Graduates Need Creativity and Ego Management to Find Jobs

Unemployment is a big problem that Nigerian leaders have been battling for ages. With many programs such as the Poverty Alleviation Program, Sure P, Npower, and many more that have been introduced by former and current presidents of the country, none has been able to curb the rate of unemployment.

Every year, Nigeria produces thousands of graduates with few job opportunities to absorb them. The song on every graduate lips is, “no employment”. But let’s be realistic, are there really no jobs?

It’s a big question to be answered by all graduates and leaders in the country.

From my own point of view, there are jobs but some graduates lack creativity and are full of ego.

Let’s look into these two factors causing unemployment in the country,

Lack of Creativity

Creativity helps to turn the common things into the uncommon. It doesn’t have to be a white-collar job.

We have jobs like tailoring, bead making, decoration, makeup artist, food vendors, freelance writing, and many more.

If you search on Google, I bet you will see hundreds of jobs you can create for yourself or be employed for. But the big question is, ”do you have the creativity to make the common jobs look extraordinary?”

The truth remains, there’s nothing new under the sun. Everything we see today was done by someone else yesterday. The houses, cars, phones, eateries, clothes, and many more. Someone started them, while others built on them. That’s what we called ”Packaging”. Your level of creativity determines your packaging.

Graduates Ego

Ego often makes some graduates see themselves as too important or very big to do a common job or to be associated with common people.

So how will a graduate find a common role when he’s full of ego?

I have heard some graduates said,

“I can never drive Uber”

“I can never work in that company”

“I am too big to work for 20000 naira”

“I can never associate myself with those common people.”

No wonder they are unemployed for ten years. This piece has not been written to mock anyone but to open our eyes to opportunities around us.

Get rid of ego or it will ruin your life.

My first writing job paid me nothing. I accepted it because I needed to show the world my talent. I wrote four published articles without being paid a dime. But it helped me learn more and opened my eyes to opportunities around me. I ended up getting more writing jobs. Till date, I still write for a low fee and some for free. It doesn’t reduce my value.

Graduates need to see themselves like footballers. Put a very talented player in a small team, the big teams will find him. Talent is like fire, you can’t light it and put under the bushel. If you are talented, accept that small role and offer quality. You can either find a bigger role or get salary increments that match your skill.

Job search is tougher than you can ever imagine. Unless you come down from the horse of ego, it may be tough ahead.