After School, What Now?

For the years that you have been at campus, it barely crossed your mind that there’s going to be a time when you will have to leave campus and start the unfamiliar journey of “independence”. unfortunately, that journey has no “how to do” manuals or mates who are going to tap on your back when you’re making the wrong turns in pursuit of your careers and job hunting. That lonely drive is scary and will drain the crap out of you when it finally dawns on you and you start doubting whether education is really a path to success as you have always believed. 

On top of all that is pressure from your family who believe that when you go to school, a million dollar job is just a whistle away and just like that you are the family millionaire. At campus you had it easy; heated water using electric jugs and cooked with gas cylinders and electric coils without daring to pay attention to the power units that were incurred. You washed dishes under running taps with no scruples whatsoever about the dent you inflicted upon the parent’s budget or the landlord’s. 

For a meagre Shs 3k, you would eat to your fill at the interiors—Rice 2 k and beans 1k. When the price of beans were hiked to 15 bob due to lack of rains, you rioted and cursed and spat in front of that old mama who was also struggling to make ends meet, a blackout lasting more than an hour was a sin in your eyes because how could they not pay in time for the electricity that you essentially and rightfully deserved. 

 All that, you start thinking about when you wake up in the morning and sit on your bed with no idea where your next meal is going to come from, since now you are independent (or so you think) and cannot call your parents for a hand (after all what is independence if you can’t be on your own). Upon leaving campus, you type out your CV the way they taught you in that communication skills lecture, exaggerating your internship experience just like everyone else fairly does. You send your CV, alongside your certificates, to the best money makers in town and then the waiting begins. A few weeks pass by and you don’t have any reply yet, but you are still calm and optimistic – because you own a decorated degree from an ISO certified institution. So you send out a few more resumes because there is no harm in increasing your chances and testing the waters. More weeks pass, no responses, but you don’t panic yet because doesn’t the system dictate that way? It’s the right way, right? You went to all the right schools, got all the right grades, and now is the time for that dream job. 

 Now let’s look at the general enumeration, reliable sources place the youth unemployment rate between 65 and 80%. I hate being the bad news bearer but here is the thing: only about 20 to 35% of all graduates are gainfully employed. If you are not among this lucky one third, then you definitely belong in the other two scenarios. You could have a godfather waiting for you to clear school – which is good for you. When they do, please take the runway and don’t look back. As a colleague of mine always says, if you get a chance to run away from poverty, run like a mad man and don’t look back. For the rest of the other half who are unlucky and godfather-less, well, they will be the degree-carrying members of the jobless club. 

 The truth is that the conventional path of going to the right schools, getting the right grades and ultimately landing your dream job has been traveled for so long, by so many people, that it is now full of potholes, if not dead broken already. True, you did everything right to the letter, but here is the thing – the system never prepared you for the practical experience. You have a degree in electrical engineering but you don’t even know how to connect a coil! Heck, they never even taught you how to answer a phone in the Public Relations class. And you definitely won’t become a company executive on your first job just because you have a degree in management, or become a leading law firm partner in town because you garnered or graduated top of your class from the law development center. That’s how it is 😆 

Look, am not saying you should quit school, or that education is useless so to say, what I mean and hope that you pick from me is that school is just like a family meeting where everyone has a way they look at things. All you need is an intention, passion and direction for what you intend to do. And to add a disclaimer, that does not mean that things are just going to come off effortlessly, it is going to drain the sh*t out of you, to say the least. What I mean to say is that it’s about time you stopped placing all your eggs in the degree basket. Heaven forbid that you become another unemployment statistic on the street with a sole-less shoe and no hope on a quotidian. Find something you are passionate about, devote some time and effort into making it a living-income. If you are truly passionate about something, you may not require much effort or capital in making it a business. Move the “employment seeking” entry on your TO DO List to the bottom of the list, and pray to God for blessings and luck as you struggle to make that passion an income stream for you. 

 Good luck