Tunde graduated in 2009 from the University and since then he
has roamed the street of Lagos searching for a job. He registered with agents and
middlemen who promised him job in big multinationals or banks across the
nation. All they did was collect his money and kept sending information that’s
either incomplete or totally fraudulent.
Since 2009 to 2014, 5 years now, Tunde is still lounging in
his father’s house, eating from his mother’s pot and waiting for the job of his
dream to come. What a pity!
If you are reading this article (man or woman) and you are in this category, I am sadly sorry for you and the
‘Tunde’ in this story is just a work of my fictitious imagination. So if you
are Tunde and you are in this situation, you can call me a prophet. *wink*
I personally hate working for people especially a one man
business no matter how successful it is. I know many young guys/girls like myself
that hate it too. They tend to work so hard, in turn work you the staff so hard too (one man entrepreneur) and because
they are always short staffed and scared of failure the 'oga' lash out at the poor guys. Also because of no proper dichotomized structure in place, the CEO of the
company is the MD, HR, HOD's, BPO and all the post readily available, thereby relating directly with the lowest ranked staff and getting involved with
what is done on a daily basis. Bad taste!
This creates friction more than needed and so guys would
rather prefer to work for big companies no matter how small the pay is than
work for one man business no matter how big the pay is. (I have friends working in banks for meagre salaries like N35, 000)
This reminds me of the story of my friend Janet (not real
name). She cried (not literarily) to me almost every day searching for a job of
her dream. Her own greatest challenge was that she is pretty and every
important people she knows wants to have sex with her before giving her job,
even those who are family friend.
She told me of a top government official who works for NDLEA
and every time she goes visiting, he locks the door and wants to make love to
her. Her second daughter is almost the same age with her. His first boy is
older than her. That is how appalling the system stinks in this part of the
world. This is supposed to be a man who is a close friend to her father.
Finally she gets a job, with a consulting company as HR. She was
joy(ed) beyond comprehension and she ran to my place to tell me about the good
news. As usual, I was skeptical about it all and I wanted to see her keep that
joy for 6 months then I can say for certain she has found the joy of her
dreams. After 3 months, she was promoted to Executive Personal Assistant and
her salary increased to N160, 000 (One hundred and Sixty thousand Naira) just
like that.
One would expect that she will be happier than when she just
joined the company but that wasn’t the case. When she told me, she wasn’t as
happy as when she told me about joining the company. I knew trouble isn’t far
from paradise. After another 2 months, she told me she has resigned. I was
shocked! Yeah, just like you are shocked right now. Why? What? When? How? Where
did it all go wrong? This and many more questions needed answers quickly but
she was calm and wasn’t even ready to share.
After a while, she told me that apparently the ‘man’, her
boss, wanted the normal stuff every other man wants, SEX. The only problem was
this one didn’t know how to go about it. He was a reserved man and since his
divorce with his wife (2 years at that time), every new female staff (he had
only 1 male staff who was the company glorified driver) became his new “Executive
PA”. The job came with some little pecks but you must know when to ‘succumb’ to
oga’s whims and caprices. He was a sly man who knows how to use intimidation
tactics, coercion and his huge figure (both in society and bodily) to get you
to bed.
But my friend Janet is a girl with huge confidence, not a
saint but would want clarifications. He wasn’t going to say, she wasn’t going
to fall for it. So he kept coming up with complaints every day, looking for
excuses to paint her as incompetent even when she had shown that she was the
most hardworking staff in the office (she handled the HR and PA stuff together).
When he couldn’t get what he wanted, he fired her and never called her back.
My point exactly?
Some people are blessed to have a good job, fat salaries and
everything seem to work out perfectly. And if we all work in Chevron and Shell
and MTN, who will farm? Who will write movie scripts? Who will work in the
radio stations or TV? So if you don’t find yourself in such white collar places
that definitely is not the end of the world. You might have to carve your own
path even if you believe strongly that your path is in another person’s vision.
It is hard to start up something by oneself. I have met with
top directors in multi-nationals and they wished they had their own business
because no matter how rich you are if you are still on salary, you are running
on someone else’ vision. This article is not for everyone but just for those
people who seem to find themselves in the other wrung of ‘no job so I sit at
home till one finds me’, are you are a learner?
Find what gives you joy when you do it. Don’t just sit and
wait for manna to fall, do what you passionately love to do. Sometimes I laugh because
what I am being paid for today is what I absolutely love doing even if there’s
no pay; ‘Singing’, ‘Writing’ and ‘Talking’. I am being paid for doing what I love
doing and I have absolutely freedom doing them. I might have what I want now
but leaving my house every morning and knowing that I am going to do what makes
me happy gives me utmost joy.
So while you wait for your dream job to come, why don’t you
try your hands on things you love doing. You can volunteer in an organization just
to gain more knowledge and then when the opportunity comes, you will be more prepared
to wrestle what is truly yours. Don’t kill your dreams by doing nothing while
waiting, take the chance today and do something meaningful.
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