Little advice to those graduating

The number of graduates entering the job market each semester keeps on increasing as universities hold graduation ceremonies, and what this means is an increased number of unemployed people in the country. Universities are graduating more than 2000 graduates every graduation ceremony, with an estimate of more than 10,000 people entering the job market every year. In contrast, the number of jobs created every year is very limited to the extent that should worry those graduating.

Those jubilant faces of the graduates during the graduation ceremony last for a short time, as they move from being undergraduates to being unemployed citizens. Most of them will be exaggerating to get that well-paying job in that big company, and will start sending dozens of application letters and CVs to these companies, expecting to be notified for an interview any time soon. However months pass by and it dawns to them that there are no jobs.

The number of jobs in the Kenyan job market cannot be enough to sustain the number of people searching for them, and this is a very worrying trend. Most of these graduates will purpose to remain in the city and hustle for jobs, maybe staying with that relative or that friend with the hopes of landing a job and becoming independent. However, the opposite is the reality. Life will become excessively hard living without a coin in the pocket, and now that they will not be depending on their parents for upkeep, they will feel the meaning of tarmacking.

However, here is a little advice to the graduates. It is not necessary that you be employed for you to earn a living. It is not necessary that you work in a company related to your field of study for you to be make money. Self-employment is the solution to go. Take an initiative and be your own boss.

It should ring in your mind that farming is not a job for the uneducated. Working in a piece of land where you are making your own money does not make you lesser that that person working in a high-end office. With limited jobs in the job market, you cannot remain in the city doing nothing, waiting for that job to knock at your door. It will never happen and you might die poor.

Get to that rural home of yours, and make a living from farming and agriculture. Start that small farming business of rearing chicken, or selling milk or even farming vegetables to get a dollar for a day, rather than populating the city with no job. Swallow the pride and accept to be dirtied, provided you are making a living.

In addition, if you have to stay in the city, because maybe you do not have a rural home, accept to engage other forms of jobs. Start by serving and doing all these odd jobs, hard labor jobs as you build your own future. The little cash from the jobs can be saved and you start an investment with, making you self-employed.