The Industry: Ready?

Yet another Friday and this one is exciting and I must say this Friday comes after a nice week for many reasons.

So what do we have on the table? Some few insights about the industry, of course.
Some of you might have noted that my writing is biased towards the intellectual in college and the young graduate. I must say that this is not an atypical piece.

This whole thing is based on the experience I had some time earlier this year. I happened to be in a group of intellectuals, some from my home called COM and others from some other college of the University of Malawi which I will not mention for the fear of losing my teeth.

After we had discussed whatever we were discussing, I happened to have a chat with some of them just to see what their thoughts were about life after school.
Of note is that by then I had just been introduced to the whole goal setting business and I was so zealous about sharing it. I was doing it for their good anyway, because as of me, I had my life after school sorted. I knew I was going to be employed two months after graduating but these fellas did not have a guaranteed job, anyway, so being the me that I am, I wanted to have some thought provoking chat with them. Which went well…

To avoid giving too much information, these people had brilliant dreams. They thought of life after college (the so called industry) as rosy. Actually one of them wanted to work in a top government post while the other wanted to be an investment banker. Fancy stuff. The chat was all good until I asked as to what they were doing at that moment to achieve their dreams. I must say I was not impressed by the answers I got.

I need to mention that these were final year students who were just months from graduating but when I asked them what they were doing to make what they wanted happen, they told me of the things they thought they would do in the very life after college I was asking about.

Well. I will stop blaming them for now, but I must point out that this is not a strange picture among young people. I once had a discussion with one Michael Ndimbo about how young people can spend hours talking about how someone has a nice fleet of cars without questioning as to how he might have acquired them or most importantly thinking about it.

To get back to the case of the typical intellectual, most of us go to college by convenience, probably taken for the program that was our third choice or being redirected altogether. When we get in college, what we do is to thank God for the opportunity (not saying it is a bad thing to do so) and forget that the opportunity was given for us to make something out of. End result? We go into our programs for years or more without thinking of plan B let alone plan A of our lives in preparation of the future ahead of us. In other ways, most of us hardly have career paths.

The thing being advocated for here is that of taking action right from the start other than leaving things to fate but on the other hand it has to be pointed out that people need to know what they want to become to pursue it. Well. That has probably been said here a couple of times so I will go back to the subject of the day.

If you fancy a nice job in this world of rampant unemployment, there is an obvious cost to it. There will be multitudes scrambling for the same nice job but the question you have to ask yourself and that should prompt action should be that of what you will do to make sure that the employer gives you the job even if there were thousands going for it; the sort of thing that would make you stand out.
Nowadays the belief is that the first degree is not enough so most of us think in terms of doing our postgraduate training as immediately as we can. Again what we forget that postgraduate training takes some money and effort and it is almost not feasible to pay as a young graduate; which of course entails the need for a scholarship. These scholarships we are talking about also do have their conditions and chances that people will be crowding all over them. Again, the question that comes is what you are doing to make sure you stand out among the many who want the same opportunity you want.

If you begin to think about how competitive the so called industry is, the need for proactivity in college period becomes obvious and nothing near unnecessary. Again the problem is that most of us do not see the need for leaving the present to do something for the future, sometimes because we don’t care and the other times because we do not take some time to think about the future.

The two scenarios sound a bit selfish for someone who says they want to make an impact, but even that requires a preparation. You need some sort of preparation and the right skills and knowledge to impact lives. Probably a team too so the connections do matter on this one.

Now that a kubanja kwa a Kamwezi has spelled this out on a Friday evening, are you willing to begin thinking about the future? Are you willing to plan and map out your career? Will you have that fixed aspiration and begin to work towards it in a focused way? The grades. The CV. The connections. How are these aligned towards making you the person that you want to be in the near future and beyond?

Don’t get surprised by things that do not have to surprise you, remember?

I hope you are ready for what is called the industry or that at least you will be when you get there.