WHEN THE JOB SEARCH GOES SOUR

After school and national service

You have remained idle and unengaged
Your funds are fast depleting
As your pockets are full of tickets
From cybercafe to cybercafe
Nairalaland, naijahotjobs, career plus
Have made bank thanks to your misery
Yet without the end in sight
You gather like minds to voice old complains
For your old problem that requires new thinking.
When would this day pass?
And though you are wrinkling under the pressures
I pray you not to throw away your self assurance
Even though the job search has gone sour

Yes, Hope comes from time to time

Interview here and test there,
You imagine that this is it.
Maybe you flunk or you are exceptional
Yet the phone call never seems to come
You are looking for help;
Friends, old bosses, hiring agencies,
You seem to always be ready
But they are, for some reason, still getting set.
When you are encouraged by words
You feel the fire of possibility
So you apply more vigorously
Only to feel and see no progress
After zest and activities have run you overtime
You are lamenting and troubled
Just because the job search has gone sour

Will this nightmare ever end?

Yes it will, but I assure you;
Not in your times.
It may not be your most reassuring line
But it is the best truth I can deliver
In a nation with such a population
How do you nurse an expectation
that our little guises of industrialization
Will salvage our labour situation?
Maybe like I did, you may need to wake up.
There would never be enough jobs
Until there are enough businesses
There would never be few job seekers
Until there are many entrepreneurs.
So expect the job search to stay sour

Connect the dots if you may

And see that my words are true.
The question I then pose to you
Is: do you have the energy for this ordeal?
Which is clear to all above you
But you are still blindsided by a few miracles
Few others like you have experienced.
You may doubt your entrepreneurship abilities
Even as you are understanding my direction
But sometimes we develop abilities
Instead of expressing inherent ones.
I do not give you any suggestion today
But I lay the cards before your face;
Keep up the rat race and celebrate eventualities
Or invent a solution provider and enjoy possibilities…
Its up to you and you alone.
You may be full of dreams and handicapped for capital
But your idea is your capital
And negotiation and inventiveness are your best allies
To draw resources to you and change you life
Because, believe it or not
Most of the organizations you show up at
With your strapped resume and flawless suit (or otherwise)
Only started when the job search went sour.

Foot note: “If nobody gives you a job, make one!” - Pastor Chris Oyakhilome
(PhD)
Posted by Brian Oji at 11:47 AM