LEFT BEHIND

Some years ago I wanted to become a graphic designer so I went to computer school. The software reigning at that time was CorelDraw and Photoshop. I was the best student in class, our teacher liked me because when he finished teaching and left, I would help some of the girls who were struggling.

I completed and went to work at W.E.C Resources, Awudome. They designed polythene bags, calenders, etc for companies. I got the job through a friend who was closer to the manager. I was an amateur. Back in school we were designing ideal milk, malt and so on, here it was completely different and I was struggling. I run away 3days to the end of the month without taking my salary because the embarrassment was too much for me. My designs were ugly. I came home and met a friend and he added some few things to my graphic designing. I went back to a café and this time I was better. Then I had more experience and became one of the best graphic designers in town. I quit the job and became a marketer. In my computer class we were 10, I perhaps I was the only one who actually survived and actually worked with it. Employers didn’t want the inexperienced because they often had no clue as to what was happening in the industry at that time.

When I graduated from tertiary school and started working it was a de-javu to me. I was one of the best in marketing at school but the struggle set in again. I realized I was behind. The school curricular was prepared some years ago but professions actually evolve and when you come out it would just surprise you. I think that is why we need CEOs on the field to teach the polytechnics and university, they are abreast with latest trends in business. For instance, some of the lecturers had not worked before so when you come out what they teach you is not so applicable. If it were, all graduates unemployed would start their own businesses. Young graduates from school are confused; they don’t know the head from tail of what they did – only a few graduates are exempted from this category.

In his book The Mis-Education of the Negro, Carter Godwin Woodson Ph.D wrote;

Recently the author saw the need for a change of attitude when a young woman came almost directly to his office after her graduation from a business school to seek employment. After hearing her story he finally told her that he would give her a trial at fifteen dollars a week.

"Fifteen dollars a week!" she cried, "I cannot live on that, sir."

"I do not see why you cannot," he replied. "You have lived for some time already, and you say

that you have never had permanent employment, and you have none at all now."

"But a woman has to dress and to pay board," said she; "and how can she do it on such a pittance?"

The amount offered was small, but it was a great deal more than she is worth at present. In fact, during the first six or nine months of her connection with some enterprise it will be of more service to her than she will be to the firm. Coming out of school without experience, she will be a drag on a business until she learns to discharge some definite function in it. Instead of requiring the firm to pay her she should pay it for training her.

My recommendation is this, if you lack experience join a company that can help you gain some experience; if you can too, start your own business and fail early. And please be observant, you would see the latest trends in your area of specialization and build your professional muscles. If you rush to any managerial posts immediately, perhaps you might not perform and embarrass yourself like it happened to me. Am not surprised that, the majority of jobs available for graduates marketers are sales and commission based. It is like a slap to most graduates’ faces, but you know what, join and have some few months of experience and put it on your CV and go look for a proper job. Do some employers not know that sales is only about 15% of marketing? There are real professional salesmen and women and if you dive into text books what you’d find about selling would stun you. You’d find volumes of books just as there is for marketing.

Learn more and be a mine of current knowledge. You would be surprised that it might seem you didn’t learn at school at all. I read volumes of books and articles on the internet. Then I’d go and apply it to my work. I seek practical ideas and test them to see their effectiveness.

Charter in your area of specialization; trust me those professional bodies know what they are about. They teach only what is current in your field and when you graduate you would be fully baked. Be patient and learn. At school you learnt almost everything, what you’d learn from work is just a top up and after that you could be one of the best in your field.

 My final advice to the inexperienced is that, when you come out you have to be strong. If you don’t gain the experience needed it is hard to get any managerial position. Start from somewhere. If you don’t do that and you stay home for some few years, the marketing would leave your systems and it would be as if you learned nothing. I struggled to make my CorelDraw work for me but my friends could not utilize and they became something else in the business world.

Education is like a small capital for business, cash in on it to become a big firm.