A Day Spent at the Graduate Corporate Connect part 2.

Our next speaker is Mr. Asante the regional environmental manager of Newmont Company. In his quest of using this opportunity to help us the participants to get employed, he spoke on the topic: WHAT EMPLOYERS EXPECTFROM GRADUATES. As young people, this is a very critical time of our life where we make decisions that affect all our lives. Using the quote from the bible, he asked us what we understand by the statement, many are called but few are chosen. This tells us that when all of us apply for a job it is not all of us that would get that opportunity for the golden chance. In order of selecting employees, in instances where 100 people apply for a job, an aptitude test is used to reduce them to 50 and another test cuts the number down to 25 which qualify for an interview before the final and well qualified applicants are selected.

Sharing his experience from his 15 to 16 years of working he educated us on the kind of person we must be to be able to conquer the job market. One must be a DILIGENT person where you make extra efforts to make business succeed. D stands for Discipline; no one can achieve something without being discipline. So we must have the ability to control ourselves. This is one key that sends people to the top. Life is simply about organised planning and discipline produces organized planning. I stand for Integrity: we need to have the attitude of credibility which must be the core of our character. We must alwts stand for the truth I other to excel in what ever we do. L stands for Leadership; which spells out our willingness to take up responsibilities. I in DILIGENT stand for Initiative; where he made reference to the parable in the bible about the ten virgins. For the five to get that opportunity, it was an initiative they took that led them to their success we need to start doing something ourselves. When your boss relies on you, you must always be ready to be there to take initiative when he is not around. We need to have passion for the jobs that we also choose ton do because it is the fuel that drives you. G stands for Growth, we must grow through learning, and we must not be a one place and stay there for a long time. We need to spread our knowledge. The day you stop learning is simply the day you start dying. E stands for Entrepreneurship; where he entreated us to be hardworking. T stands for Time; we also need to learn the secret of time management. Time is divided into three folds, the past, the present and the future. The future entreats us to be visionary and the present requires us to take action.

After further and great ideas about what we need to have before employers can pick us for their jobs. It was really helpful to me when he concluded that we need to take certain careers to learn certain skills.

Mr. David from GEBSS who are also partners for the conference, educated us on hoe we can secure funding from their organisation to start a business. GEBSS is a scheme under the ministry of employment and labour relations in partnership with MDPI which is to provide funding to unemployed graduates who want to start their own business. Using statistics, out from 250000 students who graduate form tertiary institutions every year it is only 70000 of them that get jobs, where only 5000 get into the formal sector and the rest move into the informal sector. What then happens to the rest 180000? To qualify from funding from them, you need to have a business idea. Which after you need to put up a business plan if it is viable. To sustain your business under GEBSS, your business idea must be sustainable, have marketing skills, potential of profitability and employability. Speaking next was Mr. Kwaku Gyesi Essel from Graphic Group. He spoke on the topic, Unlocking Opportunities in the Job Market. We need to know how to prepare for the job market. Job market is the aggregate of jobs available for those who are seeking jobs to take. I if you want to enter the job market you must take note of the following;

Study; research the job market through the newspapers, internet and other sources even from the companies themselves. We need to find the job availability of jobs. One of the major problems he identified about graduates in our country is that there are jobs available but graduates are not ready to do certain jobs meanwhile it can serve as a stepping stone for them. We need to stop saying ‘’this is all I can do. Knowledge and skills we have that fit us into jobs available. In other to acquire more knowledge and skills on the job we can pursue a post-graduate course or learn on the job. What do I do when waiting for a job?

We need to take care of Person related matters which include; our health is very important with reference to what Albert told us about health checkups, checking what we eat, drink, wear, avoid toning or bleaching, avoid alcohol and also bath well to maintain a good skin. We need to flee fornication, avoid drug abuse, avoid places that put us into troubles, such as the ghettos, sleep just enough, keep a attitude and remember that job is one important part of our life. He also told us that we need o be people that can do something for ourselves and not only wait to do people’s jobs. Job Related Matters We need to engage ourselves in internship where we can gain more experiences for our future job. Networking, this requires us to make contacts with people. When you want to be a lawyer then you must network with very good lawyers. Take initiatives. Attend job fairs. Keep a joyful face. Writing application letters and make our CVs specific to the kind of jobs we want. We must we honest. We must not try to be smart, we must resemble ourselves. In job interviews we need to answer all questions even to those we don’t have an answer to. Tell them you don’t have an answer.

In a job interview you need to convince them in your area of strength. Also in a job interview, every things you say counts. You need to prepare for question like how much salary do you want?

Speaking on strength based career development was the HR manager of Barclays Bank Ghana Mrs. Geneva Masau. First of all she took us through the career journey illustration by dividing our years into the 7 days of the week. Monday and Tuesday represents 1 to 10 and 11 to 20 years respectively which we mostly use for schooling. Wednesday represents 21 to 30 where we start careers. In Thursday, it is 31 to 40 where one needs to understand him/herself. In Friday which is form 41 to 50 where people look up to us. By Saturday which is 51 to 60 we must excel in our career but this is the times we see most people begin to do what they love. Sunday then represents 61 and years after. Also doing a presentation on career driven anchors, the following were the points she talked about.

Expert Lifestyle- the lifestyle describes the nature of the job compared to the lifestyle to the person. People like their jobs because it is run on shift system. Some wouldn’t like their jobs because it involves lots of travelling. This tells us that our lifestyle comparism with jobs matters when we are going for certain jobs Challenge- challenging jobs are the favorite of some people.

Entrepreneurship.

Service.

Independence.

Security and Stability

General management.

To be continued.

Thank you and watch out for part three which was addressed by Dr. Geneva for her continuation , Mr. Obafemi of Tigo, Ms Enam of GEBSS and Bernard Avle of Citi fm.

Akpah Prince.

akpahprince@ymail.com akpahprince.wordpress.com