Why You Should Start Your Career From Campus

Without a career goal in mind, academic success becomes mechanical and needs a lot of lubrication. All that you aim for is a “good job” after school. This is the very reason why getting a job is difficult. A career goal is not a job. It’s a journey. The earlier you start the journey, the better it is. Actually, the journey becomes a lot easier when you start as an undergraduate.

You career goal may have something to do with your present course of study and it may not. The main point is that you should not make a job your focus, but rather, a career. Someone who wants to have career in journalism will run differently from someone who just wants a job.

Africa still has room for professionals and entrepreneurs, but most are simply “job seekers”. Not all careers are established very well in every country. The world is becoming smaller. Look beyond your country. Don’t decide your career path based on your current situations. Every successful career started small.

Your natural skills give you hints on what you should pursue. Recognize them and start polishing them from campus. It is easier and cheaper to polish skills while in school. We pick up skills as we go through life and this makes Recognizing Prior Learning (RPL) very important. RPL helps you to move your skills to conscious competence.

Your personality is also a good pointer to the careers you can excel in, however, don’t be limited by your seeming inadequacies. Every skill can be learned. Your career goal is more of where you are going and less of what you want in the immediate. It’s good to know what you want on time. It give you room to explore without wasting time.

Formal education gives you mental development, but it’s not acknowledged because it’s not in the curriculum. Without the formal education, you will not be able to get to the top of your career.

The deficiency we see in formal education cannot be solved by scraping formal education, but by complimenting it with informal education. Every student must understand the need for informal education and take it seriously.

What is informal education? This is the acquiring of certificates and skills needed for your career success. This is what you need to start your career while still on campus. Identify the certificates and skills that you need. Opportunities to get them abound around you if you’re really looking. The advantage you have is that many of the certificates are cheaper for students.

Project management and digital marketing used to be an advantage. Most careers now need knowledge of these. Get trained and certified. Online courses are available for you; even if you have to pay a token for it. You will do yourself a lot of good if you take a great part of your time online away from social media

Apart from certificates, you also need experience. Experience doesn’t have to come from a paid job. You’re building. Be content to start from zero.

Attend conferences and not just classes alone. Build a relationship with people that are already established in your career. If you are shy, use the social media. Some people are still sane on Twitter and LinkedIn is a very good place for such. Have as many as possible. No man is an island.

Your need leadership and management experience. To get these, you can volunteer for an organization, start an organization, run for an office or start a business. In all of these, don’t lose sight of your formal education. Be focused. Take steps forward. Your God given dream is possible. Thank you!