Good morning people,
Am Lanre from Lagos, Nigeria. This piece is a rejoiner to an article I read sometimes early this year titled 'A letter to my past'. I will not repeat what was in the article but share my own story to encourage someone and at the same time support the content of the article.

I graduated in 2010 and went to service 2011. During my undergraduate days, I have guys that developed themselves, acquiring skills and now it speaks for them. They are doing well now. I strictly adhered to the saying have a good grade and you are settle for life. I have a 2.1 due to my unseriousness in part 2 and 3.
Also in my service months, some of my friends are equipping themselves with different skills to be competitive in the job market. I just believed on my good grade. My first job came after 9months that I finished service. It was a secondary school where I taught 3 subjects (mathematics, further mathematics and physics) from s.s.1 to 3 with 20000 naira salary. You know how that will be.
After 2 months I secured another teaching job where I was paid 35000 naira. I was not satisfied because I can't made head way with those amount in lagos. I applied for master program and I got admission in 2014.
But i still missed the point. I forget that in those schools I worked there are plenty of masters graduate depressed.
But my eyes were opened and I discovered that skill is what will get me my dream job. I started developing my capacity and learning new skills. I will look at skills required for my dear job and download videos from YouTube and learn those skills. I looked for free certificate courses online and I applied for them.
When the jobs are not forth coming I open an office where I train people on the skills I studied from YouTube and I do little consulting and I started earning money.
I connect to people who are in my career line on LinkedIn. I send hundred of requests to people to be connected and may share job opportunities and if am not quality, I look for what disqualify me and I worked on it.
All these efforts pays off in January, 2017 when a woman contacted me from Washington about a project them wanted to start in Nigeria and to the glory of God it has turned to story now. The skills I acquired informally speaks for me and the salary is wow because it is a direct USG project.
The summary of this piece is don't sit down on your degree, acquire skills that fit for your dream job and career. Create opportunity if you don't see any. God rewards, waiting for that job without improving yourself is insane, it will not come.
God bless you