“The world is changing,” we often hear, and I believe you see that as much as I do. Of course the world is changing, but that statement does not bring out the reality well enough, so I prefer to rather say that, the world has changed! Especially when it comes to finding employment, the world has changed a lot! And so people who do not take that into deep conscious consideration struggle unnecessarily, especially when attempting to fix their ‘money’ or ‘income’ issues. This presentation will help you see the realities better (to see and treat the world as it is, as opposed to how you wished it was or otherwise wish it would be). It will additionally help you to fix any employment issues you are likely to be having, and thus get to be more fulfilled in life.

Truly unemployed? Maybe not!

We often talk about unemployment from only one perspective: the state of being unemployed. And when it comes to the larger scale, we often look at the number or proportion of unemployed people above a certain legally employable age (usually 14) within a population. That is an over-simplified way of looking at the issue of employment vs unemployment. A more preferred or working definition of unemployment is as follows: a situation whereby a person who is actively searching for employment (especially within the last 6 months) is unable to find work.

One critically essential factor this working definition takes into account is the propensity for a person to be lazy, even when he / she has pressing needs that he / she should be diligently working to fulfill. (More about this later.)

Notice that the definition does not say that the search for employment should be within the field in which one was trained, especially by way of schooling; this is very important, and that leads us to the recommendation in the section further below.

Do also note the phrase “actively searching” in the definition; it is very important! Thankfully Investopia lists at least 9 methods involved in actively searching for employment; they are as follows…

1. Networking
2. Referrals
3. Job Boards and Career Websites
4. Job Fairs
5. Company Websites
6. Cold Calling
7. Headhunters and Recruiters
8. Temping or Internships
9. Creative or Outlandish Tactics

For a detailed discussions of the above, you may click here.

In essence, without fulfilling all the conditions or options above, one cannot genuinely claim to be unemployed, and for that matter the following recommendation is worthy…

You should seek income through any legitimate work

In my presentation titled: Education in Africa; the Bad, the Ugly, and the Fix, I indicated that it is estimated that some 65 percent of children entering primary schools in 2017 would (by the time they complete school) likely work in roles that didn’t exist at the time they were entering school; it is still the case, to a large extent. Indeed, essentially it has always been the case, even though the exact percentages might vary; getting more serious as the years go by.

According to a study by McKinsey Global Institute, many activities that workers carry out today could be automated; already machines can do a lot of the work people do today, and the machines will do them faster and therefore at a cheaper cost in the long run. The report estimated that nearly half of all the work we do (particularly current jobs) could be automated by the year 2055. And as with many events in history, 2055 will come sooner than you may think.

So it is possible that you were trained in a field that is diminishing, or otherwise has already diminished or even gone extinct; if you are finding it difficult to secure a job, this may be one of the reasons. Focusing on that field of work alone may lead you into frustration, so be agile, be adaptive or adaptable; think about that for a few minutes. (You may read that again.) That is the world we find ourselves in today.

Further to the above, many recruiters and employers have had ‘their fingers burnt’ by employees; it is the case that a lot of workers like to just show up at work, and just look forward to payday (once they show presence they have to be paid) whether they have contributed meaningfully and substantially or not, and where they attempt to work, they work just enough to avoid being fired; a situation we can term as “presentism“. Recruiters and employers are therefore very cautious as to who they now recruit, lowering the chances of getting employment; noting that no serious recruiter will engage a prospective employee unless he / she (recruiter) is convinced that the prospect is likely to produce value of work that is worth over and above the cost of keeping the employee over a reasonable period; sometime judgment is deferred through a probational period.

In any case, your fundamental obligation to yourself is to meet your personal needs, and the needs of your dependents, and not to impress anyone (per se) that you can do a certain specialised task in any particularly special field. Cash is king, so as long as you are making money legitimately, then it does not really matter whether it is in the field you trained for in school or not! So you should seek income through any legitimate work. It is such a great idea; indeed, it’s the real deal; or in the least, make it the real deal!

Interestingly, and rather not surprisingly, more opportunities to generate income exist outside of your field of formal schooling.

Draw a small circle and put a dot within it; that’s you, and whereas the space within the circle represents the opportunities within your trained field per your formal schooling, the vast space lying outside of the circle represents the vast array of opportunities that exist outside your field of formal schooling. It may also represent (or otherwise include) the vast array of opportunities that exist within your field of formal schooling if (and only if) you are willing to continually acquire new knowledge (learn) in your field of formal schooling. You owe it to yourself to move yourself from within the circle to outside the circle; kind of “thinking outside the box“.

I did state in an earlier presentation that, a lot (if not most; I’m inclined to say 80%) of what you learn in school will have little or no direct use in your life and work, so you will necessarily have to learn completely new knowledge, skills, and attitude for life and work after you graduate. In other words, of all the knowledge, skills and attitudes you need in your life and work in order to be effective and truly fulfilled, only a little of that (about 20%) will be part of what you learn in school.

That means, whether you like it or not, to survive and also meet your wild financial expectations in the world today without being corrupt or immoral, and also without burning yourself out by undue stress, you must be willing to learn continually and put into practice new and more useful information. So, I agree with Raymond Ackah of blessed memory that, “Your certificate only shows that you have learnt to learn how to work“. In that case I recommend, among other options, that you should learn how to sell; I give the reasons further below.

Become a seller

Yes, become a seller. Put all initial inhibitions away for now; be open-minded because whatever guide or support you need in order to succeed as a seller will be provided to you, and you will be amazed at how far more exciting your life will become. My organisation (Seers) is able, willing, and ready to support you.

In any case, you are already a seller, even though you may not be seeing yourself that way; we all sell some things: our personality or our person, our time, our services, etc; howbeit, mostly indirectly. So I’m only asking you to become a conscious seller, so as to do it in a very effective and thus a more rewarding way.

Well, I should rather be recommending that you should become a marketer, but I am deliberately focusing on ‘selling‘ just to emphasise the extreme importance of the selling function within the larger function of ‘Marketing’ within the larger sphere of life. I cannot recommend this enough; become a seller! Here is why…

1. No matter what changes happen in this world, people who can sell ‘stuff’ will always be needed, so there is (and will always be) ready employment for people who can sell.
2. If you can demonstrate practically that you can ‘sell’ many individuals and organisations will be willing to engage you even if you do not have an official certificate for it; ordinarily.
3. You can opt to sell anything you so wish, in any market; whether in person or online.
4. You can maintain your regular occupation or employment, and add other streams of income through selling.
5. You can generate any amount of income you wish for yourself and are committed to; no matter the period, whether in a boom or in a recession; I believe you know some people became richer during (indeed, some as a result of) the recent coronavirus pandemic, while others lost incomes.
6. All the truly rich people you know of, are sellers; no matter their titles. Indeed, most CEOs of big companies are basically executive salesmen.
7. If you still want to be a regular employee of a specific organisation in the current field of your schooling, becoming a seller will help you to craft a better (winning) CV, and also perform better at any interview, and thus secure a regular employment much easier.
8. And so on.

There is the temptation to use selling as a stop-gap measure; the tendency to want to be selling stuff for now, so that when you get a job in your field of schooling, you will then stop selling; bad idea! Make selling a part of your life; even if as a means of achieving multiple streams of income. It is so much worth it; you will never lack; indeed, you will get to live in abundance!

To learn the easy and effective way to sell anything, you may click here.