The awful truth is that most jobless people are actually not looking for jobs. Unlike sexual selection, the Robert Winston theory which states that some people are inherently unlucky in building love relationships, no condition predisposes a determined job seeker to failure in the search for a job. If everybody around you has a job and you don’t have any, you are an unusual person. It is either you have not tried hard enough or you are hardly trying. There may be a few things you may be doing wrong.
In the first part of this issue, I shared my job search experience when I left university. I didn’t know people in high places, but I knew that it was my right to have something doing in the land of my birth. Most jobless people approach job search like a desperate beggar seeking pity and a little handout for survival. The confident jobseeker sets forth with the conviction that he is an asset to the potential employer, and that, just as he needs a job to live, the employer needs his services to keep their business going. That is why they advertised the vacancy in the first place. Companies that never advertise vacancies do employ people all the same, because there is job to be done. And these jobs must be done by people–people who look just like you.
It helps when you know big people in big places. It saves you time and all the hassle in writing and rewriting CVs for non-existent jobs. But even for those who know big people in big places, merit is the surest way to a great job. The reality is that most people get fantastic jobs on merit. Those who didn’t have to go through any interview process to land their dream jobs are in the minority. Most employers are looking for resourceful people who would help increase their bottom line and boost their profile. And they need somebody with your skills profile to accomplish that.
The other awful truth is that most employers do not find our CVs and cover letters good enough. Frankly, sometimes we are too lazy to tailor every cover letter specifically to a particular job, painstakingly choosing the exact register for every sentence. No two job descriptions are exactly the same, so no two jobs require exactly the same application letter. There is often the temptation to borrow some standard sentences and phrases for every cover letter, usually changing only a few things. The cover letter is what sells you, and the CV, when properly done, is a statement of your skills profile and experience portfolio. When you invest little or no effort in composing a cover letter or rewriting the necessary portions of your CV for every job, you had better not applied.
Employment consultants recommend periodic self audits of your own job search, to ascertain the reasons behind the piles of rejection letters in your drawer. The best way to do this is to go back to read the application letters you submitted for some of the jobs, and you would be very hesitant to join the unemployed graduate association. There are always good reasons why employers would find a candidate unsuitable. And it’s not always your lack of relevant experience in a particular field; it is often your inability to sufficiently demonstrate a convincing case for the job. Employers need people who have something extra to offer. When you go the extra mile to show extraordinary promise, even at the application stage, they will be the one chasing after you. And when you do this very well, you can always change jobs with ease.
Are there university graduates who cannot spell correctly? I doubt it. I have heard this on radio several times, and I have always thought we do not look in the mirror when we resolve to indict ourselves with statements like these. The university graduate of today is a bold evidence of the quality of our educational system. And frankly, they are not any worse than the graduates of yesterday. If anything, they are sharper and smarter than us. A filter will always leave an imprint on that which it filters. And that is a truism. If the people coming out from our modern universities are that bad, it means we didn’t prepare them very well. They are a reflection of all of us.
I was excited to read from a bright and promising young man who wrote to contest some of the issues I raised in last week’s issue. He conceded that sometimes some jobseekers collapse into a tired routine, where it is easier to throw their hands in despair because they have no jobs, than to “bite the bullet.” Like me, he had sojourned abroad for a number of years, where he also managed to get some education. He had come to Ghana with great hopes but it took him a year and a half before he found what he described as “some small job.” He got frustrated by the harsh economic conditions and rising cost of living and returned to the UK–to keep his sanity.
He was, however, quick to mention that his friends who decided to stay behind are today doing very well, occupying good positions in their places of work. Unemployment is a marked feature of many poor economies in the developing world. Where there are only a few jobs for a multitude of qualified people, what future awaits the ambitious and determined university graduate? Where there are no possibilities of progress and innovation around you, what is the motivation to start anything new? What motivation does the modern graduate have to create a job for himself when the governance structures do not provide the needed support and enablement for private initiative?
Well, these are the exigencies of our times. And they are not likely to change with the speed of our expectations. What can change the future of the unemployed graduate is the investment he puts into himself today. You may never be lucky to get an intern position anywhere, but nothing stops you from learning a second language. It makes you two persons in one. Learn a few more computer applications. Above all, get busy with something intellectually stimulating, but don’t be a boondoggle.
Kwesi Tawiah-Benjamin
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