(Book E3) The Job Hunt College: The masses chorus

‘Career Development Book for Health Professionals’

One popular slogan on the lips of many unemployed graduates including health professionals is that, ‘There is no job’. I used to sing the same chorus until one day one of my in-charges on the ward during my internship aborted that misconception out of my mind.

It was one early Saturday, after we’ve had a very calm night shift and we sat behind the ward computer to proofread all our notes and recordings.

As I was busily typing the morning notes of a patient we unknowingly skipped over, she tapped my shoulder to draw my attention. She looked sternly into my eyes and asked, “So Prince, have you started sending your applications?”

It was barely a month to finish with my internship yet I had not sent out any job application letter. Not that I have not thought about them, I have. Just that, the thoughts of it always scares me due to what I’ve seen and heard from colleagues who graduated two to three years before me and were still finding it difficult to obtain a permanent job.

I leaned in my chair, gave her a pretentious smile and said to her in a very calm tone, ‘Where should I apply to, there are no jobs.’

I wasn’t shocked when she sided with me in her reply, ‘Yes there are no jobs…’ but later added a statement that kept me thinking the whole day, ‘… but people are working’

Yes, the fact is that there are no jobs but another fact is that people are finding jobs to do. If I am only part of the ‘people,’ then I will also get a job to do.

The big question is, ‘What do the ‘people’ do that land them in an employment that the non-people don’t do?’ Though you will be apt to say it may be as a result of the ‘whom you know principle’, ‘using what you have to get what you want principleor may be due to bribery, the truth is that, majority of the people get employed due to the fact that they know how to play according to the rules of the game.

If you want to know how to use the first three to secure an employment, then this book is the wrong book for you. What this book seeks to do is to guide you through the job search terrain and teach you how to play according to the rules of the game.