University, many secondary school student's dream and the nightmare for a lot of the students enrolled. Through its struggles, a lot of students just want to get over with college and get a job. Now, this is where things get very tricky. The competitive job market, poor education system, and significantly few visible opportunities crush the dreams of fresh graduates and leave them on the street with their envelope, or underemployed.

Here are some essential tips that will help every student and graduate in Nigeria create a rewarding career path after their studies.

1. Learn Soft Skills:

"Soft skills" is a term used to define the skills needed to interact effectively with people. These skills include; self-leadership, presentation skills, empathy, networking, self-awareness, verbal communication, among others. Soft skills are like muscles, and in Nigeria's employment situation where competition is high, hiring managers often look for the most muscular candidate. If you have applied for a job, and you didn't get the job despite having a great resume, it could be that you lack some essential soft skills. Unfortunately, the education system in Nigeria has not come to acknowledge, not to talk of integrate soft skills into its curriculum. As a result, we are not aware that we need them, and we only happen to pick bits of them by chance. Regardless, it is essential for us to ensure we learn these skills consciously. Thanks to the internet, you can learn a lot of soft skills for free articles, videos, and books, and practice them during your daily interaction with people. Through continuous practice, you would eventually grow those big competitive muscles needed to get your dream job.



2. Start Something


The goal here is for you to gain professional experience, as well as give your insight about the best career path for you and how to go about getting the right career after graduation. Whether it is an internship, volunteering for an organization, freelancing, or even taking a part-time job, as long as you are doing something that helps you gain professional experience. You also get to understand office politics, ethics in a workplace, and most importantly, you network with people. Another big advantage is that it will be a significant comparative advantage when added to your CV.



3. Broaden your Knowledge


We know that the education system in Nigeria is still some decades behind, and in some public universities, we still repeat notes from year to year without reviewing them. However, thanks to the internet, we can get updated information from across the world at the tip of fingers, and we can compete with the rest of the world on the level ground. It is important to broaden and update your knowledge so that you will know the important trends in your career. For example, do you know that the job “accounting” might soon be taken over by Artificial intelligence, and jobs like bookkeeping are already becoming obsolete thanks to websites that automates record keeping. Reading books and watching videos on different fields also help to increase the ability to hold a conversation with people in the work environment, something you will need a lot to network effectively with people.


4. Network

Networking is reaching out to individuals in a professional environment to share ideas and information with a goal of building a connection. Networking is crucial because the people you meet can create opportunities for you, and also provide advice and mentorship that will help you excel in your professional world. You should also network with people that share the same career path as they will support you through your career and help you grow and improve yourselves.


Quick steps to networking:

Find the right platform where you can find professionals that can help improve your career. These could be physical events or online platforms like Afringa. Once you find the platforms, sign up for them. Here is the link to afringa; www.afringa.com
Create a compelling profile: Your profile is the first thing that your potential network will see about you. It determines if they will be interested in connecting or not. Watch this video to learn how to create a good profile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoSoMn2qkg8
Reach out to your potential network. Don't be shy, reach out to the people you want to connect with, state your intentions for them, and how both of you can benefit from the connection. Be human.

Follow up: you need to follow up with your network frequently to ensure that you don't become a long gone memory.

Conclusion:

Whether you are in your first year, final year, or you have graduated, you can start working on these tips today to improve yourself and create a secure professional future.