Beyond The Degree

Hello, beautiful people! Welcome to my blog. It's a pleasure to have you in this space. Once again, welcome 🤗

As students, we often envision how our future will be filled with lots of promise and limitless possibilities. One of our dreams and expectations is how we will land ourselves our ideal job, like working for a reputable company that pays well or a government institution. We imagine living a comfortable life, having a sense of job security, and having opportunities for us to grow and advance our careers.

However, a harsh reality awaits us after graduation. We get surprised by how competitive and unpredictable the job market is and the hard fact that job opportunities are limited. To our greatest amazement, we realize that the future we always dreamt about only existed in our dream world. We now have to live with the sad reality that everything has to be earned.

While in school, we were trained to be independent. If you spoke to your fellow student during exams and got caught, you were labeled a cheat and could get suspended or, in extreme cases, expelled for it. Now we are out of school, and life is teaching us that to become successful, you have to be interdependent, as opposed to being independent. We have woken up to the rude shock that life runs by a different set of rules than we were taught back in school.

One vital lesson I have learned since I left school is that your discipline, more often than not, may not define your source of income. I have seen many people work in fields unrelated to their disciplines. Which brings me to a vital point: we should not limit ourselves and our learning scope to what we were taught while in school. Life has a funny way of applying us in fields we did not prepare for. Do not limit your job applications only to places that seem primarily connected to your discipline; expand your reach to several sectors. For instance, as a graduate of accounting, do not limit your job hunts to accounting firms or financial organizations; there could be hospitals requiring the services of an accountant, which you are.

Another important piece of advice I would give to graduates is that they should learn at least one skill. Many times, it is your handwork that pays your bills and keeps you going during those times. I have seen many skilled persons eventually get financially established by their learned skill, even though it is not in any way connected to their discipline in school. Skills are very important, most especially in our contemporary space, where your course of study as captured on your degree certificate may not land you that job you envisioned. With the right skill you can earn the right income and have a good standard of living. Nobody will pay you for being skillful, but everybody will pay you for solving their problems with your skill, or better still, expertise. That is how you develop in-demand skills.

Good advice for the graduating folk is that they should consider alternative career paths. Because the job market is heavily saturated and the job openings are not adequate to effectively cater to the ever-increasing graduates, it is a veritable idea for graduates to look towards becoming job creators for others instead of job seekers. Graduates should explore areas such as entrepreneurship, freelancing, etc.

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THANK YOU FOR READING TO THE END 🤗