Quit bubble thinking and be different
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| Lecturer Mr. Raiji and I on my graduation |
BY MUSYOKA NGUI
During my recent visit to
my alma mater, I made interesting observations which I wish to share. I gathered
that the student population was still on upward trajectory and that the
prophecy of Jerusha Kanyua was still relevant.
What I found pitifully
inside the bubble thinking was the attitude of my former colleagues who are due
to step out of college this year. Some imagine that having a degree is anything
special in Kenya. They are so many that no one bothers to count, neither keep
up with.
Having a degree doesn’t make
you stand out. It thrusts you to the pool of ordinary starters without experience
and some form of sameness and similarity that has no iota of difference.
I decided to comment on
this matter because I am aware that several employers in this country are
making fresh graduates look bad and scapegoating them for hard economic time’s
excuses.
From banks retrenching
workers in droves to fractured media and cartels fronting their cronies and
rewarding mediocrity, ours is anything but a technocracy.
Whom you know matter more
than what you know. To paraphrase a renowned sage, it is not the know-how but
the know-who.
The world of work isn’t the
romanticized field lecturers tell you in spacious lecture halls. You will stay
without regular income. You will be underemployed. You will earn 10k for a year
and by the time you get a pay rise, you are 30. 30k after tax will be for few. Yet
you will fantasize on the imaginary grass on the other side and waste time to know
and be grateful of the moment that you are enjoying that your former colleagues
only wish for.
Others think starting a
business is the alternative to misery. Some of the youths I engage come off
as in a hurry to prove a point, get to nowhere or settle old scores with the
system. They don’t keep their cool neither do they plan. Is your idea
sustainable? No one is discouraging anyone but much of the work is in the sharpening
the axe rather than cutting the tree.