The truth about life after campus

When we are still on campus, we are usually tempted to make very many baseless assumptions about life after campus. We, in our myopic way of thinking assume that all will be well and we dream of things like making quick inroads into the world of employment, steadily rising through the ranks in our careers, driving the latest models of cars, purchasing plots of land in the prime skirts of the city, marrying the pretty ladies of this world, giving birth to a few beautiful kids and all that claptrap. But you see those are but merely funny dreams. And one thing I like about dreams is that they happen when we are sleeping. 

When we finally chose to wake up, we shall realize that things are different out here.  Here is how we think and what the truth really is.

Case No. 1

You know I have an uncle who is a lawyer and surely he cannot fail to help me get a placement in the firm where he works or at least through the connections of some of his friends. (This is how some law students think.)

The truth

Your uncle has a lot of personal issues he is dealing with. People usually have their issues. So your joblessness is just one of those other issues he is very ready to ignore. After all by the time he became a lawyer there was no lawyer in your clan. So he became the first lawyer. He had no relatives in the legal fraternity but he had to hustle his way to the top. He therefore thinks that it is a definite lack of creativity and sheer laziness which makes you think that you should look at him as your only source of hope for a starting point in your career as a lawyer or for the so-called connections. You surely ought to have some personal connections by the time you finish campus, (he, in turn, will assume).

Case No.2

There are many jobs, I surely cannot be jobless. Every Monday the Newvision is running hundreds of adverts and Every Wednesday the Daily Monitor runs as many adverts. Surely even if I was so damn and unlucky I can never fail over time to land some of those jobs. All that I know is that one day I will apply and get through, go for the interviews, pass the interviews and bum! I will have a job and I will have gotten my breakthrough.

The truth

Every Job that is advertised in the papers is already taken. People just advertise for formality. I am not discouraging you from applying for some of those jobs advertised in the papers. On the Contrary,  I want you to lose hope completely in securing any job that has anything to do with a newspaper advert. Okay perhaps this borders on the extreme of presumptive truths but anyway for every 10 jobs advertised in a news paper, there are a thousand applicants. So the probability that you, the silly dreamer will be the one out of the thousands to qualify for the job is to put it in the proper mathematical perspective 1/1000.

Case No.3

I know the first year will be hard and I do not expect to get a job immediately. The beginning is usually not a bed of roses. But I cannot surely stay jobless forever. It is not possible. After two or three years, I will surely find my dream job and I will earn a lot of money and I will be stinking rich you know.

The truth

I am sorry to tell you this but for the next five years or even more you are going to be jobless. During that time, the people at home will eventually get tired of keeping you in their home and they will no longer make it easy for you to comfortably fit in. The sole of your shoe will wear out and you will yearn to purchase another pair but shoes will have become a luxury. And then your dreams will fly away like a bird that you had kept in cage for so long against its will. And you will no longer dream. You will be facing the reality every single minute. You will have no time for such useless things like dreams. The only consolation you will get is that you will not be alone. There are so many other people you will meet and have been jobless for even more years but they are still pushing on. They have not died. When you eventually get tired of your state, you will think creatively, become an entrepreneur and think of creating your own job. Perhaps then, you will find your freedom from the mental slavery of a job-seeking graduate.