Getting a Job Fast: The Pipe-dreamer and What the Pro’ Does

 

Transitioning from a student into the world of work has its own challenges. And Pipe-dreaming can really make it more difficult. Reason being that more is often needed from a college graduate in other to be qualified for a good job, beside a college degree. But as it is, some graduates don’t realize that.

The fact is that current level of competition in the job market has made coming to the labour market with just a college degree, a difficult winning tactics. Because an individual who does that   will be facing some graduates that have extra qualifications, job experience and even good connections. 

In college,  lecturers or Professors are there to help, so they are more likely to put up with more, than an employer, who has hired you to do a job that meets their professional needs.  So when you make a mistake in college, you can speak with a teacher, retake the test, prepare additional assignments and that’s it! In the world of work, making countless mistakes is inevitable and one may have no possibility to fix them without consequences. One of such ugly consequences is not being able to get a job when you need it most, even after graduating with a very strong class of degree.

That’s where pipe dreaming comes in as a problem. Because, being unable to get a job after college is not a fanciful situation. Just as holding a bad job after graduation, because of inability to get a better one, is also not a fanciful situation.

 

What Can Be Done About That?

Tow the path of the Pro’ (professional).  Know what it takes to get what you want in your career. Know what you will need to succeed and go after those things.

A guest we recently chatted with at Careerdoctor- a career event hosted by Smatkaria- is  a young professional lady  whose record as at the time she graduated in 2017, is a good example of how some persons are stepping up their game and seizing opportunities that come their way.

While in college, she did internship twice in two different audit firms. That was during her 200L and 300L long vacations. She was studying accounting in the university at that time and wanted to specialize in audit after graduation. By the time she left college, she was already ACCA certified and was offered a job by EY.

2020 is barely three years after the young pro’ left college and it doesn’t look like she’s giving a break to her winning strategy of acquiring top notch skills and impressive qualifications.   Her master degree has been done and dusted.

If you’ve graduated and are yet to get that dream job, the fact is that you can’t turn back the hand of time but you can step up your effort in the area of setting a good career target for yourself. Discover and specify the skills, the professional certificates and level of experience you need to reach those targets and what you can do, as well as who you need to work with and where. Set feasible timeline for each. Then get to work.

Knowing what your prospective employers are looking for and working on your experience and competence in line with that, will help.

Then step up effort in the area of building good professional relationships. A smart way to do this is to volunteer to work with the persons you can learn from in projects that will boost your competences. That of course offers you an opportunity to connect, an opportunity to learn and an opportunity to get your dream job and grow.