Dear Graduate,

I stumbledupon this and decided to share.

Now you are out of school and probably through with serving your fatherland I want to talk to you about how you can embark on a successful career for yourself. You probably didn’t know much or care much about the future when you were in school. The parties, football games, flirting and maybe the night jacking were all that occupied your time.

I don’t know if you prepared for your intended career or if you even have an idea of what you want to do with your life right now. This piece is not to dwell on that but to point out what you can do to start an illustrious career for yourself.

What Do You Want to Do?

All achievers in life must take a couple of minutes each day to remind themselves of what exactly it is they want to achieve or do with their life. If you want to join the elite you must sit down and reflect and articulate your plans. You are no more a kid, hope you know. From now on you think for yourself!
Do you have the entrepreneurial spirit? Do you just want to have an illustrious engineering career? Find out what exactly it is then

How Do You Intend to Start?

Your career goal determines how you develop a plan. If you want to run your own business, start an internet or offline company, be a self employed professional you will have to decide on issues like fundraising and getting the skills you require. If you have relatives, friends and parents who can give you the seed fund you need good for you but remember you will need a simple straightforward plan on how you intend to grow your idea to good levels of profitability. If you have no one to rely on for funds you may look at the option of getting a job, working several years and saving towards your ultimate goal.

If you instead wish to get a job in a field of your choice and build a long, illustrious career therein you will need to identify the job options you want to pursue. What skills and attributes will you need to pursue a successful career in those fields? Start a rigouruos self improvement regime and use all the smart job search ideas we have been talking about here.

Some Things You Should Know About the Labour Market and Business Generally in Nigeria

- People who have the skills and knowledge may go far but they go even farther if they have the right relationships with other players in the industry
- Proactive people almost always get the best jobs and best deals in their industry
- Sometimes Who You Know Matter in Business and the Labour Market (ask Bill Gates whose mum knew the top brass at IBM and helped him secure the deal with IBM that gave Microsoft the foundation for what it is today)
- Your personal networking and connections may get you jobs and deals but it is your expertise and delivery that will sustain you and get you even better offers and deals.