Yesterday, I slept quite late after overworking myself mercilessly with advanced excel formulas. Well, I hit the pass mark for the course anyway so I slept soundly like a well-fed cat. It is 2 years down the line since most of my peers and I finished college. Some opted to join missionary schools and give their lives to serving Christ. Some chose to work as teachers but not under the Teachers Suffering Center (T.S.C).Fate led them to the Board of Governors in individual secondary schools. By the way, I have lost count of my family members who are in the teaching profession. I highly commend them for the good work they are doing in giving a brighter future to our kids through education and training.
Others opted to go in search of online jobs. Lucky for some, their skills sold them to the highest bidder at a time when the freelancing industry was not yet competitive and had not been dominated by below standard writers. For some, they retreated to their hometowns and set up businesses. Unfortunately, for many who had not done business before, the chances of their businesses staying afloat was 0.00 and there was not much they could do to salvage their businesses because of financial constraints and lack of collateral to borrow bank loans.
Am yet to come across, those who have joined politics in this campaign season that will see Kenyans head to the ballot on the eighth of August. However, a few turned out to be a little mysterious by the fact that life appeared to be figured out for them yet one could not tell what business they run or form of employment they are in.
Finally, there is this last group of few individuals who chose to be scholars. Despite the numerous C.A.T.S, assignments, exams and final project one is subjected to for his undergraduate degree, they did not think of rest or finding work but slipped right away into Master Programmes.
After college, there were few phone calls wired to and fro; friends and former classmates calling and checking on one another. Interestingly, as the years went by the number of phone calls I have received personally have reduced and turned into occasionally “hi” text messages.
For the lovebirds on campus, am sorry to say their lovely and warm romantic lives faded into thin air after the fare thee well message from the chancellor. A few relationships survived the dynamics that came with finishing campus such as having to move from your hometown in search of a job in the city. Few relationships survived the economic hard times that come with finding a job for a graduate in Kenya.
It is actually frightening and discouraging when you meet a young man who finished college 3-5 years ago still struggling to make ends meet. He will not talk about marriage unless you mention it. Few a lucky to have their girlfriends by their side even when they have no stable source of income.
Despite the biting and harsh reality that meets graduate after college, not all is lost for the educated youth in Kenya. Many have been successful and are continuing to be successful by stretching beyond their limits through persistence and determination.
As you wait for that big dream job, here is a list of constructive activities you could do to make a difference in your life:
- Enrolling for a tertiary course
A degree is a percentage of knowledge the world has that confines you to a particular field or profession. One has to be exemplary good at what he chooses to specialize in, in order to sell out. One good way of building your career is by enrolling and sitting for professional exams, enrolling in other short courses related to your major or can add value to your skill base. Time waits for no man, thesooner you identify a course the better.I am currently pursuing an online free course on Coursera. I have already earned my module 1 certificate for Business Metrics for Data-Driven Companies.I have just moved into my next module under Excel to MySQL analytic techniques for Business Specialization. Your given skill in writing, data analysis or graphic design could be monetized with persistence and determination to make you a better person financially.
- Network Marketing
In spite of the venture being received negatively in some quarters, a number of educated youths are making money by selling products such as weight losing tablets, skin care creams and other supplements that sustain and manage one’s health and diet respectively. The concept behind Network Marketing involves selling a particular product to a willing buyer and introducing them into the trade. The buyer X enters into the network marketing chain under you the seller, opens an account with the network marketing company and hits the ground running by selling the same products and building a network of individuals under them called a team. Every individual on the chain earns money form his or her team members. The bigger your team and the more sales they make the more the money you earn.
3. Online Jobs
“It is tiresome, brain-draining and energy-sapping,” my brother once mentioned this to me about academic writing. However, many youths, have opted into this venture rather than wear out their soles in search of unavailable low paying jobs. The few, I have talked to says it pays quite well in between ksh7000-10000 per week during peak seasons.
- Second-hand (Mitumba) Business
Not popular businesses for a degree holder but many youths have found a source of livelihood here. They sell an assortment of second-hand clothes including jeans, trousers, t-shirts, hooded jumpers, singlets and vests. No one can do without clothes. However, one needs to be careful with their display location as putting your stall or boutique where there is no human traffic might make you go hungry. One also needs to sell a variety of men and women second-hand clothes and not just border on one type of clothes such as t-shirts. One also needs to replenish his stock weekly to avoid customers losing their taste because of coming across the same pieces of clothes over and over.
- Hawking
With hawking, one can be sure of no less than Ksh.200 in their pocket daily. Hawking can be done on virtually any commodity including shoes, pens, snacks, pieces of clothing, foodstuffs. All said, this is another rare venture for graduates yet it can eke them a living as they wait for the big job to come by. (more…)
