Why your uncle in a high place might never get you a job

We all have relatives in high places. The well placed in rank in the military, government or in the corporate sector. We like to brag about them. In family meetings, they exude pride that you are pursuing that computer science degree. They have promised that they will fix you up with a job, just like one fixes a meal, as soon you graduate.

When you are young, you do not know better. Most young people go about bragging about people in mighty places with the fantasy that upon graduation, they will walk into a six-figure salary, with a car and a beautiful apartment waiting.

Life, however, works differently. The uncle typically becomes evasive when you graduate. The much he does is ask you to email him your CV. As soon as you do, he goes mute until you meet at a funeral in the village six years later when you have been finally employed.

Truth is, connections in our country often work and nepotism has helped some people to get plum jobs that they, otherwise, would never find on their own. Nevertheless, for every single girl or boy who secures a job because Uncle Tom is well placed up in the corporate ladder, a deserving case is forced back to the waiting line.

Do not rely on your relative too much. Build your own networks and be aggressive as you wait. Know, after 18, the world does not owe you anything. If it fails to honour any promise you hoped for, pick the pieces and carry on. Do not blame the uncle, when you end up jobless or waiting for a promise he will never fulfill. Neither should you want to prove a point to him that you are so clever that you got a job on your own.