Top 6 Rules You Need To Break If You Want To Be Employed In Kenya

Look around you. How many graduates do you know right now who years after graduation, are yet to land a job? The truth is that, some of us are not employed because of the rules we have set around us. You want to be employed, maybe earn some good money, save up and venture into business, its time to break these rules.

You have always wanted to work for a big company where you can grow in rank and status? Stop holding yourself back.

That said here are the rules that you need to break if you want to get a job in the near future.

Related: Understanding The Hidden Job Market 

1. Waiting till you graduate to find a job

I know for those who have already graduated that it’s probably a little bit late for this advice. But you who are still in school, take it from someone who had to hustle for a job for almost year after graduation, it doesn’t have to be like that.

If you know where you want to be in life, then it makes sense if you start preparing in advance. Don’t wait until you clear from that hostel room to start sending applications. Start now.

A piece of advice to those who have already graduated – go back to the drawing board. Start with those guys where you did your attachment. Volunteer or intern for them. Soon your efforts will pay off. Assuming you didn’t burn your bridges of course.

2. Underestimating social media

I have always talked about the power of social media in most of my job search articles. So let me insist some more. In a world where most companies have moved online, you cannot underestimate social media.

Start using social media to add value to your life. Connect on twitter with companies and individuals who would help you make it in life. Most of the times, kindly tag them in your tweets. Facebook allows you to personalize your account. Make it like another CV and add your skills and experience in it.

Use LinkedIn to follow personalities who would help you secure a job. Just a word of caution, there is a difference between connecting and stalking people. Do the former.

And just for your peace of mind, kindly remove any unprofessional ring back tones you have on your phone. Nobody is likely to take your seriously if your ring back tone is “Thii ukiumaga.” Just saying.

3. Finding it shameful to tell people that you are looking for a job

Gone are the days when you would buy a newspaper and scan through the classifieds looking for a job. Nowadays it’s all about networking. Sorry if you are the kind of person who is too proud to tell people that you are looking for a job.

You can keep blaming the economy and the depressing jobs market, but the fault is on you. You know people who are already working and who can throw in a few words of praise on your behalf to a potential employer.

So what I guess am saying without saying is that there is no shame in being jobless. We all have to start somewhere. Even the most accomplished people in the world were once in your situation.

4. Expecting an out of this world salary

Keep calm and be humble. You are just a fresh graduate and have no skills or so much experience in your docket so stop expectation to earn like a manager. I know you went to university for four years and you believe that its time that your efforts and money came back in a good job with a good salary. But with so much competition in the job market we are living in, you have to take things easy.

Take what is offered to you and work hard to increase that pay cheque. Very few graduates get that opportunity to earn that 20K you believe you are not worth. If it’s a job in your line of career or one that you would enjoy doing, it doesn’t matter whether you work for a cup of tea at 10 o’clock. You are growing your experience and something better is around the corner.

5. Using one CV to apply for several job positions

I mean what is happening to this generation. Whatever happened to sitting down a crafting a good CV? Does it mean that we are raising a generation of lazy job seekers who want everything to work out but can’t take measures to make that happen?

If you want to find employment in this job market, this is one of the rules that you need to break, like yesterday. Make all your application unique and tailor that CV to fit the job you are applying for.

Think about the hundreds of thousands of graduates being released into the job market every day. Imagine competing for one job position with almost half of these people. Scary right? So ensure that you stand out in every application you make. You can’t afford to be lazy in a job market that has few vacancies and so many people competing for them.

6. Looking for a job in order to please people

After university most of us if not all have this mentality that people will respect us if they get wind of the fact that we work for big names like KPMG, Delloitte, Safaricom, PwC and the likes. So what do we do? We turn down any job offer that is outside these illusions we have created for ourselves.

It’s a small company, just launched a few years back and is looking to hire you. You can’t accept it because they are way out of your league. So what if you work for an SME? Did you know that they are the best places to begin your career at? Stop striving to please people and just grab opportunities as they come. Small or not. It’s still a job.

In the end

At the end of the day, you just have to understand what works and doesn’t work for you. Getting a job is all about changing your attitude. Stop looking for a job to please your village or class mates. Craft your CV in such a way that it will be difficult for that hiring manager to deny the urge of wanting to meet you in person. Network and use social media to your advantage and quit creating an illusion of not accepting any job paying less than 50K. You are not the only graduate out there and someone else will gladly jump at that opportunity you think is demeaning you.

Lilian Wamaitha is a Communications and Digital Marketing Officer at Career Point Kenya. Contact her via lilian@www.careerpointkenya.co.ke. Click here to like us on Facebook.