Ibrahim Zulkifli is a developer advocate and community relations manager with deep expertise in Growth, Marketing and Community Engagement. He is passionate about building and fostering thriving communities. With a background in software development and a deep understanding of the latest technologies, he is well-equipped to educate and engage with developers and enthusiasts. In this latest piece, he charges students in tertiary institutions to develop their CV intentionally. Here are the excerpts…..
You went to school
Spent 4 years reading
Came out with a 2-1
Waited a few months
Began the NYSC orientation camp
Jogged. Ran. Marched.
Served as a teacher in a public school. Maybe one village in Taraba State.
A year’s almost over.
It’s time to job hunt.
You are told to construct a CV
It features when you had your SSCE
And when you bagged your first degree.
Period.
It’s empty sheets from then on.
You joined no groups in school.
You joined no communities outside of school.
Competed in no sports.
Volunteered for nothing.
Didn’t work in any NGO.
Led no initiatives.
Started no businesses.
Just a flat, asystolic life!
Then you say they didn’t pick you for the job because there’s too much competition.
That’s right. You knew that before you graduated judging by how many people were in your final year class but did nothing about improving your chances.
School was supposed to be the place you read.
But it was supposed to tell where you’d invest your time in if books were not in the way.
A 2-1 or First-class doesn’t tell any story about you.
It tells what your lecturers felt about your grades.
They are not your employers. Scarcely would be.
Now that you want successful business leaders to notice you and offer you a spot in their companies…
They’ll need to know what kind of risks you take
What kind of ventures you have led
What kind of movements you have joined?
The ones you abandoned and the ones you accomplished.
This is the weight your story has to carry.
If you don’t have that on your CV, you don’t have a CV.
It’s time to face the facts — Please, If you have younger siblings, don’t be merely interested in their grades.
Make them volunteer.
Let them sell something,
Let them learn something,
Let them do something.
Let them live.
Having a blank CV after 4 -6 years of university education and a year of national youth service is a fatal ill-preparedness for the future, for which there’s no reversal.
There are times you can never make up for.
One of them is time you should have truly lived, and you didn’t.