Photo Courtesy: Salem_Beliegraphy

When a person succeeds through the university life, then one has surely achieved something in their lives. Many have wanted to get to university or college or even campus so that they may have that key to success in life but never even got to see the university gate or got as far as first or second year before dropping out. It is for this that young lads have high employment hopes after graduation. Immediately after the ceremony, we all rush up and down to get employed in an office somewhere. The morale is obviously at its peak at this point especially with the bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in hand… but … not for so long.

Once one steps into the job called ‘kazi ya kutafuta kazi’ then reality strikes you hard. Sometimes having a degree or even a master’s degree doesn’t really guarantees you a job on the ground. It may take one, months or even years before finally securing a job somewhere. Many people gave up hope in the process and ended up idle in the streets while others ventured into illegal businesses like drug trafficking. It isn’t anything new that unemployment is dragging our country behind and Kenyans have lived to see very educated people selling water or becoming ‘mama mboga’ and others have done a totally different field in jobs from the course they studied, due to unemployment.

Employment has become an issue of luck rather than a person’s intellectuality. Some people who just have a diploma or even form four finishers have been able to sometimes acquire a job before the more learned and intelligent people. It is this kind of competition that many people are facing at the moment and for a lifetime but once one acquires the job, then he is overjoyed such that he forgets all that hustle they went through.

After that now comes the salary issue whereby everyone builds castles in the air of huge amounts of money they will acquire. The fresh youth from graduation are always anticipating the receiving of the cash and have high hopes that they will earn well since they believe their education level or intelligence is high enough. Well, the bosses know better and sometimes, one may end up earning as low as a quarter of the estimation you made on your salary!

That is not all; you then come to realize that having a job is not a bed of roses as such. There is a heap of work waiting for you each morning, some annoying colleagues or maybe an irritating boss. What can be most disturbing is when you have to redo your work again or the consistent summoning by the boss on the do’s and don’ts that you are not following.  Sometimes you have to work for extra hours such that when you get home, your family is already asleep and you leave too early to work when everyone is still asleep. There are many sacrifices one has to make at times, like that of going to work even on Sundays, during public holidays or even having to miss family weddings and events.

End month is the time all employees countdown to, especially when it gets to half month and they are next to bankruptcy! It is a moment of joy and everyone celebrates it in their own way. Others give themselves a treat while others save it for the future. And the reward for all the sacrifices is always remarkable; when one gets his salary and is able to accomplish their dreams and satisfy the family’s needs at that.

Acquiring a job may be hectic but being in the job, being able to secure it and profit from it is even trickier. It is for this reason we are to respect all those people rushing up and down in offices and even the ones selling newspapers and food stuff by the roads. Respect as well to the ones spending all their coins and energy in search of jobs too! Because as they say ‘kazi ni kazi na hata kutafuta kazi ni kazi!’