can so develop oneself in these qualities that you end up not working for anybody at all and you would be earning good money at the same time.

One last thing: having done all and even as you do these things, our young people must learn to wait for their own rewards. They must eschew greed and the temptation for quick riches. While you volunteer, you must be patient for the job to come. While you serve a master, you must be content with a little pay. You should wait, wait and wait. Let me chip in a little religious admonition here: the Bible talks about God being the Father of all creation and as parents provide for their children, God provides for all his creation. There is a provision for every man. You would however come into it as you endeavor to do the right things. These will lead ultimately to your own good in life; such good that will bring fulfilment, joy and peace. There is no short cut to success; but there is a sure way to it. I believe this is the way Providence apportions good to all creation. And this is the way I believe that young graduates in Nigeria can survive the harsh economic climate that Nigeria has found itself in.

Source: https://textandpublishing.com/surviving-nigeria-as-a-graduate-today/

I wish my so called gate man can see this.

Here is the ABC of Salvation:

A-Acknowledge the fact that you are a sinner and that you can not save yourself. Psalms 51: 5
B- Believe that it is only Jesus that can save you. Romans 10:10, Acts 4: 12
C- Confess your sins, repent from them and be converted (Never go back to them). Romans 10: 9. Call upon Jesus to forgive you and be saved today (Romans 10:13).

Follow these steps now please! Tomorrow may be too late! Death may come, Rapture may take place before you act! Don't delay!!!

Cblessing:

Nice write up for serious-minded youth.


There is really no competition in life as over 80% of the people out there do not know what they want.


Only less than 20% of the folks out there have goals and pursue same vigorously, patiently, with all sense of determination, crushing obstacles along the way.



One will always get what one wants if one believes in ones goal(s) and persists in running after same.

Lol. You think there's no competition out there?

It will shock you.

pocohantas:
All those uncles that told us to bring our CVs...

How far?

Lol, happy Sunday poco

CsRockefeller:


Lol. You think there's no competition out there?

It will shock you.

Actually he's right in a way. Even jobs people don't even apply to jobs. They will be like you need connections, who do you know and all kinds of nonsense. I am talking of rubbish government jobs. I am talking of serious high paying jobs. You will see like 5 applicants.

VBCampaign:
You're welcome

Thanks. Especially the skill part of it. I build Nigerian made inverters. I use atmega ICS to ensure these inverters can do exa toy the same thing as the imported ones.

A skill in this country is good. But the cost of production makes the device more expensive than the imported one. The cost of production for a small power supply like the mtn one I did is about 60k. I did it with the intention of selling to small shop owners to replace generators. But the problem here is; due to general poverty, how many people can cough out 80k to replace a generator of about 15k.

This country is quite a task

GEEBITE:
You will have to rock me to sleep then.

I see insomnia in your future

pocohantas:
All those uncles that told us to bring our CVs...

How far?

Even the Uncles are all hungry right now as everything and everywhere tight gan!

Nice one
Thanks

What a nice piece of information.
I'm enlightened.

Loads of bullshit.

You even talked about volunteering. So how do they pay for their upkeep? What incentive does the employer have to hire them when they can get the same work for free.

"Be discipline, be resourceful, wait for their time" in the same Nigeria robbing them of their humanity

Guys take these stupid advices at your own risk.

I only have one advice, write IELTS, GRE or whatever and leave. Nigeria isn't worth the stress. Even that job of 150k (around $450) isn't worth shit.