Dear Young woman,
You have finally left school and have the rest of your life to do what you want! so cool, right? The choice is yours to find a job, start a business or just rest at home for as long as you want. Waiting to see what life has next in store for you. I suggest you take a hold of your life when you are still young and purposefully choose what you want to make of your life. As yourself a few questions and spend some time answering them. Seek from within you, these answers should not be influenced by anything external but by your heart and mind and reasoning. Also please be realistic 🙂
Before a new cohort starts at WITU, I always meet with the young women and ask them the a question.
If you had all the money you need in the world to do anything, have all the connections and network to support you do it and there was no failing, Â what would you do with your life? Imagine you met that person you used to envy at school and want to show that you made it in life, and they asked you, “———–( Insert your name) Â what do you do these days?” what would you say?
Some answers I have heard;
” I would say, I am running a technology start up that just raised 3 billion USD and we are launching across Africa in the next six months”
” I own a chain of luxury hotels in Dubai and the US”
” I own an orphanage that supports over 100,000 Children”
” I own a restaurant”
” I work with google”
I am married to X who own three factories and hotels all over”
These are wishes that came up 5 mins after I asked this question. If you gave these young women the chance to think it over for a month, the answers might be different, or not.
Ask yourself the same question, and take your time with the answer. Now if you ask yourself this question over the years, the answer may slightly change or not.
Once you have this answer you need to map out a plan, I love plans! Who are you going to get there?
What is that first step that you need to take?
SKILL UP
Instead of sitting at home watching all the Nigerian movies or telemundo and series, level up, get your skills up. Practice makes perfect and employers love “perfect”. If you want to find a job, don’t sit at home, go out there and get busy. Learn something or improve a skill you have. Never allow your brain to just sit and do nothing over a period of time….. Find online courses that you can take to improve whatever skill you need to improve. Look around your community for any available trainings that you can take…. Some may be free, while others are paid. If you have a tech degree or diploma or certificate, You might want to improve your Tech/CS skills by visiting WITU or HIVECOLAB or any other place that will help you build your tech skills. Hive Colab and WITU engage young people by helping them build their skills practically, offering training in Software Development, Testing, Business Skills Development, among others……… Get yourself connected to a physical place that can help you improve your skill , find a job or start a business…..
When you graduated 6 months ago and you are at a job interview, You might be asked what you have been doing this whole time….. Now majority people will say I have been looking for a job….. I would be more interested in hearing about personal projects ( relevant to the work you are looking to do) that you have been engaged in…. Maybe you have been trying to build an application that solves————–.
Getting yourself into a community of people who are pursuing the same dreams as you will help you become a better version of you… Through collaboration you will learn new skills, could find your employer there or find a co-founder and start a business together…These communities places usually also have free lance work to offer their members. Attend events relevant to the field you want to pursue and introduce yourself to as many people as possible!!!! ( NETWORK)
VOLUNTEER
Its a very good way to build/gain experience!!! that thing that most employers look for before they hire… EXPERIENCE…. Look for volunteer opportunities around you and take them up. Offer your time, its fulfilling and educative…. Plus if you are good at the end of your voluntary time, they might retain you!
START YOUR OWN BUSINESS
If we are to be completely honest, JOBS are hard to find and the ratio of jobs VS the people looking for them is too high… Without skills and experience it may be hard to get a job as fast as you need it…. So why not START your own? There are many groups out there willing to help you start out. MONEY is NOT the most important ingredient when starting a business……. Completely understanding what you are getting into and how to do it is. Again look for communities that can help you start out! I will help you! 🙂
Life is not about plan A and plan B, Its about plan A to Z in other wards, NEVER GIVE UP. Pursue your dreams to no end….