Here are 5 of some of the assumptions that deprive a number of Job seekers the opportunity to be engaged.

You can add yours.

"As a man thinks in his heart, so is he"

1. There are no jobs.

When you hold true this assumption, you attract to yourself enough evidence to confirm this state of mind. You have a tendency to start thinking that those job opportunities available are not meant for you, or you resolve to adopt a beggarly attitude in your job search because you believe somebody must do you a favour to get you a job because jobs are scarce. You need to understand the difference between a statement of fact and the truth. A fact has an element of truth in it but it is not the truth. It is backed up by physical evidences and it depends so much on how much of the physical evidence we have access to. Truth sometimes goes beyond physical evidence and translates into the supernatural.

Statistical figures from Labour organisation or Bureau of statistics while they are statements of facts are not totally true for you when you look at your life in the context of purpose which you are created for.

Above any observable political or economical factor, you are created to solve problems for mankind and that is your job. You need to find it and do it. There is a job for you because your maker who has an assignment for you determines your job. Regardless of what you see around you, you need to allow the thought that there is a job for you settle down in your mind. The same way the thought of ‘no job’ that you allow settle in your mind attracts physical evidences of no job is the same way that the thought that there is a job for you looks for evidence in your environment to validate it. This mindset helps you to seek out for opportunities, approach it in a way that makes you connect with your prospective employer, sets your attitude apart from the lots of candidates seeking for the same job with you.

2. No connection no job

This mindset is common in a developing environment where people believe that except someone in the potential organisation or an influential political figure is advocating for them they do not stand a chance of getting the job. Again, my argument is similar to the one I gave under the first wrong assumption. Fine! Because of corruption in some quarters this is applicable however it is not a truth that can ever deny you from your chance of getting your dream job having done all that is required. Why do organisations hire people? They need them to solve problems. Which right thinking and progress oriented organisation would sacrifice a problem solver for an incompetent relative or a known person at the altar of achieving organisation goals?

This mindset sometimes is an alibi by job hunters to explain their level of incompetency for the job. They hide under this pretence to cover up for lapses in their preparation for the job. In all my years of searching for candidates for my clients, none of them has hired based on who knows who but purely on competency. Focus on developing yourself for your desired opportunity so that when it comes you will not be found wanting. You will not be stopped to take up a job that you are the most qualified. Your connection may get you an opportunity to prove your worth but lack of it is not a denial of job when you are competent.

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U couldn't complete it. You couldn't even put link.

3. Minimum of 2/1 (2nd Class Upper) gets the good job

Some organisations usually set this grade as their minimum because they want to manage their responses to application while some others have it as part of their recruitment policies. Nothing stands in the way of the right candidate because I have seen it repeatedly. I cannot count the number of waivers we got for 3rd class and Pass candidates who demonstrated competencies in handling specific jobs despite recruitment policies that denies such grades of jobs in my place of work then. We even hired a non-graduate as a Chief Dealer at a time because he had mastered his job by giving himself to self development. These are not people that came through any back door, they were seen in their elements and were given an opportunity.

During my service year, a bank called Youth Corpers to write aptitude tests and set 2nd class upper as the minimum grade for application. I went to apply and I was turned down but I spoke to the Officer that he had nothing to lose if I wrote the test, that he should just give me the opportunity. He reluctantly agreed to invite me for the test and one other lady that begged him too who also had a 2nd class lower. We wrote the test and only the two of us scored above the pass mark.

I have a friend who made a third class. After searching for job without any result, he decided to live his passion. He started writing Christian Tracts, packaging them neatly and selling in volume to people who will want to donate such to churches for evangelism.
He was selling in a bank one day and a Senior Officer noticed his passion for what he was doing. He engaged him in a conversation and later arranged for him to meet with the MD of the bank and right there the MD offered him a job to resume immediately. After he had resumed the following day and when the Human Resource Department was taking him through the induction process, they discovered he made a third class which was against their policy and they escalated to the head of the department. What happened? They got a waiver for him. Why? He was competent to do the job he was hired for.

Sometimes, our school grades are nothing but a stigma and that is why in this environment, people cheat, buy their way through and do all sort of funny things to make the so called good grades. By the way, what was Steve Job and Bill Gates class of degree? (If they had any)

This assumption only limits you to the extent you permit it.

4. What will be will be (Que sera sera)

Great things are always preceded by painstaking preparation. To surrender your progress in life to factors outside of you is to be registered in the school of frustration. Your future depends on many things, but mostly on you. Assuming that what will be will be is an escapist mentality useful in justifying a life of mediocrity and indolent complacency.


Jules Jusserano said “the future is not in the hands of fate, but in ours”. If you are driven by this wrong assumption and you are not getting involved in the necessary preparations you need to make for a sustainable future, your getting your dream job is still a mirage. Why? Your prospective employer is not thinking what will be will be, they are adopting scientific ways to ensure that it is only those who are prepared that gets the job. You should set goals for yourself in life and work to achieve your goals. What will be when you are not properly driven towards any tangible goals is the leftover of the environment.


5. Start Looking for a Job after graduation

If you assume that the process of looking for jobs starts after your graduation or when you have completed your NYSC programme, you are almost late. You are most likely operating with the mindset that it is your degree that qualifies you to get a job, and most likely you have worked towards passing out with a minimum of second class upper to give you an “advantage”

What separates you from the lot of potential candidate with the same class of degree with you is what gets you the job. These are such skills that you have deployed in some other areas of your life or extracurricular activities you have engaged in that have helped you develop some competencies that are now transferable. What this implies is that you start you job search from when you are not ready to take up a job by getting involved in activities that enhance the development of your skills that you can readily transfer to your desired job. A friend of mine got a job principally because he was the president of his departmental association and he was able to show how the leadership skill he developed then can be useful in the role he was being interviewed for.
You therefore need to be involved in extracurricular activities that will enhance your skills which can now be transferred to your desired jobs.

Yet it Still depends on jobs and country

No. 3 was an act of God.

No 1 is what really baffles me, some people will just open their mouth gbaga and say there no job in Nigeria.

Many even believes that unless you study medicine, pharmacy, law, bus. Admin and accounting you can't get a job with good pay.

Mtttttsssshhhheeeeew
Nonsense and ingredient.

Age can also be a barrier, I don't knw why most of d recruitin firms luk for 26 and below. I remember fillin a Job application online and as soon as i entered my age, d system automatically shut down my application, and I waz told based on d info I provided, dat they cant continue with my application.
Now dat waz really demoralizing.

Noted

Karleb: No 1 is what really baffles me, some people will just open their mouth gbaga and say there no job in Nigeria.
Many even believes that unless you study medicine, pharmacy, law, bus. Admin and accounting you can't get a job with good pay.
Mtttttsssshhhheeeeew
Nonsense and ingredient.

You are right on point. It's a sad truth that most people don't want to accept but would rather use it as an excuse for not being capable enough to help a prospective employer solve his problems.

Employers engage problem solvers not some job seekers who think they deserve a job because they have a degree.

Just be a problem solver then you see jobs seeking for you.