Does no jobs mean settle for any job?
Of course not
When you are about graduating from university it will be the only thing you will hear;
"NO JOBS"
"HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE"
You would have heard these statements throughout your stay in school, inserted into pep talks meant to get you to work harder, but by final year when you can only do so much to raise your grade, you will encounter these words everywhere.
Then there will be the annoyingly optimistic people who will insist that they are going to enter the “favor market” and not the labor market. Potayto, Potahto, honestly, all na market.
By the time you get out of school and you get a job offer, after all this negative priming, you will be more than ready to jump at it and the more time that passes before that job offer comes, the more eager you are to jump at anything.
It's simple demand and supply really. The demand for jobs is high while the supply is low so even if the job is a spotted ole orange that looks less than edible it is still orange and orange no dey. If you no buy am, some other person will.
Latest statistics put it that the current unemployment rate in Nigeria is 14.2 percent with about 28.58 million persons in Nigeria unemployed so ‘No Jobs’ can't be an outright lie but should no jobs equal settling for any job?
The truth is that 'No jobs' probably means you should take any job, especially, if you are in no way inclined towards starting your own business.
Jobs tend to give our lives a structure and purpose that are harder to will or force when we are on our own without a clear plan.
Settling, however, is a different case. Settling means acceptance, it suggests digging your roots in and committing to growing in a place. Doing that for just any job is a bad idea.
Oprah Winfrey says; “Do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do” which is basically the point we are trying to make.
There are quite a number of reasons to take a job; earning a living is right up there but there’s also satisfaction in contributing to society, experience, fulfilling your life goals and growing as a person. Not just ‘any job’ is going to get you all these.
Why you should consider taking a job that is not, necessarily, your dream
I can just type in “You have to eat!!!” here and be done with it but maybe I should elaborate and say that most dream jobs do not come easy.
Think of the number of people — some more qualified, some others with an already established inroad into the company — that are hustling for the job that you would consider perfect for you.
Also, consider the fact that though the job may be perfect for you, you may not yet be perfect for it. Where some top jobs want a fresh graduate that would be able to bring a different energy and perspective to the role, most prize experience pretty high.
So when you get a job that may fail on one or more points in your perfect job scenario, you should consider taking it with a view to using it as a springboard to where you actually want to be.
Why you should never settle
I was reading an interview that Yvonne Orji gave where she talked about a time when she used to take foodie calls.
Foodie calls are distinguished from booty calls in the sense that rather than the end game being ‘sex’ the end game is ‘getting fed.’
Now, Yvonne Orji (who I personally think is hilarious) said that she went on one of these dates one day and the guy was so boring that at a point she up and escaped because to quote her “she wasn’t that hungry!”
If you are doing this ‘any job’ hustle right, there is no reason why the necessity and ‘hunger’ that ‘forced’ you to take a job that you did not favor in the first place would not have reduced to the point that you can now see and consider more options.
Settling for a job that you barely like soon turns to dislike and then hate. Hating your job is a sure way to shoot your productivity in the foot and sap all the energy you could use for side projects that could put you ahead of the teeming crowd of job hunters outchea.
So don’t settle, make a ‘get out’ plan, work hard, hope for the best and shoot your shot for the jobs you want.
