WHEN THE JOB SEARCH GOES SOUR

After school and national service

You have remained idle and unengaged

Your funds are fast depleting

As your pockets are full of tickets

From cybercafe to cybercafe

Nairalaland, naijahotjobs, career plus

Have made bank thanks to your misery

Yet without the end in sight

You gather like minds to voice old complains

For your old problem that requires new thinking.

When would this day pass?

And though you are wrinkling under the pressures

I pray you not to throw away your self assurance

Even though the job search has gone sour

Yes, Hope comes from time to time

Interview here and test there,

You imagine that this is it.

Maybe you flunk or you are exceptional

Yet the phone call never seems to come

You are looking for help;

Friends, old bosses, hiring agencies,

You seem to always be ready

But they are, for some reason, still getting set.

When you are encouraged by words

You feel the fire of possibility

So you apply more vigorously

Only to feel and see no progress

After zest and activities have run you overtime

You are lamenting and troubled

Just because the job search has gone sour

Will this nightmare ever end?

Yes it will, but I assure you;

Not in your times.

It may not be your most reassuring line

But it is the best truth I can deliver

In a nation with such a population

How do you nurse an expectation

that our little guises of industrialization

Will salvage our labour situation?

Maybe like I did, you may need to wake up.

There would never be enough jobs

Until there are enough businesses

There would never be few job seekers

Until there are many entrepreneurs.

So expect the job search to stay sour

Connect the dots if you may

And see that my words are true.

The question I then pose to you

Is: do you have the energy for this ordeal?

Which is clear to all above you

But you are still blindsided by a few miracles

Few others like you have experienced.

You may doubt your entrepreneurship abilities

Even as you are understanding my direction

But sometimes we develop abilities

Instead of expressing inherent ones.

I do not give you any suggestion today

But I lay the cards before your face;

Keep up the rat race and celebrate eventualities

Or invent a solution provider and enjoy possibilities…

Its up to you and you alone.

You may be full of dreams and handicapped for capital

But your idea is your capital

And negotiation and inventiveness are your best allies

To draw resources to you and change you life

Because, believe it or not

Most of the organizations you show up at

With your strapped resume and flawless suit (or otherwise)

Only started when the job search went sour.

Foot note: “If nobody gives you a job, make one!” - Pastor Chris Oyakhilome (PhD)