I AM JOBLESS, ARE YOU?

                     10 things i learnt from not having a job

As i collected my discharge certificate at the local government, i was so excited. I had big dreams of where i will work, how i will dress for work and all the cool things i hoped to get for myself. 

Well its been 6 months since my passing out and i am a bloody jobless civilian. No NYSC allowance, no job, nothing to show for my time. 

I learnt the hard way, well i hope you don't

1.I learnt that a degree doesn't guarantee you a job whether you read agric Economics nomics like Soludo or Business  Administration  like dangote. 

Your degree doesn't count, (literally sha, ) it gets worse if you read all these strange courses employers have never heard about like humanities, liberal art, religious studies(Nigerians were already religious before religious studies where taught in school) , philosophy, political science (the senate is already full)

A marketable course gives an upper hand and your networking skills is of utmost importance. 

2.If you are not cautious, you will lose your self worth. You forget that your job doesn't define you. Then you start looking for anything, any type of job goes. You apply anywhere you see an opening(imagine a Bsc. In Geology applying for receptionist). 

 Eventually you will end up like kofi that applied for the position of an elderly nanny. 

3.Because you applied anywhere and almost on all jobsites. Jobberman, hotnigerianjobs, fresh jobs.Com, jobspire, get job quick. Com and the likes. 

Then your inbox will be filled with messages inviting your for interview /test briefing in mushin, yaba and agege bye pass. Beware!!!

4.You will have excess time . You will have all the time in the world to figure out who you are, what you stand for. Unfortunately it becomes a time when you regret every bad decisions you have made and you begin to wallow in self pity. But it can also be a time for you to acquire new skills, you can use this bountiful time you have to learn something new.

 Mind you something different from your degree. Your degree didn't get you a job, its not time to fan the flame.

5.  Freedom  can be terrifying :you wake up in the morning, and you have no place to be. You literally test all the sofa and beds in the house and its just 12 o clock. Time will crawl like the slowest millipede you have ever known. 

This new found freedom can be as liberating and as wasteful. You get to enjoy it for a few weeks and then you wish you have something doing. You should think of starting a mini project now.

6.Home: if you went to another state for your youth service programme. You will have to return home. This is when you will know all your neighbours,both the ones that packed in recently and the ones accused of being responsible for your joblessness (when you live in a public yard).

Your mum will insist that you stayed at home and watch when nepa brings Light and when they take light so her soup will not go bad in the fridge. You will owe it to your neighbours to bring in their cloth when it starts raining.

 If not they might curse you in addition to your joblessness.

7.you will learn the value of money. I read my first book on financial management my first 6 weeks of joblessness. All the money you thought you had saved will all vanish. There goes the saying that money stay where there is plenty and vanishes where there is lack. You will search all your jeans pockets and bags inner zip looking for extra change you never left inside.

When you go on an errand and there is change, you will argue with everything thing left in your that it rightfully belongs to you.

8. if you haven't spoilt you laptop, then will watch all the movies you have saved since you bought the laptop. Even the movies you deleted from the recycle bin. You will crave any form of entertainment. 
You see those people that video indomitable people when they come to their street for shows. Those people that notice a girl at the neighbours party dancing like shakira. 

Its even these jobless people that start twitter feuds, because this their last data subscription there might as well make good use of it. 

9.Your friends change: Basically  it is not their  fault. We usually make friends where we are often seen. But you are at home and they are in their work place. So they make new friends and forget how you guys need to go to the cinema this week. 

She has worked 5 days a week and needs to rest but you haven't left your house since Monday. The loyalty of your friends is usual tested, but seriously you shouldn't test anybody with your joblessness because you will be all alone. So just play along. 

10.There is God. I don't fancy it when people say there is a reason something is happening to me- are you saying there is a reason why i am jobless. What in this world could be the reason.... Or when they say its from the village. How can you say after spending 4 years or 5,for some of us 6, in worse cases 7 burning the midnight candle, all the night classes,  all the early morning lectures that some crook at the village will determine when i get a job or not. 

But i like to think there is a God in heaven, who knows whats best for us, and at the right time he will grant us our heart desires.
Your joblessness also test your faith in God, you must learn to believe even when the odds are against you. 

Above all being jobless might not entirely be ideal, but its a time to reinvent yourself, develop yourself and be a better person. You have the time now. So act before your dream job comes knocking.